The main project activities will consist in:
1) RESEARCH
The aim of this project activity is an in-depth analysis of religion education approaches in the countries involved in the project and the definition of the needs of the stakeholders about the religion plurality in schools.
Main activities to be developed:
- a) Analysis of the different approaches in the partner countries: in all partner countries, each team will develop an analysis on two different levels: the first level is about the history and the legal principles that govern the teaching models, while the second level is focused on the pedagogical approaches.
- b) Workshop among the research teams and experts to compare the different experiences.
The data will be interpreted and elaborated through the collaboration of legal and psycho-pedagogical experts, in order to bring out issues and potential from the single experiences.
- c) Publication of results
The project will be concluded with the publication of results and their diffusion in the partner countries.
2) ELABORATION OF THE PEDAGOGICAL DIDACTIC & PARTICIPATORY MODEL (PD&P)
Starting from the knowledge gained by teachers during the training activity (n. 3), this activity intends to develop a pedagogical model of education to religious pluralism, defined trough a participatory method by teachers, experts, families and representatives of different religions in the area. The pedagogical model will be developed through a “top down” procedure in which educators, psychologists and experts of religion, on the basis of the results of the research, will identify in each context involved in the project the most sensitive issues related to the integration of religious and cultural differences, thus defining the “backdrop” of the participatory process.
3) TRAINING FOR TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS ON “RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN EUROPE”
The training activity will be implemented through a 6-day training at Fondazione Centro Studi Villa Montesca. Main contents of the workshop:
- a) “Knowing religions”
The involved experts will be jurists, historians, experts in phenomenology of religions; anthropologists; sociologists.
- b) “Meeting the others”
At this stage will be involved witnesses and members of the different religions present in Europe together with experts in phenomenology of religion, social psychologists and sociologists.
- c) “Preventing fundamentalism”
Experts involved will be: pedagogues, evolutive psychologists, experts in phenomenology of religion and anthropologists.
4) PILOTING WITH EU PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Experimentation in class of the educational model developed through the participatory process. The experimentation will be undertaken by those who took part in the participatory process, who will reverse in the classroom the peculiar facilitation techniques which have been developed during the elaboration of the pedagogical model.
Thanks to the strict relation between partner organizations and the respective school systems of their country, a number of identified primary schools will be involved in the piloting process, where teachers will experiment with the new developed methodology. The criteria for the selection of schools will be related to the composition of classes: specific attention will be paid to schools/classes which feature a multi-cultural and multi-religious composition, or which are located in marginal and rual areas in order to get to the core of the issue tackeld by the whole project.