Education,gender and Islam in China: The place of religious education in challenging and sustaining ‘undisputed traditions’ among Chinese Muslim women

The essay investigates the place of religious and secular education in the lives of Chinese Muslim women. Education is treated as a site where state and society are reproduced and/or challenged, where tensions arise over control of minds and bodies, and over interpretations and uses of religion and culture. Specifically, the essay compares contrastive situations of female religious education within a matrix of inter-dependent issues such as the diversity of Muslim contexts in China, state treatment of minorities’ rights to religious practice and to education, organisation and implementation of religious education, and relations between secular education and Islamic education.     

Religious education and hermeneutics: the case of teaching about Islam

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to do three things: the first is an exploration of the ways in which Islam is presented in an essentialist way (with a focus on religious education (RE) in England and Wales), leading to stereotypes and unsubstantiated generalisations that are then embedded in resources and agreed syllabi, secondly, it provides a critique of essentialism, and finally a case is made for the role of hermeneutics in the teaching and learning of Islam. We argue that a hermeneutical approach is a sound way to both conceptualise the phenomenon of Islam and a pedagogical opening to make sense of it, that may help overcome some of the weaknesses of the current ways of teaching about Islam.     

The use of teaching materials in religious education in Sweden: a quantitative analysis of Swedish religious education teachers’ reported use of teaching materials in RE classrooms

Abstract

Recent studies show that religious education (RE) and various media outlets serve as increasingly important arenas for religious socialisation among Swedish youths. At the same time, it has been shown that media material, for example in the form of various news media, often make their way into RE classrooms to be used as materials alongside the more traditional textbooks. However, little quantitative research has been conducted in order to map RE teachers’ selection and use of materials in their classrooms, and what factors are involved in this selection. A nationally representative survey among 1292 RE teachers was conducted, and the results clearly show that textbooks are the most popular form of material, followed by pictures, sacred texts, documentaries, television news and news articles. Out of the relevant background variables, it was primarily school form, age, gender and religiosity that seemed to influence the teachers’ choices of material. The author concludes that familiarity with a certain form of material through personal experiences is a likely explanation for many of the correlations found and that further research is needed in order to explore the potential complexities that arise in the juxtaposition of classroom and media logics.     

Internationalisation and the validity of knowledge in religious education as a field of research

ABSTRACT

Building on the notion of validity claims within the discussion on international knowledge transfer in religious education as a field of research, three views on the contextuality of knowledge are discussed. From a classical perspective in the sociology of science, the issue of validity must be treated irrespective of matters of context. Secondly, from the perspective of postcolonial studies, this naïve view is criticised as a veiled form of Eurocentrism. Thirdly, these two general views are concretised in light of a reception process bridging the Global South and the Global North. To this end, exemplary factors contributing to the inclusion of Paulo Freire’s pedagogical work in discourses on religious education are analysed. What emerges through these analyses is a differentiated view of validity resting on the de- and recontextualisation of knowledge that allows for it to oscillate between different contexts.     

Views of Omani post-basic education students about religious and cultural tolerance

The study aims to investigate the views of Omani post-basic education students (Grades 10–12) about religious and cultural tolerance. The sample consisted of 1390 male and female students in grades 10, 11 and 12, from four of Oman’s seven regions. A questionnaire was used to gather data, which consisted of 27 items divided into five domains. The results showed that students place a strong emphasis on the importance of religious and cultural tolerance, both within Oman society and worldwide. They are also not in favour of any type of aggression, religious and cultural symbols or the fuelling of disagreements between religions or cultures. The results also indicated that female students are more strongly concerned with tolerance than males, grade 12 students more concerned than those in grades 10 and 11, and students from Muscat more concerned than those in other less urban areas.     

Epistemology of the Nakba in Israeli education

In Israel, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the most fundamental political and moral issue current and future citizens face. If we accept the maxim that schools should prepare citizens for participation in determining the future of their state, Israeli students must be introduced to the historical, political and moral questions at the heart of the conflict. But this responsibility of Israeli schools and teachers is a highly contentious issue. The most important issue in Israeli political education is thus the hardest to teach. In this article I argue that, despite considerable educational and political risks, teaching Jewish Israeli students about the 1948 Palestinian Nakba (alternatively known as the Israeli War of Independence) holds substantial potential for their epistemic development as capable knowers. I begin by reviewing the political, dialogical, cognitive and epistemic deficits in Israeli education, highlighting how the Nakba is suppressed in history and citizenship education. By analysing the epistemic context of the Nakba in Israeli society and education, I present two pedagogical approaches for teaching controversial issues, arguing for an inquiry-based approach over the widely held approach. I demonstrate the benefits of an inquiry-based approach in the context of history education. In the final section of the article, I build on the case of the Nakba to argue for a new epistemic framework for Israeli citizenship education. I begin by outlining the shortcomings of the current epistemic framework of the subject and point to possible future directions for the subject.     

