Abstract

"dots nations are more often the consequence of setting-up a state than they are its foundation."$\sp1$ vskip9pt

In 1923 the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Its leaders, who conceived of a unique entity following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and its defeat in World War I, envisioned a nation-state that was Turkish, instead of Ottoman, in nature. The majority of citizenry of this new Republic was unaware of the meaning or significance of a republic, or of its identity as part of a Turkish nation. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the state worked to mold its nation by trying to instill in its people a sense of citizenship and a popular Turkish nationalism. Faced with an impoverished and largely illiterate population, the leaders emphasized education, especially mandatory primary education, as a means of communicating the policies and the ideals of the modern republic to its citizens. This dissertation examines the role of education in nation-state-building for the case of primary education in the early Turkish Republic (1923-1938).

This study focuses on two aspects of education: the use of education by a state as a tool for achieving certain goals in nation-state-building, and the challenges in implementing such a compulsory mass education program in a fledgling republic. Regardless of content or method, primary education in the early Turkish Republic faced many challenges in reaching the majority of children and thus in achieving the instruction of the masses.

Despite the many difficulties plaguing Turkish primary education, the leaders and educators, working with great enthusiasm inspired by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk made significant strides in realizing the goals of the state. Those dedicated to the principles and goals promoted during the Ataturk period comprised the "Ataturk generation." This generation represented not only Ataturk's contemporaries inspired into service for the welfare of the nation-state, but also the students who received state-mandated education. While this study emphasizes the contribution of primary education in the establishment of the Turkish nation-state, it also suggests that factors other than state-mandated education helped to shape and raise Turkish citizens according to the Ataturkist ideal. ftn$\sp1$E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 78.