Dr Önder Cetin

Önder Cetin joined the GEI in January 2016 as a research fellow, with his project focusing on the incorporation of cultural memory instruments into Turkish textbooks in order to contribute to the maintenance of a shared memory and social cohesion by addressing the country’s multicultural heritage. He currently works as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department Knowledge in Transition.

Dr. Cetin’s research on the role of textbooks in the construction of nation-building and inter-communal relations dates back to his PhD research at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, which focused on the role of Bosniak ulama in shaping Bosniak national and religious identity and rebuilding inter-communal relations in the post-war era, including their use of religious textbooks.

Following his research on the discourses and images of migration and migrants in Turkish textbooks (2017), he contributed to the Constructions of the Turkish Self-image (2018) project as a Project Consultant, which analysed the construction of self-images in textbooks used for Turkish instruction as a heritage language in Germany.

In his following project, Between School and Mosque: A Comparative Analysis of Textbooks for Religious Instruction in Turkish language, (2018-2020) Dr. Cetin´s comparative research focused on religious instruction in Turkish textbooks published in Germany and Turkey. The main purpose of this project was to demonstrate how religious self-images are constructed with regard to particular communal, religious and social values that shape inter-communal and inter-religious relations.

The two projects were the first systematic and comparative in-depth examinations of Turkish instruction and religious studies textbooks used in formal school and non-formal educational settings provided by Germany’s major Turkish-Islamic communities. In addition to addressing previously overlooked sources, the projects have particularly contributed to the study of migration and Islam in Germany by examining the emic approach to social change in the Turkish community in Germany and considering Turkish textbooks as both information and emotion entrepreneurs.

As part of the project "Schulbuch und aktuelle Kulturpolitik," his research in 2021 focused on how specific socio-cultural and political dynamics influence the construction of self-images and intercommunal relations in Turkish teaching materials, as well as how they are depicted in textbooks and maintained or changed during textbook revisions. As a result of this project, he co-organized an international workshop on "Textbook Revisions in the Middle East and North Africa: Lessons from the Turkish Case" on December 21-22, 2021, in collaboration with the MENA Network's School Textbooks in the MENA Region project, which examines textbooks in the MENA region and Turkey.

Between 2022 and 2024, Dr. Cetin coordinated the research project Stories of Diversity from Ukraine, Poland, and Turkey: Local history as a didactic approach to historical learning, which has aimed to design and create digital teaching materials that address transnational and transregional interrelationships based on the history of diversity and can be used in history lessons in German schools as well as educational programs in Polish, Turkish, and Ukrainian origin-language-education (HSU) in Germany.

Since 2023, he has also contributed to the BMBF-funded collaborative project HSU-Interregio (HSU-Interregio: Researching, developing and networking heritage language teaching in an interdisciplinary and interregional way), focusing on Turkish educational media produced and used in Germany.

In his current project, ETÜDE (Learning to be Muslim, Turkish and/or German), Dr. Cetin focuses on the use of Turkish-language educational materials produced by private publishing houses and Islamic organizations based in Germany across two key educational settings in Lower Saxony: heritage language instruction (Erstsprachenunterricht) in public schools and extracurricular religious instruction in mosques.

Projects

• Stories of Diversity from Ukraine, Poland and Turkey: Local history as a didactic approach to historical learning
• Schulbuch und auswärtige Kulturpolitik
• Between School and Mosque: A Comparative Analysis of Textbooks for Religious Instruction in Turkish language
• Constructions of the Turkish Self-image in Textbooks for Turkish as a Heritage Language

