EXAMINATION OF THE RELIGION LEARNING FIELD IN LIFE SKILLS BOOKS TAUGHT IN AZERBAIJAN SCHOOLS ACCORDING TO PLURALIST EDUCATION APPROACHES

Today's Azerbaijan consists of different ethnic groups such as; the Turks, Tats, Talyss, Kurds, Molokans, Ingiloys, Sahurs, Avars, Lezgis, Khinaliks, Buduglus, Rutuls, Assyrians, Udis, Grizes and so on. This ethnic diversity also brought about religious and sectarian  differences. While the majority of the population is Muslim, there are also Christians, Jews, and a small number of other religions in country. Although necessary measures have been taken for religious education in Azerbaijan since its independence up until today, religion courses have unfortunately not yet been included in the primary, secondary and high school curriculum due to the lack of sufficient staff, also religious and sectarian differences and other reasons. However, Life Skills class in the curriculum includes learning fields of religion education. This study aims to examine the religion education fields that are found in the in the life skills textbooks which are approved by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan to be taught in primary school I-IV grades and secondary school V-IX grades with regards to the pluralistic religion education approach. This research employed the content analysis, which is one of qualitative research methods, and studied religion education fields in terms of content and pluralistic approaches.