Analyzing Cross-Curricular Components in the New National Curriculum of Turkiye Through DigComp and Transformative Social Emotional Learning Perspectives

• In Event: Curriculum for Equity and Inclusion: Integrating Socio-Emotional, Digital, and Social Perspectives in Public Education

Proposal

The world is both divided and united more than ever thanks to the digital world we are constantly online in. Global peace and social cohesion, which are the themes of the CIES 2026, are sometimes hung on by a thread because of the affordances and challenges of living in a digital world. Digital literacy is no more an addition to our skill lists but a requirement for having a healthy life and surviving in the digital age. Thus, children starting from young ages should practice and become competent in digital literacy skills as early as possible. This reality transforms educational policies and curricula around the world. Türkiye, with their centralized education system, is one of the countries with the most recent changes in their education system.

The Ministry of National Education of Türkiye (MoNE) introduced a new national curriculum, along with a new education model called the “Türkiye Century Maarif Model” in 2024. The gradual implementation began in the fall of 2024, starting with preschool, first grade, fifth grade, and ninth grades with more grades to follow in coming semesters (MoNE, 2025). One of the innovations introduced through this national initiative is the integration of three cross-curricular components: social-emotional learning skills, the virtue-value-action framework, and literacy skills (MoNE, 2024). This study focuses on the two of these key components: literacy skills (specifically digital literacy skills), and social-emotional learning skills, both of which are embedded as learning outcomes throughout the official K-12 national curriculum.

Theoretical Framework

We ground our study in two theoretical frameworks: the digital competence framework for citizens, known as DigComp 2.2., (European Commission, 2022) and transformative social emotional learning (SEL) (Jagers et al., 2019), which together help us analyze the Maarif Model with a critical perspective.

The DigComp 2.2. framework, which was developed by the European Commission in 2022, includes 5 competence areas (dimension 1), each compromising specific competences (dimension 2): (a) information and data literacy, (b) communication and collaboration, (c) digital content creation, (d) safety, (e) problem solving. Each competence is associated with a proficiency level (dimension 3): foundation, intermediate, advanced, and highly specialized. These levels also enable individuals to self-assess their digital competences. Additionally, examples of knowledge, skills and attitudes (dimension 4), as well as cases (dimension 5) are provided for each competence area.

Civic identity, which develops through constant interaction with the physical and digital world, involves emotional as well as intellectual and social learning: as such, we draw on SEL, which has been at the attention of scholars and practitioners around the world for the last couple of decades. Its focus on emotion management, empathy, problem solving, and healthy relationship building for both children and adults (Jagers et al., 2019) are necessary for social cohesion and global peace. Jagers and colleagues (2019) argued that SEL practices focus too much on individual level conflicts and resolutions while ignoring the root causes of inequities, which in turn prevent the potential benefits of SEL for underserved communities. Thus, they proposed a new stream of SEL that centers justice-oriented citizenship (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004), called transformative SEL, and revised the CASEL 5 SEL competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making) through an equity-centered perspective. They presented identity, agency, belonging, and engagement as transformative reflections of the competencies (Jagers et al, 2019). The promise of transformative SEL is that individuals need to acquire particular skills, attitudes, and knowledge for developing a critical lens and taking collective action to address underlying systemic problems (Humphries et al., 2025). Thus, we believe the combination of the transformative SEL with the DigComp 2.2. can provide us a clear pathway for our analysis.

Research Design

In this study, we aim to systematically analyze digital literacy skills and SEL skills emphasized in the Maarif Model based on the DigComp 2.2 and transformative SEL frameworks (European Commission, 2022; Jagers et al, 2019). To do that, we will do content analysis of standards related to digital literacy and SEL skills in all subject areas for grades K-12. For example, in the eighth grade science curriculum, digital literacy concepts are explored in various learning goals, such as using digital content, social platforms for modeling, examining and presenting data, and recalling previous topics. We aim to map and compare these skills, and finally analyze the alignment of MoNE’s national curriculum with DigComp 2.2 and transformative SEL frameworks.

In the Maarif Model, there is one curriculum for pre-school, ten curricula for elementary and middle school, and eleven for secondary school. The structure of the units in these curricula is constructed with conceptual skills, socio-emotional development skills, dispositions, literacy skills, trends, subject-based knowledge, values, assessment and evaluation on units and topics in different grade levels.

Several reasons exist for choosing to use the DigComp 2.2. and transformative SEL frameworks. The first is that the multidimensional structure of the digital framework allows for a comparison with the outcomes of the cross-curricular components of digital literacy in the Maarif Model and their corresponding proficiency levels. This framework offers a broad structure that can be used to analyze education systems and policies. Additionally, it is widely accepted in the literature (e.g. Mattar, Ramos, & Lucas, 2022; Vuorikari, 2022). Moreover, considering the fact that one of the promises of the Maarif Model was the integration of cross-curricular components, including social emotional learning skills (MoNE, 2024), it is necessary to employ a social emotional framework in our analysis. In this way, we can determine to what degree the new model achieves its purposes, at least on paper.

Through our analysis, we will provide a critical perspective on the affordability and challenges of the Maarif Model with a specific focus on the digital literacy skills across grade levels. It will also provide an evaluation of how well the national curriculum in Türkiye aligns with the frameworks in terms of the digital competency and SEL development of K-12 students. This may offer a concrete result to support informed decision-making by educational policy makers in Türkiye.

Authors

• Betül Demiray Sandıraz, Michigan State University

• Yesim Akar Hozman, Michigan State University

• Gulbahar Yilmaz, Michigan State University, College of Education