Democracy exported, history expunged: John Dewey’s trip to Turkey and the challenge of building ‘civilised’ nations for democratic life

Abstract

In 1924, John Dewey travelled to Turkey to make recommendations on the Turkish educational system. According to many existing accounts, Dewey brought a sorely needed progressive educational perspective to a nation emerging from centuries of despair. On the whole, these accounts dismiss the Ottoman legacy and overlook how Dewey’s historical thinking coloured his view of Turkish democracy. This article draws on these considerations to offer a critical re-reading of Dewey’s trip, arguing that the visit, rather than supporting the expansion of a bottom-up democratic perspective in the Turkish educational system, actually helped advance top-down Turkish nation-building. In so doing, it explores the connections between history and democracy in Dewey’s thinking, reclaims the significance of the Ottoman legacy, examines the role of education in radically remaking the Turkish public, and points to the need for studying places and times where schooling is used to expunge history in the name of exporting democracy.