Modernization of education during the Tanzimat Period and Ahmed Kemal Pasha (1808/1887)

It is significant to present the detailed biographies of the figures having critical roles during the modernization of education in the Ottoman Empire and analyse their contribution to the educational policies and practices of their period with a comprehensive and original approach in terms of appreciating the educational modernization during the Tanzimat Period and evaluating the everlasting outcomes of this process with a developmental and holistic perspective. The aim of this research is to investigate the biography of Ahmed Kemal Pasha, who was a pioneer in the process of modernization of education in the Ottoman Empire, and to examine the educational policies and practices he put forward in his senior education management positions he held at different dates. This study was designed as historical research based on original and primary sources by exploiting a qualitative method. The research data were collected through a document analysis method by referring to different types of data sources especially a great number of archive documents with the seal and signature of Kemal Pasha, which guaranteed data diversity. Kemal Pasha's different characteristic features were unearthed and his extensive biography was created through the findings based on the content analysis method. At the same time, the educational policies he pioneered were put forward and evaluated in the context of Ottoman educational modernization. As a result, it was concluded that Kemal Pasha was one of the reformists and intellectual educators-bureaucrats of the Tanzimat Era and played a directional, decisive, and pioneering role especially during the process of Ottoman educational modernization. Accordingly, Ahmed Kemal Pasha, an innovative and pragmatist activist, contributed to the development and implementation of sophisticated educational policies during the Tanzimat Era, with both his doctrinaire and practitioner functions.