Session Information
23 SES 06B, Focusing on Citizenship
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-11
10:30-12:00
Room:
B1 114
Chair:
Ian Menter
Contribution
Turkey has been a candidate for full European Union (EU) membership since the Helsinki Summit of December 1999. As it is constantly emphasized by the European Commission, the completion of the processes of Turkey’s accession to membership depends on a satisfactory fulfilment of the relevant political and economic criteria. Turkey has been developing new laws to adapt its constitution in order to fulfil these requirements. For example, de-centralisation of public services, including the education system, was introduced as part of the restructuring of the relationships between central government, provincial authorities and municipalities.
However it can be argued that the criteria by which the EU has judged Turkey’s progress with respect to education, omit some of the fundamental issues and dilemmas confronting the future of the education system: in particular issues relating to the role of education in the construction of Turkish citizenship and identity with respect to cultural diversity. It is how Turkey addresses these issues that will determine its path to modernization and possibly its future in relation to Europe. In these respects the accession process has not paid sufficient attention to the importance of education. These issues raise questions about the nature of Turkish Republicanism, which has focussed on a centralised state administration, especially in education in order to generate social cohesion amongst a disparate population and a sense of Turkish citizenship defined by the Turkish language and a strong centralised state.
This study examines the various perspectives taken by senior policy makers on the role that accession to the EU may play in changing the nature of Turkish Republicanism.
Method
Documentary analysis and secondary historical data was used to understand the role of education, and particularly educational centralization, in modern Turkish state formation. Interviews were conducted with Turkish education policy makers in Ankara in order to understand the limits and possibilities of their thinking as regards to educational decentralisation in relation to ethnic minorities.
Expected Outcomes
The views obtained in the data reflect elements and combinations of these positions and hence policy makers’ stances on the EU accession process: some saw it as (i) a democratic and ‘civilizing’ project, especially in relation to the Muslim influence and therefore embraced accession. (ii) as an imposition on Turkey’s republican integrity and hence rejected the accession process and (iii) that decentralisation with respect to cultural autonomy was direction that Turkey should take but with caution because they did not want the ‘Pandora’s box of ethnic and/or regional autonomy to threaten the integrity of the Republic.
References
GREEN, A. (1990) Education and State Formation: The Rise of Education Systems in England, France, and the USA. New York, St. Martin's Press.
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