Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Religious education”

This thesis is concerned with the question as to how to present the study of religion to students in religious education (RE) in schools that reflects a distinctively religious character but not a confessional one. It recognises that how religion is conceptualised in RE and the search for a distinctive rationale that reflects the subject’s nature and purpose, has been a contested question over the history of the subject in state maintained schools since the Education Act of 1870. More recently, criticism of what has been termed ‘modern liberal RE’ has focused on the claim that, in many instances, the subject has misrepresented religion, by being guilty of essentialism and in denying students opportunities to engage with the ‘truth claims’ of religions. It is within this context that this thesis argues that a nuanced understanding of John Hick’s religious interpretation of religion can positively illuminate these debates by providing a second order explanatory framework for the study of religion in RE.

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Teachers College, Columbia University, 1991.
Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Douglas M. Sloan. Dissertation Committee: William B. Kennedy. Includes bibliographical references: (leaf 139-143).

This research was undertaken in the light of Foucault's theories and methodologies of language with particular reference to Discipline and Punish as applied to education. The opening section gives a detailed review of these methodologies and the way they will be applied to the various areas of educational practice. There is detailed consideration of the relationship between church and state from the early nineteenth century up until the Education Act, 1944, with particular reference to religious and educational discourse. This is followed by a study of the principles underlying the teaching of religion and the practice of worship in schools prior to 1944. From this the thesis moves to a closer consideration of the 1944 Education Act with the examination of the debate in parliament and in the country as a whole. Most of the evidence for the period is taken from The Times as reflecting the wider use of religious and educational discourse. The thesis then considers the outcome of the 1944 Education Act and the effects it had on religious education until the passage of the 1988 act, with particular reference to the changes in teacher praxis in the nineteen-sixties. Parallel to this is a survey of the main theological developments in Britain between 1944 and 1988 and an assessment of the changes within religious institutions during the same period. Before coming to a detailed consideration of the 1988 Education Reform Act, the thesis considers the changes that took place in teacher praxis between the nineteen-sixties and 1988, and then considers the debate in parliament and in the country during 1988. The final sections are concerned with the implementation of the act, with consideration of the governmental documentation issued to supplement the act and various comments upon these. Fieldwork within Hastings and Sutton has yielded data which attempts to place the research within the context of present praxis in a range of schools. The study concludes with media reaction to the act and an overview of the key points that have arisen from the research.

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 2001.
Title from title page screen, viewed April 25, 2006. Dissertation Committee: M. Paul Holsinger (chair), Moody Simms, John Freed. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-167) and abstract. Also available in print.

I show how my previous MA research indicated useful data regarding motivation in secondary school Religious Education (RE) but needed augmented theoretical and empirical substance to inform a general pedagogy (chapter 1): to this end I address issues of adolescent agency and identity (chapter 2) and creativity (chapter 3). Draft recommendations for an active, creative, existential and hermeneutical RE pedagogy result from these augmentations (chapter 2, revised in chapter 3). The heart of this thesis is a classroom-based empirical study designed to apply and assess my recommendations for RE practice. I argue action research and ethnographic strategies fit for my field study purposes (chapter 4). I then present and analyse my field study data, identifying categories of student motivation in RE, namely dialogue with difference, existential or ethical interest and personal significance. These categories are seen to be highly compatible with my earlier draft recommendations for RE practice (chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8). Next, I integrate my data into a critique of Andrew Wright’s religious literacy pedagogy, arguing that Wright’s oppositions of language to experience and intrinsic to pragmatic value are misleading, but conceding that his fundmental principles are sound and that his recent theory overcomes some earlier difficulties. This includes consideration of Ninian Smart’s phenomenological Religious Studies and John Dewey’s educational philosophy. I go on to re-affirm that dialogue with difference, existential or ethical interest and personal significance are basic to what motivates RE pupils. Therefore, effective RE requires hermeneutical learning, including attention to the development of pupils’ own ideas and values over time; action research indicates ways for teachers to handle this requirement (chapter 9).

This research investigates the nature of pupil self-assessment in religious education. It considers the implications of theories of self-assessment as assessment for leaming for self-reflection in pedagogies of pluralistic religious education, and vice versa. Assessment for learning: Research on assessment has claimed that selfassessment is essential in formative assessment, to combat the negative effects of summative assessment. Other recent research has considered the situated nature of classroom practice. How would these classroom factors affect selfassessment in RE? Policy and pedagogy In religious education: The history of the current policy documents is analysed using policy scholarship, and the tension is revealed between measurable intellectual skills and a wider understanding of the place of religious education in developing tolerance and respect, both in the England and Wales, and internationally. Are policy and assessment properly aligned? Practitioner research: Virtue theory is developed as a research paradigm for practitioner research for professional development. Rigour is established through a reflexive use of qualitative, largely ethnographic methods, especially group interviews. Analysis includes consideration of pupils' assessment careers. Reflexive self-assessment: As a result of analyzing the data on assessment and religious education an original form of self-assessment is proposed. Reflexive self-assessment is a subject-specific model of self-assessment, linked to interpretive approaches. This harmonizes classroom self-assessment of both intellectual skills and intercultural values. The classroom conditions necessary to allow it to develop are examined. The implications of this for theories of self-assessment, learning autonomy and current policies of religious education are considered. Finally, the research is reviewed, notably the implications for researching and teaching, and future developments. The quality of the research is defended, in terms of significance, originality and rigour.

This research focused on discovering the most valued books in adult religious education through a survey of professors of adult religious education and in bibliographies of recent dissertations in adult religious education. Three groups of adult religious educators participated in the survey: the religious adult educators who are members of the adult sections of the Association of Professors and Researchers of Religious Education and North American Professors of Christian Education, and professors of adult religious education in Southern Baptist theological seminaries. In addition the author surveyed the adult religious education dissertation bibliographies for the period 1980-1995 to discover the most frequently cited adult religious education books. The author developed a listing of 312 adult religious education books published in English. Then a jury of three experts in the field choose seventy-seven books which they valued. From this list the three groups of professors choose books according to three criteria: textbooks they used in adult religious education courses, books they recommended as additional reading, and books they valued in the field.

