Abstract:

Central government is in a position that the transformation of the overall education system, curriculum and educational methods, both the format and contents of the course books studied by students had to be changed as part of the Western style reform movement during the period of Sultan Abdulhamid the Second. One could hardly expect that the course books written in line with the mentality shaped up since Tanzimat period to accommodate the content and style that is indifferent to the general education mentality based on political-militaryeconomic pragmatism principles in keeping with the period in question. In this respect the main issue of the study is to identify the ways in which the political economic goals are reflected in the course books of the period where such goals were primarily based on the strengthening of the patrimonial state mentality through the promotion of a sense of patriotism and the * Söz konusu çalışma, 25-27 Haziran 2014 tarihleri arasında Sakarya Üniversitesi’nde gerçekleştirilen Uluslararası Tarih Eğitimi Sempozyumu’nda sunulan bildirinin genişletilmiş halidir. ** Doç. Dr., Marmara Üniversitesi, Atatürk Eğitim Fakültesi, İlköğretim Bölümü. E-posta: [email protected] development of industrial/agricultural economy through raising productive individuals. Considering the strong connection between the educational institutions and society, and politics and culture, the main goal of the present study is to establish how the political regime was being perceived in the primary school course books written during the reign of the Sultan Abdulhamid the Second (1876-1909), and how the ruler and an acceptable individual was being described in an age where the empire was being disintegrated and in a state of utter backwardness.

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