Textual analysis of Bestami Yazgan's stories in the context of values education and text recommendations for secondary school Turkish language textbooks

In this study, Bestami Yazgan's stories are analyzed in the light of core values published in Republic of Turkey Ministry of Education Turkish course curriculum and answers to the questions: "Which core values exist in Bestami Yazgan's stories?", "How the identified core values in Bestami Yazgan's stories are distributed among Bestami Yazgan's literary works?" and "What is the conformity of the usage of Bestami Yazgan's stories in Turkish language textbooks as educational content?" are sought, aiming to recommend texts for secondary school Turkish language textbooks regarding the general purpose and learning outcomes of Turkish course curriculum. This study, in which the values in Bestami Yazgan's literary works are analyzed in the context of core values, is designed considering the qualitative approach and conducted by the screening model. In the study, interviewing and document analysis were used as the data collection methods. Collected data were analyzed and evaluated by descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques. The target group in the study is any literary works of Bestami Yazgan, that are in the form of poetry, tale and story. Bestami Yazgan's 18 story books were selected as the work group for the study by criterion sampling techniques as regards to purposive sampling on the pre-inspected works of Bestami Yazgan, that are collected by document analysis. The study is structured in two phases. In the first phase of the study, the data collected by the document analysis has been analyzed and evaluated using descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques and ten texts, which are believed to represent the core values, are selected. In the second phase of the study, expert opinion is sought. The selected texts are evaluated by the experts in terms of the values that are believed to exist in the texts and the values that reading texts should contain. Two different interview forms, that are prepared and standardized by the researcher, are used in this phase. The data extracted from the interview forms are analyzed and presented in the frequency tables. The findings show that all of the core values, which are "helpfulness, respect, friendship, self-control, responsibility, honesty, patience, patriotism, love, justice", in Turkish course curriculum are included in the Bestami Yazgan's literary works. It is determined that, among these values "love" is the most and "justice" is the least underlined value. One could state that the contents of the Bestami Yazgan's stories are qualified in terms of features that a course book text should have and aligned with the purpose and learning outcomes stated by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Education; hence the literary works of Bestami Yazgan are highly rich in educational messages and core values. In conclusion, one can state that the stories presented to the expert opinion are qualified to be included in the secondary school textbooks. Thus, Bestami Yazgan's ten stories could be recommended to be included in the secondary school Turkish language textbooks.