In these days when the teaching profession is much debated, one of the most important issues neglected in the discussions is the cultural, social, intellectual and professional values that teachers should possess.
Failure to discuss these qualifications is a qualitative transformation of the teaching profession from the past to the present, from the enlightened teacher who plays a role in the transformation of society to the technician teacher who prepares questions for exams.
In this context, the characteristics expressed in the work ‘Three Aspects of Teaching’ (2019) written by Ferhan Oğuzkan in 1971, in which the characteristics of the teachers of that period are described and mostly the qualities inherent in teachers are examined, are really thought-provoking when the qualities of today's teachers are considered!
In the work, the following aspects of teachers are expressed;
-Teacher who knows the system of values that has important effects on contemporary Turkish culture,
-To teach the reasons of social, economic and political changes in our society,
-The teacher who evaluates the democratic developments in the country and the scope of these developments,
-The teacher who understands the role of the teacher in participating in community-led social activities,
-The teacher who internalizes the need and value of achieving integrity in the personality.
The most important of these qualities is the fact that teachers should not be far away from the people, the problems of the country and the world.
It can be said that teachers today are much more advanced professionally than their colleagues in the past, but they are less interested in the problems of the country and the world than in the past.
In fact, it can be stated that teachers who are concerned about these problems are in the minority, except for a certain group.
The event that led to this claim took place during an in-service training in August 2022. In an activity during the in-service training of a group of classroom teachers, the following sentence was uttered by a young teacher;
“Aman hodja, let's not write about the dream of ‘Democratic Turkey!’
So how did the event that prompted the young teacher to say this sentence develop?
The activity started with a request to write a story with the unrelated words ‘village, rocket, dust, July 22, 2022 and dream’ and brainstorming about this tale in a group of six. Due to the discussions and the low willingness to write in the group, the task fell to the oldest and most experienced teacher.
Since time was short, the experienced teacher wrote the following story;
“It all started when a large rocket landed in a secluded mountain village. But this rocket is not your ordinary rocket! Instead of lethal bullets and shrapnel, it was a rocket that kicked up dust!
People who inhale this dust are immersed in imagination and suddenly start to see themselves in the places they imagine! They are almost teleported to those places!
What dreams the villagers do not dream of!
Do you think they see themselves on the Hawaiian islands, sipping iced cocktails on their sun loungers!
Do you think about those who chat with the Phoenix on Mount Kaf and try to make him grant their wishes!
Do you want to say those who see themselves as teacher candidates who see that they have entered the quota to be appointed according to the KPSS result!
Do you want to buy a new tractor by selling the cotton he produced at a price five times higher than last year's price and paying off his debts to the last penny!
On July 22nd, 2022, do you think those who see themselves in a democratic Turkey!
Do you mean those who see themselves as the headman of the village in the elections!
…”
The dreams of the villagers go on and on...
But like all good things, the villagers” happy moments came to an end when the dust, which is good for dreams, disappeared. Suddenly they found themselves back in their dust-covered village, in their ramshackle houses where the heat and animal droppings swirled around them, in their bare fields without a single tree!"
Here is the sentence “Oh, teacher, let's not write about the dream of ‘Democratic Turkey!’”, uttered during the reading of the story by other group members.
The young teacher's fear was not taken too seriously by the other group members and the story was read by the group spokesperson. The story received a positive reaction.
Other groups wrote poems, news articles, fairy tales and plays with different words.
At this point, we can state that although there is a high probability that there is more professional knowledge between the teachers who were on duty in the 1970s and the teachers on duty today in favor of the latter, in terms of intellectual, cultural, social and civic responsibility, the teacher generation of the 1970s is by far ahead.
There is undoubtedly much to say about the reasons for this picture! However, to make a determination, we believe that the neoliberal project, which is the superstructural reflection of the export-oriented economic project put into practice after 1980, from the import-substitution economic approach in force before the 1980 coup, has been very effective in transforming economic and social life in its own image.
The teaching profession has also received more than its share of this negative transformation.