Religious Education Culture in Modern Turkey

Abstract

Officially Turkey has been a secular country since 1937. It is also a predominantly Muslim country with few members of other faiths. The place of religious education has been frequently discussed in the main because of the fluctuating relationship between state and religion. Until recently, the agenda of discussions pertaining to religious education generally focused on the existence of religious education in state schools; the quality of religious education received meagre attention. Following the acceptance of religious education as an academic discipline at university level, the introduction of compulsory religious education in schools and the recognition of the importance of the science of education, academics and members of the media have begun to discuss the quality of religious education in Turkish schools. The move towards membership of the European Community has accelerated this process. The traditional understanding of the teaching of religion has had, and continues to have, a great influence on religious education in schools in Turkey. There has been, however, a considerable shift from a traditional to a more pluralistic religious education (with the introduction of the new primary religious education curriculum in 2000). To understand these recent changes more accurately we need to look at the traditional teaching of Islam within Turkish religious education. I shall outline this traditional teaching of religion (Islam), defined here as the ‘ilmihal centred approach’; and then summarise the new developments. It is necessary first of all to set this discussion in the context of the history of the development of religious education in modern Turkey