The evaluation of first degree social studies programs in primary school education from republic to the present day according to the principles of Atatürk

With the Republic founded after the National Independence War, individualdominance changed into national dominance and religious education changed intoNational Education. Indeed, in the education of the Ottoman Empire, religious baseswere dominant.With the practices made a little while after the declaration of the Republic, it wasstruggled to go towards an education system which is contemporary, secular, scientific,egalitarian, functional and national. In fact, a number of legitimate arrangements weredone on this area. (Tevhid-i Tedrisat Law, the acceptance of Latin alphabet, Nationschools, and so fort.)On the other hand, new arrangements were done in the primary school educationand new education programs were developed with the contributions of the foreignexperts invited from abroad. These are the 1924, 1926, 1930, 1936, 1948, 1962, 1968programs. Some alterations were done on these programs by time. The radical changesbefore the existing program were done in 1998 and continued until the 2004-2005education year. Later on, in the 2004-2005 education year, a draft was designed and thiswas put into practice in the 2005-2006 academic year.The education philosophy of primary school programs in validity from 1924 to2004-2005 academic year is based on republicanism and nationalism in the frameworkof Atatürk?s principles. As for the existing program, the philosophy is based onregionalism and globalization.In fact, Atatürk, Turk, homeland, nation, and national concepts were repeated43 times in the general objectives of the primary school Social Studies curriculum butthese concepts were repeated only 10 times in the existing program.In 1998, the total number of national concepts in the Social Studies coursebooksof the 5th grades was 1139. and 1074 of these concepts were in the units named`Homeland and Nation? and `How we reached Republic? which are not in the currentprogram.The current program was prepared taking into consideration the alterations anddevelopments on individual, social and economic areas. However, it is away from thenationalism which forms the basis of Turkish Republic and Turkish EducationPhilosophy and it does not usually completely cover the principles of Atatürk. There aresome deficiencies in terms of gaining students the principles of Atatürk and Kemalism.KEY WORDS: Kemalism, Principles of Atatürk, National Education, Program,Primary Education, Achievement