Full Description
Islamic religious education (IRE) in Europe has become a subject of intense debate during the past decade. There is concern that states are doing too little or too much to shape the spiritual beliefs of private citizens. State response to the concern ranges from sponsoring religious education in public schools to forgoing it entirely and policies vary according to national political culture. In some countries public schools teach Islam to Muslims as a subject within a broader religious curriculum that gives parents the right to choose their children's religious education. In the other countries public schools teach Islam to all pupils as a subject with a close relation to the academic study of religions. There are also countries where public schools do not teach religion at all, although there is an opportunity to teach about Islam in school subjects such as art, history, or literature. IRE taught outside publicly funded institutions, is of course also taught as a confessional subject in private Muslim schools, mosques and by Muslim organisations. Often students who attend these classes also attend a publicly funded "main stream school".
This volume brings together a number of researchers for the first time to explore the interconnections between Islamic educations and public schooling in Europe. The relation between Islamic education and public schooling is analysed within the publicly and privately funded sectors. How is publicly funded education organised, why is it organised in this way, what is the history and what are the controversial issues? What are the similarities and differences between privately run Islamic education and "main stream" schooling? What are the experiences of teachers, parents and pupils?
The volume will be of interest to scholars of Islam in Europe, policy makers of education and integration and teachers of religious education.
Contents
Introduction
1. `Islamic' Education between State and Community: Frameworks and New Directions
Farid Panjwani (University College London) and Ayman Agbaria (University of Haifa)
2. State-Funded Muslim Schools in Ireland: Insights and Perspectives
Yucef Sai (Trinity College Dublin)
3. Teaching Islam and about Islam in the Spanish Public System: The Confessional and the Cultural Approach to a Controversial Heritage
Elena Arigita (University of Granada)
4. Public School in France: The Place of Islam and Muslim's Languages
Samim Akgoenul (University of Strasbourg)
5. Identity Development of the Two First Islamic Primary Schools in the Netherlands
Bahaeddin Budak (INHolland University), Cok Bakker (Utrecht University) and Ina ter Avest (INHolland University)
6. Religious Education in Italian Public Schools: What Room for Islam?
Stella Coglievina (University of Insubria, Italy)
7. Publicly Funded Islamic Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Amina Isanovic Hadziomerovic (University of Sarajevo)
8. Between Old Traditions and New Diversities: Islamic Religious Education in Poland
Agata S. Nalborczyk (University of Warsaw) and Konrad Pedziwiatr (Cracow University of Economics and Soedertoern University)
9. Religious Education for Minorities: Perspectives from Islamic Education in Finnish Schools
Inkeri Rissanen (University of Tampere, Finland)
10. The Denominational Model of Islamic Education in Germany - In the Case of Hessen
Yasar Sarikaya and Esma OEger-Tunc (both at the University of Giessen)
11. (Re)discovering One's Religion: Private Islamic Education in Lithuanian Muslim Communities
Egdunas Racius (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania)
12. The Others: Muslim Faith-based Schools in a Catholic-majority Country
Mariachiara Giorda (University of Milan-Bicocca) and Alberta Giorgi (University of Coimbra)
13. How Secular Educational Policies have Changed the Contents of Religious Education Curricula and Teachers' Training Programmes in Modern Turkey
Mahmut Zengin (Sakarya University, Turkey)
14. Character and Values Education in English Schools: What can Private Islamic Faith and State Funded Public Schools Learn from Each Other?
Farah Ahmed (UCL Institute of Education)
15. A `Home of Study': A UFO (Unidentified Foreign Object) in the Dutch `Pedagogic Civil Society'?
Ina ter Avest (INHolland University)
16. State Neutrality and Islamic Education in Sweden
Ailin Abdullah (Kista folkhoegskola, Sweden) and Jenny Berglund
17. Traditional Islamic Education and Mainstream Schooling in Contemporary England: Grasping the Nature of theFormer and Researching the Relationship and Interaction with the Latter
Bill Gent (University of Warwick)
18. Creating Coherence in Education for British Muslim Pupils
Karamat Iqbal (University of Warwick)
19. Islamic Education in Public School and Mosques in Germany
Tuba Isik (Paderborn University)
20. Mainstream Secular and Quran-based Islamic Education,
Student Perspectives on the Relation between Two Disparate Forms
Jenny Berglund
