Abstract

This study intends to depict, from a historical perspective, the Turkish education in Bulgaria which has the largest Turkish population among the Balkan countries, as well as examine, Lower Secondary Turkish Textbooks published in Bulgaria in 1992 and 2019. Turkish language education in Bulgaria from past to present can be classified under six categories: Pre-tanzimat Era, Post-tanzimat Era, Principality Era, Kingdom Era, Communism Era, and Democracy Era. This research provides a detailed depiction of the educational policies implemented during foregoing eras and of the challenges faced with a particular focus on the issues relating to textbooks, and problems attributable to acts of Bulgarian authorities. Introduction section of this study provides a detailed picture of Turkish language education system starting from the Ottoman Era -when the foundations of Turkish language education in Bulgaria were laid- to present. This study further then examines and compares two Lower Secondary Turkish Textbooks that first one published in 1992 with a special education law and the latest one in 2019. This paper first gives all data points of this locally sourced materials and then analyse in terms of formal and content. Concerning Lower Secondary Turkish Textbooks which were examined from various aspects, a general evaluation was provided in the conclusions section. The findings of this study shows that Lower Secondary Turkish Textbooks which published in 1992 are out of date and fall behind the contemporary language education. Additionally, Lower Secondary Turkish Textbooks which published in 2019 and currently used in schools failed to go beyond the traditional education concept and are found to be quite weak in terms of educational competencies.