Signposts and the Council of Europe: special issue on the contribution of ‘inclusive’ religious education to intercultural understanding

Abstract

Signposts and the Council of Europe: special issue on the contribution of 'inclusive' religious education to intercultural understanding This special issue of Intercultural Education considers the contribution of 'inclusive' religious education to intercultural understanding, focusing on the relationship between non-confessional and 'inclusive' religious educationoften seen as a broader subject also including some study of 'non-religious worldviews' (e.g. Religious Education Commission 2018)and intercultural education, seen in the context of the education systems of democratic states. The articles 1 focus on issues discussed in the Council of Europe book Signposts: policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious worldviews in intercultural education (Jackson 2014). 2 Of course, both the terms 'religious education' and 'intercultural education' are (and have been) used in academic and professional discourse in some very different ways, as have associated terms such as 'religious literacy' and 'multicultural education' (Jackson 2014, 27-31). The articles are written by scholars affiliated to the Signposts International Research Network (SIRN), a group of European researchers and curriculum developers concerned to improve the quality of religious and worldview education in schools, who are engaging in independent research projects, but whose work also addresses issues identified by education ministries in Council of Europe member states, and reported in Signposts (Jackson 2014) (http://www.theewc.org/Content/What-we-do/Other-ongoing-projects /Signposts-International-Research-Network-SIRN). SIRN currently includes researchers from the UK, Sweden and Norway who are conducting school-based research projects on classroom religious and worldview education, and others who are engaged in curriculum development related to such research. The curriculum developers include colleagues based at the European Wergeland Centre in Oslo who have produced a teacher training module (see Jackson and O'Grady 2019, below). Since the Council of Europe 3 classifies its work in religions and education as 'the religious dimension of intercultural education', it is important to clarify what is meant by this, and to correct misapprehensions, such as the idea that the Council of Europe reduces 'religion' to 'culture'. The articles in the present issue illustrate that this is not the case, and engage with topics arising from experience of teaching about religions and beliefs in mainly state-funded schools in some European countries. Part of the explanation for misapprehension of the Council of Europe's work in this area is the

Diversity and Social Justice in Education

“…One notable concrete initiative is the development of modules for religious teacher training initiated by the European Wergeland Centre (EWC) (Jackson, 2019;Jackson and O'Grady, 2019). is module contains a list of signposts to tackling pedagogical and conceptual issues of religious education and diversity.…”

Worldview literacy as intercultural citizenship education: A framework for critical, reflexive engagement in plural democracy

“…Understanding that worldviews are interpretable is essential to comprehending the complexity of identity in global democracies and is characteristic of the worldviews dimension of intercultural education (Jackson, 2019). Whilst appreciation of difference, and religion and belief identity as part of this, is a key part of citizenship education in most European democracies (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2017) the cultural dimension of citizenship is often sidelined within a 'soft' (Andreotti, 2006) or 'minimal' conception of citizenship (McLaughlin, 1992).…”

“…The compatibility between RE and citizenship education has long been recognised (Gearon, 2003;Jackson, 2003) and is most obvious in approaches to intercultural education (Jackson, 2014(Jackson, , 2019Johannessen and Skeie, 2019). Across Europe, the aims of RE are increasingly couched in terms of its contribution to positive engagement in multicultural society (Franken, 2021;Gunnarsson, 2021;O'Grady, 2019;Ubani et al, 2020;XX, 2015).…”

“…Reflexivity is a central component of intercultural (Jackson, 2019) and critical global citizenship education (Johnson and Morris, 2010) that is gaining increasing focus within RE across Europe (Franken, 2021; O’Grady, 2019; Ubani et al, 2020). As the ‘worldviews approach’ is gaining momentum in the English context, and its implications for classrooms explored, it is associated with hermeneutic approaches in which understanding is the result of a dialogic, reflexive process.…”

Med en tydlig utgångspunkt i kristendomens synsätt och traditioner – om religionskunskapsämnets alkemi

“…Studier har också fokuserat och granskat miljöns förutsättningar där religionskunskapsundervisningen äger rum med begreppet "safe space" som utgångspunkt (Osbeck, Sporre & Skeie, 2017;Kittelmann Flensner & von der Lippe, 2019). Ett exempel på hur relationen mellan interkulturell pedagogik och religionsdidaktik kommer till uttryck ges i ett temanummer i Intercultural Education (redigerat av Jackson, 2019). Här ges i ett flertal texter en internationell utblick som uppmärksammar förhållandet mellan religion och samhälle i en interkulturell nutida kontext.…”