scholarly journals Tid for terror. Læreres håndtering av kontroversielle spørsmål i skolens religions- og livssynsundervisning

Prismet ◽  
1970 ◽  
pp. 261-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trine Anker ◽  
Marie Von der Lippe
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Religion And Ethics ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Academic Competencies ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

Religious Education in Norway has been criticised for avoiding conflict perspectives and controversial issues. This article looks closer at some of these issues by focusing on how teachers in upper secondary school have dealt with the terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011 in the subject matter Religion and Ethics. This study takes as a starting point a previous study among students in upper secondary schools and their perceptions of what school has done in the aftermath of the incident, by adding teachers’ perspectives (Anker & von der Lippe 2015). The findings from the student survey showed that 22 July has almost been silenced in school, and the interviews with the teachers partly confirm this. The picture is however broadened, and shows that teachers have dealt with the issues in different ways. An important finding is that teachers´ personal and academic competencies seem to be important for whether and how controversial subjects are included in their teachings or not.Keywords: 22. July, controversial issues, democratic citizenship, religious extremism, religious educationNøkkelord: 22. juli, kontroversielle problemer, demokratisk statsborgerskap, religiøs ekstremisme, religionsundervisning

scholarly journals Dealing with and teaching controversial issues – Teachers’ pedagogical approaches to controversial issues in Religious Education and Social Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin K. Flensner
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Pedagogical Approaches

Abstract What strategies do teachers use, in classroom practice, to handle issues highly contested in society? This article focuses on how the various Middle Eastern conflicts and related topics, theoretically framed as controversial issues, are dealt with in religious education and social studies classes. The aim is to analyse pedagogical approaches teachers applied in situations where topics associated with regional, cultural, and/or religious conflicts (e.g., migration, terrorism, radicalisation, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia) were part of the teaching. What approaches were distinguishable in classroom practice? How did teachers reflect on this teaching? To examine these issues, ethnographic observations were made of religious education and civics classes at upper secondary schools in Sweden; follow-up interviews with teachers and students were also conducted to discuss the classroom situations. The approaches to teaching such difficult subject matter, as distinguishable in the classroom, were avoidance, denial of the controversy, provocation, representing/considering various perspectives, and eliciting empathy. There was a division between approaches that endeavoured to tone down the controversy versus those aimed at making the controversy more apparent. This difference can be understood as dealing with controversial issues as opposed to teaching controversial issues, which is a fundamental difference in pedagogic approaches. Keywords: controversial issues, teaching strategies, religious education, social studies, classroom observations   Att hantera och undervisa om kontroversiella frågor – Lärares didaktiska förhållningssätt till kontroversiella frågor i religionskunskap och samhällskunskap Sammandrag Vilka didaktiska förhållningssätt använder lärare i klassrummet för att hantera samhälleligt omtvistade och kontroversiella frågor? Den här artikeln fokuserar på hur Mellanösternskonflikterna och relaterade ämnen, teoretiskt inramade som kontro­versiella frågor, behandlas i religionskunskaps- och samhällskunskapsundervisning. Syftet i föreliggande artikel är att analysera lärares didaktiska handlande i undervis­ningssituationer där ämnen förknippade med regionala, kulturella och/eller religiösa konflikter (t.ex. migration, terrorism, radikalisering, främlingsfientlighet, antisemitism och islamofobi) var en del av undervisningen. Vilka didaktiska ansatser kunde urskiljas i klassrummet? Hur reflekterade lärarna över denna undervisning? För att undersöka dessa frågor genomfördes etnografiska klassrumsobservationer av religionskunskaps- och samhällskunskapsundervisning på gymnasiet i Sverige; intervjuer med lärare och elever genomfördes också för att diskutera de observerade klassrumssituationerna. Analysen visar att centrala ansatser var undvikande, förnekande av kontroversen, provokation, representation av olika perspektiv, och strategier som syftade till att skapa empati. Det fanns en skillnad mellan undervisning som sökte tona ner kontroversen jämfört med undervisning som syftade till att synliggöra olika perspektiv och positioner i den kontroversiella frågan. Denna skillnad kan förstås som att hantera kontroversiella frågor jämfört med att undervisa om kontroversiella frågor. Nyckelord: kontroversiella frågor, undervisningsstrategier, religionskunskap, samhällskunskap, klassrumsobservationer

scholarly journals Religion Education in Norway: Tension or Harmony between Human Rights and Christian Cultural Heritage?

