Education institutes (1949-1979)

This study focuses on the "Education Institutes", which were established in 1949 and served as the sole institution authorized to train secondary school subject teachers in the Turkish education system utul they were transformed into Higher Teacher Schools in the 1978-1979 academic year. These education institutes were established as institutions spread across the country's vast geography, aimed at educating teachers for secondary education and inspectors and administrators for primary education. With tens of thousands of teachers graduating from these institutions, they played a highly influential role in shaping Turkish educational life. These institutes were directly affected by all the fluctuations in the political life of the Republic of Turkey, sometimes widely admired and at other times fiercely criticized. The thesis consists of four main sections, a conclusion, and recommendations. The introduction provides a summary of teacher training from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic, followed by a chronological analysis of the conditions that led to the establishment of the "Education Institutes" after the founding of the Republic of Turkey, alongside an examination of related debates within Turkish political life. The subsequent section examines the educational structure of the Institutes, analyzing their curricula and entry requirements in detail. In the final section, a formal analysis of all the Institutes is attempted, based on the sources obtained. The study evaluates the transition of the Institutes from initially independent governance to a more centralized system, along with regulations, the efforts of educational institutes, and students' experiences and contributions within educational life. An inclusive perspective is offered to determine the place of these Institutes, which educated teachers for more than a quarter of a century and maintained their educational mission during some of Turkey's most challenging political periods, within the history of Turkish education. Keywords: Education, Teacher, Teacher Education, Secondary School Teacher, Education Institutes