Approaches to Religious Education - Assignment Example

Part A: Differences of Education in Religion and Education in Faith: “Over the past fifty years, in a bipartisan way, Australia has become a multicultural and multi-faith lighthouse” (Cahill, Bouma, Dellal and Leahy 2004, p. 127) as such an education professional needs to have clarity on ‘faith’ and ‘religion’. In order to answer the above, one should grasp the subtle differences with regard to the field of education, between the terms ‘religion’ and ‘faith’. Professor Hull (1999, p. 1) has, in his reflections on the subject, explained that, “Religions may be understood as those more or less systematised structures of speech, actions, ethics and institutions which aim to bring human beings to the limit of humanness by exposing them to the Ultimate. In that sense, the religions represent the most definite crystallisation of the various social and individual techniques of spiritual development”. ‘Faith’ he describes is larger than religion since, “It is the positive human response to the issues raised by spirituality and by religion...we describe faith as the attitude which responds to spirituality in the broadest sense... faith would be a human potential for responding with trust, to whatever centres of power, meaning and purpose a person selects (Fowler 1981) in order to advance his or her spirituality” (Hull 1999, p. 1). Correspondingly the approaches to education while teaching faith and religion differ. Special Religious Instruction or Religious Education focused on teaching Christianity and its tenets in public schools, “taught by volunteers from various religious groups but the diversity of religions is not taught in a single class” (Halafoff and Smith 2012) while other religious schools focused on the special religion or the religion of the chosen religious minorities. Education in faith, however focuses on inclusiveness, and has five basic tenets: 1) respecting the beliefs and convictions of all faith and no faith 2) learning to understand and value each (faith and no faith) on their own terms 3) not to offend, but respect every type of food, dress and social etiquette particular to each 4) not to compare ideals and practices 5) most importantly, avoidance of verbal, physical violence and diffusion of conflict causing factors in interactions between peoples of various faiths (Cahill and Leahy 2004, p. 14). Part B Problems encountered in teaching from each of the two perspectives in a classroom are- A heterogenous classroom filled with students from various cultures and backgrounds including from families which do not follow any faith, can pose a number of problems for teaching from either of the tow perspectives namely Religious Instruction and Multi-faith ethics. First, a few examples in the RI (Religious Instruction) perspective will be considered. One major obstacle for teaching one religion (Christian beliefs) in public schools wherein students from all faiths, no faith, and aboriginal communities attend is that it advocates the superiority of one religion while denying the validity of other faiths, and hence alienates the non-followers (non-Christians) as ‘others’, while making the followers ‘exclusive’. Practical problems, apart from discrimination, too exist. For example, while teaching biology, Darwin’s theory of natural selection and evolution, it has to be explained that according Charles Darwin, the biological features of a particular species is governed by certain laws that determine which characteristics will persist in the future generations and which will not, according to the use of that particular trait to the species. This poses a problem for the Christians who believe that every species was created that way by God as given in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Further explanation and proof of experiments carried out by the naturalist will tend to discredit the teachings in the Bible, amounting to contradiction and disrespect for the student’s beliefs. This also tends to confuse students, especially younger groups, regarding the correctness of either the Bible or scientific proofs, and methods. Similarly, when it comes to teaching of social structures, like family, manners, etiquette and customs, every student may have diverse cultural backgrounds; in the context of food, behaviour, marriage and beliefs and convictions, in which some customs so commonly followed/practiced by some may be taboo – or banned in others. For example, divorce between couples is banned for Catholics, while many students may come from single-parent divorcees, resulting in fear and prejudice against a few. Practical difficulties abound in teaching from the faith perspective too. Some students may find it confusing to know about so many faiths and to learn to respect other religions and customs irrespective of their own personal belief systems. For example, discussion of aboriginal dreamtime stories which are an integral part of aboriginal culture may cause students totally unexposed to aboriginal culture to consider it primitive, if the instructor is not careful in creating the right atmosphere of constructive exchange of views. Furthermore, some sections of research point out that the benefits of education is manifold on children “when parents and staff communicate with each other and share such values as commitment to hard work and respectful behavior toward adults” (Bauch, 1993; Coleman & Hoffer, 1987 cited in Holloway 1999, p. 1), which is lot in a multi-faith classroom. The contradictory belief systems of each may lead to confrontation and non-cooperation between students, sometimes resulting in violence. Part C: Positive Effects of my Religious Views in my Teaching Practices: My personal belief is that irrespective of my personal religion, every religion and faith has some good things to offer, which can be shared and learned and adapted to better to our living. This has had positive outcomes in my teaching practice too, as I shall briefly explain here. I had my early education in a Catholic missionary school which had students from Catholic faith and faiths such as