An analysis of Erzurum fairy tales in terms of value education

Fairy tales are the texts which are among the strongest in terms of educational aspect in the folk literature genres and narrate fantastic events that take place involving humans, giants, genies, and fairies. Although they are seen as serving the purpose of entertaining and providing enjoyment for children, their educational function is undeniable. The fairy tale is the first literary genre a child encounters in life. It contributes to the child's language development, mental and emotional growth. The family is the child's first place of education. Children who grow up with fairy tales and books are more likely to develop a habit of reading books. Tales play a significant role in preserving and handing passing down the cultural elements and values of a society to future generations. Being a common product of the community, they embody the community's problems, pains, joys, values, etc. Children learn to cope with problems by identifying with the heroes of fairy tales and thus, their empathetic feelings develop. Thanks to fairy tales, children become familiar with their society, naturally accept its values, and acquire a sense of belonging to their nation. The aim of this study is to identify the values in the Erzurum tales and increase their use in Turkish education, taking into account the benefits and characteristics of fairy tales. Ever-increasing problems in our country and the world, the corruption and weakening of culture and values, and the increase in social problems have caused the idea of value education being given in schools. The purpose of value education is to prevent changes in value perception and to regain values that have been forgotten or are being forgotten by society. Because values are the facts that keep a society standing and ensure the continuity of the nation. That is why it is very important to preserve values and transmit them to the younger generation. The first place where values such as education and moral education are taught is the family. In schools, it takes on a systematic form and is brought to a formal dimension. In Turkey, value education started as a project in 2011-2012 and has continued to develop. Value education is not given as an individual lesson in schools, but as part of other courses. Due to its rich content, fairy tales are mostly used in value education. In limited lesson hours, it provides children with a rich language usage example and value transfer. The increase in the importance given to value education also increases the importance of the studies in this field. The goal of this study is to regain the fairy tales that embody the tradition and in danger of being forgotten in value education. The method used in the study is document review and the values identified in the Erzurum Fairy-tales were scanned according to Spranger's classification of values.