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.
