Retrospektive, year IX, number 1

Reimagining Civilization and Nationhood through Education: “The Century of Türkiye Maarif (Educational) Model”

Kenan Çayır

DOI 10.64651/retrospektive.2026.9.1.6 📋

Received: 15. October 2025 | Accepted: 15. April 2026 | Published: 15. April 2026

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Article summary

This study critically analyzes the 2024 “Century of Türkiye Maarif (Educational) Model” curriculum reform, implemented by the Ministry of National Education following the Ak Party’s 2023 electoral victory, which coincided with the centenary of the Turkish Republic. The paper investigates the ideological underpinnings of the new curriculum, specifically its manifestation in the 9th-grade history textbook. Despite claims of a holistic approach which integrates moral and ethical dimensions with essential 21st-century skills, the study argues that the reform reconstructs history to serve a pan-Turkic and Turkish-Islamic civilizational narrative. Employing critical discourse analysis, the findings indicate a reification of the Turkish-Islamic synthesis, wherein medieval Turkish-Islamic scholars are presented as foundational figures in the development of modern scientific paradigms. The curriculum constructs an expansive, pan-Turkic geographical narrative, reclassifying regions and ethnic groups (e.g., Bulgarians, Hungarians) as Turkic. It also promotes a nationalist teleology that depicts contemporary Turkey as a technologically advanced nation while critiquing European civilization. This analysis concludes that the model, rather than fostering critical thinking, serves to forge a specific civilizational consciousness aimed at symbolically restoring Turkey’s civilizational standing and deconstructing perceived Eurocentric historical narratives.

Sources and bibliography

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Authors' contacts

Kornelija Ajlec, dr.
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of History

Kenan Çayır, dr.
İstanbul Bilgi University, Department of Sociology

Zvezdana Kovač
European Fund for the Balkans

Kriton Kuci, dr.
Department of Political Science and International Relations Faculty of Law and Humanities, Mediterranean University of Albania

Angelos Palikidis
Professor of History Didactics
Department of Humanities, School of Humanities, Democritus University of Thrace

Srđan Radović, dr.
Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Božo Repe, dr.
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of History

Vassiliki Sakka, dr.
Association for History Education in Greece

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