Since the proclamation of the Republic, music education in Turkey has been regarded not only as a field that supports individual aesthetic development but also as a powerful tool for social transformation and value-based education. Especially in the early Republican era, school songs were structured as multi-layered texts that combined ideological, cultural, and pedagogical goals, thus playing an essential role in the education system. This study examines the titles of 1,055 original school songs composed or arranged throughout the Republican period through thematic content analysis. Based on a qualitative research design, the song titles were classified under 12 main themes, including love, homeland, nature, education, social values, brotherhood, emotional expressions, and national identity. The analysis revealed that the most frequent category was "love-themed songs," enriched with subthemes such as love of nature, human affection, and humanism. This was followed by themes related to social values and national sentiments. The findings indicate that school songs functioned not merely as melodic or entertaining elements, but also as cultural texts transmitting the socio-political ideologies of the period. The study emphasizes the need to preserve the thematic richness of this historical repertoire while adapting it to align with contemporary pedagogical sensitivities.
Since the proclamation of the Republic, music education in Turkey has been regarded not only as a field that supports individual aesthetic development but also as a powerful tool for social transformation and value-based education. Especially in the early Republican era, school songs were structured as multi-layered texts that combined ideological, cultural, and pedagogical goals, thus playing an essential role in the education system. This study examines the titles of 1,055 original school songs composed or arranged throughout the Republican period through thematic content analysis. Based on a qualitative research design, the song titles were classified under 12 main themes, including love, homeland, nature, education, social values, brotherhood, emotional expressions, and national identity. The analysis revealed that the most frequent category was "love-themed songs," enriched with subthemes such as love of nature, human affection, and humanism. This was followed by themes related to social values and national sentiments. The findings indicate that school songs functioned not merely as melodic or entertaining elements, but also as cultural texts transmitting the socio-political ideologies of the period. The study emphasizes the need to preserve the thematic richness of this historical repertoire while adapting it to align with contemporary pedagogical sensitivities.
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