Teaching Interpretation Diversities of Islamic Thought in Religious Culture and Ethical Knowledge Courses: A Research on High School Students

It was aimed to raise an understanding, respect, culture of tolerance and to prevent thoughts and behaviors which can cause hatred and discrimination in students by giving place for different religions, beliefs, and cultures apart from Islam and interpretations of Islamic thought in religious culture and moral knowledge curriculums and textbooks. In the context of pluralist religious education, significant regulations have been made after the year 2000 curriculum and textbooks in Turkey for teaching other religions and interpretations of Islamic thought with more objective perspective. This study aims to examine the views of high school students on faith (Itikad), Islamic jurisprudence (F？qh) and mystic (Tasavvuf) interpretation diversities and their teaching. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied with 956 students who were enrolled in high schools in the central districts of the province of Sakarya, and the results were analyzed. According to the results, while most of the students had positive attitudes towards the teaching of interpretations in Islamic thought, they had undecided and could not state a clear comment about various subjects such as the adequacy of textbooks, teaching of Alevism-Bektashism and the necessity of being connected to any faith, Islamic jurisprudence or mystic interpretation