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  • ISTANBUL: Elective Kurdish course offers too little

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    April 1 2012


    Education researcher Ayan Ceyhan: Elective Kurdish course offers too little


    1 April 2012 / YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ?AN, Ä°STANBUL

    A longtime researcher in education has told Today's Zaman for Monday
    Talk that suggestions to have Kurdish as an elective course in schools
    would fall short of meeting the educational demands of Turkey's Kurds,
    who seek the right to have education in their mother tongue, which is
    restricted by the Turkish Constitution.
    `An elective Kurdish course would be far from meeting the demands of
    Kurds -- despite that it would be an important step forward, it would
    fall short of solving an important part of the Kurdish problem,' said
    Müge Ayan Ceyhan, coordinator of İstanbul Bilgi University's Sociology
    and Education Studies Unit and an instructor in the sociology
    department.

    Ayan Ceyhan also indicated that multilingual education is not just
    about Kurdish education, as there are several groups in Turkey
    demanding rights to have mother tongue education.

    `As more groups become visible and voice their demands, those demands
    have been perceived as threatening by traditionally dominant groups in
    society, but at the same time, there is an opportunity to discuss
    issues that have never been discussed and get one step closer to
    finding solutions to problems,' she said.

    She has been critical of the fact that debates on education do not
    focus on children's needs, and the tremendous opportunities of
    multilingualism have been ignored.

    Answering our questions, she elaborated on the issue.

    In Turkish literature, there is a special place given to the mother
    tongue, or one's native language, yet when it comes to the Kurdish
    language, or even other mother tongue languages, there are still fears
    associated with their becoming languages of education in schools.
    Where do you think those fears come from?

    This has to do with the nation-state ideology. Social groups other
    than the dominant groups have been ignored in this process. This is
    the main reason. It was a taboo issue in the past, and recently it has
    been changing since we have taken some positive steps in that regard,
    even though these steps are not enough. As you said, the use of
    Kurdish, and also the use of other `minority' languages -- I don't
    like the term `minority' since it places groups in a hierarchy --
    cause concern in society.

    Education Minister Ã-mer Dinçer said recently there is nothing wrong
    with offering elective Kurdish language courses in schools. He said,
    `If you are democratizing Turkey, what problem is there in offering
    elective Kurdish language courses in schools?' What is your opinion of
    having Kurdish as an elective course in schools?

    There are positive and negative sides to having Kurdish as an elective
    course. First of all, Kurds are not a homogenous group of people.
    There are different groups of Kurdish children in Turkey. When we look
    at this heterogeneity in terms of language, we see that some of them
    know little Turkish or no Turkish at all when they start school. There
    are also those children whose Kurdish and Turkish are at almost the
    same level. And there are also those Kurdish children whose Kurdish is
    very little. If we talk about a multilingual education system, for
    each group of children, there needs to be a different educational
    model.

    For which group do you think an elective Kurdish course would be suitable?

    For the last group, because they have only a little knowledge of the
    Kurdish language. In the suggested system [Ã-mer Dinçer's], they can
    have a chance to learn about their language of inheritance. Even
    though those children are Kurdish, their first language is Turkish.
    However, such an elective course would be far from meeting the
    educational demands of Kurds in Turkey.

    Why?

    Firstly, there is a chance government officials would think that now
    that they have given this right to the Kurds, to enroll in elective
    Kurdish courses, there is no need to take more steps toward education
    in Kurdish. This would be like TRT Å?eÅ? [the Turkish Radio and
    Television Corporation's Kurdish-language channel]; it's been
    important to have it operating -- I've been criticized by some groups
    when I say that TRT Å?eÅ? has made important contributions in regard to
    making the Kurdish language visible -- but it's been too little, and
    its content can be questioned. I expect similar effects with the
    introduction of the Kurdish language as an elective course in schools;
    it would be far from meeting the demands of Kurds -- despite that it
    would be an important step forward, it would fall short of solving an
    important part of the Kurdish problem.

    `Multilingual education seen as threatening'
    Have you seen multilingual education included in the debate regarding
    the newly formulized `4+4+4' education system [in which children would
    be able to enroll in vocational high schools after the first four
    years]?

