Contemporary Challenges for Religious and Spiritual Education

Arniika Kuusisto, Terry Lovat

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138502468
• eBook ISBN: 9781317290100
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

From being on the margins of scholarly debate for much of the past century and a half, religion is being recognized once again as an area of concern for scholars, politicians, and public policy makers, and thus, the role of religious and spiritual education has taken on a new importance. Apart from its socio-political ramifications, the place of religiousness and spirituality in the make-up of individuals has been given renewed prominence through updated brain science, and neuroscientists regularly refer to elements of this brain science in terms such as spiritual intelligence and even mystical consciousness.

This book explores many of the new directions being taken in the field of religious and spiritual education, as new developments challenge the priorities of formal education, and open up new avenues for incorporating religion and spirituality into the modern curriculum. It asks whether the educational aims of teachers should be focused on specifically personal development, or whether religious education should be used to develop understanding of more global and social issues such as citizenship, conflict, and ethics. The book also addresses neuroscientific insights, which suggest a need to engage with cognition and emotion in order to create a rich learning environment, something to which a particularly contested subject area like religion and spirituality is well-placed to contribute. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Beliefs & Values.

The development and dissemination of Council of Europe policy on education about religions and non-religious convictions

Robert Jackson

Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, Centre for Education Studies, University of Warwick, UK

This article, written from an insider perspective, and in a personal capacity (the author has been involved with the Council of Europe’s work on religion and education since its inception in 2002), gives an account of the developing interest in the study of religions (and latterly non-religious convictions) in publicly funded schools by the Council of Europe, one of several international institutions to have focused on the place of religions and beliefs in public education in recent years. Particular attention is given to the 2008 Recommendation from the Committee of Ministers (the Foreign Ministers of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe) on teaching about religions and non-religious convictions in schools, and to current work on its dissemination. In 2011, the Council of Europe and the European Wergeland Centre set up a joint committee to produce a document (Policy and Practice for Teaching about Religions and Non-Religious Worldviews in Intercultural Education) to assist policymakers, schools and teacher trainers in implementing the Recommendation, adapted to different contexts across Europe. The present author has written the text on behalf of the joint committee. Signposts was published by Council of Europe Publishing in September 2014 (Jackson, R. 2014. Signposts: Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious worldviews in intercultural education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.). The article details the Council of Europe’s approach, includes an explanation of the process of consultation with various stakeholders, and summarises key issues to be addressed in the document. The general approach covered enables member states to increase competence of students to engage in the field of religions and beliefs, in ways that potentially contribute to various aspects of their personal and social development. It is hoped that the document will stimulate and contribute to constructive discussion, policymaking, teacher training, classroom practice and community links in different parts of Europe, and perhaps beyond.

Introduction

One shift in the publicly funded education systems of many Western countries in recent years is the increased acceptance of studies of religious diversity, whether through forms of religious education, combinations of studies of religion and ethics, wider fields such as citizenship or intercultural education, or as a cross curricular theme. This development relates closely to the wider debate about religion in the public sphere. Although the events of September 11, 2001 in the US were a ‘wake-up call’ for bringing discussion of religion into public space (Jackson 2007), the trend was already developing in some European countries. Even in France, where there has been a firm separation of religion and state, traditional understandings of laïcité have been challenged by scholars and politicians (Willaime 2007) and, as research conducted as part of the European Commission REDCo project shows, by teenagers in schools who express a new understanding of laïcité, including supporting the study of religions and beliefs in schools as an aid to ‘living together’ (Massignon 2011).

The inclusion of religious discourse in what Jürgen Habermas has called ‘the informal public sphere’ (Habermas 2006) reflects a concern to promote communication between members of society, partly (but certainly not exclusively) in order to promote social cohesion. In education, there has been a parallel growth of literature on inter-faith dialogue and education, and the emergence of initiatives facilitating communication between people of different religious and also non-religious backgrounds (e.g. Ipgrave 2001, 2002, 2003; 2013; McKenna, Ipgrave, and Jackson 2008; Ipgrave, Jackson, and O’Grady 2009). Moreover, various non-religious organisations, such as Humanist Associations, have sought to include some study of their ideas and values in schools, sometimes collaborating with religious groups. Countries and regions such as Norway, Scotland and the Canadian province of Québec have made interesting attempts at combining studies of religions and non-religious convictions within the same general subject area.

