The role of education in the construction of citizenship and national identity in the Period of Atatürk (1923-1938)

Although nation-states have similar tools in the construction of citizenship, their use, content and the result should be examined in its own way depending on the political and social culture of each country. The subject of this study is the process of constructing national identity and creating citizenship in the Atatürk period through national education. Citizenship and national identity were not a complete structure with the establishment of the Republic, because the concepts of nation and nationalism were constantly transformed due to the complex-eclectic nature of the concepts of the nation and the internal and external factors of the period, and the ideology of the Republican regime was formed only gradually over time, and actors (institutions) in the perspective of the constructivist approach It has been constantly reconstructed and shaped by the state, estates or social movements). Accordingly, the aim of this study is to examine the intellectual attitudes and themes behind the first efforts to create a secular and modern citizenship identity in Turkey, what they feed on, the "citizen typology" that is the subject of construction, the role, impact and reflections of education policy in this construction process. is research. Thus, it will be tried to illuminate how the identity profile envisioned by the official discourse is reflected in education policies and what deviations it has undergone in the process. On the other hand, since identity construction is a process and not a structure that is started and completed, it is thought that leaning towards the beginning of this process in Turkey will shed light on the ongoing identity debates.