Established in 2010 within the Faculty of Education at Yıldız Technical University, our department embodies our university’s long-standing tradition of education. The primary objective of our department is to train candidates to become “competent and qualified teachers of Turkish” who embody the identity of a researcher-educator by adopting a scientific approach from both academic and professional perspectives. In addition, our department has adopted goals such as using modern educational approaches as a starting point to enable individuals to realize their full potential, uncover and develop their latent abilities, and live in harmony with themselves and the society in which they live; and to equip individuals with national and universal values.
Graduates of the Turkish Language Teaching Program will be able to work as “Turkish Language Teachers” in public and private schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education at the upper elementary level (grades 5, 6, 7, and 8), as well as in private tutoring centers and study centers. In addition, they have a wide range of career opportunities, including positions at media and publishing organizations, educational and cultural institutions both in Turkey and abroad, archives and museums, world Turkology centers, and private and public organizations related to the Turkic Republics, as well as the opportunity to serve as faculty members in relevant departments at universities. Our graduates will be able to teach Turkish to foreigners and people of Turkish descent; as teachers capable of effective communication, taking on social responsibility, internalizing national values, respecting universal values, and possessing a sense of citizenship, they will be able to generate solutions to social problems; and, with their artistic and cultural proficiency, will be equipped to analyze works in various literary and informative genres, such as novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, articles, and essays. In line with this, our department has developed a detailed curriculum aligned with the Primary Education Turkish Language Teaching framework program, which includes courses on the Turkish language, Turkish literature, and Turkish culture, as well as theoretical and practical courses that demonstrate the methods and techniques for teaching these subjects.