CURRICULAR AND TEXT BOOK WRITING PROCESSES IN SOUTH AFRICA AND NAMIBIA A RESPONSE TO THE PROPOSAL FOR STANDARDS IN INTERRELIGIOUS TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT Christo Lombard, University of the Western Cape Christo Lombard zeigt auf, welche Relevanz die Standards für interreligiöse Schulbuchforschung und entwicklung im Kontext von Südafrika und Namibia haben: Hier hat es nach dem Ende der Apartheid einen vollkommenen Paradigmenwechsel gegeben: fort von einer uniformen, vermeintlich christlichen, aber letztlich national-ideologisch-sektiererischen Betrachtungsweise der Religionen hin zu einer die Vielfalt der Religionen, Weltsichten und Kulturen berücksichtigenden Erziehung. Freilich sieht Lombard die Anliegen fundierten religiösen und interreligiösen Lernens viel eher im namibischen Konzept des Faches Religious and Moral Education/RME realisiert, in dem zusammenhängendes und aufbauendes Lernen praktiziert wird, als in dem Fach Life Orientation in Südafrika, in dem den Religionen nur stückweise und wenig integriert in das Gesamtkonzept erscheinen. Er weist auch besonders auf wichtige Kontextaufgaben neuer Schulbuchentwicklung hin: dass sich nicht nur Schulbuchautorinnen und autoren ernsthaft damit befassen, sondern dass es darüber hinaus Studieneinheiten und Übungsmöglichkeiten für Lehrkräfte im Umgang mit den Schulbüchern gibt - und dass auch die Eltern und die Öffentlichkeit angemessen informiert werden. Both Namibia and South Africa only recently (i.e. after 1990) moved beyond a pedagogical culture that was trapped in apartheid thinking, undergirded by an exclusivist form of Christian-nationalist ideology. The negative impact of such an approach to the teaching of religion at school far outweighed the few positives, such as the fact that at least religion, teacher training and text book production were somehow taken seriously. Ideological driven as it was, much effort and many resources were poured into the educational process - unfortunately for wrongs reasons and in wrong directions. The negatives of religious education within a Christian-national framework can make up a long and devastating list. Most important are probably negative factors such as the following: * Christianity itself was not portrayed in a balanced way, but only one dangerously heretical version of it, with hegemonic worldview claims, was promoted as a final solution to all issues and problems, which of course will always foster an uncritical culture of obedience, narrow vision and complacency. * Other religions did not feature at all, except as vehicles of error and untruths in caricature format. * The positive power of religion, and religions and their multi-cultural influence on diverse approaches to truth, contributing towards a global culture of tolerance and respect for the other, was ignored and cancelled out.
2 * The mutually supporting and supplementing ethical perspectives of the various religious traditions of the world were hindered from educationally contributing towards a global ethos resting on strong religious and moral convictions of millions, even billions, of people trying to live together on an endangered planet. * Various constitutional and human rights, such as freedom of religion and expression, were simply ignored, together with proper boundaries between church and state. [The list can go on and on]. Fortunately, because of the peace settlement in Namibia and, soon thereafter, the almost miraculous turn-around of events in South Africa, both these countries are now also on their own roads towards educational reform; roads on which multi-faith, learner-oriented, issues-based education all find their proper place in the mix. One of the priorities for such a new approach towards teaching religion, and religions, apart from a whole new vision regarding teacher training, is the production of proper teaching materials the focus of this Forum. Even though I cannot be present at the Forum, I have volunteered to send a short abstract with bullet points, as requested by Prof Lähnemann, reflecting on his 9 point proposal, and based on personal involvement in both the educational reform processes, in Namibia and South Africa. I shall simply give brief comments from both contexts under the appropriate headings. However, before doing this, it may be helpful to give a short background to the new curricula dealing with religion at school level in both contexts. In Namibia most of the issues now addressed by the Interreligious Textbook Research and Development Standards Project (the 9 points to be discussed), have been dealt with by a Curriculum Committee appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture, who wrote a multi-faith Religious and Moral Education curriculum (first for Grades 8-10, followed by a preparatory one for Grades 1-7), and also a curriculum for Religious Studies (for Grades 11 and 12, as part of the options for the six matriculation subjects to be done by learners). RME, as the former is called, is a compulsory subject in all public schools, and Religious Studies is an option for matric in schools who wish to offer it. The curricular process included workshopping materials for textbooks, first developed as teacher guides at the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), with input from teachers, learners, representatives of various faith traditions, academics and international educational advisors. Basic materials were made available to teachers who regularly attended intensive training sessions at NIED or in the various regions. The curricula, with detailed guidelines and suggestions on themes, learner-centred approaches, background requirements, expected learner outcomes, questions, tasks, etc., were also made available to publishers who had to submit draft textbooks to the Curriculum Committee for approval. The development of the curriculum would remain part of an ongoing pedagogical process in which experienced teachers share their expertise or examples of materials which worked well in praxis, and in which problems and queries from parents, religious leaders and civil society were addressed. [See Addendum A for the kind of considerations and guidelines that featured in this curriculum process many of these details are echoed in the concerns raised in the 9 points covering the proposed Standards fort textbook publication.]
