Abstract

The Turkish Revolution was intended to be a political, social, and economic revolution, as well as a cultural one. The leaders of the Revolution, known as Kemalists, intended to make a clean break with the past and to adopt Western institutions and values in the place of traditional Ottoman-Islamic ones. In a few short decades, the country was transformed from an autocratic-religious state to a republican regime, and from a strong militarism to a vigorous nationalism and westernization. Secularism was accepted as one of the fundamental principles of the new regime. Accordingly, there were attempts to eliminate certain religious, social, cultural, and legal institutions of Islam; the official language of Turkey was changed, history rewritten, and social customs, such as dress, reformed. The purpose of all these reforms was nothing less than a wide-ranging transformation of Turkish values and ideals.

Kemalist leaders conceived of education as a powerful force to be employed to achieve these purposes. Under the new government, the educational system was reconstructed and used as a vehicle to transform Turkish society. First, the entire system of education was unified and brought under the control of the Ministry of Education. Religious schools were closed, and religious instruction was dropped from the curriculum. Moreover, the study of Arabic and Persian, which was associated with the Islamic tradition, was discontinued. In addition, concerted efforts were made to reshape the values and attitudes of the Turkish school youth in terms of rationalist and secular principles.

This dissertation investigates the role of education in the realization of Kemalist reforms in Turkey. It focuses mainly on the question of how the Turkish curriculum was reconstructed in order to support the major tenets of Kemalist ideology. In particular, it analyzes the way in which a new set of history textbooks was used to convey a new Turkish national identity.

The present study suggests that schools and the reconstructed school curriculum were eminently successful in helping to build a new social order and transforming traditional patterns, beliefs and practices in keeping with a modern, secular and national republic.