This thesis examines traditional and contemporary perspectives on the nature of spirituality. Its aim is to provide a basis for a programme or course on spirituality that would be relevant and meaningful for students in multicultural settings. The main theme unifying the diverse traditions and perspectives examined in the thesis relates to the interconnectivity of all life within the Universe. Other related themes include: the importance of living in the present, the unity between body, spirit, and earth, and the importance of contemplative solitude and silence.

Recentemente si sta sviluppando, all’interno della ricerca sulle religioni, un interesse per il variegato ambito della educazione concernente la religione – indicato col termine generico Religious Education - specialmente nelle scuole pubbliche. In particolare, cominciano a vedere la luce lavori di natura normativa che discutono su come impostare un insegnamento pubblico non confessionale e basato sullo studio accademico delle religioni. Il presente lavoro intende riflettere sul ruolo che il tema delle religioni est-asiatiche può assumere in tal senso. A questo scopo si individuano e discutono temi e concetti rilevanti relativi allo studio teorico delle religioni, alla didattica, all’educazione interculturale, nonché taluni aspetti, ritenuti chiave, dello studio delle religioni est-asiatiche. Quale pietra di paragone in tema di Religious Education, si considera e analizza il case-study dell’Inghilterra, generalmente considerata la più sviluppata in tema di insegnamento su base non confessionale. Attraverso il confronto tra il case-study e una discussione interdisciplinare dei diversi ambiti sopracitati, si intende mostrare come il tema delle religioni est-asiatiche possa rivelare problematiche nascoste, potenziare il raggiungimento di taluni obiettivi e proporre nuove prospettive. Allo stesso tempo, si intende organizzare tali osservazioni in un quadro teorico-pratico per future concrete applicazioni del tema delle religioni est-asiatiche all’interno di una Religious Education non confessionale, basata sullo studio accademico delle religioni e con una prospettiva di educazione interculturale.

Three questions command even greater attention today, as over forty countries, including many Muslim-majority states, unite against Daesh (the so-called ‘Islamic State'): How do Muslims relate to the Muslim ‘other'? How do Muslims relate to the religious ‘other'? What role can Muslim religious education play in fostering peace? Islam and Muslim education are suspected of promoting intolerance. This thesis investigates a group of Shia Ismaili Muslim trainee-teachers' attitudes to plurality in their religious education programme. The Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) is a two-year postgraduate course of the Ismaili Muslim community to train religious education teachers. STEP, a novel development in Muslim education, experiments with an innovative pedagogical approach to plurality. The research spanning over three years involved in-depth interviews, focus group, observations and textual analysis. 21 trainee-teachers from 13 different countries participated in the study. Alan Race's (1983) typology ‘inclusivismexclusivism- pluralism' serves as a key theoretical lens through which to examine attitudes to religious others. The thesis argues that a ‘rooted religious pluralisation' is taking place in the Ismaili community facilitating the emergence of the ‘tradition' of pluralism in the community. The study shows that initially, the participants were inclusive of other religious communities and worldviews on ‘theological', ‘humanistic' and ‘instrumental' grounds, but were selective about how they embraced it. Many of them believed that their religious perspective exceptionally equipped them over their religious ‘other'. Gradually, STEP's ‘civilizational, normative and humanistic' approach cultivated an ‘academically informed pluralism' in most trainee-teachers. It strengthened their Ismaili Muslim identity on the one hand and generated an appreciation for diversity on the other. The individuals developed not only greater socio-cultural and historical awareness of religion, but also their ability to make a space for faith academically. It cultivated in the participants a degree of ‘inter-tradition competence' and ‘intra-Islam competence'. The individuals were not ‘pluralist angels', but they discursively participated in pluralism. The present study makes three key contributions. Firstly, this is the first study to propose the thesis of ‘rooted religious pluralisation'. It identifies the key features and tendencies inherent in a religious community's engagement with diversity through a five-dimensional working framework. Moreover, as a study of the socio-cultural process of ‘intra-faith pluralisation' in Muslim religious education setting, it is unique. It is about making sense of the everyday experiences of the Muslims who encounter diversity within their own faith. The thesis identifies various stages involved in the process of developing intra-faith competence and provides tools and vocabulary to discuss them meaningfully. Moreover, the study suggests the possibility of a Muslim education that can play a vital role in combating extremism and sectarianism. Current scholarship does not sufficiently take account of new and thought-provoking pedagogical developments in Muslim education. There is a dearth of studies on Muslim faith communities' efforts to build ‘intra-Islam competency' in their followers through faith-based education. The literature is also silent about how Ismaili Muslims handle differences among themselves regarding matters of faith, how they view differences within Islam and relate to wider religious plurality. Thus, the study contributes to a niche in the existing literature on religious pluralism.

