Kurdish Teachers in Turkey Within the Context of History Education

Abstract

AbstractThe relationship between Turks and Kurds, two peoples who have lived together for nearly a thousand years, has become tense with the nation-building policies that have been implemented in Turkey for over a century. The imposition of a singular identity based on Turkishness on a wide range of national/ethnic differences ranging from the constitution to educational policies has caused limitations in Kurds’ living their own identities along with other minority communities. Due to its close relationship with national identity, history courses are among the areas of education that tend to ignore ethnic/cultural differences in Turkey. Kurdish teachers of history, who have to teach a content organized with such an understanding, are trapped between the truths of official history and the truths of their own identities, as well as the identity problems they face in the social and political field. In this study, interviews were conducted with Kurdish teachers of history of different religious/sectarian, political and sexual identities and their relations with their students, colleagues and educational bureaucracy and the meaning of history lessons for them were revealed. Thus, it was tried to understand what it means to be a Kurdish teacher of history in Turkey.