1970年代のトルコにおける道徳教育―宗教性の観点から―

Although both religious and moral education have been taught in a single compulsory curriculum entitled “Religious Culture and Morals” from elementary school to high school in the Republic of Turkey since 1982, prior to that time religion and ethics were taught as two different subjects, the former initiated in 1949 as an elective course, the latter introduced in 1974 as a compulsory subject. While the research to date has investigated the “Religious Culture and Morals” and “Religion” in order to understand the religious policies of various Turkish governments, it has neglected the “Ethics” curriculum. Therefore, the present article takes up the question of whether “Ethics” did not teach religious content, in order to better understand the politics of religion and education in the history of modern Turkey. To do so, the author analyzes the political background, content and transformation of “Ethics” education from the viewpoint of religion and the lack thereof, by utilizing periodicals published by the Ministry of National Education, the curriculum guidelines for “Ethics” and the 1976 edition of the “Ethics” textbook. As Turkey experienced frequent regime change during the 1970s, every new regime altered the “Ethics” curriculum guidelines, especially with respect to its religious aspects, ranging from teacher qualifications to course content. While the secular regimes preferred to limit religious content, the right-wing governments led by non-secularist politicians endeavored to increase it. That is to say, for all politicians at that time the issue of including religious content in “Ethics” education was an important concern. For example, the 1976 edition of the “Ethics” textbook, which was written under a right-wing government, placed great importance on Islam, attempting repeatedly to explain the relationship between “Turkishness” and Islam. Here the intent was to persuade secularists that religious ideas were an important part of moral education. Although the research to date has argued that the military government formed after the coup of 1980 incorporated the ideology called “Turkish-Islamic Synthesis” into its education policy and the “Religious Culture and Morals” curriculum, this article shows that those same characteristics were already present in the “Ethics” curriculum, thus demonstrating a continuity in education policy before and after the coup