Students sent abroad for the aim of education (1908-1922): An example of prospographical study

In this study, students who were sent abroad for education have been investigated with group biography method. The investigation is based on the archive documents of the Presidential State Archives in the funds of Ottoman and Republic Period, biographical encyclopedias about students, memoirs and various internet searches. The study was prepared based on the military and political events that took place in the Second Constitutional (II. Meşrutiyet) Period and it was predicated upon the historical periods of 1908-1913, 1914-1918, 1919-1922. The features of the students who were sent in these periods have been discussed in four sections. In the first section, the relation between education and modernization has been discussed. Examples from various countries applying for education abroad in order to educate qualified people by the increase of the power of education in state policies have been given and the historical process of foreign education policies have been emphasized. Also in this section, the phases of foreign educational practices from Tanzimat Period to Second Constitutional Period have been explained. After that, students' birth dates and birth places, the grades and schools that they graduated from, profession categories of their fathers, their genders, their purpose of education and the institutions they were in have been examined via tables and graphics in order to put forth the sociocultural level of the students who were sent abroad between 1908 and 1922. In the second section, the distribution of students abroad according to the years and countries they were sent to, their distribution according to the foundations and countries they recieved scholarship from, the schools where students were educated at have been examined via tables and graphics. Beside that, the funds, investigations and general problems of students abroad have been commentated based on reports of investigators of the period. In the third section, the results of foreign education have been examined. Accordingly, the success / failure status of those who were sent for education were presented and the success status of those, who returned to the country, according to the branches of science they studied and their contributions to Ottoman and Turkish modernization have been discussed. As a result of the investigations made above, we have determined that Ottoman valued education abroad despite human loss and financial difficulties which it faced due to wars took palce during the Second Constitutional Period. Among these difficulties, it was determined that students were sent for education abroad, albeit limited, during the War of Independence, which was initiated under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and resulted in full independence, and with the establishment of the TBMM government, those students undertook important duties in government cadres. It has been determined that the vast majority of these students, whose number was very little compared to the population of the country, were appointed at universities in the Republic of Turkey's first period and were brought to the state's senior civil service and they spent great efforts for the problems of the community. Finally, it was determined that the success-failure status of foreign educational practices varies according to institutions and branches of science, and the success rate is high, although not at the targeted rate. Key Words: Second Constitutional Period, Study abroad, Modernization, Republic of Turkey.