4+4+4 Education Reform and Religious Education in Turkey: Voices from Civil Society

This seminar is organised by the Critical Education Policy Special Interest Group of the School of Education.

Presented by Ecem Karlidag, Professor Simon McGrath and Professor Howard Stevenson

This paper discusses the changes in religious education in Turkey and its ramifications for the Turkish education system. The latest education reform, 4+4+4 (or 4+), which can be regarded as the biggest reform in contemporary Turkish history, has brought radical changes into the education system especially regarding religious education. As a part of the research, journalists and teacher trade unionists were interviewed to investigate the voices within civil society’s perspective on the reform. There were several themes extracted from the data analysis but this article specially focuses on one dominant theme, which is the rise of religiosity. We argue that the state and its private associations (ie media, unions, think-tanks and political parties) are actively encouraging a process of Islamisation in order to consolidate its hegemonic dominance.