Highlighted Session: Decolonizing Religious Education: Perspectives from and about the Global South

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

This panel features four papers addressing the topic of “decolonizing” Religious Education (RE) in the Global South (GS). Unlike the nature of RE in the Global North (GN), which is often characterized by individualization, secularization, de-Christianization and immigration (Parker and Freathy, 2011), there is something to be said about how the subject in the GS is conceptualized, debated, negotiated and offered in public and non-state sectors of education. From region to region, statistics on religious demography (2014) in the GS indicates high levels of religious homogeneity in many regions, and in some evidence of high levels of religious heterogeneity. In Latin America 96% of the population are Christian (69% Catholic and 19% Protestant) and 8% are unaffiliated, while in the Asia-Pacific region, 25.3% of the population are Hindu, 24.3% Muslim, and 21.2% unaffiliated. Further, in this broad geographic area, 11.9% of the population are Buddhist, 9% belong to a folk religion, and only 7.1% are Christian (Pew Research Centre, 2015). It is projected in Latin America and the Caribbean that Christianity will continue to be the largest religion, while those religiously unaffiliated will grow to 9% from 8% during the same period. In North Africa and Middle East Islam will remain the main religion at 93%, against a tiny Christian population (Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant) of about 5.5% and religious others 1.5% (Pew Research Centre, 2015).
In other regions like sub-Saharan Africa by contrast, 62.9% of the population are Christian, while 30.2% are Muslim. Further still, 3.3% belong to a folk religion, while 3.3% are unaffiliated. It is predicted that by 2050 four out of every ten Christians in the entire world will live in sub-Saharan Africa. Within sub-Saharan Africa there exist pockets of the population which are Hindu (0.2%), Buddhist (<0.1%) and Jewish (<0.1%) (Pew Research Centre, 2015). That so few people across these four broad regions fall into the “religiously unaffiliated” category indicates the continued and strong presence of religious practice and its role in community life. This provides a compelling reason to explore the nuanced conceptualizations of RE, its education aims, and how various stakeholders and religious institutions in the context of plurality and pluralism engage with its presence in the curriculum, and within the socio-politics of schooling (Skie, 1995).
Colonialism and post-Colonialism factor significantly in discussions regarding RE in the GS, and debates about decolonization invariably center on disputed discourses of power imbalances in cultural and educational influence, institutionally, in curriculum design, and in pedagogy. Diverse theories of education present such critiques, and prominent here are Freire (1957), subsequent fields of critical pedagogy (Darder et al. 2016), and posited correlations between knowledge and power pre-eminently delineated by Foucault (1970), Bourdieu (1986), and Herman and Chomsky (1995). Postcolonial critiques have here specifically long recognised the critical significance of cultural knowledge as much as economic and military control to the enterprises of colonialism and imperialism (Bhabha, 1990; 2004; Césaire, 2000; Fanon, 2001; Mishra, 2013; Said, 1994). In addition, Africanist scholars like Sefa-Dei (2011, 2015), Wane (2006, 2008, 2013), Nyoni (2019), Cossa (2018) and Matemba (2020) have argued that while postcolonial theories are valid to understand the ideological, cultural and political entrapment of formerly colonized nations, they are perhaps insufficient to offer a radical shift towards remaking education for the contemporary child in Africa. Instead, there is need to adopt an anticolonial framework as a radical force for action, challenging post-coloniality and neo-coloniality.
Educationally, intense debates rage today in institutions across continents between the colonized and former colonized over the form, content and interpretation of the curriculum. Often framed in terms of “decolonizing the curriculum”, such debates are alive and often inflammatory in Europe as much as say in Africa. These are inherently deep level impacts that cannot be limited to any single continent, any type of institution, or indeed any curriculum area or subject. Themes that need further addressing include greater emphases on social and community cohesion; religion and human rights, race, gender equality; migration, immigration and refugee status; freedom of religion and freedom of expression; ideological and religious extremism; counter-extremism and de-radicalization in education; security and counter-terrorism. Drawing on global perspectives to address issues of cultural (re)definition in the curriculum, particular emphasis should be paid to the complex ways in which notions of de-colonizing the curriculum (e.g.; language use, content knowledge, pedagogy) have become deeply embroiled in an imperial European and world history. These histories inevitably encompass both traditional narratives of political and military power, but also cultural definition and control, particularly in education, across all phases. Debates around colonialism entail, therefore, also notions of security, as the debates increasingly feature historical memory and continuing senses of injustice wrought by colonial past and ongoing postcolonial relations as a prominent part of educational and public discourse globally. In de-colonizing the curriculum, there is need also to go beyond the postcolonial into the relatively new area of anti-colonial discourse.
The four papers presented in this panel provide perspectives on decolonizing the RE curriculum in the GS across three global regions that have uniquely experienced the colonization of schooling; South Africa, South America, and the Indian subcontinent. The perspectives offered are related but not limited to the socio-cultural and political factors that give flavor to the ways religious diversity is articulated in schooling contexts, and the role of RE in this process (Ter Avest, 2011); the role of RE towards intercultural and interreligious understanding (Weisse, 2007), how young people engage with religious and cultural diversity in RE (Arweck, 2017); and the fragility and vibrancy of RE as a school subject (Conroy et al, 2013). The panel also discusses the multitude of methodological issues necessary to consider when engaging in cross-national research on RE in the GS. The papers in the panel draw from chapters in the forthcoming volume, Handbook of religious education in the Global South (Bloomsbury).

Sub Unit

• Religion and Education SIG

Chair

• Bruce Collet, Bowling Green State University

Individual Presentations

• (Re)colonising Religious Education in Eswatini and Lesotho: A Policy Critique - Yonah Hisbon Matemba, University of the West of Scotland

• Decolonising Christian Education in India? Navigating the Complexities of Hindu Nationalism and BJP Education Policy - Sally Elton-Chalcraft, University of Cumbria, Lancaster campus, UK

• Conducting Comparative Research on Religious Education in the Global South - Bruce Collet, Bowling Green State University

Discussant

• Yonah Hisbon Matemba, University of the West of Scotland