Multi-faith Religious Education Research Articles

The travail of multi-faith religious education in Britain

The purpose of this article is to consider the post-confessional history of religious education in Britain, that is, multi-faith religious education, which is the form of religious education that succeeded confessional religious education, and to enquire why (and in what ways) it is in such a ‘lamentable’ state. The focus is on weaknesses rather than strengths, for it is weaknesses that are increasingly becoming apparent and increasingly discussed. Attention is given both to the commitments and ideas that have shaped the changing character of multi-faith religious education over the last fifty years and to identified weaknesses, as revealed in observational research in classrooms and in pupil surveys.

Religion and worldviews education and the paradox of inclusivity

Paradoxes of inclusivity occur when attempts at inclusivity clash with the exclusive claims of some of the positions they seek to accommodate. In this article I identify and consider how such a paradox manifests in multi-faith religious education pedagogies—what I call the ‘paradox of interreligious inclusivity’ or ‘PIRI’, for short. After presenting some relevant and illuminating examples, I consider PIRI in regard to proposals in England for ‘religion and worldviews education’. By defining the conceptual problem at the root of challenges posed by such an innovation and pedagogical models more generally, I suggest greater recognition of the deep implications of PIRI are essential in any context when educators seek to include those of all religions and those of none in programmes of religious education.

Teaching Religion in a Secular Swedish School System

Following my two-month research as an international Ugandan researcher in Sweden, I present an argument that the introduction of a non-confessional Religious Education in Sweden in 1919 and an objective and neutral education since 1962 had a key intention of de-linking teaching of religion from religious foundation bodies, in particular, the dominant Church of Sweden (Lutheran) and rendering it educational instead of confessional. In this paper, I will argue that, despite the subsequent birth of a secular Swedish society and the onset of a multicultural society, there was - and there continues to be a justification for the teaching of religion in schools. In my interview with two experts on Religious Education from the National Agency of Education, two teachers of Religious Education and eight students, they all responded positively to the question of the continued teaching of religion in secular Swedish society. However, in the paper, I will argue that there was or there is an inability of the curriculum and the teachers in some respects to do justice to the integrity of different religions. Based on earlier research and interviews, I’ll argue that despite the good intentions of having a neutral and objective multi-faith Religious Education (RE) curriculum in place, some textbooks and teachers’ approaches raise questions on fairness to all religions. In particular, the interviews indicate that there are signs of “Immigrophobia” among some students, teachers and sections of the community. Notwithstanding, I will argue that since the findings reveal an overwhelming support for multi-faith RE by a secular population and being mindful of the increased multi-cultural society and signs of Immigrophobia6, it is imperative that a careful choice of text-books, especially on religions, other than Christianity, is done and special attention given to RE teachers to address the concept of fairness to all religions.

Pola Asuh Ibu dalam Pendidikan Religius Anak

The family has a very important role, because the family as the first place the creation of personality and family is the best field in seeding values the value of religious education for children. The role of a mother is so vital in the religious education of children, for a mother to be a figure close to the child in terms of both social and emotional. This study aims to describe how the role of a mother figure in a multi-faith religious education of rural children. This study uses qualitative-phenomenological method. Subject of research are three families. Data was collected by purposive sampling. The results showed the role of a mother multi Religion in the religious education of children in the village Umbulsari there are four stages, namely: a) Educate with etiquette habituation and Training (Parenting), b) Educate the ketauladanan, c) Educate with advice, and d) Educate with supervision

Decolonizing Religious Education to Enhance Sustainable Development in Africa: Evidence from Literature

Decolonizing knowledge is the process of questioning, changing and transforming imposed theories and interpretations brought about by colonial systems. In particular, decolonizing Religious Education involves challenging religious systems and structures imposed by colonial masters. During the colonial period, religion was used as a tool of 'racism', 'apartheid' ‘indoctrination’, ‘evangelisation’ and ‘exploitation’, yet it is a subject that acknowledges and respects the diversity of African beliefs and culture. By decolonizing the Religious Education curriculum, the subject is likely to become a powerful tool for promoting sustainable development in Africa. In this paper, I argue that decolonized Religious Education is likely to contribute to development in Africa in a variety of ways; resolving conflict and peacebuilding, management and conservation of natural resources, in addition to promoting appropriate religious beliefs and moral values. I conclude this paper by presenting a rationale for the inclusion of a multi-faith Religious Education curriculum in Kenya, while decolonizing Religious Education pedagogical approaches, in order to actualise Kenya's Vision 2030 and Big Four Agenda of the Jubilee Government

RELIGION AND VALUES: WHAT WENT WRONG?

