“Exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue”.
Teaching religious and convictional facts
“A tool for acquiring knowledge about religions and beliefs in education; a contribution to education for democratic citizenship, human rights and intercultural dialogue.” 8 April, 2008
Second Session
II - Teaching religious and convictional facts: challenges and prospects
Introduction
Prof. Marianna Shakhnovich
My brief introductory presentation is based on the various materials and documents, which cover some conceptual elements and key notes of teaching religious and convictional facts in school education. One may find the information on principles, recommendations and resolutions, which are relevant to the teaching of religious and convictional facts, in two circulating documents prepared for today’s Exchange by the Secretariat and by the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights: “Declarations and projects of the Council of Europe” relating the subject of today’s exchange and “Religion and philosophical convictions in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights”. The innovative dealing with the complexity of the religious dimension of intercultural education one may find in the reference book for teachers, teacher trainers and policy makers “Religious diversity and intercultural education”. This book is the outcome of the recent (2002-2006) Council of Europe Directorate of Education project entitled “The new challenge of intercultural education: religious diversity and dialogue in Europe”.
There are two themes for discussion during the following session:
II.I - Challenges for the organisation and functioning of schools – learning to live
together and to combat exclusion
II.II - Challenges in teacher training – how to transmit the required competencies for appreciating diversity and how to train for dialogue.
II.I At the beginning of the 21-st century, we find ourselves in the world, where we need to appreciate other modes of mentalities, faiths and practices that differ from our own. The process of globalization forces us to acknowledge the parallels and similarities in humanity's cultural development, while respecting the diversity of different cultural traditions.
This raises the problem of harmonization of coexistence for people of different faiths and convictions, how not only to speak about the cultural and religious diversity, but to accommodate it and to manage with it at school, which is the first place where children get experience of it.
The school is not only the place where children get knowledge, but it is also the space, which reflects the complexity of outside life with its variety of identities, beliefs and religious practices as well as non-religious views. In this sense the questions how to live together for the representatives of different cultures, how to achieve reciprocal awareness and respect, how to understand the relationship between different religions become not only the problems of scholastic education, but the actual everyday challenge for each pupil.
The aim of teaching is not only to develop in young person the intellectual ability to analyze and interpret information critically and responsibly, through dialogue and open debate, but also to prepare he or she for life together with another members of democratic society, uniting citizens beyond their religious and philosophical positions. Intercultural education should be based on the principle of the development of tolerance, openness to diversity and respect for others, reciprocity, civic-mindedness and ability to reflect and understand the pluralism of worldviews.
The school needs to be a space of safe learning environment, where the pupils should obtain motivations to recognize their own national and religious traditions as well as obtain motivations to respect and to be ready to enter into the dialogue with representatives of other cultures. The atmosphere of tolerance, free self-expression and dialogue in the classroom encourages formation of the point of view that each identity is unique, each forms the sense of dignity, and each gives its own answer to existential questions. To make the school a space of safe environment is to promote appropriate changing in school management and teacher training.
II.II. The key figure in education is a teacher. That is why the teacher training is one of the main instruments available for fostering the implementation of the intercultural dialogue in education in order to combat exclusion and fanaticism. The following consequences for school policies on the teacher training appear.
There is a diversity of educational systems in European countries and teaching of religious and convictional facts is accomplished differently. In the countries, where there is a state religion, school focuses on training in one religion only, while in other states the tightly filled school curricula often do not give a lot of time and place to the instruction in the religious element of the culture and society in the past and the present. It is very important to estimate the learning outcomes of teaching of religious facts, which include not only knowledge, but also attitudes, which sometimes do not support tolerance.
All over Europe, there is a shortage of teachers qualified enough to give instruction in the variety of religious facts avoiding stereotyping and promoting tolerance and acceptance of others, there is often a lack of training to discuss religious facts in balanced way, of understanding the importance of cross-curricular approach in the matter. The necessity of improving the situation with teacher training in main principals of learning approaches in the religious dimension of intercultural education and in pedagogical techniques is obvious. Among various approaches in teaching, phenomenological, interpretative and dialogical are named as the most fruitful, together with student-centered principle of working in the classroom.
The helpful method for finding mutual understanding is the empathetic communication. If we are really to appreciate different possibilities of making sense of human life, we may have to make a rigorous effort to stand outside our own preconceptions and to enter empathetically into another culture or religion. It is not very easy; it demands a thorough knowledge of how these seemingly alien beliefs and behaviors fit into a larger form of life taken as a whole.
The role of intercultural education, education for democratic citizenship and history education in the teaching about religion in general, as well as in the understanding of religious dimension of political conflicts is hard to overestimate.
Intercultural and interfaith education demand training of teachers, ready to work in the multicultural environment, including teachers with good command of innovative teaching strategies, who know new pedagogical models that resist stereotyping regarding different religious communities.
It is very important to provide the teachers with informational support, giving them an access to relevant available resources mainly using the new information technologies. In my opinion, the exchange of good practice is a very fruitful form of cooperation.
In conclusion, I would like to say that to find a way for acquiring competences for appreciating diversity of religions and beliefs in education based on tolerance, human rights and intercultural dialogue is a very complicated task, but, to my mind, we have no alternative.
Questions for discussion:
1. What ways of stimulating the intercultural dialogue in education do you see?
2. How do you see the role of religious communities in providing the space of intercultural dialogue in education?
3. What are the main difficulties in training for dialogue in your opinion and what ways do you see to overcome them?
4. What kind of informational resources and support may be useful for teacher? Do you think that the bank of good examples is enough?
5. What forms of new pedagogical strategies may be used for the promoting dialogue in school education?