Digital Literacy in Turkish Language Course Materials Under the Maarif Mode

This study aims to explore the extent to which digital literacy components are embedded in the 5th-grade Turkish language arts curriculum and textbook developed under the Türkiye Century Maarif Model (TCMM), as well as how these components are represented in terms of content. Digital literacy is defined as a core competency area encompassing multidimensional skills such as accessing information in digital environments, content creation, critical evaluation, ethical use, and collaborative digital production. Accordingly, this study employed document analysis to investigate both the curriculum and the textbook, and the data were thematically analyzed based on seven digital literacy components: digital access to information, media literacy, digital content creation, critical digital evaluation, digital ethics and safety, digital collaboration, and conceptual awareness. The findings revealed that the curriculum addressed digital literacy components in a multifaceted manner; however, the textbook primarily focused on access to information and media literacy. Higher-order skills such as content creation, ethical awareness, and critical evaluation were found to be either limited or represented as optional suggestions in the textbook. This points to a significant gap in coherence between the curriculum and the textbook. The study underscores the importance of integrating digital literacy skills into instructional materials in a comprehensive and structured way to meet the demands of the digital age. Moreover, it offers both theoretical and practical contributions to the integration of digital literacy into educational programs and provides suggestions for the development of instructional materials.