Interreligious learning and teaching: unfolding layers of meaning in lived experience to inform possibilities for students in Catholic schools

Abstract

This paper explores the question, "What is the individual's experience of interreligious learning and teaching?" It utilises hermeneutic phenomenology to interpret the rich and hidden meanings of lived experiences. van Manen's (Phenomenology of practice: meaning-giving methods in phenomenological research and writing. Routledge, New York, 2014) lifeworld existentials provide a frame for guiding the exploration to uncover insights through lived relation (relationality), lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality) and lived things (materiality). Current global events have highlighted to the world the tragedy of religious intolerance in extreme forms and the need to cultivate tolerance and sensitivities towards religions and non-religious philosophies and diverse life perspectives. Investigating the phenomena of 'interreligious learning and teaching' as it is lived by individuals, offers insight into what could be one's own or another's lived experience, and how this might influence one's religious identity. Such understandings can provide a foundation for seeking out and engaging students in valuable interreligious learning and teaching experiences and pose opportunities or challenges for primary and secondary school contexts to rigorously grapple with the diverse global reality.