PUBL.- Presentations of Islam in Secondary Secular Schools in Contemporary Azerbaijan

Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian Studies

PUBL.- Presentations of Islam in Secondary Secular Schools in Azerbaijan

Posted by: Farid Guliyev <fareedaz@yahoo.com>

Presentations of Islam in Secondary Secular Schools in Contemporary Azerbaijan

by Sevil Guseynova

Internationale Schulbuchforschung 30 (2008) S. 841–854
Hannover 2008 / Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung / ISSN 0172-8237

Abstract

Ideas about Islam (its versions, origins, social and cultural
significance, etc.) have long been present in school history courses,
and also in the "Man and Society" course. The "Man and Society" course
was launched in the early 1990s in secondary schools in grades 9, 10
and 11 after Azerbaijan had left the USSR. The course maintained it
was a certain act of innovation. It was claimed that this course would
be new in terms of its content and thus would have little in common
with the "Social Science" course launched in the Soviet times. It was
quite natural to expect that the religion of the majority of the
population, Islam, would in any case be mentioned in the textbooks for
the course, which aimed at forming the "correct" citizens. Azerbaijani
nationalism referred to Islam as one of the most important foundations
of the identity of Azerbaijanis, along with the Azerbaijani language.
Representations of Islam in school have gone through noticeable
changes in the post-Soviet situation. At the same time, the system of
secular education is not aimed at focusing on teaching religious
rules, norms and rituals. Rather it is a question of symbolic identity
– the declarative ascription of Azerbaijanis to Islam as one of the
most significant bases of their identity. In this context Islam, for
the time being, remains only one of the component parts of ethnicity
("our" religion), though a significant one.

Available to download from Heinrich Boell Foundation's website (South
Caucasus Regional Office): http://georgien.boell-net.de/
Full-text PDF:
http://georgien.boell-net.de/download_ru/Sevil_Article_Islam_in_school.pdf

_______________________________________________
Central-Eurasia-L mailing list
Central-Eurasia-L@lists.fas.harvard.edu
List Info / Subscription: http://cesww.fas.harvard.edu/ces_cel.html
Change Your Subscription: http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/central-eurasia-l