Abstract
DEMOCRACY EDUCATION IN SECONDARY EDUCATION: A STUDY ON 9TH GRADE HISTORY TEXTBOOK IN TERMS OF DEMOCRACY AND ITS VALUES
Appearing as an ideal lifestyle in the 21st century, democracy has brought an important responsibility to education. Today, internalization of democracy by the individuals and making it a philosophy of life is only possible through the democracy education provided by the societies. Schools are among the top of the institutions in which democracy education will take place and democracy awareness will be provided. In educational institutions, particularly in secondary education, history lessons appear as one of the most important lessons where democracy and human rights can be taught. It is an expected situation that the students learn democracy and human rights by practicing them through the historical course. Through the history lesson, it is expected that the students will understand the democratic values, qualities and democratic ways of administration, as well as to internalize the democracy awareness and apply it in their life. The main objective of the study in this regard is to determine the direct and indirect emphasis on democracy and its values in the curriculum and the textbook prepared for the secondary education 9th grade, to discuss about the quality and provide a contribution to the literature. How democracy, the desired value of the 21st century, is reflected in the history lesson curriculum and textbook is of vital importance on evaluating the country's perspective on democracy and the education people receive on democracy. In this study describing the reflection of democracy and its values in history textbooks, a qualitative research approach has been adopted in order to determine the discrepancies and differences in practice, and the data has been analyzed with descriptive analysis method obtaining them through document reviewing from 9th grade history curriculum and textbook. In conclusion, it is seen that secondary education 9th grade curriculum and textbook is not sufficient in terms of emphasizing the democracy and its values although there are important emphasizes related to democracy and its values in general objectives of both the Turkish National Education and history lessons and although the curriculum and some topics in the textbook prepared according to the curriculum are available for emphasizing democracy and its values.
Keywords
Democratic Education, Democracy, History Education, 9th Grade History Textbook.
