History Education, Local History and Museums in Turkey

This research aims to explore how can the place of local history and museums in history education in Turkey be improved. During the research 16 history teachers and 4 curators were interviewed. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 320 final year secondary students from two different cities of Turkey. In the book a general description of the Turkish educational system and its historical context,the content and methods of history lessons in Turkish schools,the problems related to teaching history in Turkey and the place of local history and museums in history education is introduced. The research shows that although museum visits and local history studies can offer great opportunities to history lessons they are not used effectively in Turkish schools for a variety of reasons. On the basis of the research evidence, the reasearch outlines possible strategies for the inclusion of local history and museums within the history curriculum. It is argued that this inclusion must be accompanied by pedagogical change if the teaching of local history is to improve the effectiveness and value of history education. The implications of this for teachers and museum educators are explored.

Autorentext

Semih Aktekin is an assistant professor at KTU, Fatih Faculty of Education in Trabzon, Turkey. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science in Ankara University,then he received a PGCE degree in History, an MA degree in School Improvement and a doctorate degree in Teacher Education (2004) from School of Education, University of Nottingham,UK.