SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULA IN TURKEY: HISTORICAL EVOLUTION

Abstract

Social Studies course is a pivotal course offered in the first three years of students’ primary education. Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic to the present, there have been changes in the curricula of the social studies course in accordance with the needs and expectations of the related period in Turkish Republic History. Whether these changes introduced have fulfilled the mentioned expectations is the object of interest in this essay. Having considered these issues, answers to the following questions were sought within this research: a) what sorts of changes have been introduced to overcome the shortcomings of the old curricula, b) to what extent have these changes lived up to the characteristics of the period and does the field of the object or the content meet the requirements and to what extent does the content of the course align with the features of the educational sciences? Like the primary education curricula being used since the establishment of the Turkish Republic until today, social studies course’s curricula were arranged by either The Committee on Education, the Educational Council or by a foreign educational consultant and external factors. The 1924 social studies course curriculum was in effect on a temporary basis due to being prepared quickly by the recently established Turkish Republic and it was in use only for two years. The 1926 social studies curriculum was the work of a government which just had completed its political revolution process and it was shaped around the ideas of an American educational scientist, Dewey. Next, in 1936 Turkish revolution was emphasized in the social studies curriculum, in which citizenship consciousness and patriotism was commonly stated. The 1948 social studies curriculum was in use for about 20 years and it accepted teaching knowledge as the principle idea and it created a dense amount of content by increasing the number of the chapters. In the social studies curriculum of 1968, all the objectives were set according to the student-oriented approach and it stayed in use for 30 years. The social studies curriculum of 1998 carried the features of behaviourist approach since it was created under this approach. The 2005 social studies curriculum was a constructivist one prepared with the effects of external factors, since it was made for the purpose of being compatibility with the EU norms. Both the 2009 and the 2015 curricula were used to addressed values, special occasions and weeks, explanation of educational status and evaluation themes.

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