With Pakize Türkoğlu: “I had dreams in the village and chose a village for myself.”

We would like to share with you the interview we had in 2019 with Pakize Türkoğlu, who passed away a year ago. 

Pakize Türkoğlu, who graduated from Aksu Village Institute in 1944 and the higher department of Hasanoğlan Village Institute in 1947, completed the pedagogy department of Çapa Education Institute in 1962. After retiring from the educational sciences department of Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education in 1985, he worked as an educational consultant and guidance specialist in private schools. 

“Be brave to realize your dreams.” We talked about the village, teaching and actually education with Pakize Türkoğlu. 

We're starting our conversation, come on.

The education we dream of as KODA includes a state in which students' decision-making processes are taken into consideration and teachers perceive students as individuals. You also studied at the Village Institute and received an education with these processes. As far as we know, weekly criticism meetings were held regarding the operation and students were voicing their opinions. What impact did being present at school like this have on you?

Pakize Türkoğlu: In Village Institutes, the development and self-management of the individual is of great importance. Students learn by organizing their own work and the school's work and participating in management. This is the basic basis of institutes. By electing presidents and guards from the students, an internal organization is ensured in which the principal or teachers do not manage alone, but in which students also take an active role. Village Institutes see students as the main element of education and this is an innovative educational philosophy around the world.

Meetings are held weekly and both management and criticism issues are discussed. Students can also criticize teachers and this is considered natural. Even young children are taken seriously and can express their problems. In such an environment, students learn to take responsibility seriously. We were like that too.

In the introduction to your book Tonguç and his Institutes, you mention that you talked about the institutes with a few teachers and students when you were a guidance counselor at a private high school. One of the students there was impressed by what you told him and said, "My father is rich, can you take me there too?" He asks a question like: This shows that a well-equipped village school can have even more advantages than today's private schools. What do you think are the most important advantages of village schools compared to schools in cities?

Pakize Türkoğlu: Village Institutes and village schools enrich their educational economies by implementing productive education. Students learn many things by producing them themselves. For example, while students at Aksu Village Institute built their own ping-pong tables, Koç High School, a wealthy school, had only two ping-pong tables.

Production has an important place in village schools. Children can look after the chicken coops and grow vegetables and fruits in the garden. With this method, children both learn production and increase the school's income, thus growing up more equipped.

As a student at a private school said, Village Institutes actually have more advantages because students learn through production and the costs of schools decrease. Therefore, village schools have many advantages over city schools.

What I understand from what you said is this: For example, if we take the example of the ping-pong table, space is also required for such an opportunity to exist.

Pakize Türkoğlu: Of course, space is also needed, and open air space as well. In Hasanoğlan, open-air ping-pong tables were placed on a windless side and there were large sports fields. I worked as a physical education teacher at Ümraniye High School and Oran High School, a private school. We used to do sports all the time at the Village Institutes and had ample equipment. For example, there were 150 skis in Hasanoğlan, so everyone could ski. Students in other schools did not have these opportunities. Therefore, what the student at Koç High School said was true; Village Institutes were even superior to private schools in terms of equipment.

During the Village Institutes period, teachers not only taught but were also held responsible for revitalizing villages. One of the debates today, especially about village teaching, is about whether teachers should only teach or carry additional responsibilities. Some argue that every profession has a specific job and that a teacher's job is just to teach. However, others think that teachers should contribute to village life and not just teach lessons.

Pakize Türkoğlu: The teacher training program at the Village Institutes prepared teachers not only to teach but also to contribute to village life. Within the scope of this program, teachers were learning skills such as sewing and embroidery and working to make village women productive. In this way, teachers were encouraging women to support cooperatives by strengthening household and handicrafts in the village. In today's teacher education, the focus is more on academic knowledge and the importance of practical skills decreases.

What are the things that make you say, 'I'm glad I chose this profession'? What are the moments when you say 'I'm glad I'm a teacher'?

Pakize Türkoğlu: So, I think we shouldn't do anything like that. The important thing is to be a good employee in every profession. So that's the point. It is important to be a good teacher, a good doctor, a good worker and even a good driver. If every person is a good employee of his profession, there will be no problems in the world. It is not healthy to choose between professions by saying 'this profession is better'. Individuals' abilities and spiritual desires are important in choosing a profession. However, parents' expectations such as 'my child should be a doctor' when choosing a career are extremely wrong. The important thing in choosing a profession is to be a good employee of the chosen profession. If not, the person should be able to change his profession when he realizes it.

If you had any advice for teachers who will start working in the village, what advice would you give?

Pakize Türkoğlu: I want to explain with an example. I had dreams in the village and chose a village for myself. I was thinking of making a garden and establishing a school. However, when the news came that a school would be built in my village, I learned that my village was small and a school would not be built. The governor told me to go to the village and train everyone. This speech was very impressive for me because the governor encouraged me to realize my dream. This situation shows that your dreams will not come true only with your own efforts in the village where you will go as a civil servant. The support of the state and administrators is very important. Therefore, as you go to the village, listen to the words of your governor and administrators and be brave to realize your dreams. My advice to teachers is that the state should support teachers and send them to villages. Instead of going to villages and just giving lessons, teachers should live in the village permanently and contribute to village life. This helps increase cultural activities in villages and improve village life.