A New Perspective on the Education Paradigm (A Mentality Problem in Our Education System and a Proposal)

This booklet presents the views of the late Alev Alatlı, a distinguished writer and intellectual, based on her long-term observations and insights. These perspectives were compiled through a project initiated in 2016 with the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, evolving through discussions among a group of academics and intellectuals gathered around Alatlı. Notable contributors included Project Coordinator Prof. Dr. Ömer Dinçer, and participants such as Prof. Dr. Ömer Açıkgöz, Prof. Dr. Hamide Ertepınar, Prof. Dr. İsmail Coşkun, Prof. Dr. Zafer Çelik, Prof. Dr. Ziya Selçuk, Prof. Dr. Emin Karip, and Prof. Dr. Mahmut Özer. Additionally, journalists/authors like İsmet Berkan, economist Şeref Oğuz, former Minister of Culture and Tourism Atilla Koç, researcher/author Bekir Ağırdır, journalist/author Ali Saydam, engineer Prof. Dr. Ayhan Altıntaş, journalist/author Nuran Çakmakçı, businessman/publisher Adnan Dalgakıran, educator Türker Çelik, Istanbul Chamber of Industry Secretary General Haktan Akın, and Istanbul Chamber of Industry Board Vice President İrfan Özhamaratlı were also involved in the intellectual discussions.

Although this text was never published as a book, it has been widely read and utilized by education professionals since 2016, and its findings have garnered broad agreement.

At Cappadocia University, we believe it is crucial to share this significant text, authored by our late founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees Alev Alatlı, with the public in both printed and digital formats. This text serves as an important historical record and contributes to the broader discourse on educational issues by Turkish intellectuals. For this reason, the Introduction was written by Prof. Dr. Ömer Dinçer, who worked closely with Alatlı during the project. The main content is authored by Alev Alatlı, and the final section, “Cappadocia University Educational Philosophy and SOBE (Education Leading with the Latest Information) Method,” was developed by Alatlı in collaboration with Rector Hasan Ali Karasar, applying the book’s insights to Cappadocia University. This represents a practical application of Alev Alatlı’s views on the Education Paradigm by an educational institution.

The dynamic discussion of education, a key driver of our democratic and modernization efforts over the past 200 years, must continue. Thus, the Education Paradigm offers valuable insights from Alev Alatlı’s 2016 reflections. We hope you find this text both enlightening and informative.

Born in İzmir in 1944, Alev Alatlı went to high school in Tokyo, Japan. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in and a Master’s Degree from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) where she studied with a Fulbright scholarship. Subsequently, Alatlı studied philosophy and continued her doctoral studies at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, with focus on Theology, Thought and the History of Civilization. She returned to Turkey in 1974, and worked as a lecturer in the Department of Economy of Istanbul University, and as a senior economist in the State Planning Organization in Ankara. She has conducted joint psycho-linguistics studies with the University of California (Berkeley). Alatlı published a magazine entitled “Our English” together with Cumhuriyet Newspaper, and later served as the vice president of the Turkish Writers Cooperative (YAZKO).

Works: In 1985 and 1986, her translations of Edward Said’s “Covering Islam” and “The Question of Palestine” were published. She was honoured with the Medal of Freedom by Yasser Arafat while he was exiled in Tunisia for her works describing the Palestinian case. Her first published copyright work, “Despotism of the Intellectuals”, was followed by “Jasmines Smoke No More!” in 1985. The “Torturer”, which received the Writers Union’s “Best Novel of the Year” award, was published in 1987, and was the lead of the following quartet “Is there anybody out there?”. This quartet includes “Viva la Muerte” published in 1992, “Nuke Turkey!”, “You Sure Made Me a Prey to the Wolves” and “OK Mustafa, Turkey is Dealt With!”, published in 1993. “Resist Your Fate, Incorporated” was published in 1995. A small prose-verse essay entitled “September 1998” published in 1999 was followed by “Schrödinger’s Cat, Nightmare” in 2000 and “Schrödinger’s Cat, Dream” in 2001.

“Mercy, Not Enlightenment!”, the first volume of the novel sequence “On the Footsteps of Gogol” was published at the end of June 2004, and was followed by other novels in the series entitled “World Watch” and “Eyy Uhnem! Eyy Uhnem”. In 2004, working with Şehabettin Yalçın, she translated the work “The Most Certain Way” penned by Tunisian Hayrettin Pasha.

She has published four more books, being “If Not Now, When?” (2002) – a compilation of Alatlı’s essays and diary articles, “Person Should be Able to Say No” published in 2005, “Remember! Your Past is Your Future” published in 2007, and “Turkey and the World with Alev Alatlı”, as a compilation of her interviews, published in 2003.

In the field of Political Sciences, she wrote “No Comment” in 2008 and “You Are Not Alone” together with Ayşe Kulin, Liz Behmoaras and Nurşen Mazıcı in 2009. “All Great Minds Don’t Think Alike” published in 2009 and “The Day I Shut Down Hollywood”, published in 2009, are her most recent books.

She is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Cappadocia University, and is a Member of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the İlke Education and Health Foundation.

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