Recent research on religious diversity and education in Europe

Consistent with this change in mood and policy, the European Commission funded a major project between 2006 and 2009 on religion and education in schools. Known by its acronym REDCo,¹ the project collected the views of adolescents from eight European countries on teaching and learning about religious diversity in schools. Meeting together in each other’s countries, the REDCo team designed various studies, including qualitative (Knauth et al. 2008) and quantitative (Valk et al. 2009) studies of the views of 14- to 16-year-olds, plus a classroom interaction study (ter Avest et al. 2009), all conducted by each national group in its own setting. An overview of the project can be found in Jackson (2012).

The presentations by members of the REDCo team at the European Parliament in 2009, while acknowledging contextual differences, attempted a generic summary of findings. These include:

• Students wish for peaceful co-existence across differences, and believe this to be possible

• For students, peaceful co-existence depends on knowledge about each other’s religions and worldviews and sharing common interests as well as doing things together

• Students who learn about religious diversity in school are more willing to have conversations about religions/beliefs with students of other backgrounds than those who do not

• Students wish to avoid conflict: some of the religiously committed students feel vulnerable

• Students want learning to take place in a safe classroom environment where there are agreed procedures for expression and discussion

• Most students would like the state-funded school to be a place for learning about different religions/worldviews, rather than for instruction into a particular religion/worldview. However, students tended to prefer the system with which they were already familiar. (Jackson 2011a)

Dissemination work shows a particular synergy between the findings of the REDCo project and the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (Council of Europe 2008a). The dissemination project described later in this article draws on the various REDCo findings and on other relevant recent research.

International institutions and teaching about religions and beliefs

Various international institutions have concerned themselves in recent years with addressing issues of teaching and learning about religions and beliefs, taking the view that this activity is highly desirable as part of educational discourse within schools in democratic societies. For example, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) produced a standard setting document, the Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools, named after the city in which the drafting team first worked on the text (Jackson 2008; OSCE 2007). Another initiative is the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations programme, which also encourages education about religions and beliefs internationally through its Education about Religions and Beliefs website (http://erb.unaoc.org/ [see also Jackson 2009]).

The Council of Europe perspective on teaching about religions and beliefs

Complementary to, and more extensive than, the work of the OSCE and the UN in this field is that of the Council of Europe. This has taken place over a longer period than the OSCE’s contribution (it is ongoing), is fully consultative with member states, and takes account of relevant research. Since 2002 the Council of Europe has given attention to education about religions (and also, since 2008, non-religious convictions) in public schools across Europe. The formerly held view of leaving aside issues of the study of religions in public education – because religion was felt to belong only to the private sphere – was revised. The events of September the 11th, 2001 in the US provided a catalyst for change (Jackson 2010). The following discussion of the Council of Europe’s work in the religion and education field is written from an insider perspective and in a personal capacity (the author has been involved with the Council of Europe’s work on religion and education since its inception in 2002), and aims to explain the Council of Europe’s rationale, and the processes involved in developing the Signposts document, rather than to engage in a critical discussion.

The Council of Europe was established in 1949 about a year after the publication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Based in Strasbourg, France, and quite separate from the European Parliament (which has a much shorter history), the Council of Europe aims to protect human rights, pluralist democracy and the rule of law and to seek solutions to social problems, such as xenophobia and discrimination against minorities. The Council of Europe also aims to promote awareness and development of Europe’s cultural identity and diversity. Thus, there is an intention to develop across Europe a common commitment to the values expressed in the human rights codes – such as the value of human dignity – whilst respecting and valuing Europe’s cultural diversity and the traditions of each member state. There is a creative tension between a common approach to human rights and an acknowledgement of European diversity, as exemplified in different national histories of religion and state. To use Oddrun Bråten’s terminology, from her work on a methodology for comparison of religious education in different educational systems, supra-national influences are in creative tension with national and sub-national factors (Bråten 2013, 2014).

