Although it is rarely given sufficient consideration in either scholarly or political debates, early childhood education plays a crucial role in the integration process of young immigrants in European countries, since it not only enables the children to be integrated into society, both linguistically and culturally, but it also provides their parents with the opportunity, through their children, to view the society more directly and to reflect on their own values in the encounter, or to potentially seek new orientations. The quality of young migrants’ educational achievements, which have repeatedly caused current political debates in European countries, should not be considered independently of the elementary education measures since they are very closely related. Prof. Dr. Ednan Aslan is Chair of Islamic Religious Education at the Institute for Islamic Theological Studies at the University of Vienna.
Understanding the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is of critical importance for the development of cultural literacy and plays a key role in societal coherence and inclusion. This international handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the place of religion in the societal educational arenas of the very youngest children across the globe. Drawing together contributions from leading international experts across disciplinary backgrounds, it offers a critical view of how to approach the complexities around the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care. Through its four parts, the book examines the theoretical, methodological, policy and practice perspectives and explores the complex intersections of transmission of "cultural heritage" and "national values" with the diverse, changing societal contexts. Each chapter contributes to an increased understanding of how the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care can be understood across continents, countries and educational systems. The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is an essential resource for academics, researchers, students and practitioners working in Early Childhood Education, Sociology of Childhood, Religious Education and other related fields
This book examines the methodological decisions made by researchers working in early childhood contexts. Viewed from a researcher’s perspective, each chapter explores the journey of the researcher, capturing their decision-making processes in early childhood research. Through themes such as the politics of ethics and how different cultural norms shape research in different localities, Decisions and Dilemmas of Research Methods in Early Childhood Education explores key questions such as: What are the ethical issues arising during early childhood research? Which research traditions and methodologies prevail and why? How are research subjects perceived and positioned within different research contexts? What interdisciplinary tensions or opportunities arise between different ways of working across early childhood research? The book critically unpacks how these decisions are made and by whom during the course of research. Each chapter includes reflections of researchers working across disciplines such as education, health and social work to understand the thinking, forces and actors that shape decisions made during the research process. This is essential reading for researchers working in early childhood contexts in fields such as social work, health, education, criminology, psychology and more.
This volume features chapters by international experts in education, sociology, and theology who consider a range of challenges faced by educators in primary and secondary schools that are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of the ethnic and religious backgrounds of pupils. From the non-religious, to the refugee, to student fundamentalism and even radicalization—these multiple, fresh approaches analyze the dynamics of the changing pedagogical landscape in an age of ever increasing globalization and cultural plurality. Today’s classrooms are often the most crucial spaces where children and adolescents encounter new cultural, religious, and other worldviews. Increasingly, teachers are called on to empower their pupils with the tools and competencies necessary to reflect on and process this plurality in ways that are productive for their intellectual growth and moral maturation. Regional case studies provide extensive data while offering insights into developments in school settings across Europe, in Turkey, and in the United States. In addition, a number of the contributions address the delivery, content, and policies of Islamic Religious Education in European contexts, the educational strategies employed in multi-religious societies, and interreligious dialogue in schools, whether intentional or spontaneous.
This book offers an accessible critique of recent Early Childhood Educational Research, taking an international perspective, and highlighting strengths and key focus areas within the field. It will also identify areas where researchers have yet to offer significant insights that support the development of theory, policy and practice.
Whether formally incorporated into curriculum and teacher training or informally integrated in contexts such as state or NGO initiatives dealing with resolving social, ethnic, and religious conflicts, peace education is increasingly recognized as a critical component in addressing violence in contemporary plural societies. Peace education can constructively undertake a reframing of historical narratives while inspiring practical community activities. An important, but insufficiently studied and theorized aspect of peace education is the role of religion. The challenge to peace education in today’s globalized, diverse, mobile, and religiously pluralistic world is to be able to take both complex global and distinctive local situations into account. The contributions to this integrative collection of essays provide exactly these local and global perspectives on the state of peace education and its relationship to religion across pedagogy and curriculum, state policies, and activism within societies on the front lines of resolving internal conflicts, whether historical or recent, that often reflect aspects of religious identities.
Designed to assist educators of young children in building awareness of their roles as members of a global community in an increasingly divided world, this essential guide is an illuminating resource which answers the question: "Is it possible to teach global citizenship in the first five years of life?" Global Citizenship Education for Young Children takes a close look at the practice of two preschools with vastly different histories, curricula and demographics and introduces readers to the range of possibilities that exist within early childhood global citizenship education. Snapshots of practice, strategies to employ and opportunities for self-reflection provide readers with concrete guidance for how to build learning environments that encourage global citizenship in the first years of life.
