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Abstract
In this article the issue is the development of a methodology for comparative studies in RE. The atuhor presents a suggested methodology from her PhD at the University of Warwick. Making comparison sharper, through a more differentiated terminology, and the question of representivity when qualitative empirical methods are included in comparative research design are especially focused. In her study she was looking to find a way of conducting a comparative study of religious education in England and Norway. After having searched in the fields of comparative education, comparative religion and pioneering works in religious education, she suggested a 3-dimensions and 4-levels methodology. This is a combination of 2 sets of ideas: firstly that there are 3 dimensions in comparative education: supranational, national, and subnational processes. The second set of ideas is of levels of curriculum: societal, institutional, instructional, and experiential. Combined, these ideas capture some of the complexities of what goes on in one country while also considering the impact of supranational processes, such as globalization. This methodology should be of interest to others who want to engage in international and comparative studies.
Notes
Robert Jackson, “Teaching about Religion in the Public Sphere: European Policy Initiatives and the Interpretive Approach,” NUMEN 55 (2008): 151–182.
Bruce Grelle, “Defining and Promoting the Study of Religion in American Schools,” Religion and Education: Special Issue: Rethinking Religion, Education and Pluralism in Europe and the United States 32, no. 1 (2005): 23–41; David Chidester, “Religion Education in South Africa: Teaching and Learning about Religion, Religions and Religious Diversity,” BJRE 25, no. 4 (2003): 261–278.
For example, in Elisabeth Haakedal, “Religionspedagogikkens Tverrfaglighet: Tilbakeblikk, Status og Muligheter,” in Religiøse og Pedagogiske Idealer, eds. H. Leganger-Krogstad and E. Haakedal (Oslo, Norway: Norges forskningsråd, KULTs skriftserie nr. 42, 1995), 8–52; Michael Grimmitt, ed., Pedagogies of Religious Education: Case Studies in the Research and Development of Good Practice in RE (Great Wakering, UK: McCrimmons, 2000); Robert Jackson, Rethinking Religious Education and Plurality: Issues in Diversity and Pedagogy (London: Routledge Falmer, 2004).
Friedrich Schweitzer, “Comparative Research in Religious Education: International-Interdenominational-Interreligious,” in Towards a European Perspective on Religious Education, eds. R. Larsson and C. Gustavsson (Stockholm, Sweden: Artos & Norma, 2004), 191–200; Friedrich Schweitzer, “Let the Captives Speak for Themselves!: More Dialogue between Religious Education in England and Germany,” British Journal of Religious Education 28, no. 2 (2006): 141–151.
Oddrun Bråten, A Comparative Study of Religious Education in England and Norway (PhD diss., University of Warwick, 2010).
Although the role of Christian education over the years has changed from being the main content of schooling (from 1739) to being one of many school subjects, Christian nurture remained at the core of our educational system until 1969. From 1969 until 1997 Christian education continued as a non-confessional but still denominational subject (see below).
A judgment in the Norwegian High court concluded it was not in violation of the right to religious freedom (Norges Høyesterett, 2001). However, the name and the content, i.e., the National Curriculum, were changed in 2002 (Knowledge of Christianity, Religions and Life views). The content changed again in 2005 following a judgment on the 3rd of November 2004 by the UN Human Rights Committee that the subject vas in violation of the UN convention on Civil and Political Rights, article 18. Finally, in 2008 there was a similar judgement in the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, and the name and legislation was changed again. See Sidsel Lied, “The Norwegian Christianity, Religion and Philosophy Subject KRL in Strasbourg,” British Journal of Religious Education 31, no. 3 (2009): 263–275.
The changes since 1997 has pushed the subject further in the direction of “neutrality,” in the sense that it is increasingly stressed that the teaching should be suitable for children of all religious and non-religious backgrounds. Reflecting the central role of the Christian tradition in Norwegian history and today, however, Christianity is the focus of about one third of the learning material.
It had existed in law since 1988, but even prior to that due to the system of the local agreed syllabuses, since the 1970s.
Robert Jackson, Religious Education: An Interpretive Approach (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997).
This was a network focusing on culture, religion and identity in a multicultural context, initiated by Geir Skeie and Sidsel Østberg.
