Showing papers on "Religious education published in 2000"

Egypt's National Education Debate.

Abstract: This study examines the vigorous dialectic presently occurring between intellectuals, religious leaders and politicians trying to define the appropriate role of Islam in education in Egypt. The study highlights the ideological disjunction between a small but powerful elite who are the 'gatekeepers' of education policy and a polity that is calling for a greater infusion of Islamic instruction in the national education system. This study illustrates the challenges of Egypt's policy-makers in sustaining an education system with goals that are interpreted by many to be inconsistent, contradictory or counter to the collective socio-religious prerogatives of the society at large.

Negotiating Identity: Catholic Higher Education Since 1960

Abstract: An account of Catholic higher education in America since 1960. Alice Gallin retells the story of Catholic educators' latter-day attempts to stand with one foot in the Church and the other in secular culture -showing that she believes that the boat has never drifted too far from the dock.

Handbook of Research on Catholic Education

Abstract: Preface Selected Church Documents: The Organization of Centralized Authority in Catholic Educational Administration by Ronald J. Nuzzi The Philosophy of Catholic Education by Ellis A. Joseph Spirituality and Religious Education by Ronald J. Nuzzi Curriculum and Instruction in Catholic Schools by Robert B. Williams Research on Administration, Leadership, and Governance by Mary Peter Traviss A Role Analysis Based on Church Documents, Dissertations, and Recent Research by Gini Shimabukuro Guidance and Counseling in Catholic Schools by Patricia J. Polanski and Thomas W. Rueth Enrollment in Catholic Schools in the United States by Jessica Greene and Joseph M. O'Keefe Parenting and Child Development: Exploring the Links with Children's Social, Moral, and Cognitive Competence by James M. Frabutt Pluralism and Public Policy: Catholic Schools in the United States by Dale McDonald Catholic School Finance: A Review of Research by Barabra M. DeLuca Catholic Schools and the Law: An Overview by Charles J. Russo Research on Catholic School Effectiveness: An Overview by Bruno V. Munno and Heather Graham Index

Religion and national identity in Greek education

Abstract: Religion has been an important element in the shaping of collective identities in Europe in the past. In some cases, for example in Southern and Eastern Europe, religious identities have been associated with the emergence of national awareness and nationalism. This paper argues that in many European countries religion continues to be a key component of identity politics, exercised by the state through education. This process is examined with regard to educational policies and knowledge control in the context of the Greek educational system. It is argued that, in Greece, religious instruction extends far beyond the religious education curriculum, a fact that has certain implications for the secularist character of education, for the construction of dominant identities and for social exclusion practices.

Religious Diversity in Schools: the Muslim Headscarf Controversy and Beyond

Abstract: The author studies the growth of religious pluralism in state schools through the case of Muslim students and their wish to express their religious affiliation. Two problems, symptomatic yet different, are highlighted. In France, wearing the Islamic headscarf in school resulted in dress code and discipline problems, with its underlying symbolism causing widespread arguments about laicite, religious pluralism and integration. The headscarf was only a minor problem in Britain, where the debate over the state funding of Islamic schools was focused primarily on discrimination and religious education within the context of British ethnic and race relations. The data analyzed consist of over 1000 press articles published from 1989 to 1999 by major French and British daily newspapers.

Aporism and Critical Mathematics Education

Abstract: A thought experiment Imagine yourself back in the Middle Ages joining a conference on religious education. In the dim light of the conference centre, we are listening to many interesting lectures. One lecturer, who happens to come from France, makes an exegesis of the teaching of the Holy Trinity. He has investigated the sources of the Holy Writ and has arrived at new conclusions concerning the basic structure of the Trinity. He suggests that the curriculum in religious education, including the teaching of how to pray, should be changed in accordance with his findings. Instead of relating to a patchwork of information about the Trinity, the prayers can be categorised into simple structures, and a few basic prayers can serve as 'mother structures' in the development of all sorts of advanced praying. To change the curriculum in accordance with this insight would mean that children become better equipped for further education, which naturally means further praying. Another lecturer has found it possible to interpret the basic concepts expressing the structure of the Trinity in a way comprehensible to every child, independent of the stage of the child's intellectual development. This lecturer has obviously already been listening to the first one. Other lecturers announce that they have produced textbooks in accordance with these new ideas about how to teach the Holy Trinity. However, critical opinions are voiced. Why not listen to the way children already produce their own simple prayers? Children are already preoccupied with praying! The only thing needed is to push the children smoothly in the direction of praying for the real Trinity. In this way, the teaching of the Holy Trinity can be based on children's own prayers with which they are familiar. This suggestion is supported by scholars not living in the metropolis hosting the conference. They explain that in their country they have observed many sorts of old and wellestablished prayers. Long before praying for the Holy Trinity was institutionalised people have been praying, and in many respects these old prayers anticipate praying for the Holy Trinity. The foreign scholars suggest that the religious curriculum should take into consideration these ethnoprayers. Using these as the basis, learning can be directed towards the paradigmatic prayers for the Holy Trinity. But why, in fact, prefer some prayers to others? Why stick to the old paradigm? All prayers might be equal. During the happy hour of the conference somebody raises the following questions. Why this concern for religious education? Why teach children to memorise prayers? What are the social and political functions of teaching everybody to pray? What is the purpose? Why not discuss the social function of religious education? These questions might show the voice of critical religious education. [2]

