Pondering Diversity in Contemporary Culture: Towards Establishing a Framework for a Dialogical Approach to Religious Education in Australian Catholic Schools

This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of religious plurality using a range of conceptual lenses and then to draw out some implications for a dialogical approach to religious education in Catholic schools. While what was, until very recent times, seen as conventional religious affiliation has...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religions (Basel, Switzerland ) Switzerland ), 2024-05, Vol.15 (5), p.617
Main Author: Rymarz, Richard M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australia
Catholic schools
Culture
Demographic aspects
dialogical education
diversity
Education
Globalization
Intercultural education
Multicultural education
Multiculturalism
Narratives
Norms
Religion
Religious aspects
Religious education
Schools
Social aspects
Students
Teachers
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Summary:This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of religious plurality using a range of conceptual lenses and then to draw out some implications for a dialogical approach to religious education in Catholic schools. While what was, until very recent times, seen as conventional religious affiliation has certainly weakened in Australia and elsewhere, this does not necessarily lead to a multiplication of communal beliefs, practices and values. Following Smith, Inglehart and others, what has emerged is a dominant cultural hegemony which has a range of characteristics, but the most pertinent for the discussion here is the loss of the transcendent imperative and the subsequent decline in the knowledge of, and identification with, narratives associated with once-dominant religious communities. An understanding of diversity in the current cultural milieu in Australia needs to consider this hegemony as expressed in a commonality of beliefs, values and practices regardless of expressed affiliation, religious or not. Understanding diversity in this framework establishes a basis for better considering what a dialogical approach to religious education would involve. A dialogical approach to religious education is taken as a settled norm and not one that is heavily contested. A number of the implications of the proposed understanding of diversity for religious education are given. These include following a Vygotskian scaffolded approach to pedagogy and seeing an important place for the articulation of the home religious tradition.
ISSN:2077-1444
2077-1444
DOI:10.3390/rel15050617