UNESCO, the OSCE/ODIHR and the Council of Europe are developing normative concepts and learning plans traversing the interface between religion and education policy and in some cases are establishing competence centres to manage dissemination and implementation. These policies address both interfaith and religious studies education and view ‘teaching about religion’ to be the primary (global) approach to general education on religion.
It is assumed that education policy making will eventually shift from national governments towards international organisations (Martens/Wolf 2006), and that this will cultivate the standardisation of local education by global elites (Münch 2009). In this process of ‘self-discovery and identification beyond national boundaries’ (Beck/Grande 2004), the field of education will become a focal point. The project worked from this standpoint to examine selected international organisations’ understanding of religion and to explore their normative and didactic approaches to religion in the education sector.
The project filled a gap in research by firstly undertaking an analysis of binding and non-binding normative documents that explicitly name and contextualise religion. This allowed us to understand the role played by religion, and its function, in the global sphere. Secondly the project explored didactic approaches by examining internationally available handbooks and manuals for policy-makers, teachers and textbook authors. From these two types of source material it was possible to reconstruct the concept of religion and the breadth of religious topics and world views present in international discourses. Thirdly, we compared the normative statements and didactic concepts of the selected organisations. Combining the findings from these research steps enabled us to ascertain how the approach to religion in the school education sector has diachronically changed, in terms of the premise of a harmonising global society on the one hand and the increasing dominance of security concerns on the other.
The project's social relevance is reflected in the fact that the documents investigated here anticipate future society and are already being used to guide individual education policy decision-makers, within the framework of inclusive school subjects, in places such as Quebec, Switzerland and Luxembourg. These developments in education policy are significant for religious stakeholders around the world, as contained within them is the implication that the diversity of approaches to religion we are familiar with today should perhaps be counterposed with an homogenous approach to religion within education.
Aims
The aim of this project was to address a gap in research by analysing the role and function of religion in the education sector of international organisations. Firstly, the projectundertook an analysis of binding and non-binding normative documents that explicitly name and contextualise religion. Secondly, the project explored didactic approaches by examining internationally available handbooks and manuals for policy-makers, teachers and students, and textbook authors. Thirdly, we compared the normative statements and didactic concepts of the selected organisations.
Methodology
The project team applied an explorative mixed-methods approach (Lamnek 2010), that enabled the selected source material to be analysed on a number of levels and from different perspectives. Accordingly, we started with a diachronic comparison of discursively located debates, whilst also employing topic modelling from the digital humanities. In order to reconstruct religion in the education sector we analysed a range of documents using content analysis methods (Mayring 2008) and a discourse analysis with a sociological focus (Schwab-Trapp 2001). The initial structural analysis of the documents was the first step in content analysis and helped to identify and articulate themes that demonstrate discursive continuity and those that enter the discourse over time, as well as shifts in argumentation. The structural analysis differentiated between type of source material, themes and statements: firstly, in terms of normative documents such as binding conventions and non-binding declarations, and secondly, in terms of education handbooks. In order to understand the position and significance of religion and ‘teaching about religion’ in the individual passages, the project team undertook a detailed analysis. The most significant passages were thematically categorised and grouped together. An inductive approach was employed in this step, which was open-ended in terms of access to the topic and category formation (Lamnek 1995). The second methodological step used DH topic modelling. Anna Lena Fehlhaber has developed a topic model that uses machine learning to weight the specific themes identified and determines their qualitative and quantitative relevance, position and significance within the corpus. Artificial intelligence identified the themes that are addressed in a text. The quantitative relevance of the theme was also specified, and other themes mentioned in the same context were identified. This not only allowed the relationships between themes to be identified but also changes within texts or chronological sequences. This specific DH topic modelling has been chosen because it can reveal structural similarities, patterns and differences over a period of time, even within large amounts of data, and enables semantic themes to be identified. The results of the topic modelling served as the basis for the subsequent qualitative detailed analysis of the individual texts.
Results
Closing conference
The closing conference for the project, titled ‘Religion, Diversity, and Security. International Organizations and Religion in School Education’, was held on 22 June 2023.
Publications
- Zrinka Štimac (2022): Indigenous Peoples through the Lens of UNESCO.Religions 13(10), 957; DOI: 10.3390/rel13100957
- Zrinka Stimac and Anna Lena Fehlhaber (2022): Die Rolle der Religion in der UNESCO-Bildungsarbeit. Normative und didaktische Impulse. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 1/22. DOI: 10.1007/s11618-022-01074-3
- Zrinka Štimac and Indira Aslanova (2021): The Role of Securitization in the Relationship Between State and Religion – The Example of the Kyrgyz Republic. In: Anja Mihr (ed.): Between Peace and Conflict in the East and the West. Studies on Transformation and Development in the OSCE Region. Cham: Springer, p. 117–137.
- Zrinka Štimac (2020): Building a secular state. International organizations and religion in education. In: Elbakian E. S (ed.): Secularism, Secularity and Religion: Historical, Legal and Philosophical Aspects. Kyrgyz Russian University, p. 116–126.
- Zrinka Štimac (2019): Transnational Perspectives on Religion and on Textbook Research. In: David Käbisch (ed.): Religion and Educational Research. National Traditions and Transnational Perspectives. Münster: Waxmann, p. 93–121.
- Zrinka Štimac (2018): “Culture of Religions” – A Controversial Secular School Subject. British Journal of Religious Education 42 (1), p. 65–74.
Workshop Moderation
Can Freedom of Religion or Belief Promote Sustainable Development? (German) BMZ and GIGA, 17.05.2021.
Workshop Global Governance, Religion and Education
This online workshop, part of the ‘Transnational discourses on education – focus on religion‘ project, which is funded by the DFG, discussed the significance of religion in the field of education with respect to internationally active organisations and their human rights discourse.
Project-relevant methodological and theoretical approaches were presented, as well as preliminary research findings regarding how UNESCO, OSCE and the Council of Europe (CoE) address religion in education. The ‘work in progress’ was discussed with the experts present.
The workshop also included introductory speeches from Klaus Schilling (German commission for UNESCO), Prof. Anja Mihr from the OSCE Academy in Bischkek, Kyrgyzstan, and Prof. Karsten Lehman from the University of Vienna. The speakers covered topics such as sustainable development goals, global governance and human rights, and inter-religious dialogue within the UN.
Date: 25 February 2021, 10:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Organised by: Dr Zrinka Štimac
Funding: GEIDAAD short-term lectureship at Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University (KRSU)
Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University, UNESCO-Chair in Culture and Religion, 01 February – 31 May 2020, Bischkek, Kyrgyzstan.
- Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University
- American University of Central Asia (fellow)
Interview
Zrinka Štimac speaking about religious studies at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute:
