Representation of Ataturk’s Leadership Qualities in “The 8th Grade Textbook for The History of Turkish Revolution and Kemalism’’, in the Context of the Skills Relevant to the 21st Century.

Abstract

Textbooks are among the important means of education in terms of instilling leadership skills in students. The characters presented as models in the textbooks play an important part in building up such leadership skills, with the help of quotes from such characters, texts written with reference to them, and the activities developed accordingly. Thanks to his leadership qualities, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is one such character, who continues to provide guidance even after a century. As a model for the students, he arguably plays a role in helping students develop leadership skills. Therefore it is important to analyze his description in the textbook, from a scientific perspective. Against this background, this study presents an analysis of the 8th grade textbook for “The History of Turkish Revolution and Kemalism” course used in the academic year 2021-2022, with reference to Ataturk’s leadership traits and the types of leadership deemed important in the 21st century (Strategic, Authentic, Charismatic, Servant, Transformative, Transactional etc.). The data gathered through document review were than subjected to descriptive analysis. The analysis led to the conclusion that the text represented Ataturk’s leadership traits in tune with the types of leadership prevailing in the 21st century. It is also understood that Ataturk’s strategic, visionary, transformative, charismatic, entrepreneurial, and creative leadership skills were more prominent in the text.