This study investigates the complications raised in teaching a confessional Religious Education in a multi-religious context pertaining in Ugandan religiously founded public schools, government and private founded schools. The thesis contends that the introduction of Islam, Anglican and Roman Catholic Christian religious traditions in Uganda not only presented alternative religious systems to the existing African traditional religion but ushered in an era of competition for converts that subsequently led to religious conflict. The thesis also submits the view that the missionary aim of formal education in Uganda led to the creation, not only of a denominational, but a divisive educational system. While the study commends the colonial government and the first independent government's efforts towards establishing a nondenominational educational system, it suggests that their failure to address the controversial questions raised by the nature of RE at the time was a missed opportunity. The study probes the current syllabuses, aims and content of CRE and IRE for secondary and primary schools and suggests that their main intention of promoting spiritual growth of students is inappropriate for implementation in the multi-religious schools. The thesis questions the government's proposed exclusion of RE from the education curriculum and its replacement with Moral Education. It suggests that while Moral Education could be a subject on its own, Religious Education needs to be maintained but re-designed to address the multi-religious context. It presents a multi-faith RE as the ideal format of teaching about religion.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2016-05-05T19:35:24Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Évely Adriana de Lima Lopes - 2015.pdf: 1592754 bytes, checksum: 5980ba427cc8fc6927e444fa01c9c0c5 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-05-06T11:31:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Évely Adriana de Lima Lopes - 2015.pdf: 1592754 bytes, checksum: 5980ba427cc8fc6927e444fa01c9c0c5 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-06T11:31:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Évely Adriana de Lima Lopes - 2015.pdf: 1592754 bytes, checksum: 5980ba427cc8fc6927e444fa01c9c0c5 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-23
This work is a reflection on the religious education in public schools in Goiás. We looked in on the concept of secularism as a fundamental principle of democratic governments and Re-publicans on the relationship of this principle within the Brazilian public school and all de-rived implications there. Religion is an integral element in building the identity of a people and understood as a sym-bolic system practices and beliefs relating to the invisible world of supernatural beings. Therefore, the History of Religions is also the result of social, political and economic estab-lished in a society. Faced with a series of thematic alternative, we made the deliberate choice to meet more fully the guiding material for religious education classes in public schools: the curriculum. Also examine the set of pageants, cultural, social and policies that guided the presence of religious education in public schools in Brazil. Understand the religious culture of a people is key to understanding its history. We seek to investigate the school's relationship with their social environment and social contradictions that manifest themselves in the strug-gle for a democratic school for all. The initial conflict presented in the subject of questioning part of a hypothetical-deductive reasoning. With its commitment to work is to help the Religious Education teachers from public schools in the state of Goiás can expand their benchmarks for the recognition of cultural diversity, ethnic-racial and religious that compose the Brazilian society through the curriculum. The suggested educational product is a proposed curriculum for religious education in high school under a new nomenclature: History of Religions, with input from other areas of knowledge such as history, sociology, philosophy, art, geography and language.
O presente trabalho faz uma reflexão sobre o Ensino Religioso nas escolas públicas estaduais em Goiás. Debruçamo-nos sobre o conceito de laicidade como um princípio fundamental de governos democráticos e republicanos, sobre a relação desse princípio dentro da escola públi-ca brasileira e todas as implicações derivadas daí. A religião é um elemento integrante na construção da identidade de um povo e compreendido como um sistema de práticas simbólicas e de crenças relativas ao mundo invisível dos seres sobrenaturais. Assim sendo, a História das Religiões é também o resultado das relações soci-ais, políticas e econômicas estabelecidas numa sociedade. Diante de uma série de alternativas temáticas, fizemos a opção intencional em conhecer mais a fundo o material norteador para as aulas de Ensino Religioso na rede pública: o currículo. Analisar também o conjunto das repre-sentações históricas, culturais, sociais e políticas que orientaram a presença do Ensino Religi-oso na escola pública no Brasil. Compreender a cultura religiosa de um povo é fundamental para compreender a sua história. Buscamos investigar as relações da escola com o seu entorno social e as contradições sociais que se manifestam na luta por uma escola democrática para todos. O conflito inicial apresentado na problematização do tema parte de um raciocínio hipo-tético-dedutivo. O empenho deste trabalho é colaborar para que os professores de Ensino Religioso da rede pública estadual do Estado de Goiás possam ampliar seus padrões de referência pelo reconhe-cimento da diversidade cultural, étnico-racial e religiosa que compõe a sociedade brasileira por meio do currículo. O produto educacional sugerido é uma proposta curricular para o Ensi-no Religioso no Ensino Médio sob uma nova nomenclatura: História das Religiões, com apor-te de outras áreas do conhecimento como História, Sociologia, Filosofia, Arte, Geografia e Linguagem.

A review of the models of religious education reveals their weaknesses and limitations. The tension among the models and the leading theorists arises from the divergent understanding of the relationship of religion to education as well as the concept of personhood. The transcendent nature of persons is argued from both a psychological and philosophical perspective. The nature of the religious experience as well as religious development is examined in both adults and adolescents. Given the transcendent dimension of human nature, as witnessed through the religious response, it is argued that the first order activity of religious education should be the development of adolescent spirituality.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore conditions under which the human spirit flowers in modern organisations. The topic of the thesis was sparked by prolonged study at the Master’s level of the writings of Robert K. Greenleaf, modern servant leadership theorist. Greenleaf was concerned with the ways and the conditions in which the human spirit flowers. He wrote a number of essays on the topic (Greenleaf, 1996b). He often questioned what organisations as they currently stood were doing to help people grow as whole people. As workers spend increasing amounts of time in the workplace, organisations continue to seek ways in which to increase employee satisfaction and decrease the compartmentalising of human experience. The geographical context of study is that of Aotearoa/New Zealand with participants selected from the Church Educational System of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Tāmaki-makau-rau/Auckland region. The Church Educational System, or CES, is a worldwide religious education provider headquartered in the Western United States. The context for study was chosen based on my perceived personal growth as a student for nine years in the CES programmes and my desire to understand how the programme was administered in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The project employs a qualitative methodology using as primary data gathering methods in-depth interviews with three CES directors, three focus groups made up of sixteen volunteer teachers, classroom observations, and document analysis. Using Greenleaf’s descriptions of the servant leader as a central focus, I attempt through this qualitative study to address the central research question: How does the Church Educational System (CES) nurture servant leaders? The central metaphor of the garden was used in processing and analysing data. The garden metaphor was intended to assist in the conceptualisation of relationships of service as they are at work in the lives of participants. Identified relationships of service from the findings were between participants co-workers (plants), love (life-force), Jesus Christ (sun), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (plot), purpose (strength), Aotearoa/New Zealand (soil), exemplars (canopy), experience (seasons), Church Educational System (gardener), positions, training, programmes (gardener tools), growth (colour/aroma/fruit), knowledge (water), and organisational care (pruning/transplanting). Findings indicated that nurturing in the Church Educational System is influenced by the ability of the organisation to bring people together in meaningful ways. Findings also show that understanding relationships of service that make up whole people may be an important step for organisations in the nurturing of servant leaders. Nurturing in the CES appears to be taking place in three primary areas: balancing, renewal, and regeneration. The findings of this study have significance for those inside and outside of the CES. A chapter is dedicated to exploring possible application of findings in variant organisational contexts. Providing consistent formal and informal opportunities for sharing in spirit and intellect at the organisational level appears to be a key in the nurturing of servant leaders in organisations.