    Not at all. Multilingual education has been seen `threatening' and as
    you mentioned, people associated it with their fears. It's been
    discussed within the context of national security. In the process,
    children, who are supposed to be at the center of the debate, have
    been disregarded. Multilingualism offers tremendous opportunities, but
    it is -- not only in Turkey but in other countries that adopt
    pro-assimilation policies --presented as a limiting thing to society.
    We see that approach in such countries as Germany and Denmark.
    Teachers in Germany, for example, have told immigrant parents that
    their children will be better off if they speak only German at home.
    This is quite problematic. First of all, those parents' knowledge of
    German is limited, and when they try to speak with their children only
    in German, they will have to limit their communication. That means
    those children would have to grow up without listening to fairy tales.

    Is there a misconception that knowing or learning a language will make
    it hard to learn another language?

    Yes, there is such a misconception and it should be changed by raising
    awareness about the issue.

    I often hear from Turkish parents who live abroad that when their
    children are older than one year old, and they still haven't spoken a
    language -- either the language of their parents or the language of
    the country that they live in -- that the parents start to speak the
    language of the country where they live, out of concern that their
    children won't be able to speak either of the languages; they think
    they had better learn the language of their new home country. Are they
    too concerned?

    They are definitely too concerned. For example, when we evaluate the
    children of a German father and a Turkish mother, we see that they
    respond to their father in German and to their mother in Turkish. We
    also see that children are able to make those transitions very easily.
    We even see that multilingualism helps children develop
    intellectually. Multilingual children are able to process all the
    languages that they know and they obtain very quick results out of
    that processing. This is a required ability, especially in today's
    world where we receive more and more information, requiring quick
    processing. In addition, when a child develops literacy skills in the
    language that he or she is best at, then those skills can be easily
    transferred while learning a second, third or even fourth and fifth
    languages. This is known among linguists as `the principle of
    interlingual transfer.' Therefore, educators should be aware of this
    enabling potential and share this knowledge with parents.
    Unfortunately, this is not the case; we see the opposite is being
    done.

    You have done research in this area. Would you share some of your
    observations with us from the study?

    I conducted field research in a school located in large city in Turkey
    where there were mostly Kurdish and Roma children. I asked a teacher
    working in that school about the relationship between multilingualism
    in children and academic success. The teacher responded that this is
    related to the intelligence level of children and has nothing to do
    with language. So it was demonstrated that problems with learning a
    new language were associated with mental retardation, and aspects of
    multilingualism were completely ignored.

    `Research needed on educational experiences of Greek, Armenian and
    Jewish communities'
    Is it possible to say that there is censorship of some languages that
    are different from the official language of the state, Turkish?

    There is, and it is because children who communicate in Kurdish are
    forbidden from speaking Kurdish, even during breaks at school. They
    are forced to speak only in Turkish. However, there needs to be a move
    in the opposite direction. If children are allowed to communicate with
    each other in the language that they know best by whispering during
    class, it would allow them to better understand the subject matter.
    They tend to consult with each other in a language that they know well
    when they do not understand something in class. Otherwise, they
    refrain from speaking; they develop fears. I have an example from my
    research. We found that there were a group of students who were
    getting Kurdish language classes outside school and their Kurdish
    language teacher was one of their teachers from school. One student
    whispered this into my ear. I asked that student why there was a need
    to whisper, and the student told me that s/he did not want their
    teacher to get into trouble.

    There is also the issue of the quality of education. We see from your
    research that even though groups that are considered `minorities' have
    been given rights to education in their mother tongue by the Treaty of
    Lausanne, only a small percentage of these children go to special
    schools.

    Yes. For example, only three-fifths of Armenian children of school age
    go to Armenian schools in Turkey. One reason for that is related to
    the quality of education and the infrastructure. The other reason is
    hierarchical approaches to languages. A lot of parents prefer that
    their children learn the dominant language. However, literacy in
    Armenian does not limit children from learning a second or third
    language; on the contrary, it provides more opportunities to develop
    mental capacities of children, as I mentioned.

    Is it possible to get guidance from the experiences of the Greek,
    Armenian and Jewish communities in Turkey as regards the problems
    associated with foreign language education?

    Yes, it is possible. We have to look at examples in the world in that
    regard while there are also local examples that we can look into,
    which, I believe, would provide us with even more insights. However,
    the bureaucratic process to obtain permission to do research in
    schools is quite discouraging. It would be a great contribution to
    conduct research in `minority' schools both in order to eliminate
    deficiencies in those schools in regards to quality of education and
    not to repeat the same mistakes in other schools where mother tongue
    education is considered.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    `Multilingual education not just about Kurdish education'
    In your research, there are several models of education that are
    considered multilingual education.

