The Evolution of the Turkish School Textbooks from Ataturk to Erdogan

This book narrates and analyzes a century of the Turkish education system and textbook indoctrination starting from the foundation of the republic until today. This book divides the history of Turkish education into five periods: Single party government (1923-1950), Menderes’ Democrat Party government (1950-1960), the 1960 coup generals and their successors’ governments (1960-1980), the Turkish-Islam Synthesis oriented Ataturkist governments (1980-2002) and finally the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government (2002-….). By using the content analysis method the book exposes Kemalism’s metamorphosis into Turkish-Islam Synthesis influenced Ataturkism and for the first time analyzes this post-1980 official ideology’s indoctrination through history, religious studies, civics, and national security knowledge textbooks. This book 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, in order to understand the current political environment in Turkey, this book will function as a manual.