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Preface
In this study, I examine the reconstruction of Turk-ish history/social studies curriculum and assess how well the program conforms to the established EU directions and norms. The purpose of this study is to reconcile the issues of Turkish accession, the implementation of European Union education standards and policies, the influence of political change (with regard to the EU) on history/social studies texts in Turkey, and the differences between traditional pedagogy and curricular reforms for the whole of Turkish education.
I consider the historical framework of the relationship between Turkey and the EU in this study; Turkey’s efforts toward modernization of education; the rationale for such initiatives; and their role as creating complicating factors for both national education reform, and, simultaneously, EU acceptance of Turkey as a nation and, in particular, its history/social studies curriculum.
The complexity of integrating one nation with another is significantly difficult in itself. The challenge of integrating culturally distinct national entities into a functioning, peaceful community of states increases this difficulty by several orders of magnitude.