An Examination of Parents Views on Religious Education of Children were born in the Alevi-Sunni Marriages

Abstract

Today, homogeneous family structures are increasingly being replaced by heterogeneous family structures formed by individuals from different beliefs, understandings, or cultures. One of such heterogeneous marriages in Turkey is Alevi - Sunni marriages, which are more common with the urbanization process. Although it is possible to say that Alevis and Sunnis who have married share common beliefs in many respects, it is also a fact that they have some religious understanding and cultural differences. It is necessary to investigate the effects of these differences on the religious development and education of the children born from these marriages. In this study, which was prepared as a master’s thesis at the Social Sciences Institute of Ondokuz Mayıs University in 2013, parental views on children’s religious education in such marriages were examined. The research aims to examine the views/attitudes of parents regarding the religious education of children born in such marriages. The research was structured in the phenomenology pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 32 spouses from 21 families residing in Malatya who had this type of marriage. The content analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. Some of the important results of the research are as follows: While some of the interviewed couples consider religious education necessary with a holistic approach, emphasizing the belief, worship, and moral aspects of religion, others consider religious education necessary by considering only the moral dimension of religion. The majority of the interviewed spouses want their children to receive religious education so that they have the right knowledge about religion. Parents or experts are usually specified as to who should provide religious education. It is understood that the interviewed spouses did not talk to each other about the religious education of their children before they got married. The majority of the interviewed spouses consider themselves sufficient to answer questions about the religion their children lead. In the majority of the family environment of interviewed spouses, religious activities such as visiting to mosque or cemevi, attending to any religious rituals, and promoting reading religious books are not enough. It is understood that there is no any denominational pressure on children, and the wishes of the child to acquire religious knowledge are not turned down in the majority of family environments. Since children who grow up in such families may be directly or indirectly affected by different sectarian cultures, it would be beneficial to provide support to the candidates who will get married before marriage and their immediate environment to raise awareness about this situation.