John Dewey in Turkey: An Educational Mission

Abstract

This study delves into John Dewey's educational mission to the newly established Republic of Turkey in 1924, invited by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Unlike Plato's utopian visit to Sicily, Dewey's mission was not a dream but a response to Turkey's post-war reconstruction needs. This article aims to rekindle the memory of this historically significant event and examine the significance of Dewey's educational mission in Ankara, a city now modernized from its original Ottoman roots. Despite being less documented than his other missions to China, Japan, the former Soviet Union, and Mexico, Dewey's Turkish visit is now accessible through his "Report on Turkish Education" published in 1983 in Volume 15 of his Collected Works. This article will discuss Dewey's visits to Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa, and Ankara, exploring the importance of this mission, its relevance to contemporary educational reforms, and its impact on Turkish education system.

(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)