Schweitzer, “Comparative Research in Religious Education.”
Richard Osmer and Friedrich Schweitzer, Religious Education between Modernization and Globalization (Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge, UK: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003).
Schweitzer, “Let the Captives Speak for Themselves!,” 148.
Elisabeth Haakedal, Kristendomsundervisning, Religionsundervisning, Livssynsundervisning. En Systematisk Drøfting av Problemer innen Engelsk Religionspedagogikk i Sammenligning med Svensk Religionspedagogikk (Masters dissertation, Oslo, Norway: Det teologiske Menighetsfakultet, 1983); Elisabeth Haakedal, Religionspedagogiske Tendenser med Hensyn til Utviklingen av Kristendoms-, Religions- og Livssynsundervisning i noen Vesteuropeiske Skolesystem under 1960- og 1970-årene (Oslo, Norway, Det Teologiske Menighetsfakultet, 1986).
Osmer and Schweitzer, Religious Education between Modernization and Globalization.
Wanda Alberts, Integrative Religious Education in Europe: A Study-of-Religions Approach (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007).
Elza Kuyk, Roger Jensen, David Lankshear, Elisabeth Löh Manna, and Peter Schreiner eds., Religious Education in Europe: Situations and Current Trends in Schools (Oslo, Norway: IKO Publishing House, 2007).
Robert Jackson, Sibren Miedema, Wolfram Weisse, and Jean-Paul Willaime, eds., “REDCo: Religion in Education: A Contributor to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries?” in Religion and Education in Europe: Developments, Contexts and Debates (New York: Waxman Verlag, 2007).
Robin Alexander, Culture and Pedagogy: International Comparisons in Primary Education (Malden, Oxford, UK, and Carlton, Victoria, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2000); Werner Schiffauer, Gert Baumann, Riva Kastoriano, and Steven Vertovec, eds., Civil Enculturation: Nation State, School and Ethnic Difference in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany and France (New York: Berghahn Books, 2004).
Gustav Karlsen, Utdanning, Styring og Marked: Norsk Utdanningspolitikk i et Internasjonalt Perspektiv (AS, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2006); Johanna Kallo and Risto Rinne, eds., Supranational Regimes and National Education Policies (Turku, Finland: Finnish Educational Research Association, 2006).
Haakedal, Religionspedagogiske Tendenser med Hensyn til Utviklingen av Kristendoms-, Religions- og Livssynsundervisning i noen Vesteuropeiske Skolesystem under 1960- og 1970-årene, 1.
Jackson, Miedema, Weisse, and Willaime, eds., Religion and Education in Europe.
Robert Jackson, “European Institutions and the Contribution of Studies of Religious Diversity to Education for Democratic Citizenship,” in Religion and Education in Europe: Developments, Contexts and Debates, eds. Robert Jackson, Sibren Miedema, Wolfram Weisse, and Jean-Paul Willaime, 28.
Ibid.
For example, Jean-Paul Willaime, “Different Models for Religious Education in Europe,” in Religion and Education in Europe: Developments, Contexts and Debates, eds. Robert Jackson, Sibren Miedema, Wolfram Weisse, and Jean-Paul Willaime (New York: Waxman Verlag, 2007), 100.
For example, Torsten Knauth “Religious Education in Germany: Contribution to Dialogue or Source of Conflict?” in Religion and Education in Europe: Developments, Contexts and Debates, eds. Robert Jackson, Sibren Miedema, Wolfram Weisse, and Jean-Paul Willaime, 251.
Roger Dale, “Policy Relationships between Supranational and National Scales: Imposition/Resistance or Parallel Universes?” in Supranational Regimes and National Education Policies, eds. Johanna Kallo and Risto Rinne, 27–52.
John Goodlad and Zhixin Su, “Organization of the Curriculum,” in Handbook of Research on Curriculum: A Project of the American Educational Research Association, ed. P. W. Jackson (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992), 327–344.
Kallo and Rinne, Supranational Regimes and National Education Policies.
Dale, “Policy Relationships between Supranational and National Scales,” 27.
Jackson, “European Institutions and the Contribution of Studies of Religious Diversity to Education for Democratic Citizenship.”