This thesis is a philosophical, theological and educational exploration of the theme of ontology and otherness. It is intended to provide a theoretical ground for the possibility of Christian religious education in Christian schools, with particularly reference to school religious education in South Korea. For this purpose it investigates a philosophical ground of education, particularly religious education, in terms of ontology and otherness. The recent ontological turn in both education and religious education shows that they take critical realism (CR henceforth) as the pivotal philosophical ground. In reception of this approach the thesis argues, after reading of the originator of CR, Roy Bhaskar, that there is a characteristic feature in the philosophy, viz. the agential centred form of explanation of reality which results in the production of a lacuna of the dimension of otherness in CR. In response to the problem, the thesis attempt to integrate the dimension of otherness into CR through the exploration of Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of otherness which provides an account of the non-agential moment and ethical subjectivity as what that fills the lacuna and the point of the integration with CR, and incorporate Bhaskarian dialectical agent with ethical subjectivity. However, in doing so, it is revealed that there is a radical diverting point between Bhaskar’s notion of alethia and otherness which makes a prominent difference in accounting of ultimate reality as shown between Bhaskar ’s meta-Reality and Christian understanding of Trinitarian God. Drawing from the philosophical and theological account of ontology and otherness, the thesis finally attends Wright’s approach from the frame of otology and otherness, and argues for the use of Wright’s approach for the possibility of paving a way for Christian religious education in Christian schools.

Children's and adolescents' spirituality is important, especially to those entrusted with their education. To effectively nurture children's spirituality, parents, teachers, and ministers would benefit in knowing how young people experience God, what they think about God and how they relate to God: in effect, their lived experience of God. Learning about these phenomena could help greatly in communicating with children and adolescents about God. This study aims to build on the work of those who have investigated elements of the spirituality of children and adolescents in a qualitative way.

Ao nos referirmos à educação, é interessante sabermos que ela está relacionada a um conjunto de processos destinados a levar os indivíduos a desenvolverem a dimensão educacional em sua vida, tornando-os aptos a produzirem cultura, e, ao mesmo tempo, se apropriarem dos bens culturais já produzidos. A escola que sonhamos deve assegura a todos a formação cultural e cientifica para a vida pessoal, profissional e cidadã, possibilitando uma relação autônoma, crítica e construtiva com a cultura em suas manifestações, seja a cultura provida pela ciência, pela técnica, pela estética, pela ética e até pela cultura paralela (meios de comunicação de massa), seja pela cultura cotidiana. Já o Ensino Religioso (ER), este, por sua vez, tem como Objetivo geral trabalhar o Fenômeno Religioso de forma abrangente e interdisciplinar e tendo como referência os Eixos Curriculares do Ensino Religioso que nortearão sua obrigatoriedade e prática eficaz no Ensino Fundamental (LDB, 9.394/96). O Ensino Religioso é um componente curricular que discute a diversidade e a complexidade do ser humano como pessoa aberta às diversas perspectivas do Sagrado, presentes nos tempos e espaços culturais em relação a caminhada existencial humana. Direciona o educando de forma a ter uma consciência critica e uma cosmovisão ampla e a propiciar um estudo sistemático da religião, enquanto instituição histórica, que trabalha o ser humano em busca da Transcendência. A escola tem, enfim, o compromisso de ajudar os alunos a se tornarem sujeitos de acurada reflexão, capazes de construir categorias de compreensão e de apropriação critica da realidade. Daí, a nossa preocupação em questionar algumas posturas referentes às aulas de Ensino Religioso, procurando abordar a sua história desde os primórdios até os dias atuais, visando, com isso, compreender questões como: Improvisação do Ensino Religioso, Capacitação dos Profissionais em Ensino Religioso, Aulas de Ensino Religioso como Complementação de Carga Horária e, até o próprio desconhecimento, em geral, dos cinco Eixos Norteadores (conteúdos) dos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Religioso pelos professores dessa disciplina. A metodologia constou de fichamentos bibliográficos e de uma pesquisa campo, através de um questionário aberto, aplicado a uma amostra de vinte professores das escolas selecionadas (Lagoa Encantada e Missionário São Bento), sobre as temáticas: Formação de valores, Reflexão crítica e uma sadia convivência humana cidadã.Com a aplicação do questionário,obtivemos uma gama de problemas: Dificuldades com a disciplina Ensino Religioso, Carência de formação adequada e Falta de habilidade para trabalhar a disciplina, havendo um hiato entre as propostas curriculares e a operacionalização, surgindo, muitas vezes, um Discurso improvisado.Reconhecendo suas limitações, quanto à sua formação e à condição de trabalho,os sujeitos da amostra manifestaram-se dispostos/as e abertos/as à implantação de Cursos de Formação pelos Órgãos competentes da Secretaria de Educação e de Formações para tirar as dúvidas, superar as necessidades e as dificuldades que entravam o ministrar da disciplina Ensino Religioso. Esperamos que as questões discutidas nessa dissertação contribuam com a reflexão do Ensino Religioso como um todo!
When referring to education, it is interesting to know that it is related to a set of procedures designed to lead individuals to develop the educational dimension in your life, enabling them to produce culture, and at the same time, take ownership of the goods culture ever produced. The school that we must ensure all the cultural and scientific training for the personal life, professional and citizen, allowing an autonomous, critical and constructive relationship with the culture in its manifestations, whether provided by science, art, the aesthetic culture, ethics and even the parallel culture (mass media), is the everyday culture. Have Religious Education (RE) , in turn , has the general goal to work the Religious Phenomenon comprehensive and interdisciplinary way and with reference to the axes of Religious Education Curriculum that will guide their enforcement and effective practice in Elementary Education (LDB , 9.394/96) . Religious Education is a curricular component that discusses the diversity and complexity of the human being as open to various perspectives of the Sacred, present in time and cultural spaces in relation to human existential walking person. Directs the student in order to have a critical consciousness and a broad worldview and provide a systematic study of religion as a historical institution working human being in search of Transcendence. The school, in short, is committed to helping students become subjects of accurate reflection , able to construct categories of understanding and critical appropriation of reality . Hence , our concern in questioning some positions concerning Religious Education classes , seeking to address its history from the beginnings to the present day , aiming thereby to understand issues such as : Improvisation of Religious Education , Training Professionals in Religious Education Religious Education classes as Supplementary Hours and even ignorance itself, in general, the five Axis Guiding ( content) of the National Curriculum Parameters of Religious Education teachers of this discipline . The methodology consisted of a bibliographic record keeping and research field , through an open questionnaire applied to a sample of twenty teachers from the selected schools ( Enchanted Lagoon and Mission St. Benedict ) , on the themes : values formation , critical reflection and a healthy human coexistence cidadã.Com the questionnaire , we obtained a range of problems : Problems with discipline " Religious Education" Lack of adequate training and ability to work Lack of discipline , there is a gap between curriculum proposals and operational , emerging, often a Speech improvised. Recognizing its limitations as regards their training and working condition , the subjects of the sample expressed their willingness / and the open / to the implementation of training Courses by the competent bodies of the Department of Education and formations to dispel doubts , exceed the needs and difficulties impeding the minister of Religious Education course . We hope that the issues discussed in this dissertation contributes to the reflection of Religious Education as a whole!

