Laicism and secularity in Mexico and Turkey. Compared international approaches

Abstract

This article exposes a research perspective which consists in comparing Mexico and Turkey, two countries which are not usually compared with each other, through the topics of laicity and secularization in education. Departing from a subjective and ethnographic experience, I start by presenting the grounds of a situated knowledge; afterwards, I go into aspects of historical and global contexts to look at the similarities in both countries; and I end by explaining the decolonial perspective which serves as the methodology that makes this comparison possible thorough a sharp critique of the process of secularization and (second) modernity. Through “weaving” a subjective perspective, a theoretical reflection as well as key historical facts in the 19th and 20th centuries in Mexico and Turkey, I propose fieldwork about Turkey which can contribute to a comparison of both countries, based on an empirical and qualitative perspective, as well as on ethnographic data.