Human rights education in religious culture and ethics courses

Abstract

All individuals expect to be informed about and respectful of human rights for the sake of international peace. This study aims to evaluate students' views and suggestions on Religious Culture and Ethics courses regarding human rights education in Turkey. A qualitative method was followed by adopting a case study inquiry. The participants were 7th and 8th grade students studying at a secondary school in Turkey. There were 30 voluntarily participants who took part in the study, and completed a questionnaire on the Religious Culture and Ethics Course. The results indicated that religious culture and ethics courses were considered as one of the most suitable platforms in which to teach human rights. The results also reported that there were fundamental differences in the perception of religious education and the emphasis on human and individual rights in religious culture and ethics courses, and instead of universal values, the results show that Islamic values were prioritized rather over universal values. The participants, who talked about the need to cooperate with other courses in a multidisciplinary way to ensure human rights education wanted to find solutions for the security of humanity in this age of wars and migrations. Based on these results, the subjects and themes covered in religious culture and ethics courses can be reviewed and teachers should be more sensitive while teaching human rights. In this regard, educational researchers and practitioners need tools that can be applied in a range of local, national, and international contexts and scales in this age.