An Evaluation on the Advantage and Disadvantage of Revolution History Teaching in Turkey in Light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Views on the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life

Bülent Akbaba

doi:10.17275/per.20.10.7.1

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to make an evaluation on the advantage and disadvantage of Revolution History teaching in Turkey in light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s views on the advantage and disadvantage of history for life. In this research, a screening model was used to identify a past or present situation as it exists. The universe of this research consists of Higher Education Council National Thesis Center, ULAKBIM, the scanning model thesis and scanning model articles regarding teaching of revolution history in Google Academic Database. Purposive sampling method was used considering the inclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria of the study for postgraduate thesis are they are on teaching revolution history, conducted in scanning model, published between 2004-2018 and conducted in Turkey and are in Turkish. For the articles, the criteria are being about teaching revolution history, conducted in scanning model and being published in a peer-reviewed journal in Turkish. Such data were subjected to descriptive analysis and content analysis. The analyses yielded descriptive statistics as well as codes and themes concerning the advantage and disadvantage of Revolution History teaching. The findings indicate that Revolution History teaching is a need in Turkey, which can be said to be consistent with Nietzsche’s views. On the other hand, that Revolution History teaching does not enhance student productivity is the primary problem on this matter. Descriptive research findings regarding Revolution History teaching in Turkey also reveal that approaching the past with a conception of monumental history would have a detrimental dominance over antiquarian and critical forms. The findings imply that critical form is needed in addition to monumental and antiquarian forms in Revolution History teaching, and this form (i.e. critical history) is not covered enough in practice.

Highlights

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) reveals the essence of the understanding of history with the quotation in Goethe's "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life" which is "I despise everything, which merely instructs me without increasing or immediately enlivening my activity." From this sentence, it would be wrong to think that Nietzsche had a frame of mindParticipatory Educational Research (PER), 7 (1);162-183, 1 March 2020 that completely denied history
Findings and Interpretation The first question in the study to be answered is about the existence of the need for teaching revolution history in the Republic of Turkey
The result of the research reveals the need to teach the revolution history in Turkey sharing the beliefs of the addressees in the necessity and function of the specific course

Summary

Introduction

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) reveals the essence of the understanding of history with the quotation in Goethe's "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life" which is "I despise everything, which merely instructs me without increasing or immediately enlivening my activity." From this sentence, it would be wrong to think that Nietzsche had a frame of mindParticipatory Educational Research (PER), 7 (1);162183 March 2020 that completely denied history. Nietzsche emphasized that history should bring power to human life and bring vitality to his actions, and the understanding of history during his time began to prune the branches of life and negatively affect human actions. Such extreme history captivity and admiration, according to Nietzsche, is nothing more than the symptoms of a general disease According to Nietzsche, every nation needs historical knowledge. The roots of the future should not be scraped by the past The roots of the future should not be scraped by the past (Nietzsche, 2011, p. 63)

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