Fostering Turkish Early Childhood Teachers' Professional Growth about Education for Sustainability through Media Literacy

• Published in: Egitim ve Bilim Vol. 48; no. 213; pp. 143 - 168
• Main Authors: Alıcı, Şule, Şahin, Volkan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ankara Turk Egitim Dernegi 01-01-2023
• Subjects: Early Childhood Teachers; Education; Literacy Education; Media literacy; Preschool teachers; Professional development; Young Children
• ISSN: 1300-1337
• DOI: 10.15390/EB.2023.11643

This artide aims to document the findings of a professional development intervention study seeking to promote in-service preschool teachers' professional growth about education for sustainability (EfS) through media literacy (ML). The overall aim of this year-long action research projed (based on the Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate or ADDIE approach) was to foster teachers' knowledge and awareness regarding EfS via a professional development program incorporating media literacy education. Four preschool teachers participated in the professional development program. Partidpants' in-dass EfS implementations before and after the professional development program were examined utilizing interview, stimulated recall interviews, field notes and content analysis of teacher daily and monthly plans. The prindpal outcome of the study was that the proposed professional development program does, indeed, lead to the growth of the early childhood teachers' EfS knowledge and awareness. In the short term, examination of participants' pre/post intervention teaching adivities indicated that fostering teachers' ML skills helped when designing EfS adivities since they were able to access, analyze & evaluate and create EfS related media resources more effedively. Longer-term, the teachers involved in the study incorporated an increased number of EfS related activities in-class, as evidenced by their post-intervention daily and monthly plans.