Religious Education Curriculum as a Basis for Developing an Ethos of Mutual Respect among Pupils - Essay Example

? Religious Education Curriculum as a Basis for Developing an Ethos of Mutual Respect among Pupils   Religious Education Curriculum as a Basis for Developing an Ethos of Mutual Respect among Pupils The third debate about the Religious Education Curriculum proved to be v-ery interesting. I had chance to learn a lot about the importance and significance of religion and religious education. People take different opinions when it comes to matters to do with faith and religion. One of the most captivating factors is that religious curriculum in most countries are not the same. I realised that religious education is an extremely crucial subject in the society and that it plays a very significant role in modelling the society and instilling discipline among students and the society at large. Religious Education curriculum is undoubtedly an important phenomenon for shaping character and creating mutual respect among pupils (Erricker, 2010, p.3). I discovered the importance of educational acts such as the Education Act (1994) especially in ensuring that the Religious Education curriculum is effective. Educational reforms are important and can only be much beneficial when implemented for the general national good. For example, excluding independent schools from the national educational reforms is a great setback and can cause great harm to the educational system and cripple the efforts made toward achieving a united country. I support the opinion that religious education must be taught as part of the national curriculum, in all schools for at least a few minutes per day and that collective worship during school meeting time or lessons facilitates the understanding of the role of religion among students (Erricker, 2010 p.97). Even though people have the right to withdraw their children from schools that offer obligatory religious education, this denies the children the right to acquire good personal attributes and social understanding that I consider to be very essential for any individual who want to coexist well with others. Moreover everyone’s right to worship and to associate with a particular religion should be respected. I concur with the idea that integrating religious education within the national curriculum will go a long way in developing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other religions. It is true that embedding the Religious Education curriculum in local syllabuses and school frameworks has helped many nations to identify and embrace important principles for religious education (Ashcroft and Palacio, 1997, p.169). Religious education builds up students’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity as well as other principal religions and religious traditions in the world. It makes a unique contribution to the school curriculum by developing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of religion, religious beliefs, practices, languages and traditions and their influence on individuals, communities, societies and cultures. It is much profitable and extremely important that religious education be a nationally agreed syllabus. The education authorities and Standard Advisory Council for Religious Education must come together and device new policies that incorporate the religious teachings and education into the national syllabus (Ashcroft and Palacio, 1997, p.72).Countries dominated by one particular religion must learn to embrace and tolerate religious diversity. The increased international relations denote that countries must now be more accommodative and able to absorb people of different and diverse multicultural backgrounds. Teaching pupils the diversity of today’s society and the varying differences in religious beliefs and cultures creates a more civilized and understanding society. Religious education encourages the students and the society to accommodate and tolerate people of diverse cultures and enables the pupils and students to explore multi-cultural and multi- faiths, encouraging them to coexist well with people around them irrespective of their religious practices. It enables them to learn the varying influences associated with values and traditional beliefs. I have learnt that how people perceive and accept others is greatly determined by the teachings they obtain from the religious education. I agree that Religious Education contributes to the aims and ethos of schools and encourages the richness and diversity of faith related activities within the local community. Economic change and migration patterns greatly alter the way the increasingly diverse local communities interact. I consider it important that educators should incorporate community cohesion in a way that responds positively to the changing characteristics of our community. According to Johnson, 2006 cited in Badger brook, 2010, community cohesion means working towards establishing a society with a common vision and a sense of belonging by all communities: a society that appreciates diversity of people’s culture and religious practices. I appreciate and value a society that gives equal opportunities to all regardless of the differences. I love a society in which strong and positive relationships exist and continue to be developed especially in the workplace and other social centres. I learnt in the third debate that religious education is not the only way in which students and pupils get to develop good spiritual knowledge. It also depends much on the level of attention given to the training by the relevant authorities and also on the individuals’ knowledge and understanding to recognise the difference between right and wrong through the study of moral and ethical subjects. Life makes much meaning when we get to embrace our differences in whatever discipline or field. Incorporating religious education in the curriculum can reduce discrimination because it encourages the spirit of tolerance and respect for one another and positive attitudes toward different beliefs (Religious Education Association & Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education, 2010:p.122). Promoting a positive understanding and image of the beliefs, language, colour and cultures of people will go along way in improving local and international relationships. Religious education is one among many other ways that countries can enhance national unity. For any society to realise the true benefits of religious diversity and beliefs, I believe the religious studies must be fully embedded into the official educational curricula in every country (Foucault and Carrette, 1999, p.91). However, I noted that there are several reasons in which religious education can create negative effects in educational curriculum because it is likely to encourage discrimination and lack of multicultural awareness due to the different ways of teaching. After presenting an   analysis of both the enacted and experienced curricular dimensions of the   unit, I can say   that studies about others and rather than with other   communal religious schools potentially pose challenging implications for students’   multicultural sensibilities.  Promoting religious education and multicultural diversity and awareness is extremely crucial especially during the early childhood education. Educators and relevant authorities should make focused efforts to ensure that the religious and cultural teachings are fully included into the official school curriculum. Slavin (2006) explains this point in chapter four of Educational Psychology when he discusses on culture and the role it plays. He notes that particular behaviours emerge due to cultural and religious influence and that the behaviours may have significant implication for teaching in the classroom. He therefore advices that it is very important that the educators to bear in the different religions and cultural background when teaching students and all students and pupils should be willing tolerate the multiple cultures so as to be well-rounded and to obtain lucid perspective, across different views (Religious Education Association, Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education, 2010:p.318).  Religious discrimination can cause great harm to victims because most of the time the dominant group in a community tends to disregard minority groups and at times without realising. Kenneth Dion (2002) in his study explains why the dominant group’s members often become discriminatory toward the minority group members. One interesting thing he says is that so much discrimination is based on arbitrary characteristics. For instance, he says that there has been much discrimination between the Christians and Muslims simply because of there different approaches toward diet and morality. This kind of discrimination is likely to cause much discomfort among students in school. Instead of focusing on their education, the students have bigger issues to deal with at school like staying safe. Some students are often forced to act against their religious doctrines just in order to be safe. This is an issue that can severely disrupt the learning experience of students and has been a problem for several years. References Ashcroft K & Palacio, D 1997, implementing the primary curriculum: a teacher's guide, Routledge, University of the West of England. Erricker, C., 2010, Religious education: a conceptual and interdisciplinary approach for secondary level, Taylor & Francis, Hampshire. Foucault M., & J.R., 1999, Religion and culture, Manchester University Press ND. Religious Education Association, Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education, 1984, Religious education, Volume 79, University of California. Remond R., 1999, Religion and society in modern Europe: The making of Europe, Wiley-Blackwel. Slavin, R.E, 2011, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. Pearson Education Canada. Read More