Unfinished song in teacher education: The Village Institutes experience in Turkey

Abstract

There was a successful and valuable experience that was implemented in Turkey between 1940 and 1954. It was called the Village Institutes which were established in different parts of the country that greatly enlightened their environments. Unfortunately, because of a clash of political interests, the institutes were closed in 1954. The Village Institutes have been under scrutiny in terms of different courses and activities. However, there still seems to be a gap in the reviewed literature in terms of foreign language teaching in the Village Institutes and its reflections to today’s English language teacher training programmes. Although Turkey is not the same as the 1940s Turkey, this paper is an attempt to show that with their certain features, they still stand as a model to look up to and we should benefit from their outputs in teacher education practices in Turkey. They raised teachers who were aware of themselves, the surrounding environment and their own transformative power and were able to think critically. When we consider the limited practicum hours for pre-service teachers and high ratio of theoretical lessons in the curriculum at the faculties of education, it seems that we have a lot to learn from the Village Institutes experience.