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Female Education and the Linguistic Hellenization of the Turkish-speaking Rum of Asia Minor : The “Homereion Girls’ School of Smyrna” (1881-1922)

Articles

• Καμούζης, Δημήτρης
• Καμούζης, Δημήτρης

The purpose of this article is to highlight the role and the importance ofwomen’s education in relation to the acculturating efforts of the educatedand wealthy Greek Orthodox elites aiming at the linguistic Hellenizationof the Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox population of the OttomanEmpire. Taking as a case study the Homereion Girls’ School [ΟμήρειονΠαρθεναγωγείον Σμύρνης] founded in Smyrna in 1881, the paper examinesthe educational activities of the school both in Smyrna and innerAnatolia from the late 19th century until the collapse of the Asia Minorfront and the burning of Smyrna in 1922. The importance the school’s founders and board attributed to Greekeducation and culture as an integral part of a student-focused Hellenic consciousness cultivating process, the preparation of female teacherswho were entrusted with the mission to teach the Greek language tothe Turkish-speaking Rum children in the interior of Anatolia and finallythe close and continuous collaboration of the Homereion School with theGreek state are some of the basic issues this paper will attempt to elucidatein an effort to assess whether and to what extent this educationalpolicy was successful. The research draws on material from the Diplomaticand Historical Archives of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs,the archives of the “Association of Asia Minor Greeks ‘Anatoli’ ”, theLampakis Family Archives and secondary bibliography.

• Educational sciences

• Εκπαίδευση

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltiokms/article/view/2703
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/deltiokms.322