Dr Celia Jenkins and Dr Umit Cetin have spent over a decade helping the Alevi community feel seen and included in British society, preventing their young people from falling into a marginalised underclass.
For over a decade, Dr Cetin has investigated the high rates of suicide among young second generation Alevi men in London, which have shaken the community.
A distinct ethno-religious group, Alevis have been fleeing persecution in their homeland of Turkey since the 1980s – 300,000 now live in the UK.
Trapped in the Rainbow Underclass
Many of these men who died by suicide came from a so-called ‘rainbow underclass’ – associated with lower job prospects and high crime and gang involvement, which often begins with lower grades at school.
Dr Cetin found these young Alevis often felt marginalised at school, due to lack of understanding about their identity.
Collaborating with Dr Jenkins, and in discussion with the Alevi community, the Westminster researchers concluded that teaching Alevism at school would help young Alevis understand their religious identity, and other pupils to understand Alevism too.
Giving their religion legitimacy and respect would, in turn, better enable their integration into society.
Bringing Alevism into school RE lessons
Dr Jenkins and Dr Cetin worked with both the British Alevi Federation (BAF) and teachers, to devise learning materials and incorporate Alevism into RE lessons at Prince of Wales Primary School in Enfield, which has a large Alevi community, in 2010.
These lessons continue today, and the school’s Deputy Head has praised Jenkins and Cetins’ “commitment to provide the best educational materials” and the support they gave to “parental engagement, inclusion achievement and behaviour”.
Since the learning materials were introduced, the school’s Alevi children have exceeded national expectations in reading, writing and maths.
The recognition the lessons provide has also been reassuring for parents.
“The schools used to ask us if we were Muslim and I used to hesitate to respond as we are Kurdish Alevi,” says one parent. “At this new school, they reassured me that they knew what Alevism was.”
“For my son also, the main factor in choosing his school was that the school would be teaching about Alevism in the near future,” said another, adding: “The school really understands us.”
Cetin and Jenkins rolled out lessons for 11–14-year-olds at Highbury Grove Secondary School, Islington in 2013, where Alevi students were involved in delivering the lessons. The project won the British Education Research Association (BERA) prize in 2014.
As a result of the lessons, Alevi pupils described how they felt much more accepted as part of the school community.
“I think there is more of a peaceful environment because of these lessons,” one pupil says. “Because the Muslims and Christians and other religious background people are learning about our religion and there is more acceptance of it”.
This new understanding of their identities has helped build self-esteem and a sense of belonging.
“When I was younger, I just said I was Muslim,” another pupil says. “Because I did not know anything about Alevism and I did not know how to explain it to people but now I am saying I am Alevi.”
It changes the person completely. It gives you confidence and recognition.
– Alevi pupil at Highbury Grove
This Alevi curriculum is now taught at approximately 50 UK schools and Enfield Local Authority are introducing Alevism into the RE curriculum of all their schools from September 2022.
Gaining official recognition of Alevis as a distinct religious group
The Chair of BAF says the Alevism lessons and accompanying literature were pivotal to their gaining, in 2015, official recognition as a religious charity in the UK – a recognition Alevis are still denied in Turkey.
“The lessons were very important in presenting our case,” said the Chair, adding that this “legal recognition […] gives our children the comfort in defining our belonging and identity.”
Dr Jenkins and Dr Cetin undertook a ground-breaking transnational pilot survey on London’s and Turkey’s Alevi communities, in 2017, which the BAF used in its successful campaign to add Alevism to the 2021 census.
This institutional recognition redresses the exclusion many British Alevis have felt in the past – one parent talks of being unable to describe their child’s religion as Alevi when enrolling them in school, because the option didn’t exist.
“We didn’t know how to register them as Alevi,” the parent said, stating that because of their bad experience in Turkey, “we were scared to say we were Alevi in the early stages.”’
By elevating their sense of inclusion in these concrete ways, the work of Cetin and Jenkins will continue to impact the Alevi community for years to come.
International impact
As hardly any published teaching materials on Alevism are produced in English for children, there was considerable interest in the researchers’ Alevism lessons across the transnational Alevi community.
Dr Cetin and Dr Jenkins organised a knowledge exchange workshop for international educators at the University of Westminster, in 2019, covering attendees’ travel costs.
Educators attending from Turkey, France, Austria, Germany, and the UK compared diverse approaches to teaching Alevism in different contexts.
“It was really beneficial to see the different perspectives and practices,” said one participant.
The workshop also explored best practice guidance on developing teaching materials by allowing religious and educational experts – including Turkish Alevi Federation representatives – to review Cetin and Jenkins’ Alevism curriculum.
One Alevi reviewer, based in Germany, described the work “as a perfect example for other countries”.
“It was so good to see the Alevism lessons for each stage has been prepared by experts,” another said, adding: “It helped us to understand how Alevism lessons helped the Alevi children.”
Since 2015, the researchers have worked with RE consultant Bill Moore to ensure all resources fully comply with the latest RE teaching guidance.
Following evaluation from participating schools and the international workshop, researchers further revised and finalised curriculum materials.
Jenkins and Cetin have made their lessons available online for international Alevi communities to use in their own Alevism teaching since 2019 – these can be accessed at the British Alevi Federation website.
Find out more
Connect with Umit Cetin
Connect with Celia Jenkins
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