This thesis engages in a critical examination of parents' rights in religious upbringing and religious education within a liberal perspective. One of the central features of a 'liberal perspective' is taken here to be a commitment to the importance of valuing and developing the autonomy of the child. This commitment has important implications for the defensibility of both religious upbringing and religious education, and for the scope of parental rights that can be exercised in relation to them. In the first three chapters it is argued that, given this perspective, parents have a right to give their children a certain kind of religious upbringing; one where their children are brought up to have an initial determinate religious commitment, but one which is both open to, and compatible with, the child's eventual achievement of autonomy. This view is defended against a range of objections and the character of such an upbringing is explored in some detail. In the next four chapters it is argued that, following on from this claim about religious upbringing, a broadly similar claim can be made about religious education and schooling. Parents are seen as having the right to give their children a distinctive kind of liberal education, including a form of religious schooling, which seeks the development of their child's autonomy from a particular starting point. The argument proceeds from an analysis of parents' rights in general concerning education, through a critical exploration of the notion of liberal education, to an outline of the concept of the `liberal religious school' and an analysis of the difficulties to which it gives rise. The thesis concludes with an exploration of further considerations which support the view that a plurality of forms of liberal education, including education in religion, should be acknowledged, in relation to which parental rights can legitimately be claimed and exercised.

The present thesis is a contribution to an unresolved debate in philosophy of education about the logical coherence of a particular account of Religious Education. The account of Religious Education at issue, which I call the liberal account, prescribes the teaching of religious understanding without religious belief. It stipulates that the aim of Religious Education is to teach pupils the meaning of religious propositions while leaving open the question of their truth. Underpinning the account are the assumptions that (i) no religious proposition is known to be either true or false and (ii) it is morally objectionable to teach questionable propositions as if they were known to be true. Opponents of the liberal account argue that it is logically incoherent. Their argument rests on two premises: (i) that religious propositions constitute an autonomous epistemological class or 'form of knowledge', and (ii) that understanding a form of knowledge involves holding certain propositions of that form to be true or false. If both premises are sound, it follows that religious understanding necessarily involves religious belief. The aim of the present thesis is to show that this challenge to the logical coherence of the liberal account of Religious Education is unsuccessful. I argue that the second premise is sound but the first is not. The second premise, that understanding a form of knowledge involves holding certain propositions of that form to be true or false, is an extension of an argument about language in general made by Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein claims that 'If language is to be a means of communication there must be agreement not only in definitions but also (queer as this may sound) in judgments' (Wittgenstein, 1953, Section 242). That is to say, language-users must reach agreement not only on how words are connected to each other (agreement in definitions) but also on how words are connected to experiences (agreement in judgments). The process of fixing experiential criteria necessarily involves accepting the truth of certain contingent propositions. I contend that Wittgenstein's argument can properly be extended to individual epistemological classes, with the exception of the class of necessary propositions. The validity of the first premise, that there is a religious form of knowledge, turns on the method of verification of religious propositions. I argue that religious propositions are propositions about divine persons and, as such, are verified in exactly the same way as propositions about human persons. Gods, like other persons, comprise minds and bodies (or minds and a relation to the material world analogous to 'having a body'), so religious propositions can be distributed without remainder over the familiar epistemological classes of mental and material propositions. Pupils can be taught what religious propositions mean with reference to other propositions of the same epistemological kinds and without reference to distinctively religious experiences. It follows that the aim of teaching for religious understanding without religious belief is logically coherent.

This thesis considers the initial teacher education of non-specialist primary undergraduate student teachers in teaching Religious Education. The focus of the research is a short module taught in the second year of the students’ degree course, which prepares students to teach in predominantly multicultural classrooms in London. The module adopts an Interpretive Approach to Religious Education, which contributes to a realignment of the students’ conceptualisation of knowledge through examination of the concepts of episteme and phronesis. Findings show that overt acknowledgement of the student teachers’ developing professional understandings, situated in decisions which reference values as well as subject knowledge, can alter their understanding and confidence about teaching Religious Education and indicates wider benefit in their appreciation of their developing teacher personae. The Structure of the Research Chapter 1 is a contextual introduction which presents a series of lenses through which to view the Religious Education module. Chapter 2 is an exploration of three main ideas which influenced the research: the Interpretive Approach to RE, the concept of phronesis, and the benefits to understanding pedagogy through self-study in teacher education. Chapter 3 explains the methodological thinking behind the research, ethical considerations and the methods employed. These include practitioner research, use of ethnographic and reflexive lenses and analysis of data from both students and personal reflection through self-study. Chapter 4 reports the findings from the research carried out with students, exploring the ideas which emerge from their responses to the module and my observations and interviews which illuminate ideas which emerge from the analysis. Chapter 5 is a discussion of the content and development of the module itself, exploring the impact and development of activities which influence the students’ understanding of RE. Chapter 6 draws together the threads of the research to explore the vision of a transformative ITE RE module, which recognises the value of acknowledging and developing phronesis in primary non-specialist student teacher education and concludes with recommendations to improve the current situation in RE in primary ITE.

