Religious Education where there is Religious Division

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Religious Educationwhere there isReligious
Division

• Education for Religious Respect
• - A Northern Ireland Perspective

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Todays Session

• Outline
• Relevance of Northern Ireland
• Introductions and Identity
• Key Issues and Principles
• Sample Activities
• Handout and close

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Introductions

• Take a moment to think / discuss
• Then share with the group
• Your name
• Something that fascinates me about religion (1
  sentence)
• Something in religion I would like to understand
  better (1 sentence)

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Religion Educationin Northern Ireland

• Divided and (increasingly) diverse
• Traditionally confessional and separate
• Syllabus produced exclusively by the Churches
  (93 07)
• Defined as essentially Christian but little
  teaching about Christian diversity
  (Protestants/Catholics)
• World religions only at KS3 (only since 2007)
• Schools teacher education largely separate
• Resistance to broadly-based RE
• Anxieties about the other
• Avoidance of religious discussion Whatever you
  say, say nothing!

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Key Issues and Principlesfor teaching religious
respect

• Purposes should be clear -
• education, not instruction
• exploration, not proselytisation
• Teachers need to learn to talk about religion -
  especially religious difference
• avoidance is common - fear of offence
• learning dialogue among equals

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Key Issues and Principlesfor teaching religious
respect

• Talking about religious difference
• learning to engage comfortably with identity and
  difference
• difference within, and difference between
• a dimension of intercultural learning
• interactive - individuals communities
• the creation of safe space in the classroom is
  crucial

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Key Issues and Principlesfor teaching religious
respect

• Human Encounter is very important
• people articulate and explore their ideas as
  individuals, as members of communities
• people must be able to speak for themselves - not
  Of course, your religion teaches that
• people must be allowed to interpret their beliefs
  and experiences and express them to others in
  their own way
• inter-religious intercultural learning is very
  difficult when religious teaching/learning is
  separate!

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Key Issues and Principlesfor teaching religious
respect

• An ethos of respect is fundamental
• it takes time to build up
• it requires skilled teachers
• particular skills in teaching controversial
  issues
• Full article by Norman Richardson on web journal
• Studia Kulturowa (University of Gdansk,
  Poland)
• Religious Education for Tolerance - the
  Impossible Dream?

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Some Activities

• Focus on LEARNING TO TALK ABOUT RELIGION
• Paired work
• Line-ups
• Walking Debates
• Scenarios

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ScenariosWhat could you say? What would you do?

• Your school decides on a policy of no religious
  displays symbols, dress, artefacts.
• A parent requests to withdraw their child from
  R.E. unless their own religion is being taught.
• Your primary class includes children from a range
  of different religious, ethnic and non-religious
  backgrounds. A colleague quietly advises you to
  forget R.E.!
• A Muslim pupil joins a fairly monocultural class
  and anti-Muslim graffiti begins to appear around
  the school.

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Thank you

• Norman Richardson
• Stranmillis University College, Belfast
• n.richardson_at_stran.ac.uk