Overview
- Focuses on concepts regarding thick and thin multiculturalism
- Discusses ways of countering religious fundamentalism and extremism
- Shows how SRE can help to address racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism
- Provides tools for improving the pedagogy in SRE classes
- Highlights the importance of values education, religious identity and spirituality
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Table of contents(11 chapters)
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The Australian Background
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The Advantages of SRE in the Post-modern Period
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Bringing SRE into the Twenty-First Century
Keywords
- structure of SRE in Australia
- religious education in government schools
- pedagogy within SRE classes
- SRE in postmodern world
- SRE classes in government schools
- confessional religious education in Australia
- health and wellbeing in government schools
- religious values in Australian schools
- multiculturalism in Australia
- SRE's contribution to social cohesion
- teaching care and compassion in SRE
- historical background of SRE in Australia
About this book
While secularization has increased in both the national and international spheres, there has also been an increase infundamentalism within religious beliefs. Events such as the September 11 terror attacks and the more recent mass shootings by white supremacists and eco-fascists in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Pittsburgh and San Diego in the USA are reminders that religion is still a major actor in the twenty-first century. This poses new challenges for the relationship between church and state, and demonstrates the need to revisit the role of religious education within government schools. While the importance of GRE is generally acknowledged, SRE has increasingly come under attack by some researchers and teacher and parent bodies as being inappropriate and contradictory to the values of the postmodern world. On the other hand, the key stakeholders from all the faith traditions in Australia wish to retain the SRE classes in government schools. The book addresses this burning issue, and shows that it is relevant not only for Australia but also globally.
Authors and Affiliations
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School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Zehavit Gross
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Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Suzanne D. Rutland
About the authors
Suzanne D. Rutland (OAM, Ph.D.), Professor Emerita, the Department of Hebrew, Biblical & Jewish Studies, University of Sydney, is a renowned Australian Jewish historian. She has published widely on Australian Jewish history, edits the Sydney edition of the AJHS Journal, and has written on issues relating to the Shoah, Israel, Soviet Jewry and Jewish education. Her book, The Jews in Australia, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2005. In 2008—2009. Suzanne received a government grant from the Australian Prime Ministers Centre for research on ‘Australia and the campaign for Soviet Jewry’. The product of that research was published in 2015, co-written with Australian Jewish journalist, Sam Lipski, entitled Let My People Go: The Untold Story of Australia and Soviet Jews, 1959—1989 (Melbourne: Hybrid Publishers). It was the joint winner of the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award, Australian History Section. Her latest book is Lone Voice: The Wars ofIsi Leibler, published by Gefen Publishing House and she is currently working on a book dealing with Jewish communal advocacy since 1945. She is a member of the Australian expert delegation for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and is a member of its Education Working Group. In January 2008, she received the Medal of the Order of Australia from the Australian government for services to Higher Jewish Education and interfaith dialogue.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Special Religious Education in Australia and its Value to Contemporary Society
Authors: Zehavit Gross, Suzanne D. Rutland
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67969-9
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-67968-2Published: 23 February 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-67971-2Published: 24 February 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-67969-9Published: 22 February 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 276
Number of Illustrations: 19 b/w illustrations
Topics: Religion and Education, Educational Policy and Politics, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Religion, History of Religion