OKUL ÖNCESİ ÖĞRETMENLİĞİNDE ÖĞRENİM GÖREN ERKEK ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ KARŞILAŞTIKLARI GÜÇLÜKLER.

Preschool education is accepted as an important part of national education in many countries. Turkey is one of the countries in which preschool education including education of its staff is still in the process of developing. Since importance of the preschool education is not much understood fully, it is not developed as much as primary education in Turkey. Accordingly, teacher education programs are also not appeared well enough to educate preschool teachers. Quantity and quality of education and related teacher education programs in Turkey is still in the process of getting developed. The current interpretive study aims to examine and present the difficulties and problems 'male' teacher candidates face with and their perceptions of man being a preschool teacher. The study conducted in 2008-9 involved 11 male teacher candidates studying in the field of preschool education in Turkey. This interpretive study opted to utilize a qualitative data collection method, namely interview. The researchers are opted to examine problems experienced by male teacher candidates, because it is essential to understand the difficulties male preschool teacher candidates experience in the field in order to reach better quality preschool education and provide better education to young children. The results of the study showed that male teacher candidates complained about similar problems, such as not having many male friends in preschool teacher education programs at the university and the society accepting their job as women's job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]