Celebrating Diversity in the Latvian Religious Education Curriculum

Abstract

Religious encounters are one of the most debated issues in Europe. Tools for dealing with sensitive, controversial religious issues still remain underdeveloped. Therefore, religious educators need to promote a deeper understanding of religious issues instead of merely passing information onto students. Expanding borders and developing a more inclusive religious education about all worldviews is needed for better understanding of the diversity of worldviews, while addressing sensitive and controversial issues and “fighting prejudices and stereotypes” (Jackson, Signposts-policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 2014). This conceptual study argues that the aim of RE is to build a more inclusive model of religious education capable of incorporating all worldviews. Currently, scholars in Latvia are involved is designing a New National Curriculum founded on the competency-based approach. The study is an attempt to answer the following questions: How can religious education be integrated in the new National Curriculum? What is the best approach to integrating religious education into the new curriculum within all twelve years of primary and secondary education to develop religious competency/literacy?