Art education in Turkey in the Republic period in the context of educational policy (1923-1950)

With the proclamation of the Republic in Turkey, the leaders of the new regime, especially the founder of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, made radical changes in the Turkish education system with the principles they implemented and the reforms they realized, and they tried to reach the level of contemporary civilizations in the country. This thesis aims to examine the place and development of art education courses (painting, art and craft, music, calligraphy, folk dances) in primary, secondary, high school and teacher training schools in the curriculum of government, education, and schools in the period after the proclamation of the Republic (1923-1950). It aims to examine its place and development. The inclusion of painting classes in military schools because of the modernization movements that started after the Tanzimat in the Ottoman Empire formed the beginning of Western-style art education. During the Presidency of Atatürk and İsmet İnönü (1923-1950), reforms and regulations in education, government and CHP party programs, national education councils, the reports of foreign experts invited to the country on art education to the Ministry of National Education, the curriculum of primary, secondary and Village Institutes constituted the basis of the research. The curriculum of the institutes formed the basis of the research. In the collection of data, the Republic Archive Documents, the Turkish Grand National Assembly Minutes, the minutes and laws magazines, the Presidential Official Gazette and various magazines, newspapers, books, and articles among the periodicals of the period were used. Obtained data were analyzed by document analysis method. As a result, art education in schools, which was created according to Atatürk's "Republican" idea and contemporary education model; curricula, application areas; technical difficulties and impossibilities remained in the background and could not make progress since those who set the education policy did not consider these lessons important.