ABSTRACT

Christian religious belief systems may influence higher education teaching and learning. We investigated how this manifests in relation to critical citizenship education at the Department of Visual Arts of Stellenbosch University. During the facilitation of a Visual Communication Design course, which included community interaction (CI), students often referred to their Christian religious beliefs even though the design of this critical citizenship course was not based on any specific religion. Within CI, ‘helping behaviour’ and ‘charity’ were common. We draw on theoretical perspectives of critical citizenship education, the impact of belief systems, and the psychology behind ‘helping behaviour’ to examine the comments made by students about their Christian religious beliefs and community interaction. We consider the history of Christianity and the role it played in apartheid and ask how ‘helping behaviour’ and Christian privilege should be addressed in critical citizenship education in South African higher education institutions.

摘要

基督教宗教信仰体系可能会影响高等教育的教学和学习。我们调查了这在斯泰伦博斯大学视觉艺术系批判公民教育中的表现。在包括社区互动 (CI) 在内的视觉传达设计课程的促进过程中，学生们经常提到他们的基督教宗教信仰，即使这门重要的公民课程的设计并非基于任何特定的宗教。在 CI 中，“帮助行为”和“慈善”很常见。我们利用批判性公民教育的理论观点、信仰体系的影响以及“帮助行为”背后的心理学来检查学生对他们的基督教宗教信仰和社区互动的评论。