Teaching Islamic Religious Education in Turkish State Schools
Overview, Developments, Challenges, Considerations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20377/rpb-319Keywords:
Religious Education, Islamic Religious Education, Turkish RE System, Teacher Training, Worldview of the Qur’an, Theology for the Individual ApproachAbstract
In the 2000s, the Ministry of Education in Turkey introduced a new paradigm in Religious Education. This made for a significant development in the Turkish educational system as the mandatory curriculum was to be used in state schools under the heading ‘Religious Culture and Ethics’. This article attempts to address this paradigm in the context of the profound changes in Turkish academia in recent years, typified by developments in theology and pedagogy. An overview of the curriculum will be given, noting its basis as a particular type of approach to study Islam in state schools. Several issues in the framework of the study, the cultural context, historical background, the changes in pedagogical approaches, and the content knowledge of the curriculum will be examined. The study advocates an RE that offers students not just knowledge, but also opportunities to reflect on the meaning of life and on the big existential questions. The transition from a focus on knowledge to an orientation towards a quest for meaning will be identified. In that process, mapping a worldview of the Qur’an based on an approach called ‘theology for the individual’ is regarded as one of the most important skills aspiring teachers require to be successful in classroom. The study concludes by presenting examples of pedagogical content knowledge from the Qur’an in meaning making.
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