DOI: 10.21764/maeuefd.1888361 ISSN: 1302-8944

Evaluation of special education Turkish textbooks in an interdisciplinary context

Aynur Tepe
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This study examines interdisciplinary integration in Turkish language textbooks prepared for primary-level (grades 1–4) special education students in Turkey. The research was conducted using a quantitative content analysis design based on Klein’s (2010) classification of interdisciplinarity. The Special Education Turkish Textbooks 1 and 2, published by the Ministry of National Education, were coded under eight disciplinary categories: Mathematics, Science, Life Studies, Social Studies, Physical Education and Sports, Visual Arts, Music, and Other/Turkish. All content meeting the analysis criteria was examined using a full-count approach. A total of 580 analysis units and 893 disciplinary assignments were included. Inter-coder reliability was calculated for 117 units, and Cohen’s Kappa coefficient was found to be 0.88. The findings indicate that when formal Turkish codes are excluded, Life Studies represents the most frequently referenced content discipline, comprising 32.3% of total assignments, while Mathematics (0.4%) and Music (0%) are extremely limited or not represented at all. Actual interdisciplinary integration at the content level was identified in only 5.5% of the analysis units and occurred at a level approximately 3.6 times higher in narrative texts than in activities. Additionally, while Social Studies and Physical Education and Sports exhibited the highest integration rates, Life Studies, despite being the most frequently represented discipline, had the lowest integration rate. The findings show that although the Türkiye Yüzyılı Maarif Model adopts interdisciplinary integration as a fundamental curriculum principle, this principle is reflected in the Turkish textbooks prepared for students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder in a limited and imbalanced manner. This study provides some of the first systematic evidence of the quantitative profile of interdisciplinary integration in special education textbooks and highlights the importance of empirically assessing the extent to which interdisciplinary principles adopted in curricula are reflected in instructional materials.

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