Exploring the influence of Christian religious belief systems on community interaction within critical citizenship education in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Christian religious belief systems may influence higher education teaching and learning. We investigated how this manifests in relation to critical citizenship education at the Department of Visual Arts of Stellenbosch University. During the facilitation of a Visual Communication Design course, which included community interaction (CI), students often referred to their Christian religious beliefs even though the design of this critical citizenship course was not based on any specific religion. Within CI, ‘helping behaviour’ and ‘charity’ were common. We draw on theoretical perspectives of critical citizenship education, the impact of belief systems, and the psychology behind ‘helping behaviour’ to examine the comments made by students about their Christian religious beliefs and community interaction. We consider the history of Christianity and the role it played in apartheid and ask how ‘helping behaviour’ and Christian privilege should be addressed in critical citizenship education in South African higher education institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical citizenship
• higher education
• South Africa
• Christianity
• helping behaviour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. AmaHlubi refers to the Hlubi people originating from South East Africa. Their tribe is closely linked to the amaSwazi and Sotho tribes. For at least two centuries they have been a part of the Nguni, Mbo or Lala nation and live primarily in the KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Northwest provinces of South Africa (AmaHlubi.org 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elmarie Costandius

Elmarie Costandius is an associate professor in Visual Arts and coordinates the MA in Visual Arts (Art Education) at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She studied Information Design at the University of Pretoria and continued her studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, and completed a master’s in Globalisation and Higher Education at the University of the Western Cape. Her PhD in Curriculum Studies (Stellenbosch University) focused on social responsibility and critical citizenship in art education. Elmarie has published in the field of art education, critical citizenship, decolonisation and social justice in local and international journals.

Neeske Alexander

Neeske Alexander is an academic writer, educator and artist living in Cape Town. She has BEd (Foundation Phase), BHons (Learning support), BAVA (Illustration) and MA Visual Arts (Art Education) degrees.