Karlsen, Utdanning, Styring og Marked: Norsk utdanningspolitikk i et Internasjonalt Perspektiv; Dale, “Policy Relationships between Supranational and National Scales.”
According to the UK Government (1988) Education Reform Act, section 2.1., the Basic Curriculum refers to all school subjects and consists of the National Curriculum and religious education.
Goodlad and Su, “Organization of the Curriculum.”
John Goodlad, ed., Curriculum Inquiry (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1979).
Jackson, Rethinking Religious Education and Plurality: Issues in Diversity and Pedagogy; Peder Gravem, KRL – Et fag for alle? KRL-faget som svar På utfordringer i en Flerkulturell Enhetsskole? (Vallset, Norway: Oplandske Bokforlag, 2004).
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, Religious Education: The Non-statutory National Framework (London: Qualificantions and Curriculum Authority, 2004).
GCSEs: General Certificate of Secondary Education, GCSE Syllabuses is specially made for studying for GCSE Exams: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/QualificationsExplained/DG_10039024 Accessed 8.11.2011.
Qualificantions and Curriculum Authority, Religious Education: The Non-statutory National Framework; Utdanningsdirektoratet, KRL-boka 2005: Kristendoms-, religions-, og livssynsorientering (Oslo, Norway: Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2005).
Anna van der Want, Cok Bakker, Ina ter Avest, and Judith Everington, Teachers Responding to Religious Diversity in Europe: Researching Biography and Pedagogy (Münster, Germany: Waxman Verlag, 2009).
Goodlad and Su, “Organization of the Curriculum,” 329.
Torsten Knauth, Dan-Paul Jozsa, Gerdien Bertram-Troost and Julia Ipgrave, eds., Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe (Münster, Germany: Waxman Verlag, 2008); Pille Valk, Gerdien Bertram-Troost, Marcus Friederici, and Celine Bèraud, Teenagers’ Perspectives on the Role of Religion in their Lives, Schools and Societies: A Quantitative Study (Münster, Germany: Waxman Verlag, 2009).
Werner Schiffauer, Gert Baumann, Riva Kastoriano, and Steven Vertovec, eds., Civil Enculturation: Nation State, School and Ethnic Difference in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany and France (New York: Berghahn Books, 2004).
Civil enculturation is “the process by which an individual acquires the mental representations … and patterns of behaviour required to function as a member of (civil) culture … taking place as a part of the process of education,” see Schiffauer, Baumann, Kastoriano, and Vertovec., eds., Civil Enculturation, 2.
Ibid., 4–8.
Jeffery Alexander, The Civil Sphere (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Charles Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004).
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991 [1983]).
Schiffauer, Baumann, Kastoriano, and Vertovec, eds., Civil Enculturation; Oddrun Bråten, Review of Civil Enculturation: Nation State, School and Ethnic Difference in The Netherlands, Britain, Germany and France, British Journal of Religious Education 28, no. 2 (2006): 213–216.
Schweitzer, “Comparative Research in Religious Education.” 197.
Haakedal, Religionspedagogiske Tendenser med Hensyn til Utviklingen av Kristendoms-, Religions- og Livssynsundervisning i noen Vesteuropeiske Skolesystem under 1960- og 1970-årene; Peter Schreiner, “Religious Education in the European Context,” in Religious Education in Europe: Situations and Current Trends in Schools, eds. Elza Kuyk, Roger Jensen, David Lankshear, Elisabeth Löh Manna, and Peter Schreiner (Oslo, Norway: IKO Publishing House, 2007), 9–16; Jackson, “European Institutions and the Contribution of Studies of Religious Diversity to Education for Democratic Citizenship”; Willaime, “Different Models for Religious Education in Europe.”
The name was changed from Religious Instruction to Religious Education in 1988.
Jackson, Rethinking Religious Education and Plurality.
Haakedal, “Religionspedagogikkens tverrfaglighet: tilbakeblikk, status og muligheter,” 9.
Konfesjon = denomination, bekjennende = confessional.
Tim Murphy, “Speaking Different Languages: Religion and the Study of Religion,” in Secular Theories on Religion, Current Perspectives, eds. Tim Jensen and Michael Rothstein (Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000), 183.