ABSTRACT

In this article, I reflect on my attempts to decolonise religious education at a historically white university in a post-apartheid South Africa. This pre-service education project conducted in 2017 happened against the backdrop of two events, namely, a renewed curriculum policy, Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) and the #RhodesMustFall (RMF) and #FeesMustFall (FMF) protests. These events encouraged me to reflect on my academic role as a teacher-educator preparing pre-service teachers to teach religion in schools. This led to me asking many questions such as, what is the effect of my teaching religious education?, How do teacher-educators prepare religious education pre-service teachers for a multicultural and multireligious society?, How does my teaching align itself with the decolonisation of education? and How do I redress the colonial past in my religious education classroom? The data which included reflective reports, student experiences and self-reflexivity acknowledged the findings that religion education served as a unifying factor in building social cohesion. The significance of this paper lies in the argument that decolonisation becomes an imperative if one is striving for social justice and intends to commit oneself to a more equitable society where crossing borders must be a seamless act.

摘要

在本文中，我回顾了我在种族隔离后的南非的一所历史悠久的白人大学中对宗教教育进行非殖民化的尝试。这项2017年开展的职前教育项目发生在两次事件的背景下，即更新的课程政策，课程评估政策声明（CAPS）和#RhodesMustFall（RMF）和#FeesMustFall（FMF）抗议活动。这些事件鼓励我反思自己作为一名教师教育者的学术角色，准备在职教师在学校里教授宗教信仰。这导致我提出了许多问题，例如，我的宗教教育教学有什么作用？，教师教育者如何为多元文化和多宗教社会的宗教教育职前教师做好准备？，我的教学如何与教育的非殖民化相适应？以及如何在我的宗教教育教室里纠正殖民时代的过去？包括反思性报告，学生经历和自我反省的数据认可了以下发现：宗教教育是建立社会凝聚力的统一因素。本文的意义在于这样一个论点，即非殖民化成为当务之急，如果人们追求社会正义，并打算致力于建立一个更加公平的社会，在这个社会中，跨界必须是一种无缝的行为。