Towards a creative arts approach to the teaching of religious education with special reference to the use of film

On the whole, the creative arts have not been used well in the academic study of religion in religious education classrooms. This paper contends that, since throughout history the creative arts have been used successfully in the passing on of religious beliefs, so today the creative arts should be an integral component of religious education teaching rather than mere peripheral activity.     

Secularists,Humanists and religious education: religious crisis and curriculum change in England, 1963–1975

With particular reference to religious education, this article provides an account of the campaigns of Secularists and Humanists in England in the 1960s and 1970s and locates them within their broader religious context. These campaigns, which have been both underplayed and overstated in the existing historiography, failed to garner the levels of support required to fulfil their ultimate aims. Nevertheless, Secularists and Humanists did make a significant contribution to public and political discourses at the time and created opportunities with the potential to exert influence over the development of religious education, collective worship and moral education. Their involvement was welcomed, indeed fostered, by many leading Christians and religious educationists. Secularist and Humanist campaigns also precipitated parliamentary discussion and provoked considerable opposition from Christians in other quarters. Finally, some observations are made about the ways in which this episode in the religious history of education can contextualise comparable contemporary debates.     

AMERICAN RACISM: THE NULL CURRICULUM IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

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.     

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND PLURALISM IN ZAMBIA

Today, Zambia has a comparatively unified, somewhat exceptional, approach to religious education despite a wide variety of predominantly Christian denominations. This article retraces the history of the development of religious education from when it was entirely confessional to the present time when it has become largely educational. In so doing it identifies some of the difficulties encountered and some of the problems that lie ahead in promoting an even more religiously pluralistic and educational approach to religious education in a country that has been declared a Christian nation.     

英国贵族精神与精英教育传统探析

英国是一个典型的贵族社会,英国贵族体制是一笔古老的政治遗产。英国贵族经过长期的发展演变,形成了一个相对稳定的社会阶层。英国贵族子弟成为社会精英的最好途径就是接受公学教育,一般在历经公学教育、大学教育和大陆游学后,跻身宗教界、政界、法律界、经济界者居多,成为英国社会各领域的精英人物。     

Religious studies,religious education and the aims of education

This article interacts with a recent article by Denise Cush and Catherine Robinson in which they call for a new dialogue between religious studies in universities and religious education, and identify a number of developments in religious studies that have implications for the practice of religious education in schools. Cush and Robinson are representative of an influential body of opinion among religious educators that looks to religious studies for inspiration. It is argued that they, along with others, fail to appreciate the difference between the aims of religious studies and those of religious education and that this unrecognised difference leads them both to engage uncritically and superficially with the history of post-confessional religious education and to fail to recognise that the roots of some of the weaknesses in contemporary religious education can be traced to the influence of religious studies over it. Showing that religious education has (and is required to have) a different set of aims from religious studies (though some aims may be held in common) alerts us to its distinctive nature, and this in turn facilitates a clearer understanding of its role in schools, which can serve both to direct and to evaluate educational outcomes.     

The conscience clause in religious education and collective worship: conscientious objection or curriculum choice?

The ‘conscience clause’ allows parents to withdraw their children from religious education and collective worship; however, the reasons why parents might wish so to do are not stated in the legislation. This article looks briefly at the legal issues to do with the place of religious education in the school curriculum, the type of religious education to be provided in schools without a religious affiliation (including an exploration of the meaning of the ‘Cowper‐Temple’ clause), and at the grounds on which parents may wish to exercise the conscience clause. It shows conclusively that withdrawal may only occur on the grounds of conscientious objection, not as a matter of choice.     

现阶段法律诊所教育的发展困境及现实选择

我国法学院校引进美国法律诊所式教育制度已逾十年之久,虽然大多数法学院校都已经建立了法律诊所,但真正名副其实地开展诊所教育的院校则屈指可数。究其原因,在于我国现阶段法学教育缺乏实践诊所教育模式所需要的土壤。而要构建适合美国式法律诊所教育的基础条件,则是一项社会系统工程,待其完善尚需时日。研究认为,当下应当正视现阶段的法学教育实际,吸收诊所式教育模式之精华,量身定做一套适于我国国情的实践教学模式,是一种务实的选择。     

Religious affiliation,ethnicity, and power in admission policies to Jewish religious schools