In this paper it is argued that ’transmission teaching’ an educational model of the all-knowing teacher who imparts religious values, should be replaced by a model in which dialogue is central. Support for such a contention is found in the works of John Colenso, post-colonial developments in religious education in sub-Saharan Africa and in the rise of ‘people’s education’ in South Africa. A consequence of the emphasis on dialogue for religious education is that this must include, at the very least, interaction with all the religious traditions to be found in the country. The theological problem that some might have in accepting any idea of multi-faith religious education is overcome by recognition of the difference between catechism which is the responsibility of the church and religious education which is more properly in the hands of those accountable to the community as a whole.

Toward the Implementation of a Multifaith Approach in Religious Education: A Phenomenological Guide

This study explores phenomenology of religion as a potential guide for the implementation of a multifaith religious education curriculum in Zimbabwe. The study relies on document analysis, in particular the 1999 Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training report, the Curriculum Framework for Primary and Secondary Education (2015–2022), and literature on multifaith religious education and phenomenology of religion. While these documents recommend the adoption of a multifaith approach in religious education, they are silent on the methodological framework. As such, I posit that principles of phenomenology of religion are a potential guiding framework for teachers to effectively engage multifaith syllabi.

Mapping the moral assumptions of multi-faith religious education

ABSTRACT When Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales transitioned from Christian confessionalism to a multi-faith approach in the latter half of the twentieth century, the subject’s moral aims were reasserted. In this article, we explore the moral assumptions of this transformation and map some of their connections to other theological and ethical ideas. Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s metaphor of a rhizome, we make two novel contributions to scholarship in this regard. First, through some salient examples we show the connections between the moral aims of multi-faith RE and the assumptions of Kantian moral religion. The second contribution, building on this analysis, identifies three moral justifications of multi-faith RE: universalist (founded on assumptions of moral universals across religions), vicarious (the support of a religious worldview by using other religions’ moral teachings) and instrumentalist (a moral justification based on the supposed extrinsic benefits of studying religions). We then go onto consider how these assumptions may differ from the moral commitments of the religions they appropriate, suggesting they disrupt and recombine theocentric concepts into pedagogic ones.

Theology in multi-faith Religious Education: a taboo to be broken?

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the place of ‘theology’ in multi-faith Religious Education (RE) in English schools without a religious affiliation, highlighting reasons for its sometimes taboo-status, particularly since the emergence of Ninian Smart’s phenomenological approach to Religious Studies in the late 1960s. The article explores a diversity of definitions of theology within specific professional and ecclesiastical discourses, and recasts recent debates by focusing not on whether theology and theological inquiry should contribute to so-called 'non-confessional' RE, but on how different forms of theology and theological inquiry might do so legitimately. In the process, the article challenges binary oppositions that have traditionally distinguished the disciplines of Theology from Religious Studies, and argues in favour of the application of various forms of theology and theological inquiry within a critical, dialogic and inquiry-led approach to multi-faith RE. What this might mean in practice is discussed with regard to three concepts: positionality, empathy and critique. Ultimately, multi-faith RE is characterised as occupying a liminal space betwixt and between disciplinary, interpretative and methodological perspectives involved in the study of religion(s) and worldview(s).

