Religion and Public Schools: International Perspectives Unit
Global Overview of Teaching Religious Freedom
Religious freedom in public schools encompasses the concepts of freedom of religion, freedom from religion, and freedom in religion, making it a multifaceted and context-dependent topic. How religious freedom is understood and taught in schools varies widely across the globe, reflecting differing cultural, societal, and legal frameworks. The practical realization of religious freedom in education is influenced by pedagogical methods, curricular materials, learning objectives, and local priorities, which in turn shape how religious freedom is conveyed and practiced. These approaches also include diverse interpretations of religious freedom across different countries and contexts. This session invites papers that explore case studies from different countries to examine how public schools teach religious freedom, theoretically and practically.
This Program Unit promotes the global and comparative study of "religion education" in public schools around the world. By encouraging interdisciplinary research on the ethical, legal, political, pedagogical, and theological issues that arise with the study of religion in elementary and secondary schools, we seek to deepen our understanding of alternative approaches to religion as an academic subject. We also hope to find new ways of responding to the increasing religious diversity in schools and societies and to study the relationship between religious education and citizenship education in pluralistic democratic societies.