Globalization, Standardization and E-Portfolios in Teacher Education: From Organizational Learning to Social Opportunity

This study analyzes the integration of international quality standards in teacher education in a public university that trains English teachers from Anatolia, Turkey. We are advising Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul on how to integrate standards into their institutional culture.

The choice of Turkey as the site for this study relates to its decision to adopt European professional standards. The curriculum prepared by the Turkish Council of Higher Education refers to the innovations in the European Union-sponsored Bologna process that sets standards of academic performance and quality assurance criteria. Teacher education settings must integrate European and Turkish reforms.

The research is situated within a critical systems framework and focuses on portfolios as instruments for educational change. We give particular attention to language policies in action. ‘Participatory action science’ is used to accommodate change while respecting local cultures. The project offers education and social opportunity for disadvantaged students and organizational learning to initiate self-sustainable, educational change.