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Abstract
In the field of education concerning cultural diversity it has been recognized as vital to address justice in social structures. Although justifications for religious education in non-confessional contexts are heavily based on religious diversity, their advocates have paid little attention to justice and power relations. In this article, I analyse observations of five observed classroom activities on social justice designed for religious education and related pupil interviews. The participants were in the eighth and ninth grades of Finnish comprehensive school. The main question is: how do elements of informed empathy and perception of social justice emerge in interviews and RE classroom activities with Finnish lower secondary school pupils? The results show that the concept of informed empathy well describes the pupils’ emerging awareness of social justice, that pupils’ critical agency should be carefully fostered and that social justice has potential to make religious education more relevant for certain pupils.
Highlights
Developing intercultural and interfaith understanding is regarded as an important goal of religious education (RE) in state schools in open societies
I move from the second to the first part of the concept of informed empathy, connect this to social justice literacy, and explain how pupils engage with these two concepts in school RE
Parity of participation was addressed in terms of belonging, participation and their prerequisites
Summary
Developing intercultural and interfaith understanding is regarded as an important goal of religious education (RE) in state schools in open societies (see e.g. Kimanen & Kallioniemi, 2018; Sjöborg, 2013). Developing intercultural and interfaith understanding is regarded as an important goal of religious education (RE) in state schools in open societies Kimanen & Kallioniemi, 2018; Sjöborg, 2013). The approach to interfaith relationships usually stresses harmony and assumes equality between the parties of interfaith dialogue. Within intercultural education there is a strong tendency to pay attention to power relations (e.gDolby, 2012; Gorski, 2012; May & Sleeter, 2010). As RE in democratic societies contains goals like responsibility, values, empathy and mutual understanding, there is much potential for social justice. Critical approaches have not yet fully reached theorization within RE. Concerning RE, issues of justice and participation are addressed in discussions on RE’s place in citizenship and moral education. Osbeck et al (2018) have used Jones’s (2009)
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