Key values of a Dutch cooperation school and the practice of religious education

This article presents the results of a single case study from a cooperation school in the Netherlands. A cooperation school is the result of a merger between a public and a denominational school. Pupils from secular and religious backgrounds meet in the classroom. This religious diversity in this school is explored by an empirical research study. The research question was how key values of the school and of its teachers are exerted in religious education. Content analysis of interviews and videos of the ‘moment of contemplation’ show that there is a discrepancy between the school values and the practice of this moment. Conclusions concerning a social and a substantive perspective are drawn in the light of theoretical insight concerning diversity in religious education.     

Social worlds and religious education in Poland: towards the elimination of disharmony

ABSTRACT

The goal of this article is to present the coherence between the human social world and religious education in Poland. The motive for taking up this subject is the cultural context relating to the problem of attitudes towards refugees. Reconstruction of the worlds of life demands to be expanded to include the religious education context in order to adapt the education practice to the requirements and expectations of the social environment. This has been achieved based on secondary analysis of the source texts (pedagogical, sociological and theological) and existing research results, which refer directly to the practice of lifelong religious education and concern applications in the area of shaping social competences and the developmental effort of Polish thinking and understanding. These include: (1) Dissemination of the pedagogical category of decentration; (2) Resignation in the practice of religious education from universalistic apriority and realistic ontology, and the implementation of hermeneutics of understanding to religious education and a new model – supra-confessional, pluralistic model open to the knowledge of other religions and beliefs systems; and (3) Develop competences for an internal dialogue. For the practice of lifelong learning, this means abandoning the alienated learning culture and carrying out this process within the community.     

伊斯兰教与新疆少数民族教育的关系

在历史上,伊斯兰教曾垄断和主导了维吾尔族等民族的教育。新中国建立后,我国实行教育与宗教相分离原则,不允许宗教干预教育制度。20世纪80年代以来,随着国内外形势的变化,“三股势力”利用宗教与我争夺青年一代,形势十分严峻。弄清伊斯兰教与民族教育的关系,可以更好地抵御“三股势力”向教育的渗透和侵蚀。     

Global citizenship as education for peacebuilding in a divided society: structural and contextual constraints on the development of critical dialogic discourse in schools

In post-conflict and divided societies, global citizenship education has been described as a central element of peacebuilding education, whereby critical pedagogy is seen as a tool to advance students’ thinking, transform their views and promote democratic behaviours. The present study investigates understandings of and attitudes to global citizenship and the challenges faced in its implementation. Teacher interviews highlight lack of time and resources for critical reflection and dialogue. Where opportunities for relevant training are provided, this can benefit critical engagement. Boundaries of educational systems and structures also influence pupils’ understandings of the issues as evidenced in questionnaire findings. We argue that critical pedagogies may be limited unless criticality and activism transcend local and global issues and are applied to schools themselves. Emotional engagement may be required for teachers to claim the space to critically reflect and share with colleagues within and beyond their sectors in order to enable critical discourse amongst pupils.     

The challenge of religious education to deal with past and present Catholicism

Religious education (RE) in secondary schools in the Netherlands is challenged to redefine the educational aims. Concerning this debate, the preference for a cognitive approach is remarkably dominant, not only among scholars but among RE teachers as well. This appeal for a cognitive turn is based upon two hypotheses: first on the presumption of religious blankness among religiously unaffiliated pupils and second on a specific view on the way religious affiliation, religious reflectivity and religious tolerance are intertwined. The current article elaborates on a empirical research that questions both hypotheses. It first discovered the ongoing connection religiously unaffiliated pupils have with a former and conventional type of Catholicism, which impedes the development of their reflective personal religiosity as well as that of their interreligious openness. Second, this investigation revealed that personal connectedness with contemporary Catholic faith encourages these two developments. As such, this research contributes to a nuanced perspective on the chances and bottlenecks within religious learning by religiously unaffiliated and affiliated pupils. Concerning the redefinition of religious educational aims, it provides empirical arguments for a balanced combination of cognitive, attitudinal and experiential aims and advocates a preference for experiential and attitudinal aspects as a didactical starting point.     

Towards a common ground: Arab versus Western views about challenges of Islamic religious education curriculum of the twenty-first century

The Islamic religious education curriculum of the twenty-first century is a cornerstone in a hot debate about necessary educational reforms in the Islamic World. This study aimed at investigating the depth of agreement/disagreement between Arab and Western educational views about challenges of this curriculum through reviewing academic articles/reports that were published in this field between 2001 and 2011. Fifty-seven Arabic and English academic articles/reports were chosen from a pool of around 500, to be analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Contrary to expectations, findings revealed that views of Arab authors about reforming Islamic religious education curriculum of the twenty-first century are not far from those of Western authors. Conferences and co-projects between Arab and Western educators are recommended.     

