The Project

The project “1001 Ideas: Islamic Cultures and Histories” has been online since October 2007. We hope to open new perspectives of the Islamic world to teachers with this project and to make possible a different view of this controversial topic that dominates day-to-day politics. “1001 Ideas” is a project of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig.

What We Offer

Teaching Units
We regularly offer new teaching units on our website that deal with Islamic majority-societies and Islamic minorities in Western Europe. The teaching unit topics range from “German-Turkish HipHop” to “Soccer in Syria” to “Christians and Muslims in the Middle East” and “The Koran” – which are sorted into categories like history, religion, living together or music. The units can be used at different grade levels and in various subjects, e.g. history, politics or social studies, German, literature, music or ethics. To date, close to forty scholars from German and international universities ensure that our selection is academically sound and based on the most current research.

So far 61 units have been published online, six of which are available in English. All of the materials can be downloaded for free. More…

Continuing Education
We offer continuing education about on our main topics at the federal institutes for teacher training in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Selection varies according to demand and need. For the courses, we compile materials from our teaching units on topics including  

• "What do you watch? – Media Behavior among Muslim Young People"
• “History that Unites - Islam and Europe”
• “Why Don’t Mosques Have Bells? – Islam for Primary School”
• “Will I be an Imam or Superstar? The Life Goals of Muslim Youth”
• "Basic Knowledge of Islam"
• "Culture and Art at the Crossroads"

more…

Newsletter
Our regularly available newsletter provides information on new teaching units and continuing education opportunities. -> Order the Newsletter    

Our Goals

The project goal is to introduce a pluralistic perception of Muslims and Islamic traditions, cultures and history in European teaching. We offer teachers a helping hand from a secular perspective to

• take civil societies into account in countries with a Muslim majority
• perceive Muslim societies as the result of many different historical developments
• critically examine the collective images that have significantly contributed to the European perception of Islam
• consider teaching about Muslims and Islam a part of intercultural learning.

We particularly hope to contribute to

• nullifying the religious essentialization of Muslims
• breaking down old perceptual boundaries
• helping school classes without an intercultural vocabulary find language
• bringing youth from different contexts into contact with one another

Our Partners

Our cooperation partners include advanced and further education institues for teachers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as national and international universities, affiliations and institutes that focus on intercultural research and education. Links for our cooperation partners can be found here.