Abstract
In past decades, it has increasingly been argued that the concept of religion is a modern Western construct and that there are dangers in employing it when ‘translating’ other traditions—Islam, in particular. In the case of textbook analysis, this critical awareness poses two questions. First, do Western textbooks describe Islam with any Western bias; how are they different from textbooks used in Muslim countries in their representation of Islam? Second, if there is a noticeable difference, what should be done with the Western textbooks? Should Western textbooks follow the Muslim way in describing Islam? This chapter attempts to answer these questions by comparing English religious education (RE) textbooks with Indonesian RE textbooks used in public education. It focuses on textbooks produced by WRERU (the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit), which is known for its ethnographical method and has supposedly attempted to describe Islam from the Muslim point of view. It shows that the juxtaposition of WRERU’s RE textbooks with Indonesian RE textbooks strikingly parallels the contrast between the approaches to religion of Clifford Geertz and Talal Asad. The main challenge is to decide which way to proceed on the basis of such a finding.
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Notes
- 1.
Warwick’s textbooks have several more traits that derive from what Jackson calls an ‘interpretive approach’, composed of the hermeneutical circle of interpretation, reflexivity and edification (Jackson 2004, 2006). Since this chapter concentrates on the concept of religion underlining the descriptions of textbooks, I refrain from going into that pedagogical aspect here.
- 2.
From 2006 to 2008, I conducted a collaborative research project, ‘Comparative Study of Textbooks on Religions in Public Education’, in which the other members and I translated and analysed RE textbooks from 11 countries—namely, Japan , South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Turkey, Germany, France, the UK and the USA.
- 3.
Although she had not been born into a Buddhist priestly family (to note, Japanese Buddhism is hereditary; Buddhists priests get married and are usually succeeded by their children), she had been surrounded by such families and was absorbed in Japanese Buddhist culture much more deeply than nominal Buddhists, who are more common among Japanese people.
- 4.
As for how Buddhism is ‘constructed’ in Japanese school textbooks, or how Buddhist teachings in the textbooks differ from those shared in local Buddhist communities, see my previous chapter (Fujiwara 2014), which intensively analyses the descriptions of religions in Japanese civics textbooks.
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Textbooks
Indonesian Textbooks
Dra. Latifah, et al. (2004). Agama Islam: Lentera Kehidupan Sma Kelas XII. Bogor: Yudhistira.
Farichi, A., et al. (2004). Agama Islam: Untuk Kelas 1 Sekolah Dasar. Bogor: Yudhistira.
Lalu, Y., et al. (2004). Menjadi Murid Yesus: Pendidikan Agama Katolik untuk Sekolah Dasar. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius.
Warwick Textbooks
Barratt, M. (1994a). Buddha’s birthday (Bridges to Religions series. Series editors: Judith Everington and Robert Jackson). London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Barratt, M. (1994b). An egg for babcha (Bridges to Religions series. Series editors: Judith Everington and Robert Jackson). London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Barratt, M. (1994c). Lucy’s Sunday (Bridges to Religions series. Series editors: Judith Everington and Robert Jackson). London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Barratt, M. (1994d). The seventh day is Shabbat (Bridges to Religions series. Series editors: Judith Everington and Robert Jackson). London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Barratt, M. (1994e). Something to share (Bridges to Religions series. Series editors: Judith Everington and Robert Jackson). London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Mercier, S. C. (1996). Muslims (Interpreting Religions series. Series editors: Judith Everington and Robert Jackson). London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Robson, G. (1995). Christians (Interpreting Religions series. Series editors: Judith Everington and Robert Jackson). London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
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Fujiwara, S. (2016). ‘Geertz vs Asad’ in RE Textbooks: A Comparison Between England’s and Indonesia’s Textbooks. In: Berglund, J., Shanneik, Y., Bocking, B. (eds) Religious Education in a Global-Local World. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32289-6_13
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