Ismayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu’s Conception of Education Transforming from Reform to Revolution

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 221 - 240, 01.12.2015

Fatma Hürrem Yıldız

Abstract

When he was a teacher at Darülmuallimin-i İptidai, Ismayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu was sent to Europe by the then
Ministry of National Education to make examinations on pedagogy and handicrafts teaching. Having seen many
European countries, Baltacıoğlu was especially influenced by the practical approach to education in England,
Belgium and Germany and made a lot of effort for this approach to be established in his own country.
The starting point of the practical approach to education that influenced Baltacıoğlu was the “Movement of
Education Reform” which left its mark on the 20th century and deeply influenced especially the education
systems of the greater countries of the world. In this context, scientists such as John Dewey from the United
States of America, Maria Montessori from Italy and Ovide Decroly from Belgium proposed eliminating the
obsolete components of the traditional education system which did not progress simultaneously with the social
change and replacing them with a new model of school that would not isolate the school life from the daily life.
This model led to the complete elimination of the conception of education that was founded on traditional values
throughout the world, was based on rote learning and made students passive, and to the emergence of a new
conception of education in which students had an opportunity to show their creativity and actively participated in
the process of education.
After Baltacıoğlu’s return to his homeland, this new model of school and the new conception of education,
which had a deep impact on him, also significantly affected the conception of education in the Ottoman State and
then in the Republic of Turkey. Baltacıoğlu, who returned to his country in 1912, taught handicrafts, too, and he
suggested the idea that many courses can be taught not only in the classrooms but also in laboratory environment
in a practical manner and that such learning would be permanent. In this respect, he offered a different
dimension to the course of development of the innovation movements in education, which had gained
momentum since the 18th century, and he made a revolution in education by radically changing the system
rather than making small-scale changes.
In his Pedagojide İhtilâl (Revolution in Pedagogy), Baltacıoğlu explained in detail through which dynamics the
revolution he desired would be addressed. For instance, he aimed to completely transform the basic dynamics of
the traditional education system such as school, classroom, exam, book, student and teacher, and he partially
realized this aim in Şemsülmekatip, the school where he had received primary education and where the
traditional Ottoman education system was dominant. Within this framework, Baltacıoğlu’s ideas in the early
20th century are highly important both because they offered the use of modern elements of education compliant
with that period instead of the traditional elements that were a characteristic feature of the period and because
they offer solutions for the fulfillment of the deficiencies in the contemporary Turkish education system.
Therefore, his work Pedagojide İhtilâl can be useful in detecting the deficient aspects of the contemporary
Turkish education system and in creating a scientific perspective on how these deficiencies can be eliminated.
This study evaluates the influence of Ismayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu on the Turkish education system, which
followed a course of development from reform towards revolution, based on his Pedagojide İhtilâl, in which he
systematized this influence.

Keywords

Pedagogy, revolution, reform, creativity, Darülfünun