Between secularism/s: Islam and the institutionalisation of modern higher education in mid-nineteenth century British India

This paper problematises clean distinctions between secular and religious by tracing the history of modern higher education of Muslims in British colonial India. Grounded in the interpretive research tradition and with an empirical focus on the formative mid-nineteenth century, the article argues that relational notions between singular secularism and multiple secularisms best capture this historical trajectory. The institutional imaginary of colonialism constituted a significant milieu that, on the one hand, resulted in British policies in India that were at a tangent to similar developments in England at the time and, on the other, informed Muslim agency in its own institutionalisation of higher education. Muslim educational philosophy, politics and even theology were shaped in a concrete, historical, power-laden context. One of the consequences of this was a peculiar construction of ‘secularism’ in relation to Islam – again, related but at a tangent to the same notion in Europe. With a view on contemporary Pakistan, it is argued that such relational histories must be accounted for if policy and academic discourse is to move beyond largely stale and unhelpful binaries of Islam vs. Western modernity in religious education.     

A place for informal learning in teaching about religion: The story of an experienced non-Muslim teacher and her learning about Islam

Teacher learning about religion has remained an under-researched topic in spite of the professional accountability placed on teachers to teach about religion in a constitutionally permissible and pedagogically sound way. Using data collected from interviews, the purpose of this study is to describe and examine how and what an experienced Non-Muslim teacher of the world’s religions learned about Islam in today’s climate of accountability and negative imagery of Islam. The findings of this study suggest that informal learning through independent reading and interaction with a local Muslim community can be a means to enculturate teachers of world religions into ways of learning about Islam.     

The living art of religious education: a paradigm of hermeneutics and dialogue for RE at faith schools today

ABSTRACT

In light of ongoing debates about religious education as hermeneutical, this contribution proposes a ‘hermeneutical-communicative’ (HCM) paradigm for RE through the development of a twofold reflection: (a) a critical (re-)evaluation of the theological and anthropological foundations for RE in light of (b) a context marked by religious and philosophical diversity, disaffiliation and ‘areligiosity’. In this way, the HCM approach proposes an identity for RE that lies at the intersection of ‘hermeneutical’ and ‘dialogical’. Drawing upon theologies of interreligious dialogue, this contribution first analyses four paradigms for RE (exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism, particularism) and then advocates for a hermeneutical-communicative approach characterised by an emphasis on interreligious ‘literacy’, philosophical and religious hospitality and inter-hermeneutical dialogue. Such a paradigm results in a number of implications for practice, including sensitivity to ‘big questions’ in life, engagement with the Gospels and the faith tradition, respect and appreciation for other avenues in the search for meaning and identity, and attention to the personal growth of young people.     

Spaces of contest for religious education reform in comparative perspectives: Scotland and Malawi as cases

Educational reforms, particularly in a contested subject such as Religious Education (RE), have unsettled boundaries principally because actors demand or expect different outcomes of these reforms. In the cases of Scotland and Malawi the present paper examines how different stakeholders have engaged with RE reforms. It thus ascertains whether, if at all, there are major points of difference on salient issues that underscore the micro-politics of RE reform in radically diverse national contexts, one African (Malawi) and other European (Scotland). It concludes that despite the complexity of RE as a school subject and subtle differences in national contexts in which it is debated and constructed, there is greater similarity on issues that underpin the micro-politics of RE reform in transnational contexts.     

The politics of mourning in Cyprus and Israel: educational implications

This paper suggests the need for a critical analysis of the nationalization of mourning and its educational implications, especially in conflict‐ridden areas. Our thoughts are grounded in a comparative study on mourning that has been conducted as part of our long‐standing ethnographic research in schools in Cyprus and Israel during the last 10 years. Through this study on mourning, we highlight two ideas. First, we want to show how a comparison of our studies in Cyprus and Israel highlights the difficulties for alternative interpretations to be translated into educational policies and teacher practices in the absence of changes in political structures. Second, we want to show that despite the forces that nationalize mourning, there are educational openings for alternative interpretations about mourning and the encouragement of reconciliation pedagogies. To this end, the education literature on teaching controversial issues and examples of pedagogies for reconciliation might be relevant to provide concrete ideas for education theory, policy and practice on issues of mourning.     

Autonomy and religious education: lessons from a six-year evaluation of an educational reform in an Israeli school network

This study investigated the tension that exists between promoting an educational agenda and practising an educational approach which emphasises autonomy within the framework of religious education. Our main thesis is that every educational deed contains a dialectical tension between endorsing an educational agenda and the promotion of autonomy. Moreover, this tension is not restricted to religious education. The intensity of such a conflict varies in accordance with the flexibility (or inflexibility) of the dogma, the conceptual cohesion of the educational agenda and the perceived importance of granting autonomy to students. The more cohesive and inflexible the educational agenda is, the greater the danger that autonomy will be discarded. The present research examined an educational reform implemented in the National-Religious School Network in Israel, which included the promotion of autonomy among principals, teachers and students. Conducted over a six-year period (2006–2012), the research employed both qualitative and quantitative methodologies and involved various stakeholders in the school network. The multifaceted picture that emerged of the relationship between educational autonomy and religious agenda is presented.     

高师声乐教学中多元化教学模式之我见

本文试图通过对高师声乐教学过程中传统单一型教学模式和多元化教学模式两种教学模式的分析比较,进一步探讨新形势下高师声乐教育多元化教学模式的意义与发展前景。