Pedagogics of the "Gülen movement". Reconstruction of Educational Practices and Biographies in Turkish Muslim Conversation-Circles.

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Thomas Geier
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 283235178

This project aims to examine how education is understood both as a concept and as a process, and is developed in the context of Islamic orientation of Turkish young adults in the German migrant society. The research is carried out by means of biographies and educational practices of members of the "Gülen-Movement", a global network founded by Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen in the 1960s. Originating in Turkey, the movement has set a goal to advance worldwide educational work through its various activities. In the German public sphere, the movement's educational work occurs mainly through the establishment of private schools and tutoring centers, and the more widespread religious conversation-circles (sohbetler) for children, adolescents and young adults, in which its central social and religious ideas and messages are disseminated, discussed and interpreted. These circles can be perceived as significant educational spaces in modern Islamic understanding, in which education plays a central and programmatic role. In order to reconstruct the specific understanding of education, and the interpretive practices of the conversation-circles, the project focuses on participant observations in the educational space of the sohbelter, and on narrative interviews with young adult agents who take part in these circles. The research is conducted with textual corpora, in order to reconstruct meaning production and interaction logic of the specific mediation practices of the movement, central ideas and messages, as well as the life stories and biographies that function as a significant part of the educational process. Through the network and its activities it can be shown how education is interpreted in a specific way in the context of migrant-societies, against the background of a trans-national Islamic setting, how it is institutionalized as a social practice, and what biographic significance the agents involved attribute to it.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants