A call for more religious education in the secondary social studies curriculum of western Canadian provinces

ABSTRACT

The inclusion of religion in public education remains contentious in many countries, including Canada. As multiple religions fill the public sphere, some religious education is necessary if Canadians are to understand each other. Social studies is seen as an appropriate subject to include such education given its foci on diversity and citizenship. In this paper, I examine the degree to which the four western Canadian provinces address religious diversity in their social studies curricula. While religion is not absent from these curricula, the specific content expectations lack a sustained engagement with religious diversity. By contrast, European governments and intergovernmental organizations are considering whether religious education might facilitate peaceful coexistence in religiously plural societies. To emphasize this point, I highlight a recent European study entitled “Religion in Education: A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries?” (REDCo). REDCo suggests there is a connection between the inclusion of some form of religious education in public education and a greater willingness of students to dialogue about important issues with people who hold a variety of religions and worldviews. Applying the relevant findings of REDCo to the western Canadian context, I conclude that the lack of religious education in social studies obstructs the implementation of a multicultural society by maintaining a secularist bias in public schools, contributing to the marginalization of religious minorities, failing to address the instrumentalization of religion and ignoring the connection between religious education and the promotion of citizenship.

Keywords:

• multicultural/diversity education
• curriculum studies
• teacher education
• religious education

Notes

1. For more on the importance of religion to Canada's diversity “model,” see Biles and Ibrahim (2005).

2. See Hiemstra and Brink (2006) for some unusual situations in Alberta where a faith-based school is the public school. Some of the situations discussed in the paper have been changed.

3. The prairie provinces include Aboriginal language programming in their curriculum, Alberta and Saskatchewan offer optional programs in Aboriginal or Native Studies, respectively, British Columbia provides a BC First Nations 12 course, and Manitoba has a grade 12 options course entitled “Current Topics in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Studies.” Most of these programs and courses include a significant component on Aboriginal worldviews. The provinces also provide teachers with various resources for how to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives into their social studies curriculum.

4. British Columbia's present curriculum does not define citizenship but its draft curricula for grades 8 and 9 have citizenship competencies identified for each grade (see https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/whats-new/SocialStudies).

5. While the body of literature on European RE is vast, and scholars from a variety of disciplines, including those involved in REDCo, support its inclusion in the curriculum, there are ongoing debates about its efficacy. According to Cumper (2011), RE remains a low-status subject, continues to prioritize Christianity and marginalize nonreligious beliefs, and ignores children's rights in favor of parental rights. In a particularly troubling statement, Cumper writes, “in spite of claims that religious education can help to strengthen communal ties, there has, as yet, been no clear evidence that RE programmes have to date created a new generation of more tolerant, or even religiously literate, Europeans” (p. 223). This statement is at odds with the research findings of REDCo.

6. For a more thorough overview of RE programs in each country, see Jackson, Miedema, Weisse, and Willaime (2007).

7. Bertram-Troost (2011) noted it was difficult to distinguish the effects of religious pluralism encountered in school from other contexts and that the religiosity of students may have impacted the degree to which they were open to dialogue.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Margaretta L. Patrick

Margaretta Patrick is an assistant professor in the education faculty at The King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta. She has researched how religious organizations participate in the public sphere and her current research interests include teaching controversial issues, particularly when they include religion, and religion in the curriculum.