Social change is an inevitable phenomenon that has existed in the
natural process as of the human history began. There are factors that
accelerate social change by affecting it. Social change also affects many
phenomena in turn. In this respect, a close relation emerged between social
change and politics, international relations, and the changes in information
and technology.
In social change process, religion plays a role in two aspects as the
one that affect change; and the one that is affected by change. Similarly, in
all structures and units of education, which aims to educate individuals in
line with the qualifications required by time taking all elements that occur in
society into consideration, the education systems, philosophy, roles of
teachers and students, tools, materials and methods that are employed in
education are influenced by change. When the fact that the two elements, i.e.
the religion and education, which constitute religious education, do not remain
indifferent to social change and that changes in educational institutions and
structure affect all sub-disciplines of education are considered, it is
possible to argue that religious education will also inevitably be influenced
by social change.
It is considered that social changes are not limited with the scope that
is in the interest of one single society any more, and that globalization and a
strong interaction brought with the increase in communication and capacity with
innovations in the field of science and technology has caused that a global
change has been experienced everywhere. Based on this, in the present study, it
was aimed to examine religious education by considering the postnormal times
theory that was developed by Ziyaüddin Sardar to define the period in which we
live. It is considered that this study, which is conducted with the Literature
Review Method, will contribute to the field in terms of evaluating the relation
between social change and religious education under the conditions that are
also present in our present day by considering the qualities of the society in
which we live.
Ziyaüddin Sardar developed the postnormal times theory based on global
changes. Postnormal times, which is defined as the transition period that does
not provide trust in any way in reaching a desirable, achievable and
sustainable future that does not bring confidence in terms of returning to the
past, is characterized with uncertainty, fast change, power rearrangement and chaotic
behavior (Sardar, 2009, 435).
The elements that constitute postnormal times were explained with three
“C”s; Complexity, Chaos and Contrast. According to Sardar, everything that we
have relations with is complex/complicated. Nothing, not even a topic, event,
phenomenon or a problem, is simple and stable in terms of being in relation
with many other subjects, phenomena, events and problems. The underlying
factors of this complexity are globalization and rapid and simultaneous change.
Postnormal times can also be defined with chaos. The whole world has become
interdependent, and communication has become continuous with the Internet,
social media networks, and 24-hour news broadcasts. This connection is valid
for the functioning elements of the public works like transport and economy,
and a failure that may occur at any point in this network may affect the whole
system. Sardar related Contrast with change and knowledge by dealing with it in
two contexts. The first one is that humanity is still at a point that is
considered ignorant in some fields despite some unchanging phenomena in the
face of change, and despite the increasing number of things that are known in
many subjects (Sardar, 2009, 436-440); and the second is the inability of
humans in producing solutions to the problems that were caused by science and
technology produced by humans themselves, and the presence of contrasts
stemming from ignorance when humans have the desired knowledge about “the
Other” (Sardar, 2009, 436-440).
With the globalization effect, which Sardar considers to occur on the
basis of Chaos, it is seen that ideas on some applications that are reflected
in religious life have changed, and new religious movements have emerged (Aydın
and Osmanoğlu, 2016, 27-30). The reflection of the globalization on religious
education is the multicultural and pluralistic religious education
understanding. Learners acquire an inclusive and pluralistic perspective
through multicultural religious education. In this way, it also contributes to
the ability to live together with differences in globalizing societies. When
faced with the fast change, which is another origin of chaos, it is expected
that religion produces answers to new problems. In this case, in postnormal
times, the duty of religious education will be training individuals who have
reasoning skills to find answers for newly-emerging religious problems. In the
face of chaos that emerges from communication network and from the
interconnective status of each phenomenon, target audience must be provided
with the ability to produce and evaluate information correctly. Instead of
transferring religious knowledge with didactic and classical methods to the
able generation in terms of using communication technology, the target must be
teaching subjects by using active learning methods and by associating important
issues with each other instead of loading superficial knowledge on many fields.
Sardar reported that contrasts may be negotiated through dialogue. In this
case, it is also necessary to make learners acquire religious literacy skills
as well as religious education in the pluralistic and inter-religious model to
create a culture of living together and to avoid conflicts that emerge from
differences, to obtain information from correct sources, and to create an
accurate dialogue and negotiation setting.
Understanding the Other’s viewpoint in an accurate manner is the first
condition of negotiation and dialogue that were recommended by Sardar for
contrasts. The religious literacy skill is the skill that may open the road for
having the accurate information on the “other” and understanding it. In this
case, religious literacy may be considered among the skills that must be
acquired in religious education in postnormal times.
Based on this viewpoint, it is possible to conclude that there is a need
for an education form that will be used in the developing 21st
century thinking skills by using active learning methods with a pluralistic and
multicultural approach in postnormal religious education.
Toplumsal değişim, hızı, etkisi ve kapsadığı alan değişmekle
birlikte her dönemde gerçekleşmiş bir olgudur. Toplumsal değişim sürecinden
etkilenen pek çok faktör arasında din ve eğitim de vardır. Dolayısıyla din
eğitiminde de toplumsal değişimle birlikte farklılaşmalar görülmektedir. Postnormal zamanlar; belirsizlik,
hızlı değişim, gücün yeniden düzenlenmesi, karışık ve kaotik davranışlarla
karakterize edilir. Ziyaüddin Sardar, postnormal zamanların özelliklerini üç
‘K’ ile açıklamaktadır. Bunlar, karmaşa, kaos ve karşıtlıktır. Sardar’a göre
ilişkide bulunduğumuz her şey karmaşık/komplikedir. Postnormal zamanların
ikinci özelliği kaostur. Kaosun asıl sebebi ise iletişim ağının doğasının,
kapsamının ve işlevinin değişmesidir. Sardar, karşıtlığı hızlı değişim ve
bilgiye ulaşma, bilgiyi kullanma ve yorumlamada meydana gelen değişimle
ilişkilendirerek bu üç husus çerçevesinde yaşadığımız çağın özelliklerinden
bahsetmektedir. Bu makalede Ziyaüddin Sardar’ın toplumsal değişimin
geldiği noktayı betimlerken kullandığı postnormal zamanlar teorisi çerçevesinde
Türkiye’de örgün ve yaygın din eğitimi incelenerek bu teorinin ortaya koyduğu
dönemsel özelliklere göre yorumlamak amaçlanmıştır. Teorik olan bu çalışmanın,
toplumsal değişim sürecinde ortaya çıkan ihtiyaçlar karşısında, örgün ve yaygın
din eğitiminin mahiyetini değerlendirmesi bakımından alana katkı sağlayacağı
düşünülmektedir.
Primary Language | Turkish |
---|---|
Subjects | Religious Studies |
Journal Section | Research Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | December 30, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 Issue: 13 |
Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi-Amasya Theology Journal Creative Commons Alıntı-GayriTicari-Türetilemez 4.0 Uluslararası Lisansı ile lisanslanmıştır.