PROVERBS OF THE AHISKA TURKS IN THE CONTEXT OF ETHNOPEDAGOGY

Abstract

Every society or every ethnic group that aims to continue its existence endeavours to raise its members from an early age in line with the beliefs and values of that society. These values are the most important criteria that give meaning to the socio-cultural elements of that society. These values, which are attempted to be instilled in the mind of the individual, are transferred within the family with traditional methods before children have reached school age. Therefore, the focal point of this education, which is described as public education in a general sense and ethnopedagogy in a particular sense, is the family. Ethnopedagogy is a science that deals with the education and upbringing of children with the empirical knowledge of ethnic groups; the moral-ethical and aesthetic appearance of values of a people, ethnic group, tribe, clan or family that have existed since the past; and the control and evaluation of good manners, the patterns of etiquette within an ethnic group, evaluation and control among ethnic groups, and their attitudes towards nature. When every ethnic group raises their children with traditional methods within the family, they benefit from folktales, legends, stories, riddles, folk songs, proverbs, idioms and others, because in these narratives the past, present and future of the people are depicted, and a people’s ethnic identity, history, culture, customs and traditions, and religious beliefs, etc., are located. In this study, the proverbs, which are the whole of the values in which the feelings and thoughts of Ahiska society are transformed into words, are discussed. The aim of the study is to examine the functionality of proverbs, which are each used as a teaching tool in the family education process of the Ahiska Turks, in shaping the character of the individual. In order to access the data, a case study, one of the qualitative research designs, was used, the content analysis method was applied to examine the ethnopedagogical status of the proverbs of the Ahiska Turks, and the data were presented through descriptive analysis.