Geir Skeie

Plurality and pluralism: a challenge for religious education

A distinction is suggested between plurality and pluralism. Plurality will be used in a descriptive sense, referring both to the religious plurality which is typical of many modern societies, and to the plurality of modernity itself. The latter expression will be used to describe the range of life‐styles, cultural and political stances and so on which form the social context within which religious plurality is situated. These descriptions will be distinguished from pluralism, which will be used in a normative sense, indicating the various values, attitudes, ethical implications and so on which arise in response to plurality. The implications of these distinctions for religious education will be discussed with special reference to the relationship between plurality and pluralism.

Diversity and the political function of religious education

Questions about the relationship between religion and politics are discussed with particular focus on the consequences for religious education. Norway is taken as an example of a country where increasing cultural diversity challenges traditional politics of religion. In the present climate of conflicting views on the role of religion in politics, religious education is higher on the political agenda in many European countries, but it is unclear which path the governments choose to follow. For religious educators it is important to engage critically in the political debate about religion, and to show a basic political loyalty towards the education of the individual child and towards improving the lifeworld of children.

Plurality and Pluralism in Religious Education

A recent comparison of religious education in Germany and United States in the twentieth century shows that a preoccupation with modernity was central to many religious educators at the beginning of the century (Osmer & Schweitzer, 2003). Later, this liberal and optimistic view of culture and society met with criticism, and gradually the focus shifted towards the religious content of religious education. In the last half of the century, attention returned to the social and cultural context, and issues of secularisation became higher on the agenda in Western countries. There was also a concern about young people’s ‘drift’ away from traditional values, their decline in religious commitment and their lack of interest in organised religion (Skeie, 2002a). Much religious education came to focus on how to teach religion to the children and young people living in secularised societies. This resulted in new pedagogical approaches, as well as curriculum changes, in many countries. Researchers became more interested in the life-world and spirituality of children, partly with a developmental perspective, and partly with a growing interest in the content of children’s own philosophy of life as well as the socio-cultural context of their reflection process (Hartman, 1986; Hyde, 1990; Jackson & Nesbitt, 1993). In earlier social science, secularisation was often seen as a necessary result of modernisation, but by the 1960s this view had become debateable. Today both the concept and the theories about secularisation are contested, partly because many researchers employ a more global perspective. The tendency seems to be more towards investigating a process of ‘oscillation between secularisation and sacralisation’, and discussing ‘conceptions of religion and spirituality’ (Beckford, 2003, pp. 71–72). Parallel to this, religious education gradually discovered that young people were interested in religious questions, in spirituality and in ethical

Impartial teachers in religious education – a perspective from a Norwegian context

The debate about Norwegian religious education, since the change towards a more multi-faith and non-confessional school subject in 1997, has often touched upon issues of impartiality, using concepts such as neutral, objective, descriptive, critical and pluralistic. Still, international Human Rights bodies have criticised Norwegian regulations for religious education and by this contributed to change of both curriculum and practice. This makes the Norwegian example interesting from an international perspective. The national debates are, however, complex and sometimes confusing. Sometimes legal and educational perspectives on religious education may seem to be incommensurable, and also pedagogical, academic and even epistemological traditions differ. The article analyses and discusses Norwegian public debate as well as religious education research in order to approach general issues of impartiality and neutrality in non-confessional religious education. It argues that these issues should be contextualised both on a national and sub-national level and discusses what this means for the work in classrooms. Research suggests that teachers struggle with complex issues related to partiality and impartiality in their teaching; but that they have little opportunity to discuss their experiences. The debate about principles therefore needs to be accompanied by more cooperation between researchers and teachers in developing good teaching and learning.

Religious Youth in a Secular Culture

In this chapter I am commenting on Dan Paul Jozsa’s article on Islam in Education partly by referring to the overall REDCo project (of which I myself was also a participant) and partly by discussing some of the issues in a Nordic perspective. It is mentioned that young people may have quite different understanding of what it means to ‘have a religion’ and that in the age of 14–16, membership and belonging may sometimes be confused. Also the majority/minority dimension is highlighted as an important issue when considering results from the quantitative study. Regarding Norwegian students it is pointed out that religion is largely considered to be a marginal phenomenon in young people’s lives, but that Muslims in general and the small groups of active Christians seem to differ. It is suggested that possibly young active Christians may feel even more marginalized than young Muslims in the secularized Nordic countries. It is also mentioned a tendency in Norwegian religious education that the personal dimensions of religion is underplayed in school and that pupils may lose something if this is not improved.

In Search of a Religious Education Approach

I started my career as a religious educator at first by something that seemed almost a coincidence, but it continued as a personal choice. Through these years of teaching and researching, I have not really developed my own proper ’approach’ to religious education. Still, one could assume that if somebody read through my writings, they would find characteristics that may disclose some kind of approach. In this contribution, I have myself tried to capture some recurring themes and perspectives in a spirit of self-reflection by recapitulating some of my work in retrospect.