Should a Question on ‘Religion’ be Asked in the 2001 British Census? A Public Policy Case in Favour

Abstract: For the first time since the voluntary census in 1851, a question on religion will be asked in the 2001 Census for England and Wales and for Scotland. The justification given in the White Paper is that the information will enhance output from the ethnicity question, especially for groups originating from the Indian subcontinent. The decision has attracted criticism on the grounds that religion is a private and sensitive matter not suitable for a census and that the information yielded by the question will be of limited or no value. This paper contends that a question on religion should be asked and presents the main arguments in favour. In addition to enabling ethnic minority subgroups to be identified, it will provide counts for groups like Muslims and Jews that are currently invisible in ethnicity classifications. Information on religions will meet government needs arising from the increasing involvement of faith communities as collaborators in urban regeneration and health improvement and statutory requirements relating to such matters as standing advisory councils on religious education and local authority obligations under the Children Act 1989. It will also provide an evidence base for facilitating the identification of discrimination on religious grounds. However, the utility of the category ‘Christian’ in the question for England and Wales—in contrast to the broad subdivisions of Christianity in the Scotland question—is questioned, given that for some ethnic groups ‘Catholic’ and ‘Protestant’ are important cultural markers of difference. These developments merit critical review by professionals and the wider society.

Bible Reading and Nonsectarian Schooling: The Failure of Religious Instruction in Nineteenth-Century Public Education

Abstract: In the late 1880s Catholic taxpayers in the city of Edgerton, Wisconsin, sued the local school district, asking that teachers in the public schools discontinue the practice of reading selections from the Bible each day. In pressing their case before the Wisconsin supreme court, they argued successfully that Bible reading violated Article 10, Section 3, of the state constitution, which prohibited "sectarian instruction" in the district schools of the state. Proponents of Bible reading in Edgerton sought to counter this argument by raising the issue of legislative intention. Alleging that the practice had continued to prevail "generally" after the adoption of the state constitution, they reasoned that the constitution's framers surely had not meant to prohibit it. Justice William P. Lyon, however, in an observation that merits special attention, rejoined: "we must be permitted to doubt whether the practice [of Bible reading] was ever a general one in the district schools of the state. We are quite confident that it is not so at the present time."' Easily the most neglected issue in the endless discussions about religion in American public schools is the historical question: What constituted general practice in the multitude of school districts across the nation? In contemporary debate, opposing sides seem to agree that the twin Supreme Court cases of Engel v. Vitale, which in 1962 outlawed public school prayer, and Abington School District v. Schempp, which proscribed Bible reading in those schools the following year, overturned practices of classroom religion that had been inscribed in public school systems since the early nineteenth century. Predictably, those who seek restoration of prayer and Bible reading refer nostalgically to allegedly hoary practices "with deep roots in the

Religious Terms and Attitudes in the Classroom (Part 2)

Abstract: Part 1 of this article (BJRE 22(2), 81‐90) reported on research involving a survey of 2,879 Year 9 pupils in 22 schools in the maintained sector in England and Wales in three different English local education authorities. The research indicated the confusion that arises in pupils’ minds when more than four world religions are studied in religious education lessons. This confusion is particularly noticeable where a mixture of methods of grouping religious material is employed. Part 2 deals with the attitude to different religions that are associated with different approaches to the content of teaching. It shows that the systematic approach to religions is associated with more favourable attitudes to religions than thematic or mixed approaches. Since the systematic approach to religion in the classroom was also associated with less pupil confusion, it makes sense to suggest this method as the best one for future use.

