This project analysed the construction of national identity in textbooks produced for heritage language education (HLE); both in books under Turkish consular control and those for which the individual federal states in Germany are responsible. It compared textbooks for HLE published in Germany and approved for use in three federal states with educational materials for HLE produced in Ankara for international use. The contents of the individual chapters in four textbooks from the series ‘Türkce ve Türk Kültürü’, produced by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, and of a selection of four series composed of 15 textbooks approved for use in three German federal states, produced by two publishing houses located in Germany (Anadolu and Önel Verlag), were examined and comparatively analysed with regards to their depictions of the Turkish self-image, particularly in terms of historical, cultural and religious dimensions and with respect to gender perceptions. Critical discourse analysis was used to determine content related to culture and religion and to establish the pedagogical approaches used in the educational media including their historical narratives, images of Turkey and interpretation of Islam.
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Results
The textbooks portrayed an idealized image of Turkish culture, as well as a strong identification with religious and national identity, while encouraging students to adapt and integrate into the societies in which they live. The analysis presented that textbooks, particularly those published in Ankara in 2010, depicted a conflict-free view of history. It, on the other hand, documented changing discourses surrounding images of the self and the other in spatial (whether based in Germany or Turkey) or chronological contexts (from the 1970s to the present), as well as the dominant role of culture in shaping the content of textbooks developed in Germany. This, for example, includes less emphasis on problematic issues of every day life, which was a common theme in textbooks published in Germany in the 1990s and a greater emphasis on everyday life interactions. Additionally, the most recent textbooks present changed portrayals of sense of belonging, such as identification of Germany as the first and Turkey as the second homeland (“Deutschland ist unsere erste Heimat und die Türkei unsere zweite.”) in Pilot 3 of Anadolu Verlag (pp. 118–119).
On 3 July 2018, a workshop was held at the GEI with the participation of various HLE experts, and an almost 50-page final report was submitted to the funding ageny, Max Traeger Stiftung in 2019.
Workshop
"Konstruktionen von Identität in Schulbüchern für den herkunftssprachlichen Türkischunterrich", Georg Eckert Institut for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, 3 July 2018.