    For example, there is the immersion education model in which education
    is given in the second language in the beginning, but then first
    [native] language classes are included in the educational program.
    Another example is the dual language/two-way immersion model in which
    students learn together regardless of what language they speak at
    home. The goal is to graduate fully bilingual students. There is also
    the transitional model in which education starts with the first
    [native] language of the student and later education in the second
    language starts; after a while the language of instruction continues
    only in the second language or instruction in both languages
    continues. There are early transition and late transition programs.

    Are these models being discussed in the Ministry of Education or in
    other Turkish institutions?

    Recently, the Diyarbakir Institute for Political and Social Research
    (DÄ°SA) has suggested educational models. However, in general, we are
    still holding quite unproductive debates in Turkey in regards to the
    issue. The issue is not about just deciding on whether or not there
    will be native language education. There are different groups of
    people -- it is not only about Kurdish/Turkish; there are other groups
    of people too -- and there are different educational models. It's a
    complex issue. In order to make a decision on which model is best
    suited for particular groups, we need to do more research. Effective
    education policies need to be backed up by scientific research.
    Additionally, there is a need to educate teachers who would be able to
    function in various educational models. There is also a need to
    provide educational materials to teachers and students. It's important
    to grant the right to education in mother languages, but having this
    right does not mean that the implementation will be perfect. Let's not
    forget the prejudices in society. In the school where I conducted
    research, a Roma student who watched `The Battle of Gallipoli' told me
    that the battle was between Turks and Kurds. This is really alarming.
    In that regard, multilingual education has the potential to contribute
    to peace in society.

    Would you explain how?

    Because you bring together students from different groups; they learn
    each others' languages; they have contact with each other; and they
    learn about each other's cultures. This contact serves positively as
    to how perceptions are shaped in regards to equal citizenship. Of
    course this would only be possible as long as educationalists know
    what they are doing. Research shows that social contact per se would
    not be a solution. There are several circumstances under which it is
    implemented.

    Can a new constitution help to overcome barriers in front of mother
    tongue education in Turkey?

    It can and it should. In the present constitution article 42 makes it
    impossible to teach any language other than Turkish as a mother tongue
    to Turkish citizens in any institution of training or education. I
    support the view that it is important to remove legal barriers in
    front of mother tongue education, but the real challenge would be its
    implementation. And implementation is not independent of how society
    views `others.' In that regard, it is important to evaluate the
    content of the school textbooks with regard to biases that they
    contain toward different groups in society. The Ministry of Education
    has done some work concerning this, and there are studies continuing
    to make improvements in school textbooks. It is important to realize
    that we are in a social transformation process that has the potential
    for both democratization and conflict. As more groups become visible
    in the public arena and claim their rights to equal citizenship and
    voice their demands to mother tongue education, those demands have
    been perceived as threatening by traditionally dominant groups in
    society, but at the same time there is an opportunity to discuss
    issues that have never been discussed and get one more step closer to
    finding solutions to problems.

    Your first language is Turkish, and you have been recently learning
    Kurdish. Would you share the reasons why?

    First of all, it's a beautiful language. Secondly, learning Kurdish is
    beneficial for me as I've been doing research in the field. And I also
    consider the issue of learning Kurdish to be related to the issue of
    the hierarchy of languages. When learning Kurdish becomes a normal
    practice in Turkey, then this would have a positive effect on the
    Kurdish community's perception of being considered `equal citizens' of
    the country.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Profile
    Müge Ayan Ceyhan currently works as the coordinator of İstanbul Bilgi
    University's Sociology and Education Studies Division and as an
    instructor in the sociology department. Recently, she worked as a
    senior researcher in a Turkey-Germany comparative project on `Literacy
    Acquisition in Schools in the context of Migration and
    Multilingualism.' She is an anthropologist practitioner with a DPhil
    and MPhil in social and cultural anthropology from the University of
    Oxford and holds an MA in translation studies from BoÄ?azici
    University. She has been conducting fieldwork in various schools in
    Turkey since 2000. Her areas of interest include anthropology of
    education, changing conceptions of personhood, school ethnography,
    literacy acquisition and multilingual education. She co-authored a
    comprehensive report on `Bilingualism and Education' for the Education
    Research Initiative of Sabancı University, and on `Literacy
    Acquisition in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism' for the
    Volkswagen Foundation.

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