A United States Perspective on the European REDCo Project

Abstract

This article reflects upon the European REDCo project with an eye toward elucidating both the lessons and the limits of that study for the American context. The author argues that the project holds great theoretical and practical value, and that similar efforts ought to be pursued in the United States despite (and perhaps because of) this country's generally hostile stance toward discussion about religion in public schools.

KEYWORDS:

• public schools
• REDCo
• religion education
• religious freedom
• United States

Notes

See, for example, Paul Weithman, Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002); The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” (2007), available at http://religions.pewforum.org; and poll data on civic engagement by religious youth from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, available at http://www.civicyouth.org/index.php?s=religion

For example, the Harvard Program in Religion and Secondary Education, the Texas Freedom Network, and the Religion and Public Education Resource Center at California State University, Chico.

The National Study of Youth and Religion is a large-scale project but offers little on the subject of religion education. This and other national studies of religion and youth are listed at http://www.youthandreligion.org/resources/surveys.html CIRCLE (the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) conducts research on the civic and political engagement of young Americans but does relatively little on the question of religion.

Weisse credited Emmanuel Levinas for the concept of neighbor religions. See note 10.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools (2007, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, of the OSCE—comprising 56 member states including the United States and Canada).

American Academy of Religion, “Guidelines for Teaching About Religion in K-12 Public Schools in the United States” (2010), available at http://aarweb.org/Publications/Online_Publications/Curriculum_Guidelines/AARK-12CurriculumGuidelines.pdf

Diane L. Moore, Overcoming Religious Illiteracy: A Cultural Studies Approach to the Study of Religion in Secondary Education (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Warren A. Nord and Charles C. Haynes, Taking Religion Seriously Across the Curriculum (Alexandria, VA: ASCD; Nashville: First Amendment Center, 1998); and the U.S. Department of Education guidelines can be found in Charles Haynes and Oliver Thomas, Finding Common Ground: A Guide to Religious Liberty in Public Schools (Nashville: First Amendment Center, 2001), 75–76.

Erik Owens, “Beyond Religious Literacy: Religion Education, Religious Freedom and American Public Schools,” presentation to the American Academy of Religion, November 2008.

REDCo's chief educational policy recommendations are the encouragement of peaceful coexistence; the promotion of diversity management; the inclusion of religious and non-religious worldviews; and the development of professional competence on this topic among educators.

Muslims comprise 0.8% of the U.S. population, compared with Russia (11.7%), France (6%), the Netherlands (5.7%), Germany (5%), the United Kingdom (2.7%), Norway (1%), Spain (1%), and Estonia (0.1%). Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, “Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population” (October 2009), available at http://pewforum.org/Muslim/Mapping-the-Global-Muslim-Population.aspx. For data on overall American religious affiliation, see the Pew Forum's “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” cited in note 1 above.

See Erik Owens's “Separation of Church and State,” vol. 4 of the Boisi Center Papers on Religion in the United States (2007), available at http://www.bc.edu/centers/boisi/publications/boisi_center_papers.html

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erik Owens

Erik Owens is Associate Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology and International Studies at Boston College. His research examines the challenge of fostering the common good of a religiously diverse society. Currently at work on a book about civic education and religious freedom in American public schools, he is also the co-editor of three books. He holds a Ph.D. in religious ethics from the University of Chicago and an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School.