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BOOK REVIEW Robert Jackson & Ursula McKenna (eds) Oslo Coalition Occasional
Papers (1): Intercultural Education and Religious Plurality.
The Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief. 78pp.
This is the first volume in what the Oslo Coalition has announced as an intended series in support of its project 'Teaching for Tolerance and Freedom of Religion or Belief'. It comprises eight papers, each written by colleagues associated with the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU), based at Warwick University Institute of Education and directed by Professor Robert Jackson. The editors themselves contribute two of the papers; the rest come from others, who in the past or presently have been directly engaged in Warwick based research. The common focus is on the European-wide challenge of religious plurality and its relationship with intercultural education. To anyone who is already familiar with the Warwick interpretive and dialogical approaches to Religious Education, the novelty of the collection is that it is rooted in empirical research, which exemplifies applications or implications of these approaches in quite varied ways. To anyone coming fresh to the Warwick approaches, it provides a highly readable point of access, conveying both theoretical perspective and practical application. This is useful alike both to those who would teach RE and those who would teach Citizenship. Jackson sets the scene with an exposition of the potential contribution from RE to both intercultural education and teaching for tolerance. By way of background, he includes references to multicultural and ant-racist education, emergent citizenship education and the social cohesion agenda. His commended pedagogy addresses the challenges of how best to represent religions, and the importance of both individual and group aspects of religious identity. RE should encourage the development of interpretive skills by pupils and their reflections on what they are learning, but it “does not only consist of the analysis and exchange of personal narratives”. Without overclaiming for what schools can achieve, it is evident that there is a moral drive in RE. His colleague Eleanor Nesbitt presses the need for intercultural sensitivity within the curriculum, within the whole schools and within teacher education. In particular, she illustrates the significant resource which ethnography provides for building mutual understanding. Religions are multi-grained. Unless this is appreciated, however well meaning, RE teaching too easily becomes trade in second hand stereotypes. There are three classroom based reports, two secondary and one primary. Kevin O'Grady draws on his own distinctive RE teaching method to demonstrate that dialogue between 12 and 13 year olds contributes both to understanding religious terms and to making sense of their own concerns. There is truth to be found in ongoing dialogical relationships in a context of religious plurality. Whether that plurality is within the make-up of the class or in the subject matter of the teaching, or both, Amy Whittal using a similar approach is able to demonstrate how RE can be effective in promoting optimum achievement with 'gifted and talented'/ the most able of pupils. Julia Ipgrave's application of equivalent methods in the primary classroom, and in links between pupils from schools in different cultural settings, is no less assured in claiming that positive intercultural understanding can become an enjoyable reality also for younger children. The three remaining papers are in a different vein. Bill Gent goes inside the mosque schools of Redbridge to familiarise himself with the hifz class which is dedicated to the learning of the Qur'an by heart. He explains what is involved in motivation and discipline, and the power of the Qur'an as a heard experience. Karen Steele collaborates with Jackson in expounding the nature of Citizenship Education and RE in continental Europe. And in conclusion, Ursula McKenna discusses the range of specialist literature dealing with the relationships between religious diversity, intercultural/citizenship/human rights education and RE. Whereas the ingredients have often been compartmentalized, one from another, she argues their common ground and the need for a shared, interactive pedagogy. Throughout, the authors show themselves to be aware of current issues in the ongoing discussions as to the nature of RE. They expect to be challenged, but they are confident that their shared approaches are effective where it matters most - with the pupils and with the communities within which their schools are set.
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