Folklore elements in secondary school Turkish textbooks

Transmission of national culture and values, raising a generation capable of adopting universal culture and values and carrying them to modern civilisation is becoming a greater and greater challenge in Turkey and many other countries. In this process, the formation and continuity of cultural identity plays a fundamental role undertaken by folk culture products. Folklore is recognised as an important factor in determining the character and unity of society. Folk literature products such as legends, epics, tales, jokes, etc. play different roles in the transmission of traditions, education, creativity, social criticism, entertainment and laughter. Such products are effective in strengthening social unity and identity. Turkey's achievement of these goals is a task that requires efforts to ensure that it adopts universal values while preserving the richness of national culture. This can be achieved through education, cultural activities and raising social awareness. Folklore and folk literature play an important role in maintaining this balance and strengthening the identity of society. In this context, it is imperative to develop strategies and efforts necessary for the protection of cultural heritage, transferring it to new generations and achieving the goal of modern civilisation. Our study is an important step in terms of understanding the extent to which folklore elements, cultural heritage and folk culture are reflected in the education system in the texts covered in secondary school 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade Turkish textbooks. Folklore is a field that analyses traditions, beliefs, stories and other cultural elements of societies and this has an important role in the protection of national identity and culture. The main aim of our study is to determine how much folklore elements are included in the textbooks and in which types of texts these elements are found. In this context, our study is an important step in helping to understand how Turkish language teaching can be linked to traditional culture and values. It also aims to provide suggestions on how to develop better teaching materials to help students transfer and understand this cultural heritage. In our study using document analysis method, we systematically examined the texts in the textbooks to determine how folklore elements are represented and in which genres they are emphasised more. Therefore, this study will make an important contribution in terms of evaluating the role of national culture and values in education and supporting the transfer of cultural heritage to future generations.