3 In South Africa various models were propagated intensely by different stakeholders before the educational authorities decided for what can only be called a safe option, one in which the focus would fall mostly on value education and civil education, with the view of producing responsible citizens. The solution to the question how to deal with religion in education was found in the new compulsory subject Life Orientation, in which dashes of religion were mixed in with life skills covering a wide range. It is quite easy to illustrate that the Namibian RME provides a much more satisfactory framework for fostering real inter-faith understanding and respect, while addressing educational and value issues of concern for each phase of the maturing learner. The optional matriculation subject in South Africa is called Religion Studies and is based on a typical phenomenological and comparative approach to major world religions. In this instance one could wonder whether such an approach with little emphasis on ethics and value issues can draw students interest and can provide the tools for thick discourse on the real issues in society. Indeed, very few schools have opted to present the subject. The curricular process is now left to the various Provinces and in most cases the curriculum functions as a very broad guideline for publishers to step in with imaginative approaches and materials. Of course, allowing such competition in a free market does provide interesting materials, but the process has very few standards built in that can guarantee the points raised in the Lähnemann proposal. It provides neither for a clash of civilizations, nor for a dialogue. This is because religion is not taken seriously enough in its own right. One can thus say that the Namibian process provides a dialogue partner that has gone through a similar process of searching for agreed upon standards, while the South African process, being still very open and tentative, can benefit greatly from participating in such a conversation about how to ensure fair representation. 1. Portraying the religions in an authentic, professional sound way Everything else in religious education rests on this premise: that all learners feel comfortable with how their own religions are portrayed. This can be ensured by using a team of experts who thrash out sensitive issues within the ongoing curricular process. In the Namibian curricula emphasis is also on teacher training to ensure that the teacher acts as a good referee in class when discussion is allowed and learner input on the topic of the day is welcomed. The fact that the content of the curriculum in RME (Religious and Moral Education) is focussed on relevant issues for personal development at the appropriate stage of the learner s development, broken down into personal, inter-personal, national and even inter-national issues, ensures participation of learners, and they are encouraged to speak on issues from their own backgrounds and perspectives. This approach leads to thick ethical discourse in which the insider perspective can switch around, so that the understanding of self and the understanding of other is dialectically related: frequently you are encouraged, in the discussion, to place yourself in the situation, in the framework of thinking, of the other, and vice versa. A serious presupposition in this kind of teaching is that we are all searchers for truth and that no one carries the truth in a little bag. The spirit is one of listening to understand, and speaking to convey better understanding. There is almost an unsigned contract in class, stipulating that we are all friends trying to find our way on a threatened planet. By focusing on ethical issues and developmental challenges (Kohlberg, Fowler) a good mix is ensured of interreligious topics and topics that are truly relevant to learners. They
4 come to see the link between quite specific religious perspectives and ethical and other guidelines for living coming out of these. At primary school level (grades 1-7) the RME syllabus in Namibia encourages learners to speak from their own experience about the calendars of their religions, festivals, basic rituals, and they are encouraged to listen, to share, to understand motives, differences and details. To access professionally sound sources in providing material for class consumption is absolutely crucial for the textbook production process. A team of experts, selected for their knowledge and evenhanded approach, working towards clear non-missionary goals, seems to be a sina qua non to address the issue of authentic portrayal of religions in class. It may also help if it is clarified, educationally, that moral education is interwoven in all subjetcs, at least in the humanities and social sciences, so that there are no garstige Graben between religion, morality, history, geography, etc. This is one of the major problems with the Life Orientation programme implemented in South Africa: while it aims at integrating these various aspects educationally, it fails to make any professional presentation of the religious aspects, and therefore leaves moral aspects to probably the ramblings of the teacher. Indeed, here one needs a very clear overall didactic plan, quite aware of the educational goals at each school year level. 