1. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Gender and theology. Issues within Education for Global Citizenship. EFTRE conference. Religions and Relationships. Dealing with Diversity. Maria Jansdotter Samuelsson, Karlstad University Malmö, August 21-24 2013.

2. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Swedish curriculum, Religious Education. General aims. (year 10-12) “ Teaching should also give students the opportunity to analyse and assess how religion can relate, amongst other things, to ethnicity, gender, sexuality and socio-economic background. “ Teaching should give students the opportunity to analyse texts and concepts, critically examine sources, discuss and argue. c) Teaching should give students the opportunity to develop the ability to analyse religions and outlooks on life based on different interpretations and perspectives.

3. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Prescribed content, Religion 1 (basic course) Teaching in the course should cover the following core content: Christianity, the other world religions and different outlooks on life, their characteristics and how they are expressed by individuals and groups in the present, in Sweden and the world. Different views of human beings and God within and between religions. Religion in relation to gender, socio-economic background, ethnicity and sexuality

4. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Global citizenship – education. ”Global citizenship-education”, ”educating citizens for global awareness”…. Importance of global well-being Economic equality, environmental sustainability, human rights, cultural diversity…. ”Controversial issues”

5. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Religious literacy and global citizenship Religion needs to be taken into the field of global citizenship- education (Robert Nash) Global citizens need to be religious literate to understand the impact of religion in global and multicultural society. Religion as a plastic and living phenomenon..

6. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Religious blindness – a certain challenge for education in secular Europe…. Religion unvisible in public society… Religion = private, exotic, moralist, static, nonnegotiable… Unability to understand the importance of interpretation… Patriarchal/androcentric interpretations might be contradictory to gender-equality and women’s civil rights, not religion per se….. Unability to understand the gender-emancipatory potential of religion, historically as well as now….

7. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Religious blindness…. Risk of reinforcing either negative or naive, uncritical attitudes to religion and religious groups…

8. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Teaching religious literacy… Teachers must be aware of alternative, gender-aware interpretations of God and human beings(not only Christian…) Patriarchal norms of sexuality is challenged Also postcolonial and ecological (ecofeminist) interpretations…

9. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Bring feminist interpretations into the discussion… “…female dehumanization occurs and is often rewarded through the male near monopoly of determining the meaning of the divine,…., and for determining applications, uses and abuses of Islam…” Amina Wadud (Muslim feminist theologian, US) “Ijtihad is the Islamic tradition of critical thinking and independent reasoning. Now we have to re-discover it precisely to update Islam for the 21st century. The opportunity to update is especially available to Muslims in the West, because it's here that we enjoy precious freedoms to think, express, challenge and be challenged without fear of state reprisal. In that sense, the Islamic reformation has to begin in the West. I propose a non-military campaign to promote individual approaches to Islam, to re-discover our traditional critical thinking.” Irshad Manji (Muslim feminist, Canada)

10. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Bringing feminist interpretations… “ Feminist theologies arise from the lives of all women and are aimed at expanding those lives through justice- seeking and right relation, …” Marcella Althaus-Reid & Lisa Isherwood. (Feminist theologians, Argentina/UK)

11. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Classroom and ”controversial issues” Religious education- should prepare students to engage with ”controversial issues” related to cultural diversity… Discussing ”controversial issues” also help to develop general skills important for a responsible global citizen… -critical and analytical thinking -respecting the opinion of others -participate actively in debates -make reasoned judgepoints

12. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Guidelines for a respectful discussion on controversial issues in classroom… Discourse ethics (Seyla Benhabib) A) Universal moral respect (everyone’s right to take part of a public moral discussion, and to be respected) B) Egalitarian reciprocity (everyone should be given the same right to initiate a theme and to claim equal options or arrangements for the discussion)

13. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum ”Controversial issues” in media.. Swedish examples.. Group of male muslim students required special arrangements in classroom, to avoid looking at female students. (Östersund, Sweden, 2010) A dance-performance was postponed because of the inclusion of Quran-citations parallell to female dancers performing a street- dance programme. (Stockholm, Sweden, April 2012) The feminist activist network ”FEMEN” made a bare-breasted protest-action against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. (Stockholm Sweden, July 2013) The ”hijab-uprising”. Female politicians and other put on hijabs for a day as a protest against hate-crimes done to muslim women. (Sweden, August 2013)

14. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Questions to bring into the discussion on ”controversial issues”.. What different opinions are there to be find in the debate? What are/could the arguments for or against/be? Are there any valid opinions or arguments that should have been included in the debate? Which? Why? Why are they absent?

15. KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET Fakultet | Namn | Datum Discussion What are your experience of bringing issues of religious multiplicity and gender-awareness into classroom? Possibilities? Obstacles? Good practices? What about student’s awareness of the plasticity of religion and the multiplicity of interpretations? Are there any recent ”controversial issues” related to religion within the public debate in your country? What arguments, opinions for or against were there? Solutions?