This paper analyzes the challenges embedded in the conflict between the right to accessible education, which implies a prohibition on discriminatory practices in school admission, and the right to adaptable education, which accommodates children’s cultural affiliations. It shows that a normative lens, which examines the ways by which legal rules correspond to conflicting rights and interests, cannot fully capture the tension between legal prohibitions on discrimination in education and the sociocultural norms in religious communities. Thus, the paper offers a socio-legal lens, which focuses on the context of admission policies to Jewish religious schools. Based on three test cases of admission policies to Jewish religious schools in Israel, England, and Flanders, Belgium, the paper demonstrates how the legal rules regulating the admission policies are influenced by social forces. In Israel and England, these forces have facilitated a descent down slippery slope, originating with religious criteria, but concluding with discriminatory criteria. They also shaped admission practices reflecting the asymmetric power relations between the institutional school systems and individual families. The paper highlights the benefits of the Belgian policy, which proscribes religious classification of school candidates. This policy circumvents the ambiguous distinction between religion, ethnicity, and social class, and expands educational choices.     

古代宗教思想对法制的影响

原始宗教思想深刻地影响着原始人的生活。原始宗教思想对“习惯法”起了造模定型的作用。无论是古代印度、古希伯来,或且封建社会的伊斯兰国家宗教经典《摩奴法典》、《摩西律法》和《古兰经》都成为治国安邦的法律典籍,宗教经典成了法律的依据和基础。纵观历史,古代受宗教思想影响而产生的法律,在法理思想上不完全健全,甚至有些扭曲与变形。表现在：集立法与执法于一身,人治大于法治;缺乏平等原则,法律不公。宗教法规反映法律的初级性特点。随着生产力与科学技术的高度发展,物质文明与精神文明大幅提升,宗教对法制的影响也必然弱化。从历史角度看,政教分离是进步现象,也有利于法律文化的健康发展。加强法制建设应当崇尚科学精神。     

Religious justification,elitist outcome: are religious schools being used to avoid integration?

Despite ongoing efforts to promote ethnic, racial and socio-economic integration, segregation continues to challenge education administrators and legal scholars. Privileged parents seeking to avoid integration employ various strategies such as attending private schools or buying houses in neighbourhoods with good school. This paper offers a combined empirical and legal research of another such strategy: the resort to religious schools. The research is conducted within one specific context, that of Israeli Religious State Schools. The empirical study examines whether “Torani” religious state schools (a category of religious schools that offer enhanced Jewish studies and a strict religious environment) induce socio-economic segregation. The findings indicate that “Torani” schools are indeed socio-economically segregated and serve children from higher socioeconomic class than regular religious state schools. It also shows that “Torani” schools are less reflective of their surroundings than regular religious state schools, and are more likely to be established by privileged parents in poor areas, where they are dissatisfied with the local state schools. The legal research offers an explanation of how legal regulation can determine whether religious schools will become a means for avoiding integration. Specifically, it points to three areas in which “Torani” schools are regulated differently than regular religious state schools – the rules regarding the establishment of new schools; the rules concerning school funding; and the rules concerning student enrolment – and argues that special treatment meant to protect religious interests is responsible for making “Torani” schools socially segregated.     

Integration Amidst Separation: Religion,Urban Education,and the First Amendment

In today’s urban schools, foreign-born children and children of immigrants are the fastest growing sector of the student population and as a result of this changing demographic, our schools are more ethnically, racially and religiously diverse than they have ever been (Suárez-Orozco et al. in Thriving and spirituality among youth: research perspectives and future possibilities. Wiley: Hoboken, NJ, 2012). For many students of immigrant families, their spiritual/religious identity is an important aspect of a healthy and integrated identity. While professional journals in education have focused on race, ethnicity and culture as important diversity variables, the extent to which students’ religion and spirituality influence their development and education has largely been a neglected topic (Woolley in Int J Child Spiritual 13:145–156, 2008). Thus, we highlight research in education, school counseling, and psychology that examines the legal and ethical implications of including religion and spirituality into urban educators’ work with students. We then explore the role that spirituality/religion plays in health, coping, and academic achievement for students, the importance of spirituality/religion within historically marginalized communities, students’ experiences as religious minorities, and religious discrimination in schools. Within each topic area, we outline practical considerations. Finally, we offer some guidelines for professional preparation programs and curriculum development in urban education.     

