TIME OF UNCERTAIN CONVERSATIONS: RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE POST-SOVIET LATVIA

This article describes the development of religious education within the system of public education in Latvia. It consists of three parts. The first part deals with the social context of a post-Soviet society and its impact on the development of religious education. The second part describes the four approaches to religious education in public schools that have emerged in Latvia during the last ten years: the confessional approach, the ecumenical Christian approach, the world religions approach, and the Christian ethics approach. The third part analyzes the problems and opportunities presented by the current stage of plurality of approaches.     

Privatisation of religious public education in Israel: enhancing parents’ educational goals or fostering segregation?

Privatisation of the state religious education in Israel raises controversy within Israeli society. It is argued that privatisation leads to the abolishing of equality between students, and accusations are heard about the use of religious arguments to create elitist and selective schools. Questions regarding privatisation, the extent and importance of religious versus science studies were examined. Two of the major findings were that almost one‐third of the students who comprise the religious educational system in Israel came from non‐religious households and a gap was found between parents’ demands for privatisation and their educational goals. Social economic status rather than religious demands were found as enhancing school segregation. The need for reorganisation of the religious public education in Israel is discussed.     

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.     

A private matter? Religious education and democracy in Indonesia and Israel

The article examines state-supported religious education and its consequences for civic attitudes in Indonesia and Israel, two democracies that grant religion a prominent place in the public sphere, particularly in education. The comparison reveals that while in Indonesia the state was able to gradually introduce a secular curriculum in religious schools and establish an accreditation system by which it could exert influence on the way religion is taught, in Israel, by contrast, state-funded religious schools over time became increasingly opposed to a mandatory ‘core curriculum’ of general studies. The comparison further suggests that in Indonesia the inclusion of a secular curriculum in religious schools in the 1970s should be seen as one of the factors promoting the production and dissemination of ‘rationalist approaches to religion’ and brought religious actors on board of democratisation, while in Israel the exclusion of a secular curriculum from religious schooling has undermined civic commitments among ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens and as such weakened Israeli democracy. The article is based on public opinion data, data from the Ministries of Religion and Education, and court decisions in both countries.     

A Review of “Nurturing Children's Spirituality: Christian Perspectives and Best Practices”

This study examined the considerations involved when parents of sixth‐ and eighth‐graders in Israeli religious state elementary schools choose a religious secondary school for their children. While academic achievement was an important factor in parental choice, as religious Jews the parents were also greatly concerned with die secondary school's religious level. By means of discriminantal analysis, our study attempted to distinguish between two groups of parents: those who stressed the institution's religious level as opposed to those who stressed its academic level. We found that more religious parents, parents who had studied in boarding schools, and parents of Western origin belonged to the first category. Parents of younger children, less religious parents, and some parents of Oriental origin belonged to the latter group. The article also treats variations in parental attitudes according to parental gender, religious and communal identification, and child's grade and gender.     

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN THE STATE UNIVERSITY

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview and analysis of attitudes of Israeli K-12 educators and bible teachers toward religious studies. Teachers attitudes toward bible teaching as a mandatory subject are, on the whole, positive throughout the country. The present study addresses the absence of systematic research into the opinions of bible teachers, their worldviews and critical thinking, and how these impact their teaching in practice. The author s findings were integrated within the formulation of a theoretical framework that examined the mainstreams in the cultural-religious structure of Israeli society. Bible studies appear to serve functional needs, and their presence in the Israeli school curriculum is motivated by pragmatic values, not necessarily by religious passion.     

“It Bothers Me,but I Will Not Bring It into the Kindergarten”: Gender Perception Conflicts of Religious Kindergarten Teachers as Reflected in Their Work

The article describes a study on the gender identity of kindergarten teachers in the Israeli State Religious Education System (Hemed). The aim was to investigate their perception of gender identity in light of Orthodox feminism and discover how this is reflected in their work, particularly in the Torah stories they tell. The study, based on a narrative research method comprising seven teachers, suggested a link between their gender perceptions and attitude toward Orthodox feminism, and their attitude toward patriarchal Bible stories. The discomfiture and internal contradictions characterizing their perceptions reflect the diverse attitudes in the religious public to this issue.     

Contribution to the Collective by Religious‐Zionist Adolescent Girls

The act of contribution to the collective raises a major dilemma in contemporary religious Zionism in regard to girls and women: how to maintain their traditional restriction to the domestic sphere while allowing participation in national tasks that demand their presence in the male‐dominated public sphere. From in‐depth interviews conducted with 37 seventeen‐year‐old religious girls studying in a unisex residential boarding high school, we uncover the manner in which these girls, as they proceed to young adulthood, experience the act of contribution in three social arenas: the Bnei Akiva youth movement, national service and the domestic sphere. Our analysis reveals a gradual recruitment to contribution during the passage from girlhood to womanhood, paralleled by the gradual intensification of feminine’ qualities. This process facilitates the girls’ participation in the public sphere without challenging the traditional gender dichotomy. It also constitutes a central practice by means of which religious‐Zionist society recruits the girls to the Israeli collective yet keeps them within its own socio‐cultural boundaries.     

PERCEPTIONS OF THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AMONG RELIGIOUS TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN ISRAEL

This research examines the purposes of education perceived by teacher education students preparing for a career in Israeli public religious schools. Participants were 164 men and 364 women in their first or final year of teacher education. They responded to questionnaires that explored educational purposes in four ways. Twenty-four students also were interviewed. Major results indicate that: 1) universal and religious purposes of education are considered highly important; 2) men attribute greater importance than women to religious- Torah purposes; 3) academic-intellectual growth is not considered an important educational purpose. Implications of these and other findings are considered for educational policy and practice in public religious schools.     

