The Evolution of Contemporary Turkish Educational Thought

Abstract

INTELLECTUALS in many societies have been deeply concerned about education ever since the days of Socrates and Plato. They have speculated about how their youth should be taught and have protested when they believed that the schools were lapsing from these aims. Spokesmen of this variety are produced by most sophisticated societies, and modern Turkey is no exception. In addition, there are the relatively few innovative philosophers who are capable of creating more systematic theoretical systems. Several theorists of this second type have made their impact on Turkish educational thought since the turn of the century. Studying the range of positions about education which has emerged during Turkey's modernization process is a worthwhile undertaking for several reasons. First, it is possible to draw some parallels between tensions which are apparent in modern Turkey and those extant in other Islamic societies. One example is the struggle going on between the educational assumptions of traditional Islam and conflicting concepts which are derived from Europe. Second, by considering the ideas of Turkey's influential educational thinkers, we can identify an indigenous conceptual repertoire. It is probably not too much to claim that change and effective innovation in the schools of Turkey will be profoundly shaped by these native dimensions of thought. Last, Turks have generated some original notions which can excite foreign educational theorists by catalyzing their own thinking. What causes Turks to speculate about education? One potent motivation has long been a sense of frustration regarding the progress of their national development. An illustration of this can be drawn from the works of the poet, Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, whose poems often contain educational themes. Writing in 1914, Yurdakul argued that the old age of conquest and