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bengt-Ove Andreassen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Religion And Ethics ◽  
European Court ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Primary And Secondary School

Both research and public and scholarly debate on religious education (RE) in Norway have mostly revolved around the subject in primary and secondary school called Christianity, Religion and Ethics (KRL) (later renamed Religion, Philosophies of Life and Ethics, RLE), not least due to the criticisms raised by the UN’s Human Rights Committee in 2004 and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2007 of the Norwegian model for RE in primary and secondary schools. The RE subject in upper secondary school, however, is hardly ever mentioned. The same applies to teacher education. This article therefore aims at providing some insight into how RE has developed in the Norwegian educational system overall, ranging from primary and secondary to upper secondary and including the different forms of teacher education.

scholarly journals Teaching Controversial Issues in Diverse Religious Education Classrooms

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 465
Author(s):  
Karin K. Flensner
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Genital Mutilation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Multicultural Classroom ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
And Gender

In educational contexts, certain issues are perceived as controversial, since they reflect conflicts of interest and reveal divergent views. This is especially evident in debates related to religion in societies regarding themselves as secular but whose population is multi-religious. The aim of this article is to analyse how some issues that are considered controversial in the public debate are represented in the teaching of non-denominational and integrative Religious Education in a Swedish multicultural classroom practice, where the majority of students have a Muslim cultural background. The ethnographic empirical material consists of classroom observations of Religious Education lessons in upper secondary school. The analysis is based on the debate about how controversial issues ought to be taught—as empirically or politically open/settled or in a directive/non-directive way. The results indicate that a number of issues—divergent interpretations of religious narratives and religiously motivated rules, holidays, views of forgiveness, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and abortion—were regarded as open political issues in classroom practice and these were taught in an open, non-directive way. Issues represented as settled were value-oriented issues related to female genital mutilation, forced marriage and child marriage and gender equality. The arguments supporting these values were mainly rooted in religion.

scholarly journals When Terror Strikes: The 2015 Paris Attacks in Religious Education Classrooms in Norway

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Audun Toft
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Controversial Issue ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
Pedagogical Issue ◽  
Upper Secondary

Terrorism is commonly considered to be a controversial issue in religious education (RE). RE teachers find it a challenging topic to address, and many avoid it altogether. This article explores the question of addressing terrorism in RE by analysing and discussing empirical observations of RE lessons in an upper secondary school in Norway in the weeks following the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015. Using framing theory, the article discusses aspects of the empirical case study, contextualised by the discussion about controversial issues in education. The main claim of the article is that, rather than seeing the terror attacks as a controversial issue in itself, the terror attacks should be treated as an event that has the potential to tap into several different controversial issues depending on the way it is framed. When addressed in the RE classroom, the teachers actively transform the event into a pedagogical issue, framed in accordance with the nature and aims of the subject. The students, however, often contest this pedagogical framing. This article discusses the interplay between teachers’ plans, students’ reactions, and the role of media in classroom interaction about the Paris attacks.

