An analysis of the ideological content of educational policies of the Democratic Party period (1950-1960) in the framework of Turkish modernization history

In this study, education policies, which are the main factors of Ottoman-Turkish modernization, have been prepared to examine the political and social changes caused by a great transformation, development, and division into sociological and ideological fractions together with Westernization, adhering to the conditions of the period. With the establishment of the late Ottoman and Republican regimes, education policies have largely evolved towards a Westernization. Due to the fact that the Republic of Turkey got closer to the West to get rid of the political loneliness it was in, the necessity of democratization made itself felt in many points, especially in education. The years of 1923-1950, when the single-party government was dominant in order to adopt a national, modern and secular government, brought many positive and negative opposite theses. It has been observed that the national education ideology of the republican period has affected the whole society in a positive and negative way, with its revolutionary applications, as it led to a great literacy campaign and the purification of dogmatic ideas. Due to the fact that the period was not ready for radical change in the social and political sense, it was revealed that a completely non-democratic, upper class developed a policy based on a weak public discourse. Especially in this period; In the light of democratic discourses, the theses that despotic practices are also carried out have gained strength. The practice of democracy in Turkish political life has been through the Democrat Party (DP), which emerged with the economic division within the single party (CHP). Within the framework of Turkish modernization history, DP has implemented policies that tend to raise a liberal conservative generation by using the concept of education that has been given to the public. The secular and contemporary education model that the Republican People's Party (CHP) tried to impose on the public was shaped under the influence of a group during the Democratic Party (DP) period, mostly in line with the wishes of the people and various actors. Due to the DP's inability to develop a willful policy at this point, it has been put forward that it is a puppet administration as well as the thesis that it is a democratic administration. In line with these movements, the education factor has been subject to a constant change and competition for position over current and future generations. The secular education model, which was tried to be adopted in the Republican period, has been divided into multiple ideological formations with the guidance of religious, global and colonial actors under the Democratic Party (DP) government. Conservative and secular discourses caused by the right-left dilemma in the Republic of Turkey turn into an ideological field of interest in education with every change of government. Negative developments arising from this point; A radical reform in the Turkish education structure hinders a systematic functioning and multi-faceted development.