Faith

• Calhoun, C. and Modood, T. (2015) Religion in Britain: Challenges for higher education. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

I’ve focused on the following three headings: Multiculturalism, Religion and dissent in universities and Religion as a public good. 

Reading ‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education’ has challenged my opinion that religion is a private matter. Being an atheist and not participating in religious ceremonies since turning 16, I am very distanced from believe and religion. The text was a reminder that religion provides a vital inspiration to many people in defining and discussing what should be counted as public good. This means that “attempts to exclude it [religion] from the public sphere are intrinsically repressive to it; toleration of private belief is not a substitute.” (p.19)  

Another important take out for me was reading how activities that cross religious boundaries can be beneficial for integration of the students. What does it mean for my practice? I am not sure yet. Definitely something for me to explore and think about further. 

The text touches upon a very important aspects of faith and religion that can be (or are) intolerant. Especially issues surrounding sex and gender can be problematic.  “Discussion of different ‘non-binary’ sexual and gender identities is growing on universities campuses” (p.17) and this can be liberating for some students, but unsettling for others. I will investigate further how as teachers we can we support our students (and each other) when dealing with some of the above issues.  

• Shades of Noir (2017) ‘Interview with Bridgett Crutchfield’, in R. Mundair et. al (eds) Higher power: religion, faith, spirituality & belief. London: Shades of Noir. p.32-33. 

The images in this article have got my undivided attention. They are so powerful and expressing my issue with many religions in regards how they perceive women. Bridgett’s answers to SoN questions were very short and expressed her strong opinions. I found it refreshing. I come from ‘old school’ academia and find it difficult to deviate from staying neutral in my teaching and writing. I find it liberating to go through my PgCert reading list and learning more and more about how our opinions matter and can be used in teaching.

It reminded me of Freire’s writing: “Education as the practice of freedom—as opposed to education as the practice of domination—denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without people, but people in their relations with the world.”  (2000, p. 81) 

• Kwame Anthony Appiah Reith lecture on Creed.

I am a bit overwhelmed by amount of information and a depth of this lecture.  

Two things I am taking away from it now are: 

1. Understanding that religion does not consist mainly of a body of believes but of practice and community (what do religious people do and who do they do it with). 
2. Understanding that religious doctrine can be driven by practice not as commonly thought the other way round. It means that religion can change and evolve.  Women rabbis and priests can serve as example of such changes.  

At the end of the lecture there was one question from the public that resonated with me a lot. Is there anything that as educators we could do to help address fundamentalism? Can we educate people so they can move from truth fallacy, sectarian way of thinking towards doubt and fluidity of thinking?   It reminded me of critical pedagogy and importance of a dialogue in it – how we cannot enter a dialogue with each other in absence of doubt. (Freire, 2000, p.39) I think we cannot start this dialogue without foregoing an authoritarian outlook in teacher-student relationship. However, it does not mean undermining teacher’s authority as knowledge expert – as this could mean that a teacher “allows their classroom to be governed by the authoritarian power of the educational system” (Keer, 2016, p.69)

References:

Freire, P. (2000) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Keer, G. (2016) ‘Barriers to critical pedagogy in information literacy teaching’, in K. McElroy and N. Pagowsky (eds) Critical library pedagogy handbook. Chicago, Illinois: Association of College and Research Libraries. pp.65-74.