Religious Education in Italy and England. Comparative Perspective on School Textbooks and Teaching Practices (original) (raw)
Related papers
1998
This study is concerned with the comparison of religious education in Turkey and England with special reference to the teaching of Islam in secondary state schools. It aims to realise the following two main objectives in terms of secondary school textbooks: 1. To indicate to what extent the adoption of a confessional or non-confessional approach in religious education makes an impact on the teaching of religion. 2. To describe and compare the similarities and differences in the teaching of Islam in state schools and their connection with broader educational policy in Turkey and England. . It begins with an investigation of historical developments in religious education in Turkey and England, then turns to examine different aspects of the presentation of Islam in terms of selected textbooks from the two countries. The thesis concludes with a presentation of the findings and contribution of this research. It is observed that having a confessional or non-confessional approach in religi...
Editorial: Religion, Education, and the Challenges of Contemporary Societies
CEPS Journal, 2019
Religions have had, and still have, a critical role in shaping the world in which we live. As an ideology, they play a vital role in shaping world politics. In recent decades, we have been witnessing a kind of revival of religion and its re-entry into the public sphere. The context of modern globalisation in tandem with various political, economic, and ecological crises makes Western societies increasingly susceptible to influxes of heterogeneous groups of migrants, who bring with them cultural and religious traditions that are often markedly different from those of the majority of the local populations. The contrast between historically established religious practices and relatively newly established religions , combined with power struggles over the new public role of religion in some countries (especially evident in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe), is giving rise to complex social challenges, some of which are also manifested in the field of public education. The present issue of CEPS Journal systematically addresses these challenges. The growing pluralisation of European societies is bringing forth some old questions and opening up new dilemmas. The changing circumstances are probably not eroding the foundations of the modern public school laid during the Enlightenment period; the public school's commitment to secularity and neutrality (while also allowing for private schools with religious or other kinds of worldview affiliation) continues to remain at the core of its purpose in the 21 st century. However, some social developments and conflicts of the recent past are undoubtedly opening, repeating and/or worsening a number of difficult questions about the practical application of foundational democratic principles in specific social contexts of individual societies and nation-states. The old, fundamental question of the presence of religion-related content in school curricula has long been morphed into much more than the simple question of confessional religious instruction (as in catechesis) in public schools. When we discuss religion-related content in the public school today, we also-if not mostly-talk about the different forms of non-confessional education about religion(s). In the contemporary European context, which is marred by growing Islamophobia and the related growth of intolerant and radically exclusionist political (and other) extremisms, the need for a systematic critical introduction of pupils to the complex social and cultural phenomenon that is religion (with all its diversity in today's world) is particularly evident.
Preface: Religious Education at Schools in Europe
Religious Education at Schools in Europe, 2014
At a time when educational issues are increasingly determining social and political discourse and major reforms of the education system are being discussed and implemented, and a time when migration has become a significant phenomenon, contributing to changes in the religious landscape of the European continent, it is highly appropriate to focus our attention on the concrete situation regarding religious education (RE) in Europe. Of course, the subject area is conceived and organised in different ways across the continent, including the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. With few exceptions, religious education has been established as a specific subject in publicly funded schools, while, in a few cases, studies of religion are included as a dimension of other parts of the curriculum. At the same time, it is a subject area that is undergoing considerable change. (In this series, authors use the term "religious education" in a variety of ways, partly according to the history of their own education systems). Beyond the all-important tasks of taking stock and making international comparisons, the aim in this series of books is to create a foundation for further action in the field of education, especially with regard to interfaith expertise. In stark contrast to a move in the direction of religion being a "private matter" and towards "religion-free schools", supranational organisations are, for the first time in Europe, addressing issues relating to religion and education. While 9/11 may be seen as the triggering event here, there are wider reasons for such a development. When the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) deals with the issue of religion and belief in education within the scope of its programme "Tolerance and Non-Discrimination", the topic has obviously become an important one for the future of Europe and for security and cooperation on the continent. In their Toledo Guiding Principles (OSCE 2007), the OSCE sees teaching about religions and beliefs as part of a high-quality education system that expands pupils' horizons, makes the complexity of religions and world views comprehensible for pupils in an interdisciplinary way, and provides them with suitable information and skills to develop an impartial
Islam in Education in European Countries: Pedagogical Concepts and Empirical Findings
Münster, New York, München & Berlin: Waxmann, 2009
The relation between Muslims and the public educational system in Europe are often characterised by tensions. There is still often a perceived incommensurability between the claims of individual Muslims or Muslim communities and the aims of public education in Europe. The often recent nature of Islam in Europe, the internal diversity of Muslim communities, the lack of a centralized, hierarchical church like structure -different arguments are used to justified a discriminatory treatment of one of the largest faith communities in Europe. Nevertheless, this book illustrates that throughout Europe there are already rich and diverse experiences of how to integrate Islam into the national and regional school systems, particularly in primary, but also in secondary education. Accordingly, the book provides in-depth analyses of the ways in which Islam is taught today in some regions of Spain, Germany, Netherlands, France and England. These analyses are paralleled by empirical findings concerning the role of religion in the life of young Muslims, their views concerning religion in school and the impact of religion in education and in society.
CEPS Journal, 2019
• This article critically reviews the European religious education landscape and argues that a religious notion of religion prevails in most models, not only in confessional RE but also in integrative models and even in so-called alternative subjects that are compulsory for pupils who do not take part in confessional RE. Thus, schools in Europe provide hardly any chance for pupils to acquire a secular perspective on religion and religious diversity, based on a non-theological study of religion. Furthermore, the explicitly or implicitly religious character, particularly of integrative approaches or obligatory alternative subjects to confessional RE, is frequently hidden or played down. Building on analyses of separative (Germany) and integrative (Nor-way, England) models of RE, the article argues that carefully distinguishing between religious and secular approaches to religion in school is a serious human right's issue, not least because only secular approaches may be compulsory. The predominant religious framing of religion-that is always linked to confirming the exceptional position of Christianity among the religions in REin combination with an actual lack of secular alternatives creates a climate of what may be called 'small 'i' indoctrination' , i.e., an unquestioned discursive hegemony of a particular (Christian) notion of religion as a frame of reference for almost all education about religion, which is, furthermore, often represented as if it constituted not a particular religious view of religion , but a kind of universal perspective on religion. This results in highly problematic conceptualisations, both of religion in general and individual religions-most visibly in stereotyping 'other' religions, that are not complemented with an unbiased secular perspective. Thus, the subject matter religion is widely exempted from the secular approach to education in European schools, while a particular religious perspective on religion is promoted, even in models that are designed for all pupils of a religiously heterogeneous class.
Religion and the modern education
Academicus : International Scientific Journal, 2023
The purpose of the research is to solve the paradox of religion integration in education, by the new balance between religion, philosophy and science, during the post communism transition. In the field of thinking, the process is the transition from ideology to integral thinking. It is realized through the re-evaluation of the topics of the integration of religion, transitology and integral though, education, inclusiveness, solidarity, new laicity and new secularity. In the philosophical sense, integration is the objective process of being developed. This is understood as a return to identity towards a universal being. Marriages with different religions and keeping two names (Christian and Muslim) are natural phenomena among Albanians. In Albania, there are in the family and tribe people with Christian and Muslim religions individuals with two names, Christian and Muslim: Kristo and Muhamed. Albanians have lived in peaceful symbiosis with the Slavs in the centuries of the latter's influx into Albanian lands. They have also lived peacefully with other neighbors, Greeks or Romans. This is even though the neighbors have not always been peaceful with the Albanians.