Promised Future, Silent Pages: Tracing Sustainability in the Turkish Secondary School English Curriculum
Promised Future, Silent Pages: Tracing Sustainability in the Turkish Secondary School English Curriculum

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the extent to which environment and sustainability themes are included in secondary school English curricula in Turkey. First, the general structure of the English curriculum was analyzed, and then the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade textbooks were evaluated through content analysis. The findings revealed that the curriculum adopts an eclectic pedagogical approach aiming to enable students to use English in reallife contexts and develop communicative competence. However, the analysis showed that this vision is not adequately reflected at the content level. Particularly in the 5th grade textbooks, the themes of environment and sustainability are not included, and in the other grades, they are mostly limited to only one unit each. This represents an important deficiency in fostering students’ environmental awareness. Consequently, it is suggested that the pedagogical goals of the curriculum be reflected in teaching materials and sustainability themes be addressed more holistically and extensively in textbooks.

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