This project analysed the construction of religious self-images in Turkish textbooks used for HSU and religious instruction in formal school and non-formal educational settings offered by Germany’s largest Turkish-Islamic communities. The research corresponds to a new stage in the debates on Islamic identity in the German context, with the official recognition of Islamic instruction in schools in three States (Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse), following considerable public discussions in Germany over the last five decades.
By focusing on the religious instruction textbooks and related parts in textbooks for Turkish instruction, with a particular focus on textbooks developed in Germany, this project aimed to provide answers to three main questions:
- How are religious self-images constructed through teaching materials of religious instruction?
- What are the Islamic interpretations on which the educational materials are based?
- How are inter-communal and inter-religious relations are constructed and depicted in these textbooks by referencing particular communal, religious and social values?
In 2019, the project's interim findings were presented at the 33rd biannual conference of the German Association for the Study of Religion (Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft, DVRW). In addition, three articles were prepared for publication in peer-reviewed journals to present and discuss how religious self-images are constructed in relation to specific communal, religious, and social values that shape inter-communal and inter-religious relations within the wider German society.