Pedagogical Bricoleurs and Bricolage Researchers: The case of Religious Education

ABSTRACTThis article reconceptualises school teachers and pupils respectively as ‘pedagogical bricoleurs’ and ‘bricolage researchers’ who utilise a multiplicity of theories, concepts, methodologies and pedagogies in teaching and/or researching. This reconceptualisation is based on a coalescence of generic curricular and pedagogical principles promoting dialogic, critical and enquiry-based learning. Innovative proposals for reconceptualising the aims, contents and methods of multi-faith Religious Education in English state-maintained schools without a religious affiliation are described, so as to provide an instance of and occasion for the implications of these theories and concepts of learning. With the aim of initiating pupils into the communities of academic enquiry concerned with theology and religious studies, the ‘RE-searchers approach’ to multi-faith Religious Education in primary schools (5–11 year olds) is cited as a highly innovative means of converting these curricular and pedagogical principles and proposals into practical classroom procedures. These procedures are characterised by multi-, inter- and supra-disciplinarity; notions of eclecticism, emergence, flexibility and plurality; and theoretical and conceptual complexity, contestation and context-dependence.

Linguistic and Religious Diversity and Inclusivity in the Botswana School Curriculum

Botswana, an African country, is characterized by linguistic and religious diversity. To this end, the paper assesses the extent to which the school curriculum accommodates and reflects the country’s linguistic and religious diversity. The paper argues that whilst Botswana’s Vision 2016 calls on the education system to accommodate linguistic diversity, the curriculum does not do so. Through the pursuit of a linguistic assimilation policy, the education system promotes and recognizes only one local language (Setswana), leaving other local languages out of the curriculum. In contrast, the curriculum houses a multi-faith religious education. This brand of religious education is an attempt to accommodate the religious diversity that exists in Botswana. Previously, schools had a mono-faith religious education syllabus. The multi-faith syllabus is considered to be a meaningful way of enabling learners to appreciate religious diversity.

Fulfilling Article 29:1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child—the Aims of Education—through Religious Education

Abstract This article examines whether or not the ubiquitous model of religious education (i.e., non-confessional multifaith religious education (re)) in state schools in Great Britain is capable of fulfilling the aims of education articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (uncrc). It maintains that to the degree that this re model aims to promote critical, rational, and cognitive understanding of religion, it seeks to facilitate the development of children’s mental abilities. It also contends that to the extent that re curriculum contents mirror the theistic worldviews and non-theistic ideologies identified within its pluralistic social order, this curriculum subject aims to foster children’s development of respect for: human rights and fundamental freedoms; individual identity, affiliation, cultural diversity and pluralism; mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence; and, the natural environment. In these respects, re in state schools in Great Britain aspires to fulfil the educational aims enunciated in the uncrc.

Initiating Children into Hermeneutical Discourses in Religious Education

In response to previous articles in this journal by Rachel Cope and Julian Stern, and using an example of classroom practice, this article promotes a form of multi-faith religious education in which primary-school pupils (age 5–11) are re-conceived as joint researchers working alongside their teachers, through processes of imaginative and empathetic dialogue, to investigate the effectiveness of different methodologies and methods of studying religion(s). This pedagogical strategy seeks to teach pupils the disciplinary knowledge and skills associated with the communities of academic practice concerned with theological and religious studies, and more specifically to initiate them into the hermeneutical discourses which underlie theological and religious research and teaching. Moreover, it is argued that some of the suggested practices could be applied to the study of spirituality in any context and could contribute to the spiritual development of participants.

Developments in religious studies: towards a dialogue with religious education

The early days of non-confessional, multi-faith religious education in Britain benefitted from close collaboration between academics in universities, teacher educators and teachers. This article attempts to initiate a revival of such a dialogue, by summarizing some developments in religious studies at university level and suggesting possible implications for religious education in schools. After a brief retrospective of phenomenological and ethnographic approaches in religious studies and religious education, it examines feminist, queer and postcolonial theory as well as the changing religious landscape in contemporary Britain and the wider world. Themes emerging from this analysis prompt the following proposals: to take an anti-essentialist approach to ‘religion’ and ‘religions’; to stress diversity within and between traditions; to recognise complexity and change in religion and society; to acknowledge both local and global contexts; to focus on real people and seldom-heard voices; and to criticize dominant discourses, whether as patriarchal, heteronormative or colonialist.

