How Do Ethnoreligious Discourses Shape Science Curriculum and Textbooks? Turkish Perspectives

• In Event: Exploring (Ethno)Religious Truths in Curriculum Studies: A Dialogue Across Global Perspectives

Abstract

Purpose:
The developments and changes in the educational systems, curriculums, and textbooks cannot be considered as being in a coincidental relationship with its own society. They mostly adopt the histories, values, and beliefs of the community, as well as reflect society’s social, political, religious, and nationalist values and realities (Baskan, 2006; Paine & Zeichner, 2012). For example, in the case of Turkey, the content of national science curriculum documents and textbooks have changed over time (in 2005, 2013, and 2018) within the religious, nationalist, and populist discourses and ideologies of the ministry of education (Senturk & Aydogmus, 2017). Reflecting on the changes in these documents, I aim to analyze how and to what extent Turkish science education curriculums and textbooks include and/or exclude ethnoreligious discourses, as well as foreground nationalist and religious components. Following this analysis, my interviews with three elementary and secondary science teachers become complementary to understand and discuss their experiences, feelings, and arguments on how centering ethnoreligious discourses in curriculum and textbook documents impacts their instruction and students’ approach to science.
Theoretical framework
Considering my focus on how ethnoreligious discourses and identities takes place in science curriculum documents in Turkey, I use the lens of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1990; Davis, 2008) to unpack the intersections of nationalism, ethnicity, and religion in the context of Turkey. Through a lens of intersectionality, I zoom in on the main components of ethnoreligious discourses in the context of Turkey by focusing on how ethnicity, religion and political ideologies are intertwined. To do that, I discuss how populist ideologies of religion, and nationalist discourses of ethnicity are intertwined become visible in curriculum documents.
Modes of Inquiry

I conduct a content analysis of the last three elementary and secondary Turkish national science curriculum documents (from the years of 2005, 2013 and 2018), as well as the national textbook documents. Additionally, I interview three elementary and secondary science teachers in Turkey to discuss their thoughts and experiences on this intersection and its impact on their science instruction (Dyson & Genishi, 2005; Stake, 2013).
Conclusions and Scholarly Significance

Bringing a global perspective on how ethnoreligious nationalism informs the content and practice of science instruction is critical to understand the dominant ideologies of religion, ethnicity, and nationalism and their impacts. I work from the premise that religion, nationality, and ethnicity work together to configure the dynamics and nature of the science curriculum and instruction to some extent, which can create a reinforcing dominance for minoritized groups, as well as potentially bringing the ideologies of partisan political power structures into the science learning space by reproducing bias. For example, preliminary analysis of Turkish science curriculum documents shows a) the exclusion of the term “evolution” from secondary school science curriculum since 2017, b) conversion of most primary schools to Imam Hatip elementary and secondary schools, and c) Reinforcement of religious and nationalist discourses by focusing on Ottoman times and culture.

Author

• Selin Akgun, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author