A comparative study of religious education policy in Turkey and England

It has long been recognised that education policy has been questioned, critiqued and reformed in response to a variety of supranational and national factors. In the field of religious education, there has been a growing argument for comparative works to study this relationship between wider factors and religious education policy. This thesis seeks to present a comparison of religious education policy in state schools in two strikingly different countries, Turkey and England, by interviewing various policy actors, to unravel some of the complexities and contestations around supranational and national factors and their influence on religious education policy. The thesis reveals that wider factors have explicitly and implicitly shaped religious education policy by constituting a significant milieu that has constrained and enabled policy actors. Yet, the thesis also suggests that religious education policy can be better understood through a conflict theory lens, because policy actors have responded to and interpreted wider factors and their influence on religious education policy widely and contradictorily, reflecting their deeply held worldviews and values. Furthermore, in the context of the collision of wider factors and rival policy actors, religious education has tended to converge on common problems such as confusion, marginalisation, accusations and on endless reform actions and discussion. The thesis suggests that there is a need for sensitising for plurality across and within societies and a need for more open and plural religious education policies. The findings of this thesis give insights into how different policy actors view and interpret supranational and national factors and their influence on religious education policy. The findings have relevance for debates about the role of religion in education within plural societies.</p

The effects of judgements by the European Court of Human Rights on religious education in England and Turkey

In this paper, we consider the differences between national and supranational space and time by focusing on one important strand within supranational processes: the European Court of Human Rights, which has given several judgements on religious education. We compare how the ECtHR’s decisions and guidance are represented and interpreted in Turkey and England. This analysis shows that these decisions are deployed as catalysts for change as well as bulwarks of the status quo. We also consider how the two countries’ responses are different, notably because Turkey has been a responding state in several proceedings, but England has not