Potential of Religion in Education
[uit de conclusie] Siebren Miedema, “Contexts,
Debates and Perpectives of Religion in Education in Europe”, in REDCo I,
p. 281
Potential of Religion in Education: The Way
ahead
This first REDCo book has shown that in the
field of religion in education a great deal is going on at the moment in
the eight European countries participating in our research. Our
conclusion can be that religion in education is an important issue in
all of these countries. However, the historical background, especially
the particular configuration of the relationship of state and church and
school and church, differs greatly, as well as the present context of
religion in education in these countries. We can, nevertheless, also
conclude that there is a strong convergence with respect to the aims of
religion in education. With an eye on the growing religious plurality in
each country, and in Europe in toto,
teaching about religions and worldviews is seen as a necessary condition
for an adequate conceptualization of religious education - a necessary
condition, but in most of the participating countries, not a sufficient
condition. That is why the concept of teaching and learning from
religions and World views is combined with a variant of teaching and
learning about religions.
In order to distinguish such teaching and learning from religions and
worldviews clearly and distinctly from any, even sophisticated, form of
teaching into a religion or world view, we should, from the very outset,
find clear and effective pedagogies for combining knowledge and
understanding of religions with opportunities for personal reflection
and response that do not direct students to reach particular
conclusions. In such approaches, the relatively autonomous status of the
school as a societal institution should be emphasized, implying that
churches and religious organizations can be interesting and relevant
partners of state and denominational schools, but that there should not
be any institutional bond between churches or religious organizations
and a school. [Voor de duidelijkheid: hij bedoelt de openbare
(NL) of officiële (VL) school] |