Outputs of a PhD Course on the European Policy of Foreign Language Teacher Education

Abstract

The European Commission has developed several standard documents for foreign language education including teacher education and opened access for the common use of all European counterparts. This study is based on a PhD course aiming at increasing awareness of and fostering deep research about foreign language teacher education policy in Europe. The study aimed to scrutinize the opinions of the PhD students in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) about the European foreign language teacher education policy. In the study, the case study research design was adopted, utilizing qualitative data. The participants of the study were selected via total count sampling model and covered all of the PhD students (N = 9) taking the course entitled “Foreign Language Teacher Education Policy in Europe” with the code: IDO710 within the ELT program of the Hacettepe University Graduate School of Educational Sciences in the Fall Semester of 2020–2021 academic year. The data were collected via students’ self-reflection reports after the course had been completed and were analysed using content analysis as one of the qualitative data analysis methods. The results showed that at the end of the course the participant students’ awareness was highly increased about the European foreign language teacher education policy and related documents; they decided to make use of these documents in their own contexts; they had a deeper understanding of the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education; and they became determined to carry out further research on the effectiveness of the European documents on EFL teacher education in Turkey.