Dear Colleagues,

The Netherlands creates a profile of itself as the most secularised country in the world. However, despite this high degree of secularisation, Christian schools have a 2/3 majority in the education sector. In general, however, young people—even those educated at Christian schools—do not refer very often to such things as life orientation, values or religion when presenting themselves to others; these are beyond their scope. They do not explicitly refer to the Christian religion or any other religious or secular worldview, although they may believe in ‘something’—an orientation called ietsisme, something-ism. This is different for Muslim youth: for the majority of their families, religion is of pivotal importance in life. As a consequence, religion is prominent in the educational processes (formal, non-formal and informal) of Muslim pupils and students—a minority group in the Netherlands. However, the process of Islam-related identity development is not an obvious one; it requires the guidance of educators, both professionals (teachers) at school and parents/caretakers at home. As Hannah Arendt (1968) stated, we—professional educators and parents—are responsible for the world and for introducing the new generation into this world. Our introduction forms the foundation on which the new generation can build its own world in the future. The present-day plurality of religious and secular life orientations—in which the Islamic religious heritage of the parents and the Western (Christian religious and secular) value orientation are only a few among many—may give rise to conflicts for Muslim learners, potentially resulting in polarisation, intolerance and radicalisation (De Graaf 2021). The same holds—to an increasing extent—for conservative Christian learners.

In the plural, post-pillarised society of the Netherlands, identity is not longer a given for young people, as it once was (Taylor, 1989). Identity development (with a focus on developmental tasks concerning the shouldering of responsibility for the choice of a professional career or a life partner) seems to have shifted to identity construction (with a focus on the creation of a flexible balance between different positionings in personal and societal life). Identity becomes a verb, an ongoing process in the midst of a plurality of identities-under-construction. The World Wide Web buries young people—whether belonging to a minority or majority group—under piles of information and (sometimes fake) answers to existential questions. Young people develop their identity while simultaneously living with classmates in a local context, and with international friends—through the medium of social media—in a global context. For some, this overload of impressions results in a withdrawal into their own little group, with people ‘just like me’: groups with familiar norms and rules. Others become confused and oscillate between the different possible positions they are confronted with at home and on the internet. Yet again, others are forced, or force themselves, to reflect on the different possibilities and try to find their own authentic way amidst a plurality of norms and regulations. According to James Marcia (1980), Verkuyten (2010), König (2012) as well as Fleischman, Wiley, Verkuyten and Daux (2019), moments of confusion reveal themselves as pivotally important in the spiralled process of identity construction—a process that builds on previously acquired abilities without losing sight of the basics of newly acquired potencies.

The confusion that, for all children, comes with living in a diverse—and, moreover, secularising—context, affects all individuals and their cultures. Religion is an integral part of these cultures, or even—according to Vroom (1995)—‘the very soul of a culture’. In this contribution, the focus is on Muslim pupils/students in the Dutch education system, and this system’s pedagogical responsibility to instil, in all learners, self-awareness of their religious identity and active participation as citizens in the Dutch plural society—a society that seems to be falling under the spell of problematising differences. In a Dutch context, characterised by increasing discrimination (racial profiling), populism (Geert Wilders’ political party PVV) and radicalisation (gangsta rap), all young people need adult guidance to overcome hatred and bigotry, and (re)gain their self-worth. This process involves becoming open to the other, listening carefully and entering into a dialogue with a willingness to change. In one way or another, young people—whether socialised in a religious or secular tradition—have no other option than to face the variety of discourses in society; they cannot close their eyes and ears to ‘the other’.

Responding to previous publications that provide an overview of Islamic education in Europe (Daun and Arjmand 2018, Berglund 2018, Aslan 2020, Aslan and Hermansen 2021, Franken and Gent 2021, Aslan 2022), in which the Dutch approach figures as one among many, this Special Issue focuses explicitly on Islam and/in education in one  European country—the Netherlands. In general, the characteristic Dutch approach is situated in the context of the Dutch pillarised education system, based on Article 23 of the Constitution, which guarantees the schools freedom in terms of their orientation, foundation and organisation (see Mentink, Vermeulen and Zoontjes 2020). In this Special Issue, the theme of ‘Islam and/in education’ in the Netherlands is explored in depth in qualitative (e.g., document analysis) and quantitative research (e.g., questionnaires). Moreover, this theme is situated in different contexts (e.g., formal, non-formal, informal education, media, school inspection) and approached from different theoretical frameworks (e.g., from the angles of psychology, pedagogy, sociology, history).

The purpose of this Special Issue is to offer insight, through careful description and analysis, into the position of Islam and Pedagogy/Islamic Pedagogy in education. This involves, on the one hand, the pedagogical strategies/didactics of (religious) education and, on the other hand, the actual processes of religious literacy and religious identity development (as part of citizenship) in Muslim pupils/students, in the diversely formal, non-formal and informal educational contexts of the Netherlands. Articles that contribute to this aim are welcomed.

Dr. Ina ter Avest
Dr. Bahaeddin Budak
Guest Editors

References:

Aslan, Ednan, Ed. 2022. Handbuch Islamische Religionspädagogik. Göttingen: V&R Unipress.

Aslan, Ednan, Marcia Hermansen, Ed. 2021. Religious Diversity at School; Educating for New Pluralistic Contexts. New York: Springer.

Arendt, Hannah. 1968. The Crisis in Education. In Between Past and Future. Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Penguin Group. First published 1954.

Berglund, Jenny, Ed. 2018. European Perspectives on Islamic Education and Public Schooling. Sheffield: Equinox.

Daun, Holger, Reza Arjmand. 2018. Handbook of Islamic Education. New York: Springer.

de Graaf, Beatrice. 2021. Radicale Verlossing; Wat terroristen geloven. Buffalo: Prometheus.

Verkuyten Maykel, Shaun Wiley, Kay Deaux, Fenella Fleischmann. 2019. To Be Both (and More): Immigration and Identity Multiplicity. Journal of Social Issues 75: 390-413. doi: 10.1111/josi.12324.

Franken, Leni, Bill Gent, Eds. 2021. Islamic Religious Education in Europe; A Comparative Study. London: Routledge.

König, Jutta. 2012. Moving Experience. Complexities of Acculturation. Amsterdam: VU University Press.

Marcia, James E. 1980. Identity in Adolescence. In Handbook of Adolescent Psychology . Edited by Joseph Adelson. New York: Wiley, pp.159–87.

Mentink, D., B.P. Vermeulen, P.J.J. Zoontjes. 2020. Wetenschappelijk commentaar op de grondwet; Artikel 23 – Onderwijs. Available online: https://www.nederlandrechtsstaat.nl/grondwet/artikel.html?artikel=23##artikel23 (accessed on 27 June 2021)

Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the Self. The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Verkuyten, Maykel. 2010. Identiteit en diversiteit. De tegenstellingen voorbij. Leiden: Pallas Publications.

Vroom, Henk. 1995. Religie als ziel van cultuur. Religieus pluralisme als uitdaging. Zoetermeer: Meinema.

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• Islamic education
• religious literacy
• contextual education
• (religious) identity development
• citizenship
• Islamic pedagogy