Olga Schihalejev

Dialogue in religious education lessons – possibilities and hindrances in the Estonian context

This paper discusses the limitations and potentials for dialogue in religious education (RE) classes on the basis of observations of Estonian RE lessons. I investigated how the way of asking questions contributes to the dialogue in the classroom. Additionally I investigated how students’ readiness to engage in dialogue is influenced by others’ responses to their contributions. I examined what happens in a classroom, by observing and analysing patterns of interaction in RE lessons in two schools. Video‐ethnographic data collection was combined with stimulated recall. Incident‐analysis stemming from conversational analysis was used to interpret the data. On the basis of these analyses and interpretations, we can conclude that the teacher‐centred habit of instruction is a main impediment to dialogue. A teacher’s positive reinforcement of answers does not contribute to dialogue between students but rather to the assumption that the correct answer has already been given and to reliance on the teacher’s arguments. Also, open questions do not work always as facilitators of dialogue, but rather can be felt as intimidating.

Contextuality of Young People's Attitudes and Its Implications for Research on Religion: A Response to Julia Ipgrave.

This is a response to Julia Ipgrave’s contribution on the contextuality of young people’s views on religion and religious diversity in this collection of essays on ‘Religion in Education’. First I will highlight and reflect on methodological issues raised by Ipgrave’s observations in the light of my own research. The first problem highlighted is the use of the same words while they have different emotional connotations in different regional settings and for different groups. Then I will reflect on the ambivalent results concerning learning about religions from the point of view of implementing the research findings in relation to everyday school practices.