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Interreligious learning and teaching: unfolding layers of meaning in lived experience to inform possibilities for students in Catholic schools

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Abstract

This paper explores the question, “What is the individual’s experience of interreligious learning and teaching?” It utilises hermeneutic phenomenology to interpret the rich and hidden meanings of lived experiences. van Manen’s (Phenomenology of practice: meaning-giving methods in phenomenological research and writing. Routledge, New York, 2014) lifeworld existentials provide a frame for guiding the exploration to uncover insights through lived relation (relationality), lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality) and lived things (materiality). Current global events have highlighted to the world the tragedy of religious intolerance in extreme forms and the need to cultivate tolerance and sensitivities towards religions and non-religious philosophies and diverse life perspectives. Investigating the phenomena of ‘interreligious learning and teaching’ as it is lived by individuals, offers insight into what could be one’s own or another’s lived experience, and how this might influence one’s religious identity. Such understandings can provide a foundation for seeking out and engaging students in valuable interreligious learning and teaching experiences and pose opportunities or challenges for primary and secondary school contexts to rigorously grapple with the diverse global reality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catholic Education Services, Cairns, QLD, Australia

    Toni Foley

  2. James Cook University (Learning, Teaching and Student Engagement), Cairns, QLD, Australia

    Maree Dinan-Thompson

  3. James Cook University (Psychology/College of Healthcare Sciences), Cairns, QLD, Australia

    Nerina Caltabiano

Authors
  1. Toni Foley
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  2. Maree Dinan-Thompson
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  3. Nerina Caltabiano
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Toni Foley. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Toni Foley and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Toni Foley.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the Ethical Standards of James Cook University, Human Research Ethics Committee, ID H7849.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Foley, T., Dinan-Thompson, M. & Caltabiano, N. Interreligious learning and teaching: unfolding layers of meaning in lived experience to inform possibilities for students in Catholic schools. j. relig. educ. 68, 141–160 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-020-00099-2

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