Session Information
23 SES 06 C, Politics of Curriculum
Paper Session
Contribution
Every morning since 1933, Turkish primary school students have had to recite the student’s pledge (national pledge of allegiance). In this period of time some changes were made in the content of the student’s pledge according to the regimes. Some words were changed, some phrases were added. In this pledge students say “I'm a Turk, I'm righteous, I'm hard working, my principle is to protect my minors, is to respect my elders, is to love my country and my nation much more than my own self, my law is to rise, is to go forward. O' supreme Atatürk, the creator of our today, I swear that I will walk non-stop on the path you opened, on the target you pointed out on the ideal you founded, let my existence be bestowed upon the Turkish existence, happy is the one who calls himself a Turk”.
It can be said that the student’s pledge is the most important educational ritual in Turkey. Since Emile Durkheim’s study Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) identified ritual performance as one key mechanism in the construction of the society, social analysts have recognized ritual as an important social mechanism. However so far little has been done to analyze ritual and its discourse as a key component of the education.
Turkey aims to become a full member of European Union. In the process, raising youth respectful of human rights and who will adopt European identity, a supranational consciousness based on a multicultural existence, is an objective Turkey has to fulfill. Due to their highly condensed and obligatory characteristic, major mechanism to fulfill these objectives, to cause students to acquire culture and socially shared beliefs are the discourse of lessons, textbooks and educational rituals. A lot of notable research has been done about the discourse of lessons and textbooks (Apple, 1979; Preiswerk, 1980; Klein, 1986; Mangan, 1993; Troyna, 1993; Van Dijk, 2004; Ceylan and Irzık, 2004; Çayır, 2009a; Çayır, 2009b) Although educational rituals have similar important role and more inexorable character, analyses which focus on discourse of the educational ritualshavefor a long timebeen neglected by researchers. Therefore this study will focus on the discourse of the student’s pledge in Turkey as an educational ritual.
This study will try to answer three main questions: What is the dominated discourse of the student’s pledge in Turkey? What kind of culture, values and belief are transmitted through the student’s pledge? What is students’ perceptions regarding the student’s pledge in primary schools in Turkey?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Apple, M. W. (1979). Ideology and curriculum. London Boston: Routledge & K. Paul. Bora, T. (2004). Nationalism in Textbooks in Human rights ıssues in textbooks: The Turkish case, (49-75). eds. D. Ceylan and G. Irzık. Istanbul: The History Foundation of Turkey. Çayır, K. (2009a). Preparing Turkey for the European Union: Nationalism, national identity and ‘otherness’ in Turkey’s new textbooks. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 30(1), 39-55. Çayır, K. (2009b). “We Should be Ourselves Before Being a European”: The new curriculum, new textbooks and Turkish modernity. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 9(4), 1659-1690. Ceylan, D.T. and Irzık, G. (Ed.). (2004). Human rights ıssues in textbooks: The Turkish case. Istanbul: The History Foundation of Turkey. Durkheim, E. (1912/1965). Elementary forms of religious life. Translated by J.W. Swain. New York: Free Press. Ertürk, E. (2006). Ders kitaplarında toplum, yurttaşlık, vatanseverlik ve ekonomi anlayışının dönüşümü. Master’s thesis, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul. Gök, F. (2004). Citizenship and Human Rights Education Textbooks in Human rights ıssues in textbooks: The Turkish case, (108-122). eds. D. Ceylan and G. Irzık. Istanbul: The History Foundation of Turkey. İnal, K. (2004). Eğitim ve iktidar: Türkiye’de ders kitaplarında demokratik ve milliyetçi değerler. Ankara: Ütopya Yayınevi. Klein, G. (1986). Reading into racism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Mangan, J. A. (Ed.). (1993). The Imperial curriculum. Racial images and education in British colonial experience. London: Routledge. Preiswerk, R. (1980). The Slant of the pen: Racism in children's books. Geneva: Programme to Combat Racism, World Council of Churches. Troyna, B. (1993). Racism and education. Buckingham: Open University Press. van Dijk, T. A. (2004). Racism, discourse and textbooks. Paper for a symposium on Human Rights in Textbooks, organized by the History Foundation, Istanbul , April 2004. van Dijk, T.A. (1995). Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis. In C. Schäffner & A.L. Wenden (Eds.), Language and Peace (pp.17-33 ). Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing.
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