The examination of the presence of proverbs and idioms from Koca Ragıp Pasha's divan in Turkish language textbooks

Koca Ragıp Pasha is a prominent 18th-century Ottoman poet who adopted a didactic style in his poetry and skillfully used the expressive power of the Turkish language. His Divan is composed of texts in which proverbs and idioms are naturally embedded. In this respect, the work provides significant clues about the vocabulary and cultural heritage of the Turkish language. The aim of this study is to identify the proverbs and idioms found in Koca Ragıp Pasha's Divan and to examine whether these linguistic elements appear in Turkish textbooks prepared by the Ministry of National Education for grades 5, 6, 7, and 8. To this end, the Divan was thoroughly reviewed, and 919 proverbs along with 400 idioms were identified. These expressions were classified based on their structural features and compared with current educational materials. The study was conducted using the document analysis method, one of the qualitative research techniques. It was determined in which grade levels, themes, and texts the proverbs and idioms from the Divan were included, and whether they were directly or indirectly used in the textbooks was analyzed. The findings reveal that proverbs and idioms in classical literary works are not sufficiently reflected in today's educational materials. In this context, it has been concluded that historical language elements should be used more effectively in Turkish education, and several suggestions have been made for curriculum developers.