Why Teach about Religions? Perspectives from Finnish Professionals

Kuusisto, Arniika; Gearon, Liam

doi:10.3390/rel10060347

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…In the socio-cultural and multireligious context of today, a need for interconvictional education is formulated by the Flemish Minister of Education, and the agreements are recorded in an Engagement Statement (28 January 2016), which can be seen as one of the derived European objectives (European Commission 2007. In line with European recommendations, contemporary education experts underline the importance of investing in pupils' religious literacy, understood as 'the ability to discern and analyse the fundamental intersections of religion and social, political, cultural life through multiple lenses' (Moore 2007;Subbiondo 2012;Jackson 2014;Lafrarchi 2017a;Dinham and Shaw 2017;Sahin 2017a;Kuusisto and Gearon 2019;von Brömssen et al 2020;Rissanen et al 2020;Parker 2020). Ter Avest and Bakker (2009) argue that a solid education in life orientation combined with an authentic curiosity about the 'Other' is pre-conditional for innovation in RE, which, as an integral part of education, prepares students for a future they themselves will have to build.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…17 Koukounaras-Liagkis (2015) argues that teaching religion(s) in education, in a social pedagogical context, can encourage community cohesion; especially during the current (inter)nationally tense context, wherein a need for cohesion and mutual understanding is paramount. To reach these aims, Kuusisto and Gearon (2019) deduce three core aims from the interviews of RE teaching experts regarding societal perspectives, namely, understanding as literacy, understanding as empathy and competences for global citizenship. These three elements were named as answers to their research question 'why teach about religions (from the perspective of professionals)?'.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intra- and Interreligious Dialogue in Flemish (Belgian) Secondary Education as a Tool to Prevent Radicalisation

Lafrarchi

2021

Religions

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The attacks in Paris (2015) and Brussels (2016) led to the development of an Action Plan against radicalisation wherein Islamic religious teachers are expected to contribute actively to de-radicalisation processes and counter-discourse. To this end, Flemish teacher training university colleges have rapidly established new ‘Islamic religious education’ (IRE) teacher training programs. Additionally, the Minister of Education made interconvictional dialogue lessons mandatory in compulsory education. These lessons aim to stimulate, strengthen and reinforce the dialogue between pupils of different belief system backgrounds. Thus, the interconvictional competences are seen as a means to prevent radicalisation and polarisation. This article draws an overview of IRE development since 2015 until now regarding the policy incentives concerning the Flemish IRE, taking into account the concept of separation of Church and State. Furthermore, we scrutinise the existing IRE teacher training curricula with regard to the formulated interconvictional competence elements, as these are seen as one of the remedies for radicalisation and polarisation. We observe a clear relationship between the dramatic events and the implementation of new Islamic religious education programs and partnerships. An increasing number of ‘interconvictional’ references are observed in the Islam-related courses that are included in IRE teacher training programs. Further in-depth field research is needed to map the IRE teaching practices and experiences regarding the expectations formulated by policy makers.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intra- and Interreligious Dialogue in Flemish (Belgian) Secondary Education as a Tool to Prevent Radicalisation

Lafrarchi

2021

Religions

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“…Anchored in the above, teacher professionalism has also been approached from the perspective of value learning along personal and professional trajectories (Kuusisto and Gearon 2017a, 2017b, 2019). Merging life history and value-learning research in examining how individuals negotiate professional values, as embedded in societal and historical-political contexts, (Luodeslampi and Kuusisto 2017), Kuusisto and Gearon conceptualize the process of value learning and (re)negotiation through six critical staging posts (see Figure 1).…”

Section: Professionalism In Ecec World-view Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The learning trajectory of emerging professionalism: A Finnish student teacher negotiating world-view education and early childhood education and care superdiversity

Lamminmäki-Vartia

Poulter

Kuusisto

2020

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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This article examines the learning trajectory of the emerging professionalism of Finnish early childhood education and care student teachers, focusing in particular on their professionalism in early childhood education and care world-view education in the context of cultural and world-view superdiversity. Of specific interest here is what students postulate as meaningful in their professional learning processes and why, and what kinds of directions this value-learning process has taken. The data was generated over a year-long learning process in a group with seven early childhood education and care students and six in-service early childhood education and care teachers through survey responses, reflective learning diaries and retrospective in-depth interviews with the students. Using the Kuusisto and Gearon (2017a) value-learning-trajectory model as an analytical tool, the findings are presented through an in-depth case study depicting one student’s learning throughout the process and across the data sets. To conclude, the conceptual working model is developed further to depict the development of emergent early childhood education and care teacher professionalism with a particular focus on world-view education and early childhood education and care superdiversity.

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“…In recent years several studies on the profession of RE teaching and the practical work of RE teachers have been conducted (Kuusisto and Gearon 2019;Baumfield 2016;Freathy et al 2016;Riegel and Leven 2016;Ubani 2018). RE teachers' professionalism has also been in focus (Conroy 2016;Kuusisto and Tirri 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does “new learning” require from religious education teachers? A study of Finnish RE teachers’ perceptions

et al. 2020

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This article examines "new learning" skills from the perspective of Finnish in-service Religious Education (RE) teachers by exploring which skills teachers emphasize in their instruction. The data of this study consist of a quantitative online questionnaire (N = 83), and qualitative semi-structured interviews (N = 18) that were conducted to clarify the data. Skills were categorized and analysed by using the Assessment and Teaching of twenty-first century Skills (ATC21S) framework. The study shows that, from the four categories in the framework, teachers emphasized skills in Ways of thinking, Tools for working, and Ways of working categories, quite equally highly, though this was less true of the skills in Ways of living in the world category. However, the diversity among individual skills was high. Comparing individual skills, understanding diversity, religious literacy, communication skills (excluding leadership) and critical thinking were the most important in RE and leadership; producing a result and productivity were less emphasized skills in teachers' instructions. The results were explained by ongoing changes, such as religious pluralization, and digitalization in Finnish society, and the aim of RE as developing equal communication and developing, not finalizing, pupils' thinking.

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Why Teach about Religions? Perspectives from Finnish Professionals

Cited by 9 publications

References 53 publications

Intra- and Interreligious Dialogue in Flemish (Belgian) Secondary Education as a Tool to Prevent Radicalisation

Intra- and Interreligious Dialogue in Flemish (Belgian) Secondary Education as a Tool to Prevent Radicalisation

The learning trajectory of emerging professionalism: A Finnish student teacher negotiating world-view education and early childhood education and care superdiversity

What does “new learning” require from religious education teachers? A study of Finnish RE teachers’ perceptions

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