Religious education

About: Religious education is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 9554 publications have been published within this topic receiving 65331 citations. The topic is also known as: faith-based education & RE.

Contesting Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar

Abstract: Executive SummaryFor the past few years, Myanmar's political transition has been hampered by violence between Buddhists and Muslims. A nation with an ethnically Burman and religiously Buddhist majority, the population also comprises a large minority of Muslims and members of other religions, and includes many different ethnic groups. As such, Myanmar society is complex and innately plural.While the country has struggled with a range of political and socioeconomic challenges related to the transition, the violence between religious groups has taken center stage since 2012, particularly with the rise of the 969 movement and MaBaTha (the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion). These Buddhist nationalist groups, led by Buddhist monks, claim that their purpose is to protect and promote Buddhist values and traditions in the midst of the country's transformation and as it opens up to the modern world.Leaders associated with both groups articulate a Buddhist national discourse that describes its culture, values, practices, identity, and even its very existence as threatened by foreign elements within and outside the country. They have accused Muslims-particularly those from the Rohingya ethnic community-as seeking to displace Buddhism, and they have articulated through sermons and publications anti-Muslim sentiments that are often based on rumor or mischaracterizations of Islamic teachings and objectives. These groups have also begun to advocate aggressively for a series of laws that would restrict religious freedom, and they have developed religious education curricula for "Buddhist Sunday Schools" and leveraged media-particularly social media-to advance their cause. The shift from 969's initial knee-jerk "Buy Buddhist" campaign to targeted political and legal advocacy efforts through MaBaTha reflects both the ability of those promoting Buddhist nationalism to alter their strategies in response to changing political conditions and opportunities and the emergence of new actors in the political landscape.By providing political, social, religious, and historical context to Myanmar's current situation, this paper challenges the claim that the recent violence between Buddhists and Muslims is inevitably rooted in communalism. Although nationalist movements such as 969 and MaBaTha express themselves in religious terms, they are not seeking to defend a doctrinal stance as such. Instead, they refer more to notions of Burmese Buddhist national identity and traditional ideas about the fragility of Buddhism and its teachings that have circulated within Theravada Buddhist societies for centuries.The paper examines the dimensions of Buddhist national identity in Myanmar expressed through these movements, considering their dominant narratives that justify fear and hatred, their resonance among the public, and their leaders' denial of responsibility for violence fueled by these narratives. In doing so, it acknowledges a reflexive defense against what is perceived by some to be the threat of a globally spreading Islam, as well as the motivation to preserve and promote Buddhist practice and behavior in Myanmar during a time of significant change. These overarching concerns regarding the fragility and perpetuation of Buddhism help to explain the widespread popularity of the movements, but also complicate characterizations of them as exclusively "anti-Muslim." The analysis in this paper reveals more complex motivations for the popular support of 969 or MaBaTha.The authors simate arguments for Buddhist nationalism and the rise of these movements within the history of monastic mobilization and religious/ethnic conflict in Myanmar, highlighting the ways in which current monastic political mobilization can be seen as an extension of past anti-colonial movements and rooted in traditional roles of the monastic community to defend the religion, respond to community needs, and guide political decision-makers. …

Islamic schools in three western countries: policy and procedure

Abstract: In this article, the authors compare Islamic schools in three countries: the United States, the Netherlands, and Belgium In each country, the authors take care to situate Islamic schools within the broader context of educational policy and practice In particular, the authors examine the mechanisms for funding, choice and control, noting that for reasons specific to each context monitoring either by the state or accrediting agencies poses both challenges and opportunities for Islamic schools

Religious Education in contemporary pluralistic Sweden

Abstract: In the mandatory, integrative and non-confessional school subject of Religious Education in Sweden, all students are taught together regardless of religious or secular affiliation. The overall aim of this thesis is to explore and analyse how Religious Education (RE) can be socially constructed in the upper secondary school classroom practice in the pluralistic context of contemporary Sweden. The result is based on findings from participant observations of 125 Religious Education lessons at three upper secondary schools in Sweden, both on vocational programs and on preparatory programs for higher education. Discourse analysis, curriculum theory, and didaktik of religion are used as theoretical and analytic approaches. The findings indicate that a secularist discourse was hegemonic in the classroom practice and implied norm of talking about religion, religions and worldviews as something outdated and belonging to history. A non-religious, atheistic position was articulated as neutral and unbiased in relation to the subject matter and was associated with being a rational, critically thinking person. However, there were also spiritual and swedishness discourses of religion that in some respects challenged the hegemonic discourse, but also enforced it. The programs at upper secondary schools were influenced by different educational discourses called a private discourse and an academic rational discourse, which affected the construction of the subject in these different contexts. Implications of the discourses are discussed in relation to the classroom practice and aims of Religious Education.

Is it learning about and from religions, religion or religious education? And is it any wonder some teachers don’t get it?

Abstract: This article was first presented as a short paper at the annual conference of the Association of University Lecturers in Religious Education in Exeter, July 2009, and seeks to clarify different possible interpretations of what is meant by current uses of the terms learning about religion and learning from religion. Drawing on research/reports by OfSTED and examples from classroom practice, it recognises that this is an area that is by no means clear in many teachers’ minds. The article also examines a variety of statements about teaching and learning processes in religious education (RE) in relation to learning about religion and learning from religion as a pedagogical strategy and argues that the three terms used in the title do not mean the same thing and that any concept of learning from religion depends on being clear about what it is that pupils should learn about religion. This in turn means making choices about how religion might be defined and understood in RE to enable us to understand how learni...

Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory and the Study of Religion: On Faith and the Imaging of God

Abstract: Examines the significance of the contemporary psychoanalytic theory of object relations and its relation to faith Using case studies and a combined psychological and theological analysis, the author demonstrates that object relations theory offers a powerful basis for a more comprehensive understanding of the human construction of an image of God and the psychological dynamics of faith Suitable for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students of the psychology of religion and religious development, and also for those studying religious education, pastoral counseling and spiritual direction