Osmanlı’nın “Mekatib-i İptidaiye”sinden Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin “İlk Mektepler”ine Geçişte Tarih Programlarında Değişim

This study tackles the changes made on the primary school history coursebooks according to “The Tevhid-i Tedrisat” after the foundation of Turkish Republic. It is mainly a comparative study between “1330 (1914) Mekatib-i 􀃰ptidaiye” which is the last primary school curriculum of the Ottoman Empire and the first curriculum of the new Turkish Republic. The radical changes were made in the curriculum appropriate to the new status of Republic and its national and secular foundation. The history course syllabus was taken out of the teocratic and autocratic context of the Ottoman Empire and was placed in the secular and national frame. The new curriculum drew on “Turkish history” to establish a national consciousness in children and it was given in a comparative “civilization history” approach with the Europe and world history. It was simplified and the details not suitable for the cognitive developments of children were discarded. Rather than having the lives of the historical figures, they adopted the modern and scientific method. Within this conjecture, the Ottoman history was reflected according to the important developments in Europe and world. Moreover, the curriculums of these two old periods were published in the new alphabet, which is a very significant contribution for understanding of Ataturk and the assessments and analyses of the history teaching in the first years of the Republic.