Evaluation of the Views of Turkish Language Teachers on the Place of Traditional Turkish Drama in Education

Abstract

Traditional Turkish drama, which reflects the Turkish culture in the best manner and ensures that this culture is transferred to the next generation, helps the transfer of customs and traditions, as well as many elements such as language and religion which belong to the Turkish culture, in a humoristic and entertaining manner. In order to save cultural values from being forgotten and ensuring that the new generation adopts these values, it is beneficial to teach the features and works of traditional Turkish drama to the new generation. Drama education, which is used from time to time in almost all levels of education in the Turkish education system, is an approach that is highly emphasized in developed countries. Drama is a branch of art that reflects human beings and deals with human life where each individual can find something about himself. Besides, it is well known that dramas help develop the four basic language skills. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the traditional Turkish drama is given adequate place in Turkish language curriculum and, on the other hand, the extent to which Turkish language teachers cover the characteristics and works of traditional Turkish drama in their classes. Our study group consists of 40 Turkish language teachers with minimum 10 years of experience at secondary schools in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. An interview for consisting of 5 questions was used in order to collect data. The data acquired in the end of the study were analyzed using content analysis, frequency and percentage. As a result of the findings, it has been found out that a majority of Turkish language teachers stated that information and application related to traditional Turkish drama were given inadequate place in Turkish language curriculum and that they agreed that all genres related to this drama, namely Karagöz, public storytelling, puppets, light comedy, country theatrical lays should be taught to the students.

Keywords

• turkish; drama; traditional; culture; teacher