Recorded members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as Mormon or LDS) comprise over 70% of Utah's population. This qualitative study identifies the unique concerns and challenges that members of Utah's minority religions may face in public schools. Semi-structured interviews, designed to elicit rich, detailed information, were conducted with 48 participants (13 leaders, 17 parents, 18 students) from seven different minority religions in Utah. Each interview was audio taped, transcribed, and then analyzed using the qualitative analysis program N-Vivo. Looking at the school institutional treatment (laws, policy, teachers, administrators) of participants' religions, few expressed major concerns or challenges. Ignorant LDS favoritism and school accommodation of LDS Released-Time Seminary were issues most commonly expressed. In contrast to institutional treatment, social treatment of participants' religion in school received significantly more comment, and related concerns ran considerably deeper. Participants identified areas of occasional peer exclusion such as LDS cliques, Seminary, conversation, and dating. Participants further identified areas of occasional uncomfortable peer interaction such as LDS proselytizing, sense of superiority, and assumptions or stereotypes. Several participants cited LDS ignorance, cohesiveness, and their doctrine of one true church as general causes of this peer exclusion and uncomfortable interaction. Furthermore, the data suggests that the challenges mentioned by participants are enhanced in the higher LDS populated and more rural areas of Utah. The findings also suggest that the prevalence of such challenges have been decreasing over time. All participants identified some concerns or challenges they face as members of a minority religion in their Utah school communities. However, it appears most participants, with some clear exceptions, did not view treatment of their religion in Utah public schools as a major issue.

This thesis will present an account of the religious way of living drawn from the writings of selected authorities. It will consider how myths, rituals and religion can help humans reach moments of transcendence. These themes will be discussed further in reference to the pious Jews who originated from small towns in Eastern Europe and who lived in accordance with their religious values.
This thesis will give substance to the account of the religious way of living with specific reference to the experience of pious Eastern European Jews before, during and after the Holocaust. It will be proposed that Holocaust studies can offer students several messages that are of crucial importance.

This thesis is a study of a divide in Philosophy, in particular one which pertains to its nature and method. The divide, which is shown to be deep and unbridgeable, is explored through four important topics in the Philosophy of Religion, specifically through: (a) the religious interest in immortality, (b) the understanding of myth as a form of religious communication, (c) the belief in miracles, and (d) the practice of prayer. It shows that depending on which understanding of the nature and methodology of Philosophy prevails, very different views of religion emerge. It further shows that there are serious practical implications (a) for Religious Education in school, and (b) for the legal prescription of an act of worship in school each day. This is due in part to the different views of religion that have emerged from the philosophical discussion, and in part due to the impact of the nature and methodology of philosophy on the way in which these issues are discussed by religious educationalists. For religious educationalists the important outcomes of this study are that reliance on an 'evidentialist' philosophy of religion may render RE indefensible on the school curriculum or invite pupils to become agnostics or atheists. On the other hand, by turning to 'Socratic' philosophy the educationalist is enabled to maintain a degree of impartiality and to invite pupils to deepen their understanding of religious life. Similarly for school worship, the reliance on an 'evidentialist' philosophy of religion turns worship into hypocritical practice but by turning to 'Socratic' philosophy, worship can transform one's understanding of education through the expression of its meaning. For philosophers the study is important because it serves as a reminder of the serious repercussions that their work can have.

Annexure to thesis: CORD : a curriculum for Catholic high school religious education : 15 intertwined process-strands : a book for teachers / composed and compiled by Michael Burke. Pietermaritzburg : Centaur publications, 1991. ISBN 0 947472 68 1.
Bibliography: pages 181-187.
Finding a satisfying approach to Religious Education is a problem even to schools with a specifically religious character; it is even more of a problem to multi-faith public schools. The root of the problem may lie in the monolithic way that "religion" and "religious education" are perceived. Everyone develops ways of making sense of life, however inadequate, and everyone possesses the same range of faculties for doing so. In a broad sense, this is religion - even if only some are conditioned to call it this - and any assistance given to awakening the faculties concerned is religious education - even if only some recognise it as such. Agnostics often possess highly developed faculties that in believers are seen as belonging to the fabric of their faith. In devising a programme of Religious Education for Catholic Schools, my starting point was to examine the range of faculties involved and how learning and growth happen in practice. It became apparent that, just as a language is approached by many routes (such as learning to understand, speak, read, write, and appreciate it) so too a number of processes operate in parallel to produce the effect called Religious Education. The analysis crystallised fifteen distinct learning processes. Some are immediately recognisable as "religious"; others are partly motivated and orientated by religion; still others are religious only in implicit ways.

The 2015 revisions to the Ontario teacher education program were intended to give greater attention to diversity in the Ontario classroom and provide new teachers with more knowledge of the Ontario context. Using an interpretivist methodology, a careful examination of the curriculum changes undertaken by the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Ontario College of Teachers indicates that these objectives have not been met. Despite being an integral part of the identity and experience of a large number of Ontario teachers and students, religion is not one of the diversities given attention to in the revisions. This omission has revealed a gap in the Ontario teacher education curriculum in which the religious diversity component of the Ontario context is largely ignored. The gap in teacher education has also created a misunderstanding of the nature and intent of the secular classroom where, instead of being a place where all religions are given equal attention and one that fostering healthy religious conversations, it has become an environment of fear and silence, where teacher and students are unsure of how to engage it religious conversations. My research concludes that the OCT curriculum does not provide sufficient curriculum content that addresses teacher knowledge, skills and attitudes in the area of religion, nor does it provide information about religious belief systems and world views or clarify religious language and terminology. Despite the fact that teachers and parents welcome the academic, non-confessional study of religion in the classroom, the OCT and the OME have not indicated through the revisions that this is the direction in which they intend to proceed. Enacting changes to increase the amount of time required for teacher education has not prepared teachers to address the multi-religious context of the Ontario classroom or to meet the needs of religious students.

