Pre-service teachers’ constructions of national identity in Turkey: ethnic, secular, exclusionary, neoliberal, but not Islamist

Under Justice and Development Party rule, Turkey’s laic-republican state structure shifted towards a new configuration characterised by neoliberalism and Islamism. In this context, this research investigates the national identity constructions of pre-service educators studying at a public university. All of nearly 150 pre-service social studies teachers at the university were invited, and all of 20 participants who volunteered to join the study were interviewed. The analysis found that most participants conceived the nation in ethnic terms without identifying Turkishness with being a Muslim. All participants took an exclusionary approach to newcomers. While seven participants argued that Turkishness was closed to ethnically non-Turkish newcomers, 13 listed assimilationist conditions for those who want to join the nation. However, no participant set restraining requirements for qualified and educated newcomers to join the nation. This research calls for stakeholders to revisit established policies in favour of developing more inclusive common identities through education.