The Perception of “Good Citizen” in The Reports of John Dewey and Beryl Parker, Two of The Republic Period Foreign Education Experts

Historical documents, papers and reports on education focused on how good and well-qualified citizens should be. During the Republican era, many foreign education experts came to Turkey in order to improve the quality of our education system. Particularly, between 1923 and 1960, foreign education experts from different countries were invited to our country and many reports were prepared in an attempt to solve the problems of the Turkish education system. It is possible to say that in these reports of foreign experts, they made a significant impact on the structure of the Turkish education system with the solutions they offered. Specifically, these experts identified some important opinions and recommendations in their reports on how good citizens should be and how to raise a well-qualified person. In particular, John Dewey reported on the general structure of the Turkish education system and Beryl Parker on the structure of primary school education. In their reports, these foreign education experts identified significant issues about the education system in Turkey. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to reveal the perception of good citizens mentioned in the reports of John Dewey and Beryl Parker, two of the foreign education experts in the Republican period. In this context, the method of document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The data source of the study consisted of the reports of John Dewey and Beryl Parker. The data obtained from these reports were coded and categorized based on content analysis. As a result, the data that was categorized was interpreted. The findings of the study were checked by two field experts and attempts were exerted to increase the validity and reliability of the study