This thesis is concerned with the question of what religious education should aim to achieve in the public sphere, and from that comes an interest in what is it that the teacher of religious education should aim to do. My enquiry is located, theoretically as well as conceptually, in the sphere of education. It is an educational study into religious education and situated in what can be termed a ‘Continental construction’ of educational research. I identify that since the inception of religious education in public schools in England, persistent assumptions have been made about both religion and education. I show how this has led, in my view, to conceptualisations of religious education which have been, and continue to be, incomplete. The central chapters of my thesis consider first religion and then education. This allows me to introduce my theoretical base, which is especially but not exclusively drawn from the work of Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt. I develop an argument suggesting that by also understanding religion existentially as faith, rather than as only belief or practice, will open new ways of considering the role of religious education in the public sphere. This is alongside an argument I develop with Arendt for education being conceptualised as bringing the child to action rather than to reason. This thesis argues for a broader understanding of religion, and therefore what it means to live a religious life, in religious education than has previously been considered. I bring this broader way of understanding what it means to live a religious life together with my argument for conceptualising education as bringing the child to action. This enables me to make a new proposal for what religious education should aim to achieve in the public sphere.

The purpose of this study is to look at the school choices of Muslim parents in New Jersey and the social and academic experiences of Muslim students and young adults. The participants included 90 Muslim parents, 126 Muslim young adults, and 52 Muslim students currently attending a public, private, or Islamic school. Participants completed surveys, and a few were administered interviews that included questions pertaining to the purpose of this study. Findings showed that Muslim parents who choose Islamic schools do so to teach their child (children) about Islam and to surround them with other Muslims; whereas, Muslim parents who chose public schools do so for the quality of education. Overall, this study demonstrated that most Muslim students in either Islamic or public schools didn’t encounter social challenges any different than other students; in addition, an overload of schoolwork was reported as an academic challenge.