Insights from practice

Abstract: This essay, in discussing religious education in the Netherlands, takes its starting point in the dual Dutch educational system of denominational private schools and public state schools. For several reasons, the stringent dividing line between religiously neutral state schools and religious or denominational schools is no longer defensible. On the basis of an empirical as well as a normative line of thought, the author argues for multireligious schools. Such schools would meet the demand for coherence‐‐and, thus, particularism‐‐ by stressing the need for a stable primary‐ and secondary‐school culture, and at the same time would address the plurality of social, cultural, and religious traditions among students.

The Political Construction of the ‘Whole Curriculum’

Abstract: This article focuses upon the conflicts which emerged between powerful interest groups in determining the shape of the curriculum during 1988 and 1989. It explores the ideological and political processes of developing what became known as the 'whole curriculum', that is, the 'basic curriculum' of the National Curriculum and religious education, and the cross-curricular themes, skills and dimensions. Specifically, it explores the micro-political educational and bureaucratic tensions between politicians, Department of Education and Science civil servants and National Curriculum Council professional officers within what have been called the 'context to influence' and the 'context of text production'.

Poland ten years after: the church

Abstract: Ten years after the collapse of communist rule, church-state relations in Poland present a mixed picture. On the one hand, the Roman Catholic church continues to enjoy a privileged position in the country and has achieved most of its cherished goals. On the other hand, its very success carried with it seeds of its future decline. This was particularly true in several areas where the church's aggressive and arrogant behavior has proved counter productive: religious education, anti-abortion legislation, Christian values in mass media, antisemitism, murky church finances, the concordat with the Holy See, and the debate on the new constitution. As a result, there has been a steady decline in popular support for the church which itself has developed some serious rifts in its supposedly united posture. It may be hypothesized that the power and influence of the church actually peaked in the early 1990s and that, having absorbed some of the lessons from its decline, its future policies may well be less triumphalist and controversial, and more accommodating.

Ethno-Religious Mobilisation and Citizenship Discourse in the People's Republic of China

Abstract: In the post-Cold War world, 'identity politics' is seen by many as posing the greatest threat to peace and political institutions, liberal or otherwise. In light of the carnage of Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda and former Soviet republics, cultural identity politics would seem to be a politics, or antipolitics, of the most virulent and savage sort. Yet research conducted among three Chinese minority nationalities - the Dai, Bai and Muslim Hui of Yunnan Province - reveals that the relationship between cultural activism and minority nationalist sentiment is not always so clear-cut. I show that such activism, which includes linguistic promotion and religious education, can in fact express claims derived from a national political identity, a conception of minority membership in the Chinese national community. Certain instances of minority cultural activism are efforts to put teeth into the party-state's promises of autonomy and to reject the stereotype of shaoshu minzu as backward and uncivilised. Such activism is th...

'Cultural Shift': The case of Jewish religious education in Israel

Abstract: This study explores the unique situation of the Israeli-Jewish education system in Israel, which has developed different educational streams mainly according to religious differences. It highlights the changes in the status of the cultural stands of secular and religious Jewish groups in the course of the twentieth century. The secular majority has been willing to fund separate autonomous religious schools. Remarkably, the lower state intervention in the schools, the higher the level of funding. Thus, the ultra-orthodox schools have enjoyed full funding together with the greatest autonomy. Moreover, the nonautonomous secular state schools have also practiced religious rituals, without any clear guidance by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The implications of full autonomy and funding of the ultra-orthodox schools is discussed, by way of 'critical sociology of education', with emphasis on the 'cultural shift', the cultural advance of the religious groups, and 'cultural surrender' of the secular group.

From Confucian Master Teacher to Freirian Mutual Learner: Challenges in Pedagogical Practice and Religious Education.

Abstract: This article addresses the dilemma faced by religious and theological educators committed to a feminist, liberative pedagogy when teaching learners in the church whose Confucian upbringing has socialized them into different means of instruction. After a brief sketch of the Confucian ethos that permeates the life of such persons and communities in present‐day North America, the article examines the pedagogical practices of Confucius/Kongzi, traces the historical development of Confucianism, and suggests how we might live and teach in the tension of what appears to be two extremes of pedagogical practice. At fifteen 1 set my heart on learning; at thirty I firmly took my stand; ... At seventy 1 followed my heart's desire without overstepping the boundaries of right. —Analects 2:4 Learning something and practicing it often—is this not a delight? —Analects 1:1 Whenever three persons walk together, there is sure to be a teacher for me. —Analects 7:22 I learn without flagging and teach without growing w...

Religious Education in a Multicultural Society

Abstract: This paper begins with a presentation of three concepts of pluralism found in the works of Francois Lyotard, Jurgen Habermas and Charles Taylor respectively. These concepts are compared and evaluated and their implications for religious education in a multicultural society are developed. On the basis of Taylor's “process of encounter” three strategies for religious education are proposed: adopt new theologies of dialogue; prove its dialogical character by turning productively to the world of the pupils, and include a relativizing self-examination in the treatment of the Christian religion.

