Abstract:

The coronavirus pandemic, which first started in China, has brought social life to a standstill all over the World. Although the pandemic seems to be one of the subjects in medicine and health, it has also a significant relationship with history education. Would it be rational to expect individuals to make sense of the current situation, negotiate, and exhibit consistent behaviors, if they were not informed completely about pandemics in the past? How would you react when you face with such an incident if you do not have any idea about the subject matter? If you are uninformed about the issue or destroyed for lack of knowledge you need, then how can you find the sources of error? Based on the qualitative research method, this study attempts to find the answer to these questions. The data were analyzed with the descriptive analysis technique and the conclusions were drawn from the responses. The samples constituting this study are limited to the history textbooks of Compulsory and Elective Secondary Education that were used between the years 2019-2020. Therefore, the findings and results of the study are restricted only to the textbooks of the years mentioned above. Moreover, they do not cover any other academic semesters and textbooks. According to the results of this study, it has been observed that the subjects covering the past epidemic cases that take place in secondary school history textbooks are not sufficiently mentioned. It has also been found that there has been a very crucial demand to teach students about past examples of epidemic cases and how their ancestors overcame them by getting rid of these cases. In conclusion, it is possible to contribute history textbooks to make students learn from their ancestors and be more knowledgeable to defend themselves if they face such epidemic cases in the future.

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