Abstract:

The general purpose of this research is to determine the views of senior managers (the district national educational director, the branch director), school managers (the school director and the assistant director) and teachers in the institutions of primary, secondary and secondary education associated with the Ministry of Education with the help of visual metaphors on the Erasmus+ (Erasmus Plus) projects carried out in coordination with the Turkish National Agency. The data of the research was obtained from senior managers, school managers and teachers who are in charge in Istanbul or Esenler district. These data were collected in the 2018-2019 summer period. The study’s work group consists of 47 people, including senior managers, school managers and teachers who have previously been involved in the Erasmus+ project abroad. 32 of the data collected participants were men and 15 were women and previously visited abroad with an Erasmus+ project. This study is a study on the participation processes in the project according to participants’ opinions, the preparation and motivation factors for the Erasmus+ project, the future expectations for the projects and how Erasmus projects affect the teaching processes. The research focuses on what the benefits of the project preparing institutions that are not sufficient to the corporate capacity are preparing the project to various consultancy and educational companies and what the benefits of this situation can be provided to the institution.

Abstract:

The overall aim of this study is to determine the opinions of the senior administrators (district directors and branch managers of national education), school administrators (principals and assistant principals) and teachers working at primary and secondary education institutions under the Ministry of National Education about Erasmus + projects carried out under the coordinatorship of the Turkish National Agency with the help of visual metaphors. The study group of the research consisted of the participants working in the district of Esenler in Istanbul Province. The phenomenological research design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in this study. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data. The data for this study were collected in the spring term of 2018-2019 academic year. Based on the findings of the study, three main categories have been determined: sharing, differences and cooperation. The results of the study have revealed that Erasmus+ projects have made a great contribution to the project participants’ improving cultural competence, professional and language skills, diversifying communication resources, visioning, dissemination of values and culture of the countries, being a global citizen and developing a sense of responsibility for being a European citizen. However, this study has also revealed that the institutions willing to prepare the project proposals but having insufficient institutional capacity have asked various consultancy and training firms to prepare project proposals on behalf of them.

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