The Australian Catholic Religious Educational landscape has seen much change in theory and practice since the 1960s as theorists, researchers, church and education authorities, and religion teachers all sought to make Religious Education more appropriate and meaningful for students. While this change has led to a greater consensus about the nature and purposes of Religious Education, there still remains a diversity of expectations and a degree of ambiguity specifically about what classroom Religious Education should achieve. In the ongoing discussion of this question, what was often lacking was the voice of teachers. Hence, this study sought to explore and report the views of a sample of secondary school religion teachers. It made innovative use of the notion of 'what constitutes successful religion teaching' as a way of investigating teachers' understandings of Religious Education. The earlier part of the study, a systematic literature review, examined a range of research, theories, normative documents and religious/educational constructs that together constituted the background thinking that could have influenced teachers' views of what counted as 'successful' Religious Education. It included the following areas:- key religious/ecclesiastical constructs that informed Religious Education, particularly through Catholic Church documents at international, national and diocesan levels; historical typologies describing how approaches to Catholic Religious Education changed since the 1950s; constructs related to the spiritual and moral development of young people; a range of ideas such as: teacher satisfaction, efficacy, and the influence of professional development programs. Special attention was given to reviewing research on contemporary youth spirituality.;As well as the concern to hand on the Catholic faith tradition to the next generation, if the purposes of religion teachers were also to help make Religious Education relevant to the lives of their students and to help them find meaning and purpose in life, then an estimate of the spirituality of young people would be likely to be prominent in determining what constituted 'relevance' for the students. The latter part of the study surveyed the views of the total population of secondary religion teachers in one regional Catholic diocese. A questionnaire that collected both quantitative and qualitative data was distributed; 123 out of a total of 210 teachers completed and returned the questionnaire. Participant feedback groups were also used as a complementary method of collecting data on teachers' views of what constituted success in Religious Education and of what they considered militated against success; this helped confirm and extend the findings from the questionnaire. Some of the key findings were: Religious constructs: All the key religious/ecclesiastical constructs used in the Catholic sector for articulating the purposes of school Religious Education were well supported; but there remained some ambiguity about how appropriate they were for charting a Religious Education that was considered 'relevant' to the needs of contemporary youth. Relevance to young people's needs and to their spirituality: Prominent in the thinking of the teachers about successful Religious Education were a cluster of ideas that were 'student centred'. These included the notion of meeting the personal and spiritual needs of young people; and this was applied both to those who were religious and church going as well as to those who had more tenuous links with Catholicism. In addition, the student body included increasing numbers who were not Catholic.;A key descriptive term for this cluster of ideas was a 'relevant' Religious Education; this meant having a Religious Education that had evident links with young people's life experience; also, it needed to be meaningful in helping them make sense of life and negotiate personal and social problems. Enhancing youth spirituality: There was some polarisation in views about the relative importance of aims concerned with promoting mass attendance and a traditional religious spirituality; prominent in teacher thinking was the need to resource and enhance young people's spirituality no matter what their level of religiosity or engagement with the Church. Addressing the needs of contemporary youth spirituality was a key element in thinking about a relevant Religious Education. Academic subject approach: There was a strong endorsement of the principle that Religious Education should be considered as a serious academic pursuit. There was however, a minority who did not share this view; and it seemed that this group favoured an approach which was more 'personal', even if what this entailed in practice (apart from group discussion) was not clear. Critical inquiry: The teachers considered that sponsoring a spirit of critical inquiry was particularly important for the students of today. Critical thinking by students - identifiable in group work, discussions and in written work - was regarded as a good indicator of successful teaching. Personal dimension: Some participants considered that both 'relevant content' and 'relevant pedagogy' could be combined in an academic subject approach to Religious Education; others felt that an academic approach could compromise the personal learning that was possible in Religious Education. The findings indicated that issues related to a personal dimension in Religious Education (Rossiter, 1999) still remained influential in the thinking of current religion teachers.; Teachers' personal views: While the sharing of teachers' personal views in classroom Religious Education was considered important (and was related to ideas about 'witnessing' and 'ministry'), there was a polarisation of opinion about the extent to which this should or should not be prominent in religion lessons. Structural and staffing issues: The status of Religious Education in the school and how it was staffed and timetabled were regarded as important questions that had a significant influence on how successful Religious Education could be. Also of significance were the professional background and professional development of the teachers in theology and Religious Education. Conclusions: In the light of the research findings and taking into account the interpretation of issues in the literature review, the researcher proposed his own view of Religious Education as one that should inform Catholic secondary school Religious Education theory and practice. This view does not go beyond existing theory and practice; but it proposes a combination of key contemporary ideas within a conceptual formula that tries to eliminate the polarity about whether or not secondary school Religious Education should be approached as an academic subject. The researcher proposed that the following key ideas need to be related to highlight their linkage and complementarity in thinking about the nature and purposes of Religious Education: 1. Religion needs to be taught as an academic subject with the same sort of intellectual demands and academic credibility that are accepted for other subjects in the curriculum. 2.;At the same time, and without compromising academic processes, the personal dimension to Religious Education can be accommodated and enhanced through a combination of both 'content relevance 'and 'pedagogical relevance' in other words, a challenging, information rich, open, critical inquiry into content selected because it has some likely connection with young people's personal and spiritual needs; similarly, formal religious content (e.g. theology, scripture, liturgy, church history, morality etc.) can be taught in ways that seek to highlight links with the contemporary search for meaning and purpose in life. 3. Taking into account trends in contemporary youth spirituality is a key element in planning a 'relevant' Religious Education in both content and method. This helps identify the 'spiritual starting points' of many students; it takes into account that there are a significant proportion of youth who do not have a traditional, religious spirituality - but one that is relatively secular, individualistic, eclectic and self-reliant. Estimating what content and pedagogy in Religious Education are 'relevant' to young people involves theorising and it is not ever likely to provide a solution that is self-evident or that will achieve full teacher consensus; neither is it a simplistic matter of asking students what they would like to learn; content related to the communication of the religious tradition will always have a secure, central place in Catholic school Religious Education. Nevertheless, the researcher concludes that a specific effort to estimate potential relevance is one key element that should be prominent in thinking about the nature and purposes of Religious Education at both diocesan and school levels.; While there still remains in the minds of some religion teachers a low level of doubt about whether an academic subject oriented Religious Education can be personally relevant to students, and whether it is too biased towards the cognitive to give adequate attention to the affective dimension, it is considered that this thesis is a step in the direction of addressing this hesitation. It proposes that a study of religion can be both relevant in content and relevant in pedagogy; and that within such a framework, the personal dimension to Religious Education can be naturally accommodated without compromising students' freedom by focusing too much on personal disclosure as a principal means of judging relevance and success. It also proposes that better criteria for appraising relevance in Religious Education can be derived from attention to contemporary youth spirituality. Recommendations: In the light of the study, a number of recommendations for the enhancement of Catholic secondary Religious Education were proposed. Firstly, these have to do with the continued clarification of the purposes of Religious Education that will help address the lingering ambiguity in teachers' understandings and work towards a greater consensus about the value of a subject-oriented approach. A stronger place was recommended for the critical study of spiritual and moral issues, alongside the content related to the religious tradition. Other recommendations were related to the structural place of Religious Education in the school curriculum, to the content and resourcing of the diocesan religion curriculum, and to teacher professional development.

The purpose of this study was to test a ministry model designed to foster growth in the understanding and practice of bringing miracles, signs, and wonders to bear in life situations. The spiritual effect on individuals and congregations was measured. A qualitative/quantitative strategy utilized a comparison of a pretest and post-test, participant testimony, and peer review to generate the data. The results suggest participants experienced spiritual growth, individually and collectively. This study is part of the Randy Clark scholars' theme "Randy Clark Scholars: Presenting the Gospel as Jesus Intended, in Love, Authority, Signs, and Wonders."

Chapter 1 is the introduction, which gives an overview of the entire study. Chapter 2 is the literature review, defining the problem of stunted spiritual growth and considering coaching as a possible catalyst to move people out of stagnation. Chapter 3 covers the methods of the present study, describing how the treatment and effects study was set up in order to determine if the participants who were coached would experience more spiritual growth than the non-coached participants and how the focus group interviews were conducted to ascertain any noticeable difference in the spiritual growth between the two groups by looking for areas of growth that the coached group experienced that were not reflected in the DSGS and then seeing if the non-coached group grew in those same areas or different areas. Chapter 4 details the results of the study. The hypothesis that coached participants would score at higher levels of spiritual growth than non-coached participants was not supported by the results. The data showed that both groups scored at the same level of growth with no significant difference when t-tested. Chapter 5 addresses conclusions of the study and suggestions for related studies that could help address the problem of spiritual stagnation in the United States church.

This study opens with an exploration of the philosophical theories of two recognized scholars in the field of religious education with a view to providing a basis or jumping-off-point from which to present what the author sees as a development of a more advanced and freeing procedure for the religious development of the young.
Thomas Groome proposes a Shared Praxis Approach to Christian religious education. He emphasizes the need for appropriation, by the student, of that which he calls the Christian Story.
Sam Keen's stance is then examined wherein he contends that the basic Christian Story might well be supplanted as a shaper of personal identity by a growing, developmental autobiography.
The third and closing section of the thesis allows the writer to expose a personal proposal towards a more effective approach to religious education for the young, and this for a lifetime. The new proposal focuses on an examination of each student's personal experience with that which we call God, experiences within the framework of the child's initial orientation and then, progressively taking into account other major religious orientations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)