Decolonising Religious Education in a Multi-faith Nation: Teachers’ Voices on the Naturalistic Approach to Teaching RE in Chivuna, Zambia
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Abstract
Conducted in 2020, this study documents the voices of teachers of RE on their experiences of using the multi-faith ‘naturalistic’ approach in teaching Religious Education. The objectives of the study were: to describe the experiences of teachers of RE in using the Religious naturalistic (inclusive) approach in teaching RE, to establish the value of the approach and the challenges teachers faced in implementing it. The study was underpinned by Michael Grimmitt’s conceptions and value assumptions of ‘Religious Absolutism’ versus ‘Religious Equality’/ ‘Neutrality’ ideological influences on Religious Education. The descriptive design was used to highlight the voices of teachers, based on qualitative methods and using structured interviews from two schools in Chivuna. Data were analysed using SPSS, based on a sample of 14 respondents. It was found that Most of the teachers were fairly contented with teaching non-Christian religions; they were focused on teaching these religions and were in support of the multi-faith approach that encouraged non-Christian religions to be part of the school curriculum. However, few respondents had their contrary view that non-Christian religions were not supposed to be part of the school curriculum in Zambia. One of the reasons they advanced was that Zambia was a Christian nation
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