Religious education as an indicator of state-religion relations within the scope of Europeanization theories : case studies of Turkey and Poland

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the impact of Europeanization on the conduct of religious instruction within the formal education system in Turkey and in Poland. The main argument is that according to the accounts of the Europeanization theory, the patterns of this impact altered because of the historical and sociological specificities of the two countries. These can be traced with an accurate investigation of the historical and legal contexts concerning the conduct of religious education in these countries and also, by inspecting the contemporary situation in order to be able to make an analysis on how Europeanization affected the policy-making in this specific field. The research aims at explaining the shaping of domestic policy-making in a value-laden field such as religious education, which has always been a sensitive issue given the nature of the subject, under the influence of Europeanization. To measure this impact on the conduct of religious education has been controversial since there are plenty of factors which have the capacity to lead to the domestic policy change. Europeanization theories support the study by offering accounts to operate within this domain and come up with concrete observations. This study delineates the different paths of Turkey and Poland in experiencing Europeanization in the field of religious education and mainly argues that Turkey has undergone a more superficial process which can be better explained by rationalist institutionalism whereas Poland practiced a deeper compliance with the European norms that can be explicated with sociological institutionalist account of Europeanization theory.