Protestants, Pentecost, Seventh Day Adventists, Muslims, a few Parsee (Zoroastrians), and a few Hindus. The Catholic Missionary school nuns (as was common practice in multicultural developing where evangelical missionaries set up schools and hospitals) held separate classes for Catholic children and non-Catholic children with former being taught Catechism and the ‘others’ were instructed ‘moral science’. While there was no discrimination, there was no effort to maximize the benefit of cross-cultural exposure within the classroom either; it was a neutral approach. However, for me and students like me with their early education in such a multicultural environment, it has helped albeit unconsciously, understand the diversity in beliefs and faiths and that this diversity is not necessarily opposing or antagonistic. They can be harmonious and complementary, and the differences in each can hold small, delightful surprises to share with one another. For example, while the school itself used to conduct games and charitable parties before Christmas, donate clothes and gifts for the impoverished and so on. Students from other faiths were encouraged to bring sweet-meats and delicacies to share with their classmates during their festivals, whereupon the teacher would announce to the classroom the occasion and ask the student to state a few lines on what the celebration was about and its significance, for the benefit of ‘others’ in the class. I followed this simple but meaningful practice in my teaching practice within the classroom and found that children were eager to share their gifts and curious to explore the newness of ‘others’. The enthusiasm of majority of the class induced me to slowly introduce small but sure steps to communal harmony, like making the children hold hands and form a circle, and say two small affirmative statements for peace and friendship, which included children from no faith backgrounds also. These are some of the steps mentioned in the toolkit to impart and practice multicultural faith in the classroom by researchers (Cahill and Leahy 2004, p. 21). Thus, my personal belief in plurality and the possible enrichment that can happen through multi-faith, multicultural education in the classroom, proved to be beneficial and promoting values of sharing and respect for fellow human beings. Part D: Overcoming Negative Effects of my Religious Beliefs in Teaching: My pluralistic views may sometimes convey an impression of agnosticism to avid followers of religion. In the classroom, as mentioned earlier, I had the children share sweet-meats chocolates and cakes in very small quantities on special occasions, after talking to the parents/guardian and obtaining their permissions to hold such activities (also ascertaining if any child has any specific food allergy). However, some parents initially expressed their unhappiness and doubts about their wards being introduced to festivals and occasions of other faiths. However, I was able to explain to the parents that these are practices that were a part of multicultural tool-kit, which promoted religious harmony rather than dwell too much on any religion or highlight the differences. I also invited the parents to witness one such celebration and sharing occasion just to demonstrate how the children loved it, with the consent of the school authorities. Most of the parents understood that it was a part of fun-time for their wards and most of them felt that it would amount to depriving the children of an opportunity to learn shared lessons through such fun-filled activities, if they denied permission. Hence they agreed, and the children were able to exchange small but significant tokens of goodwill and respect, which I am sure will go a long way to improve their own faith and trust in humanity. Because of my respect for secularism, I found it a challenge to explain scientific theories like evolution and the birth of our solar system, the eclipses, etc, without cross-references to the various religious beliefs associated with the subject. Later, I realized that it was not important to focus on this aspect, and it may sometimes even confuse the students. So, I stopped explanation regarding the religious theories in science, unless children specifically ask for it. In this manner I was able to overcome the negative influence of my outlook entering into my teaching practices. Some parents also considered it a negative that I held such liberal overview of religion, and have even conveyed the impression that they would have been happier to trust their wards with a teacher who is more religiously knowledgeable. I choose to smile politely and reassure them gently that home is the place where religion can be taught better with individual attention and care, while at school it is essential to take care of the moral development of the child. References: Cahill, Desmond., Bouma, Gary., Dellal, Hass and Leahy, Michael (2004). “Religion and Cultural Diversity in Australia-A Partnership under the Australian Government’s Living in Harmony Initiative. National Capital Printing, Canberra. Available at, http://amf.net.au/library/uploads/files/Religion_Cultural_Diversity_Main_Report.pdf Cahill and Leahy (2004). “Constructing a Local Multi-Faith Network - A Partnership under the Australian Government’s Living in Harmony Initiative. National Capital Printing, Canberra. Available at, http://amf.net.au/library/uploads/files/Religion_Cultural_Diversity_Multifaith_Kit.pdf Halafoff, Anna and Smith, Sue (2012). “A question of faith: reforming religious education in schools” in The Conversation. Available at http://theconversation.edu.au/a-question-of-faith-reforming-religious-education-in-schools-10572 Holloway, Susan (1999). “The Role of Religious Beliefs in Early Childhood Education: Christian and Buddhist Preschools in Japan” in the Journal of Early Childhood Research and Practice, Vol 1, no. 2. Available at http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v1n2/holloway.html Hull, M. John (1999). “Spirituality, Religion, Faith: Mapping the Territory” Available at http://www.johnmhull.biz/Spirituality,%20religion,%20faith.html Read More