Formal religious education within the context of the individual and society-centered ideological approaches

This research examines the human profile that formal religious education aims to educate in terms of individual and society-centered ideological elements. In this context, the main problem of the research is "What kind of a person do secondary education Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge courses have the potential to raise in terms of individual and society-centred ideologies?". Accordingly, the aim of the research is to decipher the human profile that secondary school DKAB courses aim to train in terms of individual and society-centered ideological elements. Although there are various studies on the political dimension of religious education in Turkey, there is no study that focuses on the analysis of formal religious education through the classification of ideology. This situation constitutes the original value of the research. Qualitative research methods were used to find answers to the main problem of the study. In this context, the case study design was used in the research; 2018 DKAB Curriculum, textbooks and DKAB teachers were selected as data sources. In the research, document analysis and interview techniques were used as data collection techniques. Checklists were used to collect data from the curriculum and textbooks, and a semi-structured interview form was used to obtain teachers' views. The findings were evaluated according to content analysis criteria and analyzed under six themes: identity, authority, freedom, justice-equality, self-actualization, epistemic approach, and critical thinking. As a result of the research, it was determined that society-centred ideological elements were more dominant in the themes of identity and authority, and individual-centred ideological elements were more dominant in the themes of freedom, justice-equality, and self- actualization. In the context of the theme of epistemic approach and critical thinking, unlike the other themes, it was revealed that individual and society-centred ideological elements showed a more balanced distribution.