A Comparative Study of the Educational System, Teacher Education and English Language Education of South Korea and Turkey

Year 2018, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 1 - 12, 01.12.2018

Seher Balbay , Selcan Kilis

Abstract

Korean education has attracted the attention of
researchers in the field of education due to its fast and steady development in
the last 40 years. This paper aims to compare the educational systems, teacher
education, and English language education of South Korea (hereafter Korea) and
Turkey, by document and content analysis to compare the two countries. The
results were enriched and validated with semi-structured interviews with the
educational counsellor of the Korean Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and with a
Korean parent who raised two children in the Korean education system. The
findings indicated that sharing elements of an Asian culture in which
individualism is still a rather foreign concept especially in relatively more
conventional parts of both Turkey and Korea, where governmental funding is
insufficient, both Turkey and Korea are striving through some turbulences in
their education systems, and English language teaching in particular. Rather
than the more mechanical, years and hours of courses or even the starting age
of English language instruction in the national curriculum, or the teacher training
requirements, the major difference between the two countries is their
perspective and attitude towards education in general.

Keywords

Educational system, Teacher education, English language education, Korean education, Turkey education

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