Child and child education in Turkish novel and short stories from Tanzimat to the second constitutional period

In the Ottoman society, which turned its face to the west with the proclamation of the Tanzimat, the child was also affected by these changes, and was often used in novels and stories, sometimes as a symbol and sometimes as a carrier of innovations. The issue of westernization showed its greatest effects in the way of education and life. The view of the child has also been reconsidered in line with the value judgments of the changing society. The period when the child was perceived as a small adult has ended, and studies on children and childhood have also gained momentum. The needs of the child were taken into consideration, developmental characteristics were emphasized and educational potential was investigated. In the Tanzimat period, especially in education, innovation efforts progressed through two separate channels. On the one hand, while arrangements were made regarding the schools, on the other hand, taking lessons from a special educator and sometimes from a family elder continued, depending on the socio-economic conditions of the families at home. The writers of the Tanzimat generation did not limit the issue of education to children, but also gave importance to women's education for the growth of healthy generations. In this period, children often found a place in the works with their education. Children are the object of an effort to convey a message, with the task of fulfilling a function rather than being an individual. In the period of Servet-i Fünun, children gained an identity. In this period, the existence of children was handled with all their characteristics. In the novels and stories of this period, the childhood of adult characters or children has an important place. The authors of Servet-i Fünun, who carefully focused on how the experience of childhood affects the development of the individual, reflected in their fictional works how the society's view of the child changed. In the novels of this period in which family relations are told, children are no longer figurative. On the other hand, almost all of the children receive education at home or by going to schools. The personal education processes of both the Tanzimat period writers and the Servet-i Fünûn period writers and their ideas on child education were reflected in fictional works from time to time. Especially the theoretical works written by the Tanzimat intellectuals on child education also affected the next generation, and the interest in children and childhood increased during the Servet-i Fünûn period. Child and childhood have been tried to be understood with the definition shaped according to the norms of each age. In this respect, it has been at the center of both science and art.