Cornelia Roux

Children’s spirituality in social context: a South African example

This discussion presents a critical and thorough review of spirituality in Religion Education in the South African context. In the democratic South African education system issues such as personal well‐being, spirituality and multi‐religion education are confronting teachers and learners who have to cope with a new approach to religion in education and life skills. It is not quite clear whether teachers understand the concept of children’s spirituality as outlined in the policy document Religion and education. As the purpose of schooling should also be to promote human well‐being or personal wellness, and education for life, the curriculum should reflect the priorities of life in general, and the values of a society in particular. For many years curricula in religion education in South Africa had no indication or any content concerning spirituality per se. In this article, the understanding of spirituality, especially in its different social and economic contexts, in the school curriculum and the challenges thereof will be discussed.

RELIGION IN EDUCATION:PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES

The National Policy on Religion and Education emphasised the value of recognising the diversity of belief systems in South Africa, particularly in the school system. The document focuses on the South African Constitutional values while the framework is based on the co-operative model of legal separation and the possibility of creative interaction between religion and state. In order to implement this new approach in schools, both teachers and students from diverse religions and belief systems will be required to facilitate religions, values as well as belief systems other than their own, in a professional manner. Their professional skills in facilitating different belief systems may also be vital in the successful implementation of the policy in schools. This article reports on an empirical research with pre-services teachers on the factors that influenced their perceptions on religion in schools and multireligion education, in particular during their compulsory school practices.

Participative intervention research: the development of professional programmes for in-service teachers

The Report of the Ministerial Committee on Teacher Education, A National Framework for Teacher Education in South Africa (2005), underlines the need for more attention to be given to the professional development of in-service teachers in South Africa. Many programme-related initiatives for the professional development of teachers have resulted from this report. However, it seems that some teachers view these attempts at professional development in a very negative light. Research done by Du Preez (2008) indicates that the methodology and/or approaches used may be one of the underlying reasons. This enquiry aims to contribute to the methodological discourse regarding intervention research and conceptual processes that support professional development of in-service teachers. The article begins by exploring the intervention research proposed by Rothman and Thomas (1994) that seems to be situated in an idealist interpretivist paradigm. After identifying some of its shortcomings, it highlights the merits of usi...

RELIGION IN EDUCATION: AN EMOTIVE RESEARCH DOMAIN

Understanding religion and especially different aspects of world religions is today, more than ever, an important part of social science. Religion is not only a means whereby many different cultures categorise and define human values, but it also provides a way in which to understand diversity in humankind’s experiences with life as part of our quest for meaning. Religion, as a component of the curriculum in education, be it in a home school environment, in schools or at tertiary institutions, is also a vibrant and important research domain. In the quest for greater understanding of people’s perceptions, attitudes, feelings and experiences, as well as their own religions and those of others, empirical research seems to be an effective route to follow. In this article the authors theorise on different research designs and methodologies to be applied in religion in education as a research domain and argue for a cautious approach to and analyses of empirical data. This article contains many claims made by the authors based on their experiences of research on Religion in Education.

Innovative Facilitation Strategies for Religion Education1

Before the 1994 democratic elections in South Africa, minority religions and the belief and value systems of minority groups were largely ignored. Many South Africans believed that the country was predominantly Christian, and this perception was implicitly acknowledged in education without any real attention being given to the creation of policies and practices to accommodate different religions and belief and value systems. The strong Christian National Education character was highly politicised,which furtherdeepened thedivisionsamong thedifferent religiouscommunities, eachwith its ownbelief andvalue systems.Oneof themain issueswas that thedifferent groupingsofAfricanReligions (AR)were regardedasbeingessentially cultural.There was no attempt to recognise AR as being a religion, and it was simply regarded as part of the culture of a certain group of South Africans. Another example is that children classified as ‘Indian’were given a separatemoral instruction programme called ‘Right Living’. This was, however, intended to defuse tensions that existed among Hindu, MuslimandChristiangroupsofSouthAfrican citizens of Indianorigin (cf.Tait, 1995). After the 1994 elections there was a subsequent emphasis on the diversity of beliefs and religions in South Africa and on the specific role and function of religion education to meet the realities and challenges of the multicultural, democratic school system and of South African society as a whole. It became obvious that knowledge of the diversity of beliefs and values was a prerequisite for facilitating children within the open school system (Roux, 1997). New strategies were implemented in 1995 to involve children and educators in different projects that would help them

Religious and Human Rights Literacy as Prerequisite for Interreligious Education

Secularisation and social construct of societies today have a direct influence on the position of interreligious teaching and learning. In some countries people tend to become less religious and others more fundamentalistic in nature. People simultaneously are more aware of democratic and human rights in general and of their individual rights (based on their cultural, religious and belief systems) in particular (cf. Ter Haar in J Runzo; N Martin & A Sharma, 2007). Religions and beliefs have become polarised in many regions in the world due to international political, economical and social circumstances. Xenophobic attacks on foreigners in many countries raise questions on individuals’ behaviour towards one another, be it political and/or economic refugees. The main question to be asked is, Can education on human rights issues – be it intercultural and/or interreligious – contribute to a better understanding of oneself and of the world the learner is living in? Ter Haar argues in his chapter ‘Rats, cockroaches and other people like us’ that during the twentieth century human rights issues have been largely a ‘matter of legislation’ (Runzo et al., 2007, p. 80). He recognised that theologians and scholars of religion recently added their voices to these debates. However, one should question how scholars in education could add another dimension to the arguments on human rights, religions, cultures and interreligious education. I would like to argue that education, especially in religion education, should propose educational arguments for human rights literacy and use the means to a more balanced view of teaching and learning interreligious education.

