The Views of Educational Constituencies about the Compulsory Religious Culture and Morality Education Course

Abstract

In this qualitative study aiming to identify the views of educational constituencies (teachers and academics) about compulsory Religious Culture and Morality Education (RCME) course. The study was designed as a case study and the study group constituted 53 participants, who are graduate teachers and postgraduate students who are studying at the Graduate School of Education.  The data of the study were gathered through face to face interviews using semi-structured interview forms.  The results of the study suggest that the view of the participants regarding religion education is parallel to the general discussions and critics in the society.  In this sense, the study has demonstrated that while some of the participants support the current practice compulsary religion education; a great majority of the participants do not approve both the current practice and the content of the course and they suggested that RCME course should be taught electively in accordance with the demands of students or their parents and the content of the course should be enlarged in a way to include different religions, beliefs and denominations. Accordingly, RCME course should be revised in terms of both its content and status of delivery.