In this article, the author John Volk, professor of Worldview Studies at Renaissance College, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, looks forward toward the November 2017 Religious Education Association Conference, which is entitled "Learning in Encounter: Crossroads, Connections, Collaborations", and says that…

In this article, Yaccov Katz describes Israel as a unique country housing a population that has increased ten-fold since independence in 1948. It is a country composed of Jews and Arabs, veterans, and immigrants hailing from over 100 countries throughout the world. On the one hand, Israel has a population of secular Jews who profess to be Jewish…

Many if not most people in the academy as well as the public sphere tend to regard race and racism in the United States in terms of a default frame of reference (i.e., a paradigm): the black-white binary. Although this frame is constructive as well as compelling, it displays serious liabilities. This article outlines, for religious educators, nine…

This article presents the findings of a qualitative interview study undertaken with RE teachers (n = 30), working in English schools with secondary status. Despite recent policy interest in character education, there is a lacuna of information about the extent RE contributes to character education. The present study focuses on teachers'…

Although religion has played a key role in reading instruction in many education systems, this position has been challenged by increasing religious diversity and the spread of non-religious worldviews. Simultaneously, there has been growing interest in the role of disciplinary literacy in education (i.e. the ways in which a discipline's knowledge…

Since 2009, there is a discussion about how RE should be organised in state and 'private' (mainly Catholic) schools in Flanders. Especially the proposal to introduce non-denominational and integrative RE for all pupils in all schools stimulated the debate. More than ten years later, the RE system, which is based on (semi-)confessional and in state…

The way religion is taught in Chinese schools is drawing attention, as challenges arise associated with the resurgence of various religious traditions in contemporary Chinese society. Existing research has revealed that the decades-long institutional separation of religion and education in China has had a complex effect on Chinese students'…

This study explores how religious orientation, religious involvement, and religious coping are related to thinking styles among university students in mainland China. The Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised II (TSI-R2), Age Universal Intrinsic/Extrinsic Scale-12, the religious involvement scale, and the brief RCOPE were administered to 933 students.…

The focus of this article is on religious transmission in families and other religious influences among young adults and their linkage to changes in faith in transition to adulthood. The special interest lies in the question of what happens to those with no religious upbringing at home: are there other factors which may turn out as meaningful and…

In 2007, a new model of state-run primary schools was established in Ireland in response to growing pluralism in this country. These are publicly-managed, multidenominational schools with the Irish state, through the Education and Training Boards (ETB) as their patron. School ethos is inclusive, striving to ensure that beliefs of all children are…

The aim of this study was to explore preservice teachers' religion self-efficacy beliefs and the relationship those beliefs have with regard to their internship experiences. In this paper, we examined participants who are education majors at a religious university. The measure selected for this study included a reflection journal. Qualitative…

As the Catholic Church encounters secularism and pluralism, one of her main responses has been dialogue. Some of the prime manifestations have been the political initiative of the Courtyard of the Gentiles and the plea from the Congregation for Catholic Education for a grammar of dialogue as envisaged in the recent document Educating for fraternal…

Through further consideration of data emanating from the author's original research into ways in which children are predisposed to learn in approaches to religious education influenced by Jerome Berryman's Godly Play method, a new disposition has been identified, "connecting to life." It comprises three elements--(1) making connections…

The article will put the case for a robust theology to underpin religious education with potential to address contemporary matters in a way that genuinely informs and stimulates critical and self-reflective knowing. It will utilize a Habermasian frame of reference in constructing this argument. The article will then explore religious extremism,…

Judas Iscariot has a pivotal role in the story of Jesus of Nazareth, particularly in the events in the last days of his life. But information about Judas provided in the New Testament is scant. Many details about his life, career and motivations for acting in the events of Jesus' final days have been amplified by those outside the biblical…