HERMENEUTICS AND RELIGION TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM

In the light of the debates and developments surrounding religion, and in view of the impact of religious and cultural diversity and human rights in the educational context worldwide, and in the South African educational context in particular, this article will try to explain what has led to these changes and academic debates. The implementation of the National Policy on Religion and Education in September 2003 seems to be superficial in nature and it appears as if transformation is not taking place. This article argues from theoretical and practical descriptions that in order to implement religion teaching and learning in tertiary and school education in general, a hermeneutical framework and an understanding of social constructivism may have the propensity to contribute to religion teaching and learning.

Human rights literacies and students' paradoxical understandings of tolerance and respect

Ivanhoe (2009:312) states that the “majority of contemporary Western philosophers who accept the fact of ethical pluralism and take this as a cause for concern, tend to argue for tolerance in the face of such differences”. He further argues that tolerance is mostly understood as the “uncritical acceptance of a range of competing and mutually irreconcilable values or forms of life”. During the past two years, students at South African public Higher Education Institutions (HEI) were raising more distinct voices about the underlying social issues and economic disparities experienced at these institutions. Many of the students’ #MustFall protests, starting in 2015, have played out on campuses of South Africa’s universities. Protesters have been critical of HEI’s involvement (especially management) and argue that they did not go far enough to respond to the concerns of students’ grievances and demands. Management did not reflect or indicate the urgency to meet or improve their needs on social issues prevalent to higher education communities. Two incidents portrayed in the visual media during the #FeesMustFall protests, (September and October 2016) at two different universities, portrayed the complexities of being tolerated or respected. These incidents triggered a review of captured data of a funded research project (2012-2015:2018) on human rights literacies. The data captured in this project derived from South African (2013) and both South Africa and international (2015) students’ understanding of human rights literacies. The survey and interviews also focussed, inter alia on students’ understanding of respect and tolerance as a human right. This article reflects on the complexities underlying these two concepts and thereafter responds to the paradoxes identified in local and international students’ understanding of tolerance and respect.

Editorial: On critique, dissensus and human rights literacies

Globally, issues such as xenophobia, rising nationalism and populism, linked to the international migrant crisis, are stretching the past influence and the present reinterpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) to its limits. Locally, the #MustFall [i] protests at higher education institutions rightly question the existence and validity of human rights, especially as it pertains to the right to education, socio-economic rights and the moral responsibility of higher education institutions to its students within human rights policy frameworks. The growing critique of human rights is crucial not only to the understanding of the conceptual, legal, moral, historic and contextual complexities of human rights but also the rethinking of the anthropological, ethical, ontological and epistemological premise of human rights. Human rights literacies, we argue, while including knowledge about human rights, question the social and moral consequences of the (non)realisation of human rights as well as the anthropological, ethical, ontological and epistemological premise of human rights. Critique and dissensus are inherent to human rights literacies and impact on how we speak and act to in(ex)clusions, marginalisation, intolerance, disrespect, misrecognition and discrimination. [i] The unexpected and unprecedented nature of the student protests during 2015-2016 came as a shock to many South Africans. Even naming the protests present some difficulties. Students refer to the protests as a movement. In this article we refer to the student movement as #MustFall which include: #Rhodesmustfall, #Rhodessowhite, #OpenStellenbosch, #TransformWits, #KingGeorgemustfall, #Thestatuemustfall, #Feesmustfall, #Nationalshutdown, #Feeswillfall, #ANCmustfall, #Feeshavefallen, #Rapemustfall and #Partriarchymustfall (Booysen 2016)

Religion in education: is critical engagement with social justice possible?

In this brief article I argue that religious education in faith-based schools has the propensity to create “artificially safe spaces” due to the particular notion of their belief and value systems. The deficiency of interreligious interactions, teaching–learning activities, and the exclusive notion of a faith-based school, might hinder a religious conscience and literacy that easily can exclude critical thinking and discourses on social justice issues (cf. Roux 2010). Being professionally part of religious discourses and religious education and as a member of religious and professional bodies before and after the democratic elections in South Africa, I have experienced, and am still experiencing, the impact of histories and religious education on the social fiber of our society. Since 1994, the post-democratic political and social environments have changed dramatically. The notion of promoting inclusiveness in all the different layers of society was/is promoted. These ideas and actions also impacted the many processes on the position and understanding of religion in education. Adjustments, changes to curriculum and legislations in education, especially policies on religion in education in 2003, overwhelmed educators, professional bodies, and education institutions. As a researcher in religion in education I strove to be scholarly involved in the hermeneutically understanding of religion in education before and after 1994. Excluding my personal hermeneutic journey (Roux and Van der Walt 2012), it was important to stay scholarly involved in empirical research projects on children’s and students’ perceptions and understanding on the change from a so-called “safe” mono-religious curriculum and school environment to an inclusive multireligious approach to education fostering a “new open society.” Since the beginning of 1980 the notion of a multireligious religious education curriculum, social constructionism, and teaching–learning approaches in previously dominant Christian societies (e.g., Britain and Europe) also impacted research and literature, especially on the