A HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION OF WRITING INSTRUCTION IN TÜRKİYE

Abstract

This qualitative historical study investigates the evolution of writing instruction in Türkiye across both first language (Turkish) and second language (English) contexts from the late Ottoman period to 2024. Grounded in constructivist, socio-cultural, and rhetorical perspectives, the study examines how writing has been conceptualized, taught, and assessed in relation to shifting national ideologies, educational reforms, and global pedagogical movements. Using systematic document analysis, the research analyzes official curricula, ministerial circulars, policy documents, teacher guides, and Ministry-approved textbooks and supplementary materials, including records published in the Journal of Notifications. Findings indicate a long-standing tendency to position writing as a secondary, accuracy-driven skill closely tied to standardization, exam preparation, and state-led goals, with writing often functioning to reinforce existing knowledge rather than support inquiry, voice, or interaction. From the 1980s onward, process-oriented, genre-based, task-based, and later technology-enhanced approaches increasingly appeared in curricula and materials; however, their uptake has remained uneven, frequently reduced to checklist-like procedures and implemented inconsistently across institutions and educational levels. The study further highlights recurring misalignment between curricular intentions and classroom realities, shaped by assessment regimes that marginalize writing, constraints on time and feedback, and unequal access to resources and teacher preparation. By mapping continuities and shifts across L1 and L2 trajectories, the study offers a contextual account of how local rhetorical traditions and global academic norms intersect, and it proposes implications for policy, teacher education, classroom practice, and materials development to support more equitable, process-rich, and rhetorically flexible writing pedagogy.