American racism: the null curriculum in religious education

Abstract: Religious educators, in neglecting to account for race in their theories, have ignored the historical legacy of institutional racism. In fact, religious education has demonstrated an inadequate response to race and racism throughout its history. As evidenced by slavery and immigration history in the United States, race must be seen as a sociohistorical and legal construction. Its influence goes beyond the assimilationist ideology taught in early Methodist curricula. The article suggests that the Bible can be a rich multicultural curriculum resource because of its positive treatment of Africans.

Intergenerational and Homogeneous-Age Education: Mutually Exclusive Strategies for Faith Communities?.

Abstract: Interest in intergenerational educational strategies in faith communities raises the question of their relationship to the prevalent homogeneous‐age group processes. This concern is addressed by considering the validity of generational differentiation, by answering two commonly expressed concerns about intergenerational education, and by examining the relationship of developmental theory to education. The conclusion drawn is that intergenerational and homogeneous‐age group educational strategies in faith communities should be considered complementary, but with the intergenerational approach taking primacy over the age‐segregated approach

Multireligious Education ‐ An Option for South Africa in the New Education System 1

Abstract: In the previous political dispensation of South Africa religious education was modelled on the Christian National Education policy. After the democratic elections in 1994 many public schools in South Africa became multi‐cultural and multi‐religious. A new education model, Outcomes‐based Education, was introduced in 1997. This influenced the position and curriculum of religious education. Problematic situations surfaced in many schools where communal values and religion are regarded as non‐negotiable elements. Most of the teachers do not have skills to introduce any multi‐religious content or to facilitate multi‐cultural situations (Roux 1997). Outcomes‐based Education implies the development of skills to live meaningful lives and to respect individuals, different communities and cultures (National Department of Education 1997a). Emphasis on communal values, in order to establish an understanding and knowledge of different behaviours, religions and cultures thus become an important part of the curriculum. ...

Religious Education in Great Britain, Sweden and Russia : Presentations, Problem Inventories and Commentaries

Abstract: The Alexander I. Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Ptersburg, was asked by the Russian Ministry of Education to prepare for a non-confessional religious education within Russian po ...

Education for the Heart and Mind: Feminist Pedagogy and the Religion and Science Curriculum

Abstract: Feminist educators and theorists are stretching the boundaries of what it means to do religion and science They are also expanding the theoretical and practical frameworks through which we might present curricula in those fields In this paper, I reflect on the implications of feminist pedagogies for the interdisciplinary field of religion and science I begin with a brief discussion of feminist approaches to education and the nature of the feminist classroom as a setting for action Next, I present some theoretical and practical issues to consider when developing a feminist praxis and an antisexist curriculum This leads into a discussion of the role of language and critical reflection in the religion and science classroom, the risks associated with reflective discourse, and considerations in the use of feminist teaching tools such as small group work, journals, and portfolio assessment I conclude with a reflection on how feminist pedagogy promotes an epistemology that speaks to the hearts and minds of participants in the dialogue of religion and science

Religious attitudes and Muslim identity, with reference to Turkish university students

Abstract: The thesis explores religious attitudes and Muslim identity in Turkey from a social psychological perspective with reference to university students. Religious attitudes are explored in relation to three components: cognitive, behavioural and affective religious attitudes, whereas Muslim identity is examined through macro and micro levels, and observations. In order to investigate these issues, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed. Research hypotheses are developed on the basis of a review of secondary materials related to Islam in the Turkish context, Muslim identity and the measurement of religious attitudes. Primary data for this study are gathered through standardised questionnaires, such as the Religious Attitude Scale, in-depth interviews and observations. The techniques of psychometrics are employed for the fieldwork of this study, carried out among 1149 students in two universities in Turkey. Using sophisticated statistical analyses, test variables are operationalised and research hypotheses are tested. In doing this, a number of demographic and contextual variations, namely gender, age, family incomes, social and educational backgrounds, supplementary religious education and orientations towards both the Diyanet and cemaats, are taken into account as independent variables. Conclusions are drawn on the basis of the results of statistical analyses, as well as using qualitative inferences from in-depth interviews. The thesis also investigates the predictors of religious attitudes. Using a stepwise multiple regression analysis, between about 55% and 75% of variance in religious attitudes of Turkish university students are explained. The greatest amount of variance in religious attitudes is explained by orientation towards the Diyanet, the formal religious institution in Turkey.