The role of religious education in hegemony construction: the case of imam hatip schools in Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT The place religion should occupy in social life and how religious education should be conducted has so far been one of the controversial issues in Turkey. Considering the history of the Republican era, it may be said that religious education actively exists in the configuration of official education except for some periods. Religious education was not included in the earlier years of the Republic in the hegemony construction process of the state; yet, increasing internal contradictions as well as developments occurring in the international arena caused religious education to enter into the agenda through time. Religion and religious education fulfilled important functions in activating the grassroots in the struggle between dominant classes for hegemony. Religious education schools (imam hatip schools [IHSs]), which are the basic institutions offering religious education, have taken shape in parallel to the struggle for power, and they have developed in accordance with the attitudes of political powers. IHSs, which have been continuously growing except for short-term periods, are assigned the mission of raising a new generation today and special efforts are made to qualify those schools. This study evaluates the IHSs in terms of the roles they play in hegemony construction and considers the historical development and transformation of IHSs on this basis. First, the relationships between hegemony, state, and education are considered and then their historical development is evaluated and their roles in hegemony construction are analysed.