Hanna Markus MA BSc
PhD student
[email protected]
PRESENTING A RESEARCH PROJECT
Teachers in Monoreligious Education and
Religious Tolerance as their Educational Goal
Supervisors:
prof. dr. M. Barnard (PThU)
dr. A. de Kock (PThU)
dr. A. de Muynck (Driestar Educatief)
dr. G.D. Bertram-Troost (VU)
Exploring the tension between monoreligious Christian education and the plural, liberal democratic society. Religious tolerance is a
basic requirement for living together in a plural, liberal democratic society and therefore it is an important goal of (citizenship) education. There
seems to be a tension between the monoreligious ideas and the multireligious, plural, liberal democratic society. In a school context this
tension can be articulated in terms of religious tolerance: (how) do teachers in monoreligious Christian schools consider religious tolerance
as an educational goal?
Research questions
FAITH SCHOOLS
What are teachers’ concerns about religious tolerance as an
educational goal in monoreligious Christian primary and secondary
schools?
School functions
as a bridge between Part of Citizenship Education:
family and society Religious toleranceV
1] Which meanings do the teachers give to the plural, liberal
democratic society?
2] Which meanings do the teachers give to their work in faith
schools?
PLURAL,
LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC
SOCIETY
3] What do the teachers think about religious tolerance as an
educational goal?
Teachers play a key role in
educational processesIV
4] What are the teachers’ strategies in teaching religious tolerance
in faith schools?
Core concepts
RESEARCH FOCUS
Monoreligious schools aim to initiate pupils in a specific religious tradition and to
strengthen their belief, because there is the conviction that this religion contains
the best world view. The world view is explicitly expressed in the education, not
only during RE-lessons. This means that the religious convictions of teachers are
important criteria in staff recruitment. Sometimes there are also criteria concerning
the religious background of pupils. There is little religious diversity in the schools. I
Teachers’ confession and profession are especially intertwined because
education is always normative. Convictions from the pedagogical domain and
religious domain are parts of the ‘professional self-understanding’ and the
‘subjective educational theory’ of a teacher. II
Religious tolerance is defined as the capacity to live alongside a different religious
tradition from one’s own in a liberal democratic society and it entails allowing
citizens to express their views freely, even when one does not agree with them. III
I
TENSION because of
exclusive theology and
homogeneous population
in faith schools
II
Research design
Output
We opt for a qualitative, descriptive research design
that contains of a review study of international
literature with pedagogical and educational perspectives
as well as international literature with a theological
perspective, concerning the central concepts of the
research questions.
And we use a case study approach that focuses on indepth interviews with at least 42 teachers from six
monoreligious Christian schools in the Netherlands.
Every participant will be interviewed individually and
will participate in group interviews.
There is a substantial lack of empirical knowledge about the state of
monoreligious (religious) education, because in pedagogical and educational
sciences and practices overwhelming attention is given to multireligious and
interreligious education.VI Foreseen articles deal with:
 Teachers’ concerns about diversity in education (review)
 Teachers’ motivation for working in monoreligious education
 Teachers’ coping with the concept of religious education
 Teachers’ pedagogy and educational theories of teaching religious
tolerance.
The results of this research will help to take important decisions in the school
context and in the political and public domain on micro-, meso- and macro-level.
Alii, E.T. (2009). Godsdienstpedagogiek. Dimensies en spanningsvelden. Zoetermeer: Meinema. Jong, J. de (z.j.). Waardenopvoeding en Onderwijsvrijheid. Enschede: Ipskamp. Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message. Self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15, 257-272. Muynck, A. de (2008). Een goddelijk beroep. Spiritualiteit in de
III
beroepspraktijk van leraren in het orthodox-protestantse basisonderwijs. Heerenveen: Groen. Neusner, J., & Chilton, B. (Eds.). Religious tolerance in world religions. West Conshohocken: Templeton. Willems, F., Denessen, E., Hermans, C., & Vermeer, P. (2010). Citizenship education in religious schools: an analysis of tole rance in Catholic schools from a virtue ethical point of view. Journal of Beliefs & Values: Studies in
IV
References
Religion & Education, 31 (2), pp. 215-229. Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Paper presented at the Australian Council for Educational Research Annual Conference on Building Teacher Quality, Melbourne. Willems, F., Denessen, E., Hermans, C., & Vermeer, P. (2010). Citizenship education in religious schools: an analysis of tole rance in Catholic schools from a virtue ethical point of view. Journal of Beliefs & Values: Studies in
VI
Religion & Education, 31 (2), pp. 215-229. Grace, G. (2009). Reflections on Allen and West´s paper: ´Religious schools in London: school admissions, religious composition and selectivi ty´. Oxford Review of Education 35, 495-503. Muynck, A. de, & Kock, A. de (2009). Over godsdienstpedagogiek en monoreligieuze vorming. Beweging 75 (4), 44-45. Other sources: Schweitzer, F. (2007). Religious individualization: new challenges to education for tolerance. British Journal
of Religious Education 29 (1), 89-100. Straten Waillet, N. van der, & Roskam, I. (2013). Are religious tolerance and pluralism reachable ideals? A psychological perspective. Religious Education, 108 (1), 69-87.