History and Education: Perceptions, Changes and Continuities During Early Turkish Republic

First years of the Turkish Republic was witnessing a new nation-state building. In this period of time, nationalism and construction of a national identity among the peoples was the core problem of the ruling cadre. Hence, official history was used as one of the major devices to install Turkish identity and consciousness to the nation which was being reshaped to adopt the dominant ideology of the power. This study aims to put forth the basics of official historiography in Turkey and its reflections on educational practices during the Single Party Regime. Within this framework, this study will display the changes and continuities in the formation of the official history in Turkey and its dissemination through education as ideological tools for the building of a nation-state.