A comparison between Turkish and English history textbooks: design, construction and usability issues

This study is about the comparison of Turkish and English history textbooks in terms
of the issues of design, construction and usability. In order to address design and construction
issues, a number of components of Turkish and English history textbooks were examined and
compared. This incorporates the qualitative and quantitative comparisons made on the legibility
and page layout, illustrations, readability, content and organisation of text, presentation of
value judgements and controversial issues in the Turkish and English history textbooks. In
addition, bureaucratic process and approval of a textbook in Turkey and England were also
investigated.
In order to find out the viewpoints of Turkish and English history teachers on the
textbooks that they use, questionnaire and interview techniques were used. As a result, a total
of 135 questionnaires and 14 interviews with the Turkish and English history teachers have
been used for this research. In addition, two Turkish and two English textbook writers were
interviewed to understand the processes and difficulties that they had in writing. Furthermore,
in order to understand the importance and role of history textbooks in Turkish and English
educational settings, a total of 108 lessons were observed in these countries.
The findings of the research reveal that Turkey and England have very different
history teaching policies in terms of the way historical knowledge, illustrations, controversial
issues and value judgements, content and organisation of the text and page layout of the
textbooks are presented. These countries have very different textbook approval systems as
well. The findings of the empirical study also indicate the existence of very different viewpoints
of Turkish and English history teachers and textbook writers about the quality of the
textbooks. The roles that textbooks play in teaching processes in Turkish and English
classrooms are considerably different from each other. Thus, this study can be taken as the
story of the Turkish and English teaching experiences which appear to contrast with each
other.