Religious education of children in interfaith marriages


Kurttekin F.

JOURNAL OF BELIEFS & VALUES-STUDIES IN RELIGION & EDUCATION, cilt.41, sa.3, ss.272-283, 2020 (AHCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 41 Sayı: 3
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/13617672.2019.1624938
  • Dergi Adı: JOURNAL OF BELIEFS & VALUES-STUDIES IN RELIGION & EDUCATION
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ATLA Religion Database, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Index Islamicus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.272-283
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Interfaith marriages, religious education of children, Turkish immigrants
  • Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Various religious groups impose strict restrictions on their members marrying someone outside their faith, especially when it comes to Muslims marrying members of other religions. However, travelling in pursuit of higher education and employment has made it possible for people marry to outside their religious affiliation regardless of religious dogma and teachings. Since the 1970s, Turks have been migrating to the UK for various reasons such as job opportunities, and political conflicts happening in their homeland. The increasing number of marriages outside of the Turkish Muslim group has made it necessary to focus on the religious and ethnic identity formation of children in interfaith marriages of couples who are Turkish Muslims and non-Muslims and have at least one child between the ages of five and twenty. This case study examines responses of 32 couples and 15 children collected through questionnaire forms and interviews. The findings demonstrate that gender, religious and ethnic identity, level of religiosity, and the dominant culture have influenced parents' identity and that of their children. While the parents try to minimise their differences by focusing on moral values, most children develop double consciousness, which can lead to hyphenated identity or syncretism.