Teacher Education in Israel: the present situation

After presenting the essential principles relevant to the education of teachers, according to which the Israeli educational system is organised, the article examines teacher education patterns in the various institutions in Israel. These are divided into institutions for the education of teachers in nursery schools and elementary schools run by the State, and schools of education in the universities which train teachers for secondary schools.

Ideological concepts divide the institutions of both kinds into those that train teachers for religious and non‐religious nursery schools and elementary schools.

The teacher training institutions in Israel (together with the whole educational system) have been immersed, during recent years, in a process of reform which reflects the changes that Israeli society has undergone since the establishment of the State.     

Teaching civics in a divided society: The case of Israel

Civic education teachers instruct in a field that is institutionally ill-defined and highly sensitive to the macro-political cultures of nations and the micro-political culture of schools within these nations. Teachers' performance greatly depends on both their professional qualifications and their perceptions of central social issues. The purpose of the study is to examine the professional background of upper-secondary civic education teachers in Israel, their perceptions concerning issues related to democracy in general and to existing rifts within Israeli society in particular, and their views on school climate. The study reveals differences between teachers in Arab and Hebrew religious and regular state schools on issues that are related to rifts within Israeli society. This, in turn, can create differential climates of opinion in schools that would nurture and perpetuate existing rifts.     

Navigating Between National Religious/Confessional Ideology and Interreligiosity: The Case of Greek-Cypriot Teachers in Religious Education

This article examines what resources religious education teachers draw upon, in what ways, and under what conditions, to navigate between national religious/confessional ideology and interreligious values in education. The article is based on a year-long ethnographic research project on religious education in Greek-Cypriot schools. It shows the importance of teachers’ personal and professional biography, political affiliations, religiosity, the sociopolitical context of schools, and the wider society of Cyprus.     

CURRENT ARTICLES

In the post-pillarized society of the Netherlands, formal religious education still is structured according to religious dividing lines. “Religion” in confessional schools is a compulsory subject; in public schools, taking a so-called neutral position with regard to religious traditions, “Religion” is an optional subject (Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Islamic religious education or Humanistic World View Education), taught to pupils on parents’ request. Nowadays, due to processes of modernization, globalization, and individualization, the position of religion in society has changed and subsequently the position of “Religion” as a subject in classes has changed. These days for principals and teachers in public schools it is urgent to reflect on their positionality regarding (religious and secular) worldview education. In this contribution we present our findings from document analysis and from (focus group) interviews with principals, and from observations in public schools, resulting in a plea for “Life Orientation for all” as a compulsory subject in all schools for all pupils.     

托克维尔社会学思想初探———论民主社会的“现代人”

从八个方面归纳概括出托克维尔对民主社会的基础———“现代人”特性的分析,认为托克维尔的批判性思考,正是为了能够使民主发扬光大,并结合其对于维护民主社会所提出的建议,分析托克维尔社会思想的当代意义,认为惟有结合了“正确理解的利益原则、出版结社以及精英的道德博弈”等自由理性的参与和宗教信仰的感性激情,社会才有可能更加稳健地运转起来     

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.     

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.     

Cultivating a Religiously Literate Society: Challenges and Possibilities for America's Public Schools

This article presents a rationale as well as a proposal for a religious literacy curriculum in U.S. public high schools. Relying on the Religious Education curriculum currently in use in the United Kingdom, the authors sketch a religious literacy curriculum designed to help students thrive in a pluralistic and democratic society. In order to help young citizens develop the skills, dispositions, and knowledge to thrive in an increasingly global, pluralistic, and democratic society, they need to become religiously literate. For students to be religiously literate they must learn to respect the religious other as well as understand the role of religions in contributing to civic life.     

Religious literacy,moral recognition,and strong relationality

Several proposals for addressing religious literacy or including religious content in American public schools point to potential advantages for intellectual and moral development. These proposals include moral arguments, which suggest that religious literacy is an individual and social good. Although the proposals selected for this analysis span the previous two decades, it appears that little progress has been made toward addressing religious literacy in American public school contexts. In this theoretical article, I examine several of these proposals using a philosophical contrast between weak and strong relationality. It is argued that although these proposals include strong relational assumptions, weak relational assumptions remain that could inhibit the successful implementation of these proposals—or perhaps even undermine their ultimate goals.     

和谐社会建设中的“性别平等”研究

性别平等是和谐社会的应有之义,它是构建和谐社会的重要基础,是衡量一个社会文明与进步的重要尺度．是推进一个社会可持续发展的重要途径。然而,我国在构建和谐社会过程中,由于历史文化因素、社会公共政策及法律因素、女性自身素质因素、社会环境因素等诸多原因引起了许多性别不平等的现象,因此,我们要加强基本国策的宣传教育,采取一切措施以推进和谐社会的建设。     

Islamic education and the challenge of democratic citizenship: a critical perspective

This article analyzes how concepts of liberal and progressive Islam, which have been developed in the political and theological academic literature, may inform the curriculum of Islamic education and the practice of religious educators in Islamic schools in the US. We investigate the meaning of in-faith Islamic education and how it can conform to the life in a democratic, multicultural, and multi-faith society. Liberal Islam challenges the transmission-oriented and rigid interpretations of Islam and seeks to appreciate and to contextualize the religious claims which are compatible with ideals of reflective education, rational thinking, mutual respect, and equal citizenship. It suggests that students become critical ‘consumers’ of Islam, its moral and civic purposes, and the cultural politics of religious interrogations.