This volume seeks to understand the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life through the provision of social services, thereby legitimizing a new role for faith in the formerly secular public sphere. Specifically, we explore how a church in a postcommunist setting, during periods of economic growth and recession in the wake of transitions to capitalism, and with varied numbers of adherents, might contribute to welfare services in a new political regime with freedom of religion. Put another way, what new pressures would be placed on the secular welfare state if religious organizations (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, others) simply stopped offering their services? By examining public perceptions of the church, changing dynamics of religiosity, and church-state-civil society relations, the volume places these issues in context.
Framed in relation to diaspora this collection engages with the subject of how cultural difference is lived and how complex and shifting identities shape and respond to spatial politics of belonging. Diaspora is understood in a variety of ways, which makes this an eclectic collection of papers. Authors use various theoretical frameworks to explore diverse groups of people with a variety of experiences in a wide range of settings. They are making sense of the experiences of women and men from a range of ethnic backgrounds, negotiating identities through family, work and education. The micro dynamics of the everyday offer an evocative 'bottom up' means of understanding the tensions implicit in living multiple belongings. The common thread for the collection comes from the glimpses these authors provide into the remaking of our globalized world. The aim is to shed light on racism, dislocation and alienation on the one hand, and on the other hand, to consider how the complex power relations within the everyday mediate a sense of resistance and hope. The papers are arranged around four themes; 1. Multiple Belongings, 2. Representing a Way of Being, 3. Sexualised Identifications and 4. Marriage and Family.
Religious practices and their transformation are crucial elements of migrants' identities and are increasingly politicized by national governments in the light of perceived threats to national identity. As new immigrant flows shape religious pluralism in Europe, longstanding relations between the State and Church are challenged, together with majority-faith traditions and societies’ ways of representing and perceiving themselves. With attention to variations according to national setting, this volume explores the process of reformulating religious identities and practices amongst South Asian 'communities' in European contexts, Presenting a wide range of ethnographies, including studies of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Islam amongst migrant communities in contexts as diverse as Norway, Italy, the UK, France and Portugal, Migration and Religion in Europe sheds light on the meaning of religious practices to diasporic communities. It examines the manner in which such practices can be used by migrants and local societies to produce distance or proximity, as well as their political significance in various 'host' nations. Offering insights into the affirmation of national identities and cultures and the implications of this for governance and political discourse within Europe, this book will appeal to scholars with interests in anthropology, religion and society, migration, transnationalism and gender.
Early Childhood Education for Muslim Children foregrounds the marginalised perspective of Muslim children aged three to five and examines how they are cared for and educated in centre-based provision in two provinces in post-apartheid South Africa. Both theological and social science perspectives are carefully interwoven to make sense of the construction of service provision for Muslims as a minority group in a secular democracy. This book uses a qualitative, reflexive approach to amplify the voices of mothers, managers and teachers as the community of agents who shape priorities for young children in the context of a rapidly transforming society. The research demonstrates that the quest to establish an appropriate care network and a sound educative environment for Muslim children is riddled with complexities, struggles and tensions. In the light of changes in the home-based network for early education, centre-based provision has become an important infrastructure for Muslim communities seeking one-stop academic and Islamic education. The internal struggles encountered in this form of provision include inequities in access, struggles to package an appropriate curriculum, and dealing with nurturance specific to the faith and for cultural formations supportive of citizenship. This book calls for critical engagement with issues of religious education in early childhood, social cohesion, formal systematic teacher education for Muslim teachers, curriculum development and parental support. It will contribute not only to the development of early education from an Islamic perspective, but will also demonstrate how to expand discourses and practices to deal with diversity and faith development in early years. As such, it will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of early childhood education, religious studies, race and ethnic studies, and childhood studies
Speaking to an increasingly fluid world involving the migration of peoples and cultures, the global resilience of religion, and the role of schooling in fostering liberal democratic values, this book investigates the degree to which secular public schools might facilitate religious migrants’ societal integration. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach which draws from political philosophy, the philosophy of education, and the sociology of religion, Collet argues that public schools in liberal democratic states can best facilitate the pluralistic integration of religious migrant students through adopting policies of recognition and accommodation that are not only reasonable in the light of liberal democratic principles, but also informed in terms of what we understand regarding the natural role religion often plays in acculturation.