An analysis of curricula and textbooks for subjects taught at secondary level in German schools that foster a sense of meaning and identity, such as history, politics/social studies, geography and civics, aimed to discover the contexts in which Muslims are mentioned and whether Anti-Muslim discrimination is addressed.
The project has been funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior as a contribution to the Independent Expert Group on Muslim Hostility of the Federal Government of Germany.
A 2011 study by the GEI of the depiction of Islam in European textbooks had revealed that Islam is featured overwhelmingly in the context of conflict and that textbooks rarely name individual Muslims. The initial investigation of curricula and textbooks for the above-mentioned comparative European study illustrated that more intensive research was required on how Muslims and Islam are portrayed in educational media.
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Aims
Education in schools has the potential to help overcome fixed prejudices and stereotypes by providing young people with a greater breadth of information thus enabling them to form a differentiated view of the world. The project aimed at analysing current curricula and textbooks for German schools to determine the extent to which this potential is exercised in relation to the portrayal of Islam and Muslims.
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Methodology
This project therefore examined the portrayal of Muslims in current curricula and textbooks for secondary education in subjects that build identity, such as geography, history and politics/social studies. The first step in the project was to examine the curricula to establish the policy aims associated with how the subjects of anti-Muslim attitudes or the portrayal of Muslims are addressed in school education. On the foundations of the curricula analysis, the second step was to investigate the portrayal of Muslims in text and images included in textbooks. The final step was to qualitatively analyse text passages that reference or picture Muslims, or mention anti-Muslim attitudes.
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Results
During the project a workshop was held to discuss preliminary results of the curriculum and textbook analysis with representatives of Islamic organisations and Muslim communities.
The study was published as an Eckert.Dossier after the Independent Expert Group on Muslim Hostility of the Federal Government of Germany had been handed over its general report to the German Bundestag:
- Jan Düsterhöft, Riem Spielhaus and Radwa Shalaby. Schulbücher und Muslimfeindlichkeit: Zur Darstellung von Musliminnen und Muslimen in aktuellen deutschen Lehrplänen und Schulbüchern. Eckert. Dossiers;2a (2023) (2., korrigierte Auflage 2024). urn:nbn:de:0220-2024-0042
Subsequent to the project, the project team was commissioned by the Berlin Senate Committee for Work, Society, Equality, Integration, Diversity and Anti-discrimination to undertake a study of the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in curricula, textbooks and other teaching materials used by teachers in Berlin.
- Jan Düsterhöft and Riem Spielhaus (2024): Wissensvermittlung zum Islam und Islambilder im schulischen Unterricht: Eine Expertise. Berlin: Senatsverwaltung für Arbeit, Soziales, Gleichstellung, Integration, Vielfalt und Antidiskriminierung.
