Education under the shadow of politics: school buildings in Cyprus during the British colonial period

Abstract

This paper examines how politics have shaped Turkish Cypriot educational institutions and school buildings in Cyprus, focusing on the British colonial period (1878–1960). Unlike other British colonies, Cyprus enjoyed considerable autonomy on educational matters in the early decades of British occupation. During this period education, which was segregated, played a pivotal role in cultivating national aspirations of the two major ethnic populations on the island. The two decades following the 1931 revolt against the colonial regime was a period in which the British took serious measures in matters relating not only to education but also to school architecture. Atatürk’s reforms in creating a new modern Turkish society, on the other hand, evoked Turkish Cypriot ethnic nationalism. Without having the tension of the ideals of nationalism and modernism Turkey had to pacify, Turkish Cypriots embraced the modern as necessarily national and built their schools during and after the 1950s in a modern style.