2. Developing a dialogue orientated interpretation of religion and belief The approach as suggested in the guidelines can only be heartily confirmed: popular images of religions need to be broken through, based on clear theological exposition, and based on wellselected texts. In teaching the Moral Codes of the World s Religions at first year level, at the University of the Western Cape, it was found that students develop a proper respect and listening attitude when various key texts from different religions are simply listened to within a framework where appropriate background is given and the distance between them and us is bridged, by emphasising the intention and the real life effect of the texts in the lives of those believing those texts. This is simply confirming Karl-Joseph Kuschel s point about interconnection in stead of separation, confrontation of easy harmonisation. In both Namibia and South Africa such a respectful approach is followed in the matriculation subject Religious Studies/ Religion Studies. The problem is that the approach is far too cautious and distanced, too phenomenological and comparative, resulting in a lack of interest, since learners may feel that they are not dealing with the real religion, that the focus is on comparison/ difference and that real life issues do not get adequate attention. There is simply too little theology, too little real life. Real dialogue in class, based on deep theological dialogue behind the curriculum seems to be the only cure. 3. Portraying the religions and their importance in the lives of real people The rationale for the Namibian RME syllabus for grades 8-10 underlines this point very clearly (I quote from a sub-section that deals with religion as part of real life ): Religious and Moral Education, by focussing on crucial areas of life itself and on the search for common approaches to life and shared values, could foster wholesome and holistic strategies for dealing with reality, conflict and crises in Namibia. The secular, but simultaneously African, setting of Namibian education means that the subject can not be used for purposes of conversion, but it also means that moral education can still be religious and life-related, as in the African traditional
5 heritage as well as the Judaic-Christian heritage, where religious beliefs, morals and everyday living are entwined. By defining values and morals in the African way as skills for life, as practical ethical ways of behaviour, Religious and Moral Education can promote constructive and productive attitudes for dealing with life issues. The focus in RME will therefore be on different experiences and processes in life. Life experience becomes the focal point of all religious and moral reflections. In this subject religion will not be studied as a body of doctrinal truths, but as what people believe about the purposes of their lives, and how they decide what they should do. At least then, in principle, the RME approach is in line with the Standard proposed: that the sociological setting of a religion be illustrated through vivid, concrete examples of real, average, preferably young people, and that the rigid formal schemes of many text book approaches be penetrated with real life examples, and participation by the learners themselves, providing their own examples and illustrations. 4. Conveying a differentiated view of history Teaching religion in an African context presents special challenges in this regard. On the one hand, the harsh histories of conflict, for instance, between Christianity and Islam (Crusades, the Turks in Europe), are not as decisive in our context. Also, after independence various groups have become much more prominent and visible in our globalising contexts (Muslims, Baha is, Hindus, Buddhists in Namibia!), which presents for the first time a much more natural openness to various religious perspectives, also educationally. However, we have to fight old and fixed ideas about the Christian West as an agent of colonisation, and even about the evils of the apartheid empire. Of course, both these Christian experiments do need serious correction, but without the missionaries, their efforts, sacrifices and enormous contributions (Bible translation, skills development, schools, hospitals, gardening) a new emerging African Christianity would not have been possible. Also, the apartheid state can now be studied in proper historical perspective as part of a threatened people s reaction to their own experience of oppression under (the British) empire. Taking care of these contested and controversial historical aspects is part of the challenge of reconciliation. In this respect the view