Moral education, changes and transformations in morality and citizenship textbooks through Republican period (1923-1946)

Early Republican moral and civics textbooks played an important role in raising the type of people idealized by political cadres. Through these textbooks, many areas from politics to economy, culture to education were penetrated. During the period, these textbooks served as a pivot for the change and transformation of individuals. Moral education constituted the starting point of change and transformation from the Second Constitutional Monarchy to the Republic and within the Republican period. The change of hands in politics, the economic difficulties brought about by the War of Independence, the inability to produce permanent solutions to educational problems, the social and cultural degeneration brought about by the understanding of modern life, the prioritization of the secular life order and the shift of morality from the religious axis have brought about significant moral change and transformation in the individual, society and the state. The main point of the research was moral education. In this research, it was tried to determine the changes and transformations in moral education and moral education in ethics and civics textbooks between 1923 and 1946. For this purpose, the religious, cultural, political, economic and pedagogical aims of morality were analyzed through the changing curriculum and textbooks. The study was carried out using document analysis method, which is one of the qualitative research designs. In the study, 25 ethics and civics textbooks were analyzed. Sixteen of them are pre-1928. These books were first transcribed and a receipt related to the subject of the thesis was kept. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data collected using document analysis. While moral education underwent a significant axis shift from the Constitutional Monarchy to the Republic, this change and transformation continued in the curricululum and textbooks prepared during the period. It was determined that morality became increasingly politicized during the Republican period. Pedagogically, moral education was overshadowed by ideology and moral education was one of the three main issues of the 1943 education council. When moral education is analyzed in terms of its economic objectives, it is observed that individuals were encouraged to "work", "produce." The concepts of "trade" came to the fore. A Western and national life style was preferred within the scope of civilization with the ethical education of the Republic of Turkey. Thus, religion ceased to be the basis of morality. The effects of Durkheim's understanding of morality were also seen on the idealized moral education in the textbooks of the Republican period. Keywords: Early Republic, moral and civics, textbooks, moral education.