Mustafa Öztürk

Europe As a Question in Geography Education: Developing a Critical European Dimension in Turkish Geography Education Mustafa Öztürk

Turkey began accession negotiations with European Union in 2005 becoming the first country with a predominantly Muslim population to be moving towards full membership of the EU. However, debates, which Turkey?s candidacy to the EU has opened up, focus on the issues of European and Turkish identity and culture. The book challenges popular myths that evoke general notions of identity as a natural construction from a Lacanian perspective through othering process. It examines the content, pedagogy and culture of initial teacher education, perceptions of geography student teachers and teachers and the current situation in secondary school level in terms of approaches to the EU and European dimension in Turkey. It argues that there is a need to reconceptualise geography education in Turkey and elsewhere with a critical approach due to shifts in our understandings and experience of space and subjectivity resulting from globalisation, postmodernism, multiculturalism and social changes in the world. This book is intended to be useful for those interested in the debates related to Turkey?s accession to the EU, geography teachers and student teachers, policy makers and graduate students.