Anthropology of Education Course as an Elective Course: What Does It Mean for Pre-service Teachers?

Abstract

This research is based on the question of why prospective teachers should take an educational anthropology course, considering the communication of the teaching profession (understanding the other) and encountering cultural diversity (education continues outside the school, this education aims to reproduce and sustain teaching). Today, it has become necessary to understand and evaluate educational activities in the context of culture. The data of the research was collected from 63 prospective teachers studying at the faculty of education of a foundation university in Istanbul in 2021. A case study, which is one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the research. The data collected through open-ended survey questions and semi-structured interview forms prepared by the researcher were converted into findings through descriptive analysis. As a result of the research, the students, it was determined that the students preferred the educational anthropology course in order to “be interested and curious about the content of the course”, “to know and like the instructor”, “to get to know different cultures and societies”, “to understand the relationship between education and culture”. The students defined the educational anthropology course as “a course that explains the relationship between education and culture”, “a course that examines human societies and education”, “a course that introduces cultural diversity”, “a course that reflects culture to education”, “a course that explains the importance of education and culture” and “a course that reveals the relationships between cultures”. The students emphasized the words such as “culture”, “human”, “society”, “race”, “history” more in relation to the anthropology course. These words show the relationships between “culture human”, “culture-education” and “human-education”. The students found the adequacy of the educational anthropology course sufficient in terms of content, planning, benefit, and efficiency. The students defined the educational anthropology course as “being sensitive to different cultures and people”, “understanding cultural differences” He believes that he contributes to the teaching profession by “seeing”, “knowing his own culture” and “understanding cultural processes and history”.