Ethnic diversity, Christian hegemony and the emergence of multi-faith religious education in the 1970s

1This article provides a detailed reconstruction of the processes leading to the formation of the widely influential Birmingham Agreed Syllabus of Religious Instruction (1975). This is contextualised within one of the most significant periods in the history of race relations in the United Kingdom. The authors discuss how this syllabus, and other landmark reforms in religious education (RE) in English schools from the late 1960s, responded to ethnic diversity by promoting supposedly culturally pluralist, multi-faith approaches to RE, which were subsequently perceived as eroding the Christian foundations of British/English national identity. They argue that the vilification of these curriculum reforms by culturally conservative critics was in fact based on an erroneous assessment of the extent to which these renounced the Christian hegemony of RE. They also critique the assumption that the religious clauses of the 1988 Education Reform Act represented a simple transition from culturally pluralist to assimilationist policies for the subject. 1

Children's rights and religious education in state-funded schools: an international human rights perspective

The issue of whether and how religion should be taught in state-funded schools in secular, liberal, democratic, pluralistic and post modern societies remains crucially important. Given the sustained, dominant presence of religion in the public sphere, the need for children to possess in-depth knowledge and critical understanding of the role of religion in today's world cannot be overemphasised. In the same manner, the need to safeguard children from being subjected to indoctrination through religious education (RE) programmes offered in schools cannot be underestimated. Using international human rights frameworks and the relevant case law in assessing the different pedagogical approaches to RE, this article maintains that non-confessional multifaith RE – given its focus on conveying the body of knowledge to children in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner, without indoctrination – is the pedagogical model which best conforms to the principles of international human rights law. It is, therefore, the pedagogical approach to RE which international human rights frameworks, the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR), and the United Nations Human Rights Committee (the UNHRC) unreservedly endorse for deployment in state-funded schools.

Rethinking the Religious Education Curricula in Nigerian Schools

This article traces the historical background to the polarised religious education (RE) curricula in Nigerian primary and secondary schools, highlighting some post-colonial interventions and backlashes. Usingregional treaties and international human rights frameworks, this articleconsiders the probable justifications for deploying the confessional model of RE, accentuating the possible violations of the principles of religious freedom necessitated by the deployment of the confessional pedagogical model in Nigeria’s publicly funded schools. In consonance with contemporary trends in RE in Europe, Australia, Canada and South Africa, to mention a few, this article advocates the substitution of the currently deployed confessional, monoreligious education curricula with a non-confessional, multifaith RE curriculum. In emphasizing the potential benefits of non-confessional, multifaith RE, this article highlights how this model of RE respects, protects and fulfills the rights of the child which are unequivocally articulated in regional treaties and international human rights law. The article finally draws attention to strategies requisite for implementing non-confessional, multifaith RE in Nigeria’s publicly funded primary and secondary schools.

Multi-faith Religious Education in Botswana1

This article presents a historical approach to the multi-faith Religious Education introduced at the junior secondary level in Botswana in 1996. The article begins by examining the Christian confessional approach introduced during the missionary era and notes that despite various forms of earlier government opposition the Christian syllabus became popular again in the 1970s. In 1993, a movement toward a multi-faith syllabus gained momentum. Some of the background to this is given including the influence of British experience. This new syllabus is then subjected to some critique. An attempt to classify the new syllabus' methodology is also provided. A discussion of the public and religious groups' response to the multi-faith syllabus follows. Finally, through a small survey, views of teachers (n = 48) on the new syllabus are recorded and discussed and the overall outcome appears positive. The conclusion is that the Botswana multi-faith syllabus, with adjustments, is relevant to the educational needs of a homogenous society. 1I thank my students for their assistance in the teachers' survey and to my colleagues in the Religious Education Department at Molepolole College of Education for their comments and input.

World Religions and the Northern Ireland Curriculum

The aim of this article is to assess the arguments for and against the inclusion of a study of world religions within the religious education provision of schools in Northern Ireland. The point of departure for our discussion is the Inter-Faith Forum's recent claim that exclusively Christian content may be in breach of equality and human rights legislation. It is concluded that there should be teaching about world religions but that multi-faith religious education of the form espoused in England and Wales, whereby a wide range of religions is covered, is inappropriate to the Northern Irish educational and cultural context.

Justification and Multifaith Religious Education

Justification and Multifaith Religious Education