Neo-liberalizm ve eğitim: Türkiye'de ilköğretim sosyal bilgiler müfredatında neo-liberal ideolojinin simgelenmesi analizi

This research investigates to what extent neo-liberal ideology is represented in the primary school social studies textbooks for the fourth and fifth grades published by the Ministry of Education in Turkey since 1980, and whether the content of the textbooks leads students to think within the framework of neo-liberalism. This study analyzes the textbooks published from 1980 to 2009. The focus of the study is on the 2004 Primary School Education Reform, which is the first structural amendment in primary school education since 1968. This study compares the 1968 and 2005 social studies curricula via temporal time difference analysis in terms of the structure and subjects they cover. Analyses of the textbooks are based on the comparison of the pre- and post-2005 textbooks in terms of representation of the neo-liberal discourse. In addition, this study utilizes information gathered from in-depth interviews conducted with the architects of the reform in order to explore the rationale behind the 2004 reform. Based on the findings of the temporal time difference analysis of the curricula and the quantitative and qualitative content analyses of the textbooks, this study concludes that representations of neo-liberal ideology in the social studies curriculum and textbooks have significantly increased with the implementation of the 2004 reform.