Indonesia has experienced a paradigm shift during the last decade in the framework of managing societal diversity because of an increase in ethnic and religious conflict. This shift has an impact on education because school curricula must address issues of living together as a nation united despite differences in religion and ethnicity. This is…

The Republic of (South) Korea is a multi-religious society. Naturally, large- or small-scale conflicts arise between religious groups. Moreover, inter-religious troubles related to the educational system, such as educational ideologies, textbook content and forced chapel attendance, have often caused social conflicts. Most of the problems derive…

Although inter-religious conflicts have not yet surfaced as major social problems in Japan, religious education for peace and tolerance is needed in the country as much as in other countries. This article aims to disclose that, in light of political contexts, supposedly neutral "teaching about religion" can be as problematic as history education…

Samuel Huntington is famous for having used the phrase "clash of civilizations." Many other observers of the geopolitical scene have suggested that the reality is more like a clash "within civilizations," and that the response to this should lie in discovering the resources within each cultural tradition that could inform a more peaceful outlook.…

Both education and religion are connected with the sense of identity. In the present global world, educators have a real challenge to be able to manage identity and diversity, the local and the global, especially in the "cultural" subjects, fields where to learn to think is also to learn to construct an opinion (especially in order to define…

The focus of this article is on the relationship between tolerance and individualized religion as the most common type of adolescent religion in many western countries. Drawing on a number of qualitative studies conducted by the author with children and adolescents in Germany, as well as on other larger studies conducted by others, the author…

"Theologizing with children" has arisen from influences of philosophizing with children, from research in the Piagetian tradition and also from the interest of the Evangelical Church in Germany to "change to the child's perspective". It searches for the theological quality of children's remarks which are considered to be a precious contribution…

This article traces the development of religious education in Botswana from pre-colonial times to the present day. It explores the manner in which the subject has been influenced by the presence of missionary activity in the country during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well as more recent post-colonial developments. The…

The aim of this article is to respond to Kevin O'Grady's critique (in "BJRE", 27, 2005, pp. 227-37) of my interpretation and assessment of Ninian Smart's contribution to religious education. I begin by dealing with a range of issues that lend themselves to fairly summary discussion and then address two further aspects of his critique in more…

The claim that Hallowe'en has been eliminated from English primary schools is tested through empirical research in south-east England. The reasons given by teachers for their inclusion or non-inclusion of the subject are then explored. Finally, questions are raised about the implications of the findings for children's ongoing personal development,…

Peter Doble has recently made his opinions on an article written by the author (Thompson, 2004a). Several of the points Doble raised were addressed in the author's book "Whatever Happened to Religious Education?" (Thompson, 2004b). In this article, the author addresses the points made by Doble in response to her article. The author contends how…

Penny Thompson's "reply" to the author's article (Doble, 2005) briefly tells readers that for an answer to some of the author's queries, readers may turn to her book; for the rest, she proposes to take "the argument" further. One of the problems with her earlier article was that it had no discernible argument, so it is not easy to see how it may…

This article argues that of the various approaches taken in state education internationally, the inclusion of a discrete academic subject dealing with religious traditions and spiritual or secular alternatives is the most effective way of addressing religious plurality in education. It examines the increasing presence of religion in public…

The question of religious education is one of the most controversial questions in the current discussions on religion and politics in Russia. Most notably a new subject, Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture (FOC), is of interest because it differs markedly from Western European approaches to religious education. Referring to "Culturology" FOC combines…

In Russia a new school subject has been introduced in order to facilitate educators in shaping the enculturation process of the autonomous student into the cumulative tradition. In this article the Russian societal and educational context is described and the concepts "religion" and "culture" are clarified. Together they build the concentric…