INTERFAITH DIALOGUE IN THE CLASSROOM

Abstract

This chapter examines where Religious Education (RE) and its subject matter sit in relation to interest in classroom dialogue. The national non-statutory guidance for RE specifies that students learning experience include reflection on the significance of inter faith dialogue, but more attention could be given to the way the principles of inter faith dialogue might translate into classroom practice and a dialogical RE. One way in which inter faith dialogue often differs from dialogic pedagogies is the attention it gives to the stability of practitioners' religious identity and beliefs. Inter faith dialogue in RE involves valuing rather than challenging pupils' personal faith; it gives them the opportunity to learn about the personal faith of others. Inter faith dialogue in RE values the communal experience of religion, witnesses to the possibility of interreligious cooperation and harmony in society and uses the religious affiliations of pupils in class as bridges to further learning about different religions.