The Integration of Religious Elements into ISIS Textbooks

Arvisais, Olivier; Guidère, Mathieu

doi:10.1080/15507394.2020.1728027

Cited by 7 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…1 Finally, it is important to mention that this article only addresses the process of setting up the education system and the context of preparation of the curriculum. For an in-depth analysis of the content of textbooks, a series of articles on different disciplinary didactics is to be published and an article on the integration of religious elements in textbooks for secular disciplines has been published (Arvisais & Guidère, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education in conflict: how Islamic State established its curriculum

Arvisais

Guidère

2020

Journal of Curriculum Studies

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In places where Islamic State (ISIS) took hold in Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2017, its domination was followed by an elaborate educational system. As such, the terrorist organization's 'state program' is a unique case in recent history. Indeed, not only did it overturn the existing education system in Syria and Iraq, resulting in a hiatus in the schooling of children and teens, the organization went a step further by creating its own alternative educational system in its stronghold regions replacing the Syrian and Iraqi formal system. This topical paper presents a case study whose purpose is to produce a description and interpretations through interviews and official document analysis of the way ISIS established its education system. To understand these unique, unprecedented circumstances, we retrace the steps taken by ISIS to institute its education system. Our results show among other things that ISIS acted as a protostate and attempted to redefine education through the lens of a sectarian vision of Islam. By this study, we hope to shine light on the unique context in which the curriculum was prepared and implemented.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education in conflict: how Islamic State established its curriculum

Arvisais

Guidère

2020

Journal of Curriculum Studies

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“…Our analysis also shows a marked willingness to repeat the lessons with little room left for the teacher to adapt the material to the needs of his students or to the reality of his environment. All of these elements lead us to believe that the content of the textbook was hastily constructed without a rigorous revision process, despite the fact that a writing group has been vaguely identified in previous studies (Arvisais & Guidère, 2020a, 2020b. However, and unlike the textbooks analyzed in science (Potvin et al, 2019), we did not identify any content that would have been copied from other documents and pasted quickly into this manual.…”

Section: Key Findingsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Several studies were conducted on this series of educational materials to better understand how ISIS had implemented its education system. More specifically, a first study focused on the integration of religious elements in the corpus of texts (Arvisais & Guidère, 2020b). Another study presented the educational intentions targeted by ISIS through its textbooks (Arvisais, Bruyère, Chamsine, Mahhoua, & Guidère, Submitted), while another one focused on how ISIS established its curriculum in the context (Arvisais & Guidère, 2020a), and finally, the analysis of science textbooks also revealed an absolutist/theocratic ideological program that promotes a very inadequate concept of scientific activity and content (Potvin et al, 2019).…”

Section: Isis Education Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education under the state of ISIS: What lessons can be learned from the Physical Education Curriculum?

Gadais¹,

Touir²,

Décarpentrie³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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This study focused on what lessons can be learned from the Physical Education Curriculum under the reign of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)? We conducted an unprecedented analysis of ISIS primary school physical education curriculum. The research objective focused on describing and analyzing the context and philosophy of the document as well as its content (calligraphy, didactic, pedagogy, learning assessment, among others). We also analyzed the general scientific quality of the curriculum of physical education targeting fitness preparation by the instructor in charge of the education of the youth. In addition, our analysis focused on the philosophical and contextual issues of the manual. Findings revealed an incomplete and a rapidly developed textbook where several essential elements related to pedagogy, didactics, learning and assessment were missing or inconsistent. The logic of military preparation under the guise of preparing the student’s physical condition was an important finding without being explicitly mentioned. Integration of religious content was present without being affirmed in the content of the lessons. We argue that the ISIS physical education curriculum appears to be committed to an absolutist/theocratic ideological or propaganda program that, among other things, promotes the preparation of the future soldiers of the ISIS army. Recommendations about secularization and the reconstruction of post-ISIS education systems are formulated.

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“…Several studies were conducted on this series of educational materials to better understand how ISIS had implemented its education system. More specifically, a first study focused on the integration of religious elements in the corpus of texts (Arvisais and Guidère, 2020b). Another study presented the educational intentions targeted by ISIS through its textbooks (Arvisais et al, 2021), while another one focused on how ISIS established its curriculum in the context (Arvisais and Guidère, 2020a), and finally, the analysis of science textbooks also revealed an absolutist/theocratic ideological program that promotes a very inadequate concept of scientific activity and content (Potvin et al, 2019).…”

Section: Isis Education Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education Under the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: A Content Analysis of the Physical Education Curriculum

et al. 2022

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This study focused on lessons learned from the Physical Education Curriculum under the reign of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). We conducted an unprecedented analysis of ISIS primary school physical education curriculum. The research objective focused on describing and analyzing the context and intentions of the document as well as its content (didactic, pedagogy, learning assessment, among others). We also analyzed the general scientific quality of the curriculum of physical education targeting fitness preparation by the instructor in charge of the education of the youth. In addition, our analysis focused on the philosophical and contextual issues of the manual. Findings revealed an incomplete and a rapidly developed textbook where several essential elements related to pedagogy, didactics, learning, and assessment were missing or inconsistent. The logic of military preparation under the guise of preparing the student’s physical condition was an important finding without being explicitly mentioned. Integration of religious content was present without being affirmed in the content of the lessons. We argue that the ISIS physical education curriculum appears to be committed to an absolutist/theocratic ideological or propaganda program that, among other things, promotes the preparation of the future soldiers of the ISIS army. Recommendations about secularization and the reconstruction of post-ISIS education systems are formulated.

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The Integration of Religious Elements into ISIS Textbooks

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Education in conflict: how Islamic State established its curriculum

Education in conflict: how Islamic State established its curriculum

Education under the state of ISIS: What lessons can be learned from the Physical Education Curriculum?

Education Under the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: A Content Analysis of the Physical Education Curriculum

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