Selected Publications

• (2026 forthcoming). Revisiting HSU as a means for diversity education: 'Vielfaltsgeschichten' as a pilot project. In T. Woerfel, Olfert, H., & Gürsoy, E. (Eds.) Sprachliche Teilhabe in mehrsprachigen Kontexten. Münster, Waxmann.
• (2025 forthcoming) Review: Die Konstruktion der 'Türken' und der Türkei in deutschen Bildungsdiskursen (1839-1945). H-Soz-Kult,  forthcoming.
• (2025).  Der Herkunftssprachliche Unterricht und seine Bildungsmedien. GEI Policy Brief 2/2025. With R. Spielhaus 
• (2025 forthcoming). Von 'Germanic' zum 'Gülcemal'- Eine historische Raise auf einem Schiff, das unterschiedliche Migrationsgeschichten erlebt hat. Zwischentoene.info Unterrichtseinheit für die Sekundarstufe II. https://www.zwischentoene.info, .
• (2025). The Construction of the Turkish Self Between 'the National' and 'the Religious': A Diachronic Analysis of Turkish Textbooks for Religious Education in Germany. In M. Lucenti (Ed.), Teaching religious education: challenges, developments and current debates in comparative perspective (pp. 84-105). Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004726574_006
• (2025) Ladino- eine Sprache verbindet: Das kulturelle Erbe der sephardischen jüd*innen in der Türkei. Zwischentoene.info Unterrichtseinheit für die Sekundarstufe I. https://www.zwischentoene.info/unterrichtseinheit/praesentation/ue/ladino-eine-sprache-verbindet. With O. Kösen.
• (2025). Von Berlin an den Bosporus: Die Geschichte deutsch-jüdischer Intellektueller in der Türkei der 1930er Jahre und ihr Einfluss auf die moderne Republik. Zwischentoene.info Teaching unit for upper secondary level. https://www.zwischentoene.info/unterrichtseinheit/praesentation/ue/von-berlin-an-den-bosporus. With E. Cagin and M. Oyran. 
• (2024). Reconstructing the Turkish Jewish identity of Çanakkale between silence and speaking out: Nostalgia as an exit strategy. Memory Studies, DOI: 10.1177/17506980231155559
• (2023). In Front of God, Next to the Neighbours: Turkish Textbooks as Emotion Entrepreneurs Negotiating Self-images through the Construction of Socio-cultural Problems in Germany. Journal of Muslims in Europe 12(2): 143–160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22117954-bja10065
• (2023). Reconstructing the Turkish Jewish identity of Çanakkale between silence and speaking out: Nostalgia as an exit strategy. Memory Studies, First published online February 17, 2023. DOI: 10.1177/17506980231155559
• (2022). Konstruktionen des türkischen Selbstbilds in Schulbüchern für den Herkunftssprachlichen Türkischunterricht von 1991 bis 2017. Eckert. Dossiers 1, urn:nbn:de:0220-2022-0059. Available at: https://repository.gei.de/handle/11428/336. With R. Spielhaus
• (2022). Revisiting the Prospect of Revision in Secondary School Turkish History Textbooks: The Case of the Assyrian Debate. British Journal of Educational Studies 70(4): 481–500. DOI: doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2021.1990851
• (2020). Migration and Migrants between the Favorable and the Problematic: A Discourse Analysis of Secondary School Turkish History Textbooks from 1966 to 2018. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society (JEMMS) 12(2): 77–104.
• (2019). Konstruktionen des türkischen Selbstbilds in Schulbüchern für den herkunftsspraclichen Türkischunterricht. Final Research Report of the Project, „Konstruktionen des türkischen Selbstbilds in Schulbüchern für den herkunftssprachlichen Türkischunterricht“ submitted to the Max-Traeger-Stiftung. Braunschweig: Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research. With R. Spielhaus and Z. Štimac.
• (2017). Global Citizenship Education in Turkish Textbooks. Policy Brief drafted as part of the broader Research Project “Textbooks Put to the Test: Global Citizenship Education in International Perspective.”
• (2015). Book Review of Religion as a Conversation Starter: Interreligious Dialogue for Peacebuilding in the Balkans, Ina Merdjanova and Patrice Brodeur, 2009. London and New York: Continuum’. Insight Turkey 17(2).
• (2012). Islamic Religious Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina- Between Coexistence and Segregation. In Islam in Political-Cultural Europe, edited by W. C. Durham, D. Kirkham and T. Lindholm, 165–87. London and New York: Routledge. 2012.
• (2012). Faith-based NGOs and Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In The Ashgate Companion to Religion and Conflict Resolution, edited by L. Marsden, 461–99. Surrey: Ashgate.
• (2011). Muslims, Bosnians and Bosniaks shaped among Sarajevo, Sandžak and Belgrade. In Spaces and Borders: Current Research on Religion in Central and Eastern Europe, edited by A. Máté-Tóth and C. Rughiniş, 65–80. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• (2010). 1941 Resolutions of El-Hidaje in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Case of Traditional Conflict Transformation. EJEPS (European Journal of Economic and Political Studies) 3(2): 73–83.
• (2010). 20. yüzyıl Bosna'sında bir tartışma: Türkiye'ye göç hicret sayılır mı? [A Debate in 20th century Bosna: Is immigration to Turkey considered to be hijra?]. Toplumsal Tarih 201: 28–31.

