Human Rights in Textbooks Project
Results and recommendations for the Ministry of National Education and the whole educational community on textbooks and educational environment of Human Rights in Textbooks Project, has been conducted by Tarih Vakfı under the umbrella of Turkish Academy of Sciences with the support from Open Society Institute and the European Commission is presented below.
The main objectives of the project are to draw the interest of all actors (decision-makers, educators, textbook writers and publishers, parents) related to the textbooks and education programs, to determine the current situation of textbooks in terms of form, content and pedagogical methods within the framework of the main criteria of human rights and democracy culture, to develop concrete recommendations on how to achieve what is necessary. In the 2001-2002 academic year, a large number of faculty members and experts with 287 volunteers came together to identify the problematic elements of human rights by scanning 190 primary and secondary textbooks from each branch. These scanning results and the educational system developed from them and the point of view and suggestions for the textbooks were published in a book. The results of this study, which was presented to the public on 9-10 December 2003, were discussed in the international symposium titled Human Rights Education and Textbook Research on 16-18 April 2004. In addition, the book which contains the results of the survey on human rights attitudes applied to 300 teachers and 1200 students in six provinces is in the printing process.
Trainer Training Seminars were given in five provinces to the teachers for the purpose of promotion and dissemination the book that aims to enable teachers to approach their own practices and educational environment with inquisitive way. In order to ensure the sustainability of this sensitivity and its transformation into a civilian activity area, Working Groups were established to monitor the human rights issue in textbooks in five provinces. The project ended with the Meeting of the All Parties on 14 December 2004.
The evaluation and recommendations presented below are the results of this three-year study, which includes a broad discussion and research effort.