It should be explained that the Council of Europe integrates political activity with various projects undertaken under the umbrella of the Council of Europe directorates. Educational projects are currently conducted within the Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation, which is part of Directorate General (DGII) of Democracy.

On the political side, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe consists of members of the national parliaments of member states, not members of the European Parliament. The Committee of Ministers is made up of the Foreign Ministers of all 47 member states. Periodically, the Committee of Ministers makes Recommendations to member states based on projects conducted within the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe’s educational work at school level focuses on the interrelated areas of human rights education, education for democratic citizenship and intercultural education. Cutting across these are themes such as language, history and now religion and belief. Thus, the underlying rationale for including religion in the Council of Europe’s educational work might be said to relate to human rights, citizenship and intercultural education. The term ‘religious education’ is not used in the Council of Europe literature, mainly because of its ambiguity. Although the term ‘religious education’ refers in some contexts to ‘learning about religions’, it can also be understood as ‘religious nurture’ or ‘religious instruction’. The Council of Europe literature uses expressions such as ‘the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue’ or ‘the dimension of religions…within intercultural education’, avoiding this ambiguity, and making a particular connection between the study of religions and the study of culture. For the moment it is sufficient to say that there is no intention to reduce religion to culture by making this link.

In 2002, the Council of Europe launched a major project on the study of religions as part of intercultural education, entitled The Challenge of Intercultural Education Today: Religious Diversity and Dialogue in Europe. It produced new thinking on intercultural education and, with other important developments in the Council, influenced the Year of Intercultural Dialogue and the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue (Council of Europe 2008b). There were several outputs from the project, including a book based on the papers from a conference held in Oslo (Council of Europe 2004) and a widely circulated reference book for schools (Keast 2007). However, most importantly, the Committee of Ministers – the Foreign Ministers of all 47 member states – agreed (in December 2008) a policy recommendation on the dimension of religions and non-religious convictions within intercultural education. The Recommendation (Council of Europe 2008a) was circulated to all member states.

The Council of Europe Recommendation

The Recommendation was written during 2008, and various drafts were considered by the Committee of Ministers. The original draft related specifically to the project on the religious dimension of intercultural education, and dealt only with teaching about religions. However, a request came from the Committee of Ministers to extend the Recommendation to include ‘non-religious convictions’ as well as religions.

The intimate relationship to the Council’s other educational work, related to fields such as education for democratic citizenship, human rights education and intercultural education, is made clear in the Recommendation. The document also relates to various Recommendations from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and connections are made to the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue: Living Together as Equals in Dignity (Council of Europe 2008b), which argues that an understanding of cultural diversity should include knowledge and understanding of the main religions and non-religious convict...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• 1. The development and dissemination of Council of Europe policy on education about religions and non-religious convictions
• 2. The potential impact of the neurosciences on religious and spiritual education: ramifying from the impact on values education
• 3. Pupils’ views of religious education in a pluralistic educational context
• 4. What should religious education in Germany be about and how does religiosity fit into this picture? An empirical study of pre-service religious education teachers’ beliefs on the aims of RE
• 5. Creating metacognitive environments in primary school RE classrooms
• 6. The core of religious education: Finnish student teachers’ pedagogical aims
• 7. Altruistic values in children’s spirituality: a study of children’s responses to the terror attacks in Oslo and on Utøya and issues of education
• 8. The Little Prince – an introduction to spirituality: a moving experience in religious education for primary school children in a secularised world
• 9. Prayer as a cause of recovery from illness
• 10. Religious and spiritual education in disability situations in Italy
• 11. Towards international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education
• 12. Measuring religious social capital: scale properties of the modified Williams Religious Social Capital Index among Friends of cathedrals
• Index