"We should be ourselves before being a European": The new curriculum, new textbooks and Turkish modernity

Abstract

Globalization and transformations in nation-state structures require developing a new social-political language that would allow a peaceful coexistence for various identities and interests. This entails revising the link between local, histories and the "universal." Education can play a crucial role for developing this language. This paper examines the new curriculum and textbook in Turkey on the basis of this problematic. Tie Ministry of National Education states that the new curriculum aims at preparing Turkey to the information age and the European Union. However, new textbooks still take an apologetic, essentialist, and nationalist stance toward Europe due to the historical-psychological background of Turkish modernity. Textbook authors reconstruct local history in the mirror of the West and imagine a homogenous 'Us' which is presented as the source of modern universal values. This stance is a manifestation of historical desire to break down the perceived hierarchy between Turkey and the West. It, however, reproduces such a hierarchy by placing the West ahead of Turkey along with a linear conception of history. The paper suggests a new frame for curriculum developers and textbook authors to recontextualize the link between Turkey, the West and modernity. This frame needs to be developed by taking a distance from both local experience and the West. © 2009 E?itim Danişmanli?i ve Araştirmalari İletişim Hizmetleri Tic. Ltd. Şti.