A Sinister Issue on Democracy Education in Turkey: Militarism in the Textbooks of Social Sciences

Abstract

Democracy is considered as a political system which pays attention to the loyalty to the political authority in the military-civil relationships, and which decreases the power of militarism which has values sanctifying the duty, and which also expects absolute obedience without interrogating to the strict hierarchical order. Traditionally, in teaching history in Turkey, the understanding that "Turks are a military nation" has implicitly been highlighted since the first years of the Republic. This understanding stored in the schemata of all students attending schools leads to some intellectual problems in terms of understanding/internalization of democracy better. This study investigates the basic materials and the text books used in social sciences courses in the first two stages (primary and secondary) of formal education. Through content analysis and the framework we have identified, it aims at diagnosing the problematic elements (such as statements, expressions, documents-photographs, speech balloons, anecdotes and so on) in texts and visual materials in the text books.