ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century, governments in the west experienced social, political and economic revolutions and believed schooling could be the solution to many of these problems. Thus, education and schooling became a matter for the state. However, a reformist movement (the New Education) was initiated by people who thought public school systems and their actual practices were unable to meet the special needs of children. In education, a ‘Copernican Revolution’ came about through support of the idea that education should be defined by students and be framed according to their desires and needs. These developments were also in a close relationship with the development of educational sciences and the institutionalising of teacher training. In time, concepts and expressions from the New Education appeared in
*Email: fmeseci@istanbul.edu.tr 1Two calendars were used in the Ottoman Empire: Hicrî and Rumî. In 1926 the Turkish Republic started to use the Gregorian calendar, like the Europeans. In the article, all references before 1926 give the original date first, followed by the Gregorian date (for example,
Education Sciences, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
(Received 18 November 2013; accepted 3 December 2013)
This study has two purposes: the first is to present the general condition of public e ucation in the late ninete nth and early twentieth centuries by showing the reformation process in educational institutes and teach r training, and the relationship between this process and the New Education movement in the Ottoman Emp re; the second is to determine to hat extent Mustafa Satı Bey, often referred to as P stalozzi of the Ottoman Empir , contrib ted to the New Education m vement through the analysis of his opini s on education, and his attempts to op a New School. As a result of Mustafa Satı Bey’s analysis, New Education practices in the Ott man Empire were stated to be practisi g a unilateral receiving-and-adapting procedure and the Ottoman Empire was positio ed at the periphery in terms of the circulation of the movement. In hi New School and in the Teacher Training School, Satı Bey was concerned wit the New Educatio movement both o an administrative and operativ level. How ver, his practices w re not sufficient to create his own theory and examine any oth t eo y. Thus, when evaluat d in terms of his contributions to the New Educa ion movement, Satı Bey is pos tioned s mewhere betwee practical reformer and practitio er.
