Some improvements have undergone in Turkey’s approach towards differences since 2000s especially within the framework of adaptation into European Union. This change effected educational policies, and obstructions to right demands of different ethnic groups and religious education were removed largely. However, teacher’s characteristics should reflect this change so that it could be permanent and meaningful. The aim of this study was to reveal preservice teachers’ attitudes towards identity differences. Identity Attitudes Scale (IAS), which was developed by Yazıcı (2016) to measure the attitudes towards identity differences, was conducted on 506 preservice teachers. Preservice teachers’ attitudes towards identity differences in terms of gender, social environment, grade level, curriculum, and their ethnic, religious and political identities were examined using t-test, one-way variance analysis, and correlation analysis. As a result, it was found that the variables had effect on preservice teachers’ attitudes at varying rates. Moreover, it was concluded that education faculties in Turkey weren’t able to catch up with the changes on identity differences since the undergraduate education had slight effect on preservice teachers’ attitudes.
Some improvements have undergone in Turkey’s approach towards differences since 2000s especially within the framework of adaptation into European Union. This change effected educational policies, and obstructions to right demands of different ethnic groups and religious education were removed largely. However, teacher’s characteristics should reflect this change so that it could be permanent and meaningful. The aim of this study was to reveal preservice teachers’ attitudes towards identity differences. Identity Attitudes Scale (IAS), which was developed by Yazıcı (2016) to measure the attitudes towards identity differences, was conducted on 506 preservice teachers. Preservice teachers’ attitudes towards identity differences in terms of gender, social environment, grade level, curriculum, and their ethnic, religious and political identities were examined using t-test, one-way variance analysis, and correlation analysis. As a result, it was found that the variables had effect on preservice teachers’ attitudes at varying rates. Moreover, it was concluded that education faculties in Turkey weren’t able to catch up with the changes on identity differences since the undergraduate education had slight effect on preservice teachers’ attitudes.