Child in “Falaka” according to the pedagogy of John Locke

Abstract

The aim of the study is to evaluate the story titled: “Falaka” by Ömer Seyfettin (1884-1920) who plays an important role with his stories in Turkish Children’s Literature within the context of the pedagogy of John Locke. John Locke has emphasized that it is necessary to get rid of the pair, reward and punishment which is one of the traditional education methods in order to provide personal discipline in child and to form a good character in his work titled: “Thoughts on Education” (1693). Ömer Seyfettin has criticized the elements of beating and violence in child education in his story titled “Falaka”. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to present how the theme: child and education is discussed in the story of Ömer Seyfettin and to identify the overlapping aspects of the thoughts about child education with the pedagogy of John Locke. The research is a qualitative study which uses text analysis based on literature technique.

Keywords: Child, childhood, child education, children’s literature, John Locke, discipline, character development