The workshop "Dialogue about religion – Integrating students with and without religious identification" is organized as a cooperation between Høgskolen i Oslo (HiO) and The European Wergeland Centre (EWC).

How can religions and beliefs become a topic in school education that enhances intercultural understanding and mutual respect? How can students with and without religious identification become interested and engaged in acquiring knowledge and practicing dialogue? These questions will be the center of attention in a workshop for teacher trainers, teacher students and others who are interested in the topic of religion in education. Experts on religious education and community representatives will reflect on their religious and non-religious positions. Additionally, the method “philosophical conversations with children” (P4C) will be introduced.

Time: September 14, 2010, from 9.15 – 14.30

Place: Litteraturhuset, Wergelandsveien 29, Kverneland i 2. etg., 0167 Oslo

The workshop will be held in English. No registration is required.


About the workshop's background:
In 2009, the international research project ”Religion in Education. A contribution to Dialogue or a factor of Conflict in transforming societies of European Countries” (REDCo) published the results of investigating the attitudes of young people in 8 European countries on questions of religion and belief. The results where, despite national variation quite similar:

• Irrespective of their religious positions a majority of students are interested in learning about religions in school.
• Those  who  learn  about  religious  diversity  in  school  are  more  willing  to  enter  into  conversations  about  religions  and  worldviews  with  students  from  other  backgrounds than those who do not have this opportunity for learning.
• Most  students  would  like  to  see  school  dedicated  more  to  teaching  about  different  religions than to guiding them towards a particular religious belief or worldview.
• Students express their desire that learning about religions should take place in a safe class-room environment governed by agreed procedures for expression and discussion.

Thus, the question is how these identified interests of young people can be met by teachers who are prepared to be moderators and facilitators of dialogue, ready to create open learning environments. This workshop wants to contribute to finding some answers to these questions.

The workshop is part of a series of “educators’ consultations”, organized by the EWC across Europe in autumn 2010, to present the findings of the REDCo research project to students, teachers and other educators and to discuss possible implementation for educational practice. For more information on the upcoming events, click here.