Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak Evolution of the Turkish School Textbooks from Ataturk to Erdogan

Annotation

This book narrates and analyzes a century of the Turkish education system and textbook indoctrination starting from the foundation of the Republic until today. It divides the history of Turkish education into five periods: Single party government (19231950), Menderes Democrat Party government (19501960), the 1960 coup generals and their successors governments (19601980), the Turkish-Islam Synthesis oriented Ataturkist governments (19802002) and finally the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government (2002). By using the content analysis method, this book exposes Kemalisms metamorphosis into Turkish-Islam Synthesis influenced Ataturkism. For the first time, Cohen Yanarocak analyzes the indoctrination of this post-1980 official ideology through history, religious studies, civics, and national security knowledge textbooks. It goes beyond the Ataturkist period and examines the gradual but drastic Islamization of the whole curriculum and school textbooks at the expense of Ataturkism under the AKP. In this framework, this book highlights the recent penetration of controversial concepts such as Neo-Ottomanism, Jihad, and Pan-Turkism into the current Turkish school textbooks. Certainly, the ramifications of the current textbooks will influence the lives of millions of people. Therefore, this book functions as a crucial manual to understanding the current political environment in Turkey.