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Journals / Yükseköğretim ve Bilim Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 16 Sayı: 2

From Policy to Practice: Investigating the Presence of Sustainable Development Goals Integration in Türkiye’s Teacher Preparation Programs

Politikadan Uygulamaya: Türkiye’deki Öğretmen Eğitimi Programlarında Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Amaçları Entegrasyonunun İncelenmesi

Ulku Seher Budak(Boğazici University)0000-0002-4047-9920
Gaye Ceyhan(BOGAZICI UNIVERSITY)0000-0003-1312-3547
Osman Akşit(BOGAZICI UNIVERSITY)0000-0001-7568-6834
Pages
425–438
Publication Date
2026-08-31
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

The findings revealed a disconnect between the sustainability-focused policies prioritized by the national strategy documents and the sustainability emphasis reflected in the teacher preparation programs in Türkiye, underscoring a gap between policy intent and educational practice.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

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Objective & Hypothesis:This study aimed to investigate how official coursework descriptions for undergraduate-level teacher education programs in Türkiye, which were published by the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) in 2018, integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across compulsory and elective courses.
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Key Findings & Data:The findings of this study revealed that SDG 4 (Quality Education) was addressed more than other SDGs in both compulsory and elective courses across all teacher education programs.
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Conclusion & Impact:The findings revealed a disconnect between the sustainability-focused policies prioritized by the national strategy documents and the sustainability emphasis reflected in the teacher preparation programs in Türkiye, underscoring a gap between policy intent and educational practice.
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:2018 Verileri
⚙️Variables:Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Amaçları · Öğretmen Eğitimi · Öğretim Programı Analizi

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate how official coursework descriptions for undergraduate-level teacher education programs in Türkiye, which were published by the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) in 2018, integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across compulsory and elective courses. In particular, the study focused on how the SDGs are represented in subject matter courses offered in these programs. The coursework descriptions in CoHE’s documentation of most recently published undergraduate teacher education programs in Türkiye were subjected to a rigorous examination employing the document analysis methodology. The coursework descriptions were analyzed using the SDG queries defined in Elsevier’s SDGs mapping document. The findings of this study revealed that SDG 4 (Quality Education) was addressed more than other SDGs in both compulsory and elective courses across all teacher education programs. In addition, most teacher education programs appeared to lack diversity in SDG coverage and placed quite limited emphasis on the SDGs. A key finding was that some programs inherently prioritized certain SDGs that align more closely with the disciplinary content of subject-matter courses (i.e., discipline-specific courses directly related to the field in which the teacher candidate will specialize, such as physics content courses for prospective physics teachers). The findings revealed a disconnect between the sustainability-focused policies prioritized by the national strategy documents and the sustainability emphasis reflected in the teacher preparation programs in Türkiye, underscoring a gap between policy intent and educational practice. We recommend revising the integration of the SDGs into teacher education programs to ensure a more balanced representation.

Özet

Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de 2018 yılında Yükseköğretim Kurulu (YÖK) tarafından yayımlanan lisans düzeyindeki öğretmen eğitimi programlarına ait resmi ders tanımlarının, Birleşmiş Milletler Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Amaçlarını (SKA) zorunlu ve seçmeli dersler aracılığıyla nasıl entegre ettiğini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Özellikle, SKA’ların bu programlarda sunulan alan derslerinde nasıl temsil edildiğine odaklanılmıştır. Türkiye’deki lisans düzeyindeki öğretmen eğitimi programlarına ilişkin en son yayımlanan YÖK dokümanlarında yer alan ders tanımları, doküman analizi yöntemi kullanılarak ayrıntılı biçimde analiz edilmiştir. Ders tanımları, Elsevier tarafından yayımlanan SKA eşleştirme haritasında tanımlanan SKA sorguları temel alınarak çözümlenmiştir. Çalışmanın bulguları, tüm öğretmen eğitimi programlarında hem zorunlu hem de seçmeli derslerde en fazla ele alınan amacın SKA 4 (Nitelikli Eğitim) olduğunu göstermiştir. Bunun yanı sıra, öğretmen eğitimi programlarının çoğunda SKA kapsamının çeşitlilik göstermediği ve SKA’lara oldukça sınırlı düzeyde vurgu yapıldığı görülmüştür. Önemli bir bulgu olarak, bazı programların alan derslerinde (örneğin, fizik öğretmen adayları için fizik alan bilgisi dersleri gibi öğretmen adayının uzmanlaşacağı alanla doğrudan ilişkili disipline özgü derslerde) kendi disiplin içerikleriyle daha uyumlu olan belirli SKA’lara doğal olarak öncelik verildiği belirlenmiştir. Bulgular, ulusal strateji belgelerinde önceliklendirilen sürdürülebilirlik odaklı politikalar ile Türkiye’deki öğretmen yetiştirme programlarında yansıtılan sürdürülebilirlik vurgusu arasında bir uyumsuzluk bulunduğunu ortaya koymuş; bu durum, politika niyeti ile eğitim uygulamaları arasındaki boşluğa işaret etmiştir. Bu doğrultuda, öğretmen eğitimi programlarında SKA’ların daha dengeli bir biçimde temsil edilmesini sağlamak amacıyla bütünleştirme yaklaşımının gözden geçirilmesi önerilmektedir.

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Cite This Article

Budak, U. S., Ceyhan, G., Akşit, O. (2026). From Policy to Practice: Investigating the Presence of Sustainable Development Goals Integration in Türkiye’s Teacher Preparation Programs. Yükseköğretim ve Bilim Dergisi, Cilt: 16 Sayı: 2, 425–438. https://doi.org/10.5961/higheredusci.1914694

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