Religious education and the pandemic: postcolonial perspectives

ABSTRACT

This article provides a critical, historical analysis of religious education and the pandemic through the perspective of postcolonial theory. Showing through an interdisciplinary lens how colonialism and contagion have conjointly configured cultural and civilisational change, it shows how sources from religious and literary history can illuminate the current critical landscape of decolonisation. The article opens with some general contextual remarks about decolonising the curriculum at the interface of postcolonial theory and education. Demonstrating, then, the political-theological currency of contagion, the article frames contemporary church closures during the pandemic as presenting contrasting lessons in theology from the pandemic present and world history. Revisiting the colonial on this basis, the article shows how religion and education have also been at the epicentre of empires. Thus, the spread of Biblical literacy had the unforeseen historical consequence of interconnecting erudition and the eradication of peoples. The article outlines here how and why, therefore, the role of religion and education is integral to the critical contours of postcolonial theory. These analyses provide, it is argued, potentially liberating disciplinary frameworks for religious education itself; and lessons, too, to which postcolonial theory could also well attend, that is the abiding importance of religion in education.     

Can explanations in children's books help teachers foster reason‐based understandings in religious education in primary schools?

There are concerns about the quality of religious education teaching in England and a national framework for religious education has been developed to give the subject a firmer basis. This basis comprises knowledge, skills and understanding that involves thinking about and with reasons. Teachers of young children cannot be experts in all subjects. Novices and those with weak subject knowledge must often teach religious education. Such teachers tend to avoid reason‐based understanding as they are unsure of it themselves. Textbooks on religious education are common in the primary classroom. The question is: could they help novices and non‐specialist teachers in religious education foster this kind of understanding in their teaching? If so, here is a potentially simple and inexpensive contribution to the solution of a widespread problem. This study examined children's textbooks in religious education and found that the answer is not simple. Some books give themselves entirely to the transmission of facts. Others may foster various kinds of understanding but these understandings may not be of the desired kind. Some implications for the development of religious education teaching skills are discussed.     

Islamic religious education and the plan against violent radicalization in Spain

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the importance of Islamic religious education in public schools in Spain as an instrument in the prevention and fight against violent radicalisation. In this article, we examine the legal status of Islamic religious education and the latest regulations on Islamic religious education that emphasise the fight against Islamist terrorism. We also study the regulation of teachers of Islamic religious education and their role in the counter-narrative required to deter the message of Islamist terrorists and prevent violent radicalisation.     

晚清昭通第一次教案评述

作为一种外来性宗教,基督教一直谋求向世界包括中国进行积极的传播。但它在中国的传播过程中,由于与中国传统文化的异质性,在相当长时期内曾遭受着中国各阶层势同水火的排拒。近代中国历史上教案频发,民、教冲突是其主要因素,但从细节分析则各有不同。在这样的时代背景下,作为天主教传入云南最早地区的昭通,也曾在晚清数十年内发生过三次教案。即以1862年发生的第一次教案来看,虽然事件并不复杂,也未造成人员损伤,但从案发到交涉,再到最后结案耗时绵长;从它的全过程来看,除了具有与当时其他地方教案的一些共性特征之外,也有其自身独特的地方。回顾这一教案,有助于补充昭通历史的某些细节。     

Preparing primary school teachers to teach religious education

Under the guidelines for Initial Teacher Training, all potential primary teachers are required to learn about teaching religious education. However, religious education is not a high priority on ITT programmes and trainees may often have little introduction to it. Given the sensitive nature of religious education, what is the best way to prepare trainees for teaching religious education, and how far do we need to take into account their views about the subject? This article reports on a study involving trainees on a one‐year PGCE course. All the students were preparing to teach in primary schools and were not specialist religious education trainees. The aim of the study was to discover how trainees felt about teaching religious education in the primary school and how far their feelings linked to their views about religion. The conclusions suggest that any effective preparation of the trainees needs to recognise the diversity of their starting points and allow them opportunity to reflect on their views of religion and religious education.     

TERMS OF INCLUSION: UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

Abstract In this review essay, Harvey Kantor and Robert Lowe explore the history of the culture wars in public education in the United States. Drawing on three books — David Tyack’s Seeking Common Ground, Jonathan Zimmerman’s Whose America? and Amy Binder’s Contentious Curricula— Kantor and Lowe review the history of struggles over the content of history texts and over the place of religion and religious values in the classroom. They suggest that while these struggles have been partially successful in freeing public education from the racial and ethno‐religious particularisms that informed its origins, the more inclusive curriculum that resulted from these efforts has been rendered largely symbolic by the persistence of segregation and the inequality of resources that accompanies it.