Evaluation of Imam-Hatip High School’s Curriculum in Terms of History of Islamic Sects Education

İslâm Mezhepleri Tarihi Öğretimi Açısından İmam-Hatip Lisesi Müfredatının Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

Imam-Hatip High Schools is one of the educational institutions which educates students to the Faculties of Theology and Islamic Sciences and educates qualified personnel to work in various institutions of the Presidency of Religious Affairs. However, it is a fact that the students of Imam-Hatip High School cannot be educated in the knowledge and equipment required about sects while shaping the worlds of knowledge on various religious subjects through official education programs. One of the main reasons for this is that Imam-Hatip High School curriculum does not include the History of Islamic Sects directly and that the notion of sect cannot be taught sufficiently in other courses on the subject. Nature does not accept spaces; it is observed that the gap in this field is mostly filled by circles operating in the informal field and exploiting religion. As a result, the students of Imam-Hatip necessarily find themselves directly in the support of a sect or a religious group and may have the wrong mentality that perceives the sect as a religion and the others as non-religious. The fact is, however, that the sect is not a religion, but a human form that arises from the interpretation of religion. For this reason, the establishment of the Islamic Sects History course in the curriculum of Imam-Hatip High School, the re-evaluation and development of the teaching program and method of this discipline in today's conditions, the teaching of the textbooks written according to the objective criteria related to the sects, and the teaching of the sects it must be redesigned to help make sense and comprehension of events. In this article, the Imam-Hatip High School curriculum will be evaluated from 1963 to the present, which includes the first sectarian issues in terms of the teaching of the Islamic sects will be provided. Key words: İmam-Hatip Shools, Education, Cirriculum, Religion, Sect.SummaryOne of the foremost secondary educational institutions that provide students for the Faculties of Theology and Islamic Sciences and qualified personnel to be employed in various functions at the Presidency of Religious Affairs is Imam-Hatip High Schools. Imam-Hatip High Schools represents a new type of educational institution that answers the needs of the society of the New Republican Turkey, which originates from the traditional education of Nizamiyah Madrasahs of Seljuks Dynasty and Ottoman Madrasahs. When Imam-Hatip High Schools established officially for the first time, they had two official objectives: the first was to reconcile the political and social demands of religious citizens with that of the political and administrative structure of the Republic of Turkey which adopted secularism as one of its foundational tenets. The second objective was to train “imams” and “orators” in order to meet society’s needs of the “religious officials.” However, Imam-Hatip High Schools have always been institutions that represented something beyond the official objectives for society. Since the perception of this institution in the society was “religious-moral education institutions” rather than vocational high schools, this laid the groundwork for the formation of two separate groups namely: “supporters” and “opponents” of Imam-Hatip High Schools. The main reason why these schools have always been at the forefront of political polemics stems from the extraordinary interest that was shown by the religious and conservative sections of society, which constitute the main body of society and the opposing voices coming from those who define themselves as "secular" or "modern." This particular group argues that Imam-Hatip High Schools go against the principles of the law on the unification of education.From its inception to this day, Imam Hatip High Schools’ efforts on introducing the traditional side of the east along with the modern side of the west made these schools become a “model” for many other Muslim countries in recent years. Hence, this unique educational method of the Imam- Hatip Schools caught the attention of many countries in the Islamic world. Pakistan, among other countries that follow this trend, leads the movement of following the curriculum of these schools. On the other hand, how the classical and current structure of sect, disposition, and current corresponds in the world of students is a question that remains unanswered. It is common knowledge that through the official curriculum, the students of Imam-Hatip High School learn about a variety of religious subjects but their training and knowledge about sects is not yet where we desire.There are two main reasons why the students of Imam-Hatip High School are not educated in the desired level about sects: The first one is because Imam-Hatip High Schools curriculum does not include a separate History of Sects, History of Islamic Sects, Contemporary Islamic Sects or Modern Religious Movements and books that students read do not follow the discipline’s methodology. Because Imam-Hatip High School’s curriculum does not include a separate History of Sects class and since there are no books that were written by experts that adhere to the objective criteria, results in the inability to sufficiently explain to the students the significance of Islamic sects and make them better understand the fact that sects are not separate religions by themselves but they are different groups that occurred inevitably and even necessarily due to the natural development of the religion. Therefore, it is beyond doubt that an addition of a history of sects class that is built on the foundations of the true religion based on Quran and Hadith/Sunnah to the curriculum of Imam-Hatip Schools will help the students to perceive the sects in a better way and interpret the current religious issues in the best way possible. The other reason is that in the courses such as Kalam and Fiqh the sufficient information about sects is not transmitted to students. This situation leads to having inadequatel

Özet

İlahiyat ve İslâmî İlimler Fakültelerine öğrenci, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı’nın çeşitli kurumlarında istihdam edilmek üzere kalifiye eleman yetiştiren ortaöğretim kurumlarımızdan başında İmam-Hatip Liseleri gelmektedir. Ne var ki İmam-Hatip Lisesi öğrencilerinin, resmi öğretim programlarıyla çeşitli dinî konularda bilgi dünyaları şekillendirilirken, mezhepler konusunda istenen bilgi ve donanımda yetiştirilemedikleri bir gerçektir. Bunun temel nedenlerinden biri İmam-Hatip Lisesi müfredatında doğrudan İslâm Mezhepleri Tarihi dersinin yer almaması ve konuyla ilgili diğer derslerde de mezhep mefhumunun yeterince öğretilememesidir. Tabiat boşluk kabul etmez; bu alandaki boşluğun çoğunlukla informal alanda faaliyet gösteren ve dini istismar eden çevreler tarafından doldurulduğu müşahede edilmektedir. Sonuçta İmam-Hatipli öğrenciler, zorunlu olarak kendilerini bir mezhebin taraftarı yahut dinî bir grubun doğrudan içinde bulmakta ve mensubu bulunduğu mezhebi din olarak algılayan, diğerlerini ise din dışı görüp ötekileştiren yanlış bir zihniyete sahip olabilmektedir. Oysa gerçekte mezhep din değil, dinin yorumu sonucu doğan beşerî bir formdur. Bu nedenle İmam-Hatip Lisesi müfredatında İslâm Mezhepleri Tarihi dersinin ihdas edilmesi, bu disipline ait öğretim programı ve yöntemin günümüz şartları içinde yeniden değerlendirilmesi ve geliştirilmesi, derslerde mezheplere dair objektif kriterlere bağlı kalınarak yazılmış ders kitapların okutulması, ayrıca mezheplerin ele alındığı konu başlıklarının öğrencilerin güncel dinî hâdiseleri anlamlandırması ve kavramasına yardımcı olacak nitelikte yeniden dizayn edilmesi zorunludur. Bu makalede, İslâm Mezhepleri Tarihi öğretimi açısından içinde mezhep konularının ilk olarak yer aldığı 1963’ten günümüze İmam-Hatip Lisesi müfredatı değerlendirilecek, ilgili müfredatın yeniden düzenlenmesinin yolları tartışılacak, bu bağlamda İmam-Hatip Liselerinin program geliştirme çalışmalarına yeni bilgi ve bakış açısı sunma cihetiyle katkı sağlanmaya çalışılacaktır.