Nicht unverständlich – aber unvollständig. Ein Modell zur Entwicklung von Lernaufgaben zur Förderung eines theologischen Argumentierens im evangelischen Religionsunterricht der gymnasialen Oberstufe

2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-345
Author(s):  
Thomas Weiß
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Leading Question

Summary The article is devoted to the subject of Religious Education and the public sphere. Its leading question explores the ability of students of upper secondary school to argue about creation and evolution. Argumentation is understood as one of the key cultural techniques needed in order to participate in the public discourse. Examples are provided that serve as a starting point for a model to foster argumentation in religious education. The article concludes with the thesis that a decisive task of religious education research and practice should be to foster argumentation as a decisive cultural technique for the public discourse.

scholarly journals A Discretionary Toolkit: Reasoning When Teaching Controversial Issues in Norwegian Upper Secondary School

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silje Andresen
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Science Class ◽  
Religion And Ethics ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools

Using a toolkit approach in combination with the concept of street-level bureaucracy and theories of discretion, this article has empirically investigated the resources that influence teachers’ discretionary reasoning when teaching controversial issues. The analysis has been based on 32 classroom observations at two upper secondary schools in Oslo, Norway, in one Religion and Ethics and one Social Science class, and interviews with 16 teachers who taught the same subjects. The results have shown that professional competence, professional and personal values, and relationships with pupils worked as a toolkit of resources that teachers could draw upon when making discretionary judgments in different contexts. A better understanding of teachers’ use of discretionary reasoning may enable curriculum developers and policymakers to support teachers in the complex social landscape of teaching controversial issues.

scholarly journals Controversies, Complexities and Contexts: Teaching Islam through Internal Feminist Critique of the Religion

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 662
Author(s):  
Marianne Hafnor Bøe
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
Secondary Research ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Approach To Teaching

In what ways can teaching Islam through controversial issues be useful in religious education? Can it serve to counter problems of representation of Islam, and what are the benefits and possible pitfalls of adopting such an approach? In this article, I will explore the use of Muslim internal feminist critique of conservative and patriarchal interpretations of women’s religious leadership in Islam as a controversial issues approach to teaching Islam in non-confessional religious education. The approach can be relevant for students in upper-secondary religious education, but also in teacher education. Building on secondary research documenting the problems of teaching Islam in non-confessional religious education in the Nordic countries as well as research on Muslim feminism spanning over a decade, this article investigates the didactic potentials and challenges that adopting the controversial issues approach may hold for teaching Islam. The main argument of this article is that the internal feminist debate on Islam provides an alternative entry to teaching Islam. It provides didactic resources and tools for understanding the discursive aspects of Islam, i.e., how Islam is conceived, interpreted, debated and practiced by Muslims, which in turn highlight power aspects and authority that are central to the production of religious knowledge. Consequently, the controversial issues approach may serve to counter certain “grand narratives” that seem to permeate current representations of Islam in religious education.

scholarly journals Actualizing hope and joy in K-12 curricula through Daisaku Ikeda’s human education

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Nai-Cheng Kuo ◽  
◽  
Amy Wood ◽  
Kyra Williams ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Lesson Design ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Human Education ◽  
Children's Stories ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

Abstract Purpose: Our study aims to create a framework grounded in Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of education for educators and researchers to implement and evaluate human education in the classroom. Research Methodology: We first synthesized the eighteen chapters by scholars involved in Ikeda studies, published in the book entitled: Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda across Curriculum and Context to discover the main themes in Ikeda’s human education. Based on these themes, we selected six children’s stories developed by Ikeda to design lessons. We then conducted surveys with ten K-12 teachers across disciplines and school districts to explore their perspectives toward humanity and their feedback on our lesson design. Results: Our finding indicates that creating hope and joy in education is inseparable from human revolution, value creation, happiness, the greater self, global citizens, as well as life and death. In addition, the participant’s responses to the survey questions help educators and researchers understand what K-12 teachers look for in order to implement lessons on humanity more efficiently and effectively. Limitations: By no means would we consider our lesson design exemplary or applicable in all different contexts. Instead, we consider these lessons a starting point to continue exploring a better way to teach humanity in school. Contribution: Seeing examples of lesson plans on humanity and learning from K-12 teachers’ perspectives provide an aspect for educators and researchers to use, extend, or expand the present study to bring hope and joy to students in their local contexts.

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