Ethnographic account of a pedagogical project: sisterhood institution in the Hizmet Movement

Abstract

This article focuses on the pedagogical project of the Hizmet Movement, with a special focus on its gender politics as they were activated and performed at one of the movement’s schools in a peripheral rural city in western Turkey. Through an ethnographic, conversation-based account of female teachers as active and committed adherents of the Movement, this article traces a two-tier approach to the community’s pedagogical project: the first is the examination of micro-institutional mobilization units of the Movement, while the second tier is an analysis of key themes in the discourses surrounding gender, characterizing the role and the extent of women’s participation in the movement. Drawing on the central gender discourses of the movement, this article reveals the emerging pedagogical model developed by the Movement as the constitution of a new hegemonic form, which I call the ‘conservative sisterhood.’

Keywords:

• Hizmet Movement
• governmentality
• sisterhood
• female teachers
• religion
• Turkey

Notes

1. Most scholarly works define the community as the Gülen or Hizmet (Service) Movement. On the other hand, Cemaat (congregation or community) is preferred in everyday life, which conveys a religious flavor. Since female teachers in this study used the term Hizmet, the author used the same word to denote the Movement.

2. Accessed October 18, 2017. See http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/15693/towards-the-end-of-a-dream-the-erdogan-gulen-fallo

3. Accessed October 18, 2017. See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/16/fethullah-gulen-who-is-the-man-blamed-by-turkeys-president-for-coup-attempt. For additional resources, see http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2016/07/18/turkey-has-proof-documenting-crimes-of-coup-plotters-pm-yildirim-says and http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/timeline-of-turkeys-failed-coup-attempt.aspx?PageID=238&NID=101711&NewsCatID=341.

4. The current use is private tutoring courses, establishments preparing students for various examinations.

5. Classical Islamic texts, volumes of Qur’anic exegesis known as Risale-i Nur Külliyati (the Epistles of Light), were written by Bediüzzaman Said Nursî. Turam (2007, 46) indicates that ‘Risale networks all over Anatolia were organized secretly but very efficiently beyond the visible sites of the public sphere. Although the readings were conducted in secrecy, it was easy for insiders to locate and join these groups in every town through the tight-knit underground networks.’