Discussion: Religion and Values in Education

Open discussion according to 4 point:

1. Which are the possible approaches to the topic „religion and values in education”?

2. Which are the questions, challenges special to the CEE region?

3. How can we organise the higher level of reflected discussion and cooperation within researchers?

4. What sort of methodological suggestions should be observed during the further common work?

Co-referates:

Revitalisation of community in public life and the role of religions

Religion as resource of community: social identities and civility

Igor Bahovec

University of Ljubljana - Theological Faculty

igor.bahovec@guest.arnes.si

In the last few decades different sociological perspectives stress importance of different forms and aspects of community in public and private life. Community are constitutive element of communitarian and third way perspective; certain aspects of community are included in the theory of social capital, civil society and feminism. Communities are also essential elements of religious life. Personalistic approach stress that the very essence of human beings are interpersonal relations. For most people the only way to live mutual, durable, and committed interpersonal relationships is to be included in different forms of (possible) genuine communities. Genuine community can developed in small Lebenswelt (like families, small groups) and in "larger" society (nations, religions, etc.). In the first part of the paper the concept of genuine community will be presented according to contemporary sociological perspectives. On one hand we identify core elements of genuine communities, on the other difficulties and obstacles – including negative expressions of (non-genuine) community life.  In the next part an outline of Christian understanding of genuine community will be presented. Finally preliminary results of our research in different forms of Catholic communities in Slovenia will be presented. Two key aspects of research are identities of of Christian communities and their impact to civility and civil life.

New Challenges in Religious Education of Young People in Central and Eastern Europe

Stanko Gerjolj

University of Ljubljana, Department of Theology - Pastoral Institut

stanko.gerjolj@guest.arnes.si

The first challenge for work with young people in Central and Eastern Europe is education without making “enemies”. The totalitarian system paid attention to enemies and that is what the young would like to break free from. The second challenge is reconciliation with the past which also embodies reconciliation with their own parents and ancestors. Communism marked a big gap between the time before and after the revolution and thus ripped people from history. The young would like to shape history and feel the need to bond with it.
The third challenge refers to working with adults. The young expect them to acknowledge their weaknesses to be able to accept and forgive them. The fourth challenge is connected with the above context and refers to reflective and biographic learning. Biographic learning is a way enabling the young to understand and accept genuine life. The fifth challenge is involving the young in creative cooperation in the Church. The young are motivated for such cooperation if the adults respect and count on them.

Challenges of Religious Education in Compulsory Education

Ankica Marinivic Bobinac

Institute for Social research of Zagreb

ankica@idi.hr

In the workshop Education we are going to present the stage of our work on the proposed paper Challenges of Religious Education in Compulsory Education and discuss theoretical and methodological concept of the research of religious education aspects in compulsory school system after changes taking place in Croatia during transitional period and present the results of Catholic religious education curriculum analysis regarding some relevant issues - development of different educational competencies. The main goal is to discuss the differences and similarities in some other partner countries.

Religious education in Polish public school in Cieszyn Silesia multicultural conditions

Aniela Różańska

The Silesian University in Katowice (Poland) – Faculty of Ethnology and Sciences of Education in Cieszyn

arozanska@seznam.cz

Religious education in public school in Poland dates back to 1991 and is still at the core of public debate. The study begins with the general presentation of trends in religious education in Poland with a special attention to Cieszyn Silesia. The religious education in Poland characterizes by dominant position of the Roman Catholic Church but with some regions like Silesia where there is a significant minorities of the Lutherans and other Protestant churches. There multi-faith situation of Cieszyn Silesia conditions a special approach to the religious education in this region. The author attempts to present the need for practical multi-faith education in school environment with the presence of many denominations. The study examines current educational policy documents, opinions of teachers and pupils of the middle school in Cieszyn Silesia. The results of the research show diverse sets of opinions in the hot debate about the role and place of the religious education in the public schools. The opinions reflect the division of teachers into supporters and adversaries of existing shape of the school religious education.

The Conditions of Functioning of Denominational Educational Institutions in Ukraine

Eleonora Molnar

Ferenc Rakoczi II. Transcarpatian Hungarian College

eleonora@kmf.uz.ua

The present research is part of a thesis dealing with public schools and their place in the Ukrainian educational system as well as in the life of Transcarpathian Hungarians. We analyze the following typical characteristics of the institutions: religious diversity, the legal background of their functioning, financing, and the conditions of founding of the six institutions in accordance with definite criteria. This part of the thesis acquaints the reader with the religious diversity of Ukraine’s population paying special attention to Transcarpathia’s Hungarian population, their religious diversity in comparison with the other nations. The Transcarpathian Hungarians at the beginning of the 1990-ies at the last stage of transformations in the Carpathian basin were the first to establish not only a Hungarian-language higher educational institution, but also religious public schools that were alien to the Ukrainian educational system; the author also describes the legal means available at that time to the aforementioned national minority and the legal background necessary for the foundation of the institution. The Ukrainian nation emerged as a result of unusual ethnic and historical process. It was formed on the break-even point of various ethno-cultural, social, economic, political, and religious systems. After the division of Christianity the Ukrainian nation was separated into two historical-cultural zones: Orthodox and Catholic. The historical-cultural separation was also caused by the fact that apart from religious division there were strong administrative, political, ethnic and language differences within the nation. Thus, one of the characteristic features of the Ukrainian culture was the existence of regional differences that was present even in the self-identification (Arel 1995). There were no state-building traditions that would eliminate these regional differences.

The reformed features of the teacher-training college of Debrecen

Zsanett Agnes Bicsák (Exchange Programme)

Debrecen University, Institute of Educational Scineces, CHERD

bicsakzsanett@gmail.com

The teacher-training in Debrecen –from its formation in the 16th century on- had only connected to Reformed Church for long centuries. Its persistant operation was hold up in the era of the secularization, however, the teacher-training engagement started again in 1959, within the frames of the state higher education, and from 1976 it has worked as a state college.
After the change of the system and the re-organization of the ecclesiastical possessions, the teacher-training college –that worked as a state institute at that time- got back under the authority of the diocese. We only have a small number of written data concerning the transmission itself, and we only know less about the reformed re-organization of the teacher-training college of Debrecen (that, by that time, had reached the same level of quality that other state higher educational institutes had). Since 1990, the college has operated under the name ’Kölcsey Ferenc Reformed Teacher-Training College’. The lecture insists on introducing the specific features and the dual profile of the teacher-training in Debrecen. It attempts to introduce the basic features on which one can consider the college as a reformed institute, but it also tries to present those historical events that hinder the spread of reformed morals at certain levels of the college.
The research is based on the documents of the historical past on one hand, and it leans on interviews made with leading members having significant roles in the life of the college on the other hand. 

Educational benefits of religiosity as social capital in CEE region

Gabriella Pusztai

University of Debreceni Egyetem

gabriella.pusztai@ella.hu

In former studies we revealed that Hungarian denominational schools influence favourably the school career of pupils with disadvantageous backgrounds. We pointed out that these schools reduce the inequality of cultural capital with the help of organic relationships and cohesion between parents and children in the school community. The aim of this presentation is to reveal the interpretational capacity of the social capital theory in connection with the differences between the pupils’ achievements. First we focus on the structures and contents of pupils` relationships organised along the religious community and norms according to religious doctrine. Present study is based on data gathered on the border regions of three East-Central European countries, namely Hungary, Romania and Ukraine. We have revealed that differences do not only originate from the advantages or disadvantages of social background, but according to the social capital hypothesis the form, size and composition of relationships can explain the differences.