Selected Presentations

• (2025) 'Navigating Dual Identities: Role Models in Turkish Heritage Language and Islamic Education Textbooks Published in Germany'. Paper presented at the 35th Deutscher  Orientalistentag DOT 2025, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg.
• (2025) 'Negotating Identity and Belonging Through Tasks: An Analysis of Turkish-Islamic Education Textbooks in the Context of Socio-Culltural (Ex)Changes in Germany'. Paper presented at the European Academy of Religion’s Eighth Annual Conference EuARe2025 - Religion and Socio-Cultural Transformation: European Perspectives and Beyond. University of Wien.
• (2024) 'Learning to be Muslim, Turkish and/or German: Textbooks for Religious Instruction in Germany'. Paper presented at the 30. International DAVO Congress, 'Societies in Transition: Law, Culture and Politics in the Middle East'. University of Göttingen.
• (2024) '"Raising ’the Muslim-Turkish": Turkish religious education textbooks constructing the Muslim identity between "the individual" and "the community" in Germany'. Paper presented at the 21st Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions. University of Gothenburg.
• (2023) Revisiting the Multicultural Past between Silence and Speaking Out: New Actors in the Digital Memoryscape. Paper presented at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Memory Studies Association, 'Communities and Change'. University of Newcastle.
• (2022) 'Between the "Old" and the "New": Continuities and Changes in Religious and Social Studies Education in Turkey from 2005 to 2018'. GEI Colloquium. Braunschweig.
• (2021) 'Construction of the Religious Self Between "the Moral" and "the National":  A Diachronic Analysis of Turkish Textbooks Developed in Germany'. Paper presented at the International Conference on Teaching Religious Education: Challenges, Developments and Perspectives in a Plural World. University of Hamburg.
• (2019) 'Constructing "the social problem": References to "the religious" in the Textbooks of Turkish Instruction in Germany'. Paper presented at the 33. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft (DVRW): Konzeptualisierungen von Religion, Leibniz University Hannover.
• (2018) 'Turkish Perceptions on "Crisis": From late Ottoman to Republican Turkey'. Paper presented at the International Workshop on Cultures of Crises. Workshop II: Globalising the Concept of Crisis in the 20th Century, Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung. Potsdam.
• (2018) 'History in focus: Constructions of the Turkish self-image in textbooks for Turkish as a heritage language'. Paper presented at the Workshop on Konstruktionen von Identität in Schulbüchern für den herkunftssprachlichen Türkischunterricht. Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig.
• (2017) 'Constructing a Collective Memory in between “the Favourable” and “the Problematic”: Discursive Representation of Migration and Migrants in Turkish Textbooks with Particular Focus on Geography Textbooks'. Paper presented at the 2^nd Annual Conference of Memory Studies Association, Copenhagen University, Denmark.

Selected Workshops and Seminars

• (2025) 'Gündelik Deneyimlerden Pedagojik Hedeflere. Türkçe Öğretmenleri Çalıştayı' ('From Everyday Experiences to Pedagogical Objectives: Workshop for Turkish Language Teachers'). In collaboratıon wıth Astöb - Türkischer Lehrerinnenbund In Nds e.V. Bundesverband für Türkisch und Mehrsprachige Bildung. 03.06.2025.
• (2025) 'Neubetrachtung des HSU als Mittel zur Förderung von Diversity Education und Mehrsprachigkeit als Ressource: Ein Workshop für Lehrkräfte des Herkunftssprachenunterrichts Türkisch'. As part of the 2nd Annual Online Meeting of the BMBF-geförderte Verbundprojekt 'HSU-Interregio: Herkunftssprachlichen Unterricht interdisziplinär und interregional erforschen, entwickeln, vernetzen - Wissenschaft und Praxis im Dialog'. 14.03.2025.
• (2024) 'Mehrsprachigkeit als Ressource: HSU zur Förderung von Diversity-Kompetenzen'. Teacher Training Seminar organised in collaboration with the Bildungscampus Saarland, Ministerium für Bildung und Kultur- Saarland. 15.05.2024.
• (2023) 'Mehrsprachigkeit als Ressource'. Teacher Training Seminar organised in collaboration with the Landesinstitut für Lehrerbildung und Schulentwicklung Hamburg. 14.11.2023. With I. Rath
• (2023) 'Mehrsprachigkeit als Ressource'. Teacher training Seminar organised in collaboration with the Regionale Fortbildung Berlin der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie, dem Institut für Qualitätsentwicklung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und dem Institut für Qualitätsentwicklung an den Schulen Schleswig-Holstein. With I. Rath