The manifestation of Fethullah Gulen’s educational philosophy in Horizon Educational Trust schools in South Africa
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Date
2020-11
Authors
Inal, Aydin
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
This study aimed to explore the manifestation of Fethullah Gülen’s philosophy of education in Horizon Education Trusts schools in South Africa. Gülen is a Turkish born Islamic scholar whose ideas gave rise to a transnational movement in the fields of education, dialogue and outreach. Central to this movement, known as the Hizmet Movement (HM), is the philosophy of hizmet, which means service in Turkish. Inspired by Gülen’s philosophy of education, the HM volunteers have established schools in Turkey and other countries. Under the guidance of the trustees of Horizon Educational Trust (HET) who are equally inspired by Gülen’s philosophy, various schools were established in South Africa. Although not pronounced as HM schools, I worked with the assumption that since HM followers established them, it might be possible to trace manifestations of Gülen’s educational ideas in policy and practice at the HET schools. This research was a qualitative case study informed by an interpretive paradigm. Due to my involvement for a long time in the HM, this study involved the voice of an insider. In general, the HM does not conform to general characteristics of social movements either from the perspective of contemporary Islamic movements or in the western sense of contentious social movements. Although qualitative research from an insider’s perspective has risks, my insider status rendered an appreciation of the HM’s characteristics, a familiarity with the context, ease of access and command of the shared terminology. My status also contributed positively in establishing rapport with and gaining the trust of the research participants. To realise the research aim and to give a systematic and structural expression of Gülen’s philosophy of education, I constructed a theoretical framework consisting of critical themes associated with the philosophy. For document analysis, the schools’ documents were classified into three categories, namely foundational, policy and procedural, and operational documents. Informed by the theoretical framework, the analysis of these documents revealed traces of aspects of Gülen’s educational philosophy, although in an implicit manner and not overtly associated with the philosophy and general practices of the HM schools. Issues such as holistic education, the importance of academic achievement, values and moral education, the promotion of intercultural dialogue, and diverse stakeholder involvement were brought to the fore. The findings from the data generated through semi-structured interviews with twenty-four purposefully selected participants revealed implicit resonance with Gülen’s philosophy of education. However, the findings alluded to school practices that are not aligned with the documents, and also differential interpretations and practices among different HET schools. In drawing on the results of the study, the lack of a well-articulated educational philosophy in the foundational documents was identified as the reason for divergent interpretations and practices. Two broad suggestions were made. Firstly, holistic education should be centred as the philosophical impetus of the schools’ philosophy of education. Central to Gülen’s philosophy of education is his notion of holistic education as subject teaching accompanied by values education. In this sense, holistic education is informed by Gülen’s understanding of the human being as a harmonious composition of mind, body and spirit. This understanding of holistic education feeds into the second suggestion. Thus, secondly, and following from a well-articulated philosophy of education, is the suggestion for the development of a rehberlik (or guidance) policy. The necessity of such a policy is twofold. It can guide the development of a rehberlik programme that infuses universally accepted values with local values, and enable temsil (teaching by example) as a connection between value-free subject teaching and values education. I contend that a clear articulation of the underpinning philosophy of education and a well defined rehberlik policy can support common understanding, coherent practices, good communication, and productive cooperation with the stakeholders in the HET school context.
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Keywords
Thesis (Ph.D. (Education Studies))--University of the Free State, 2020, Fethullah Gülen, Hizmet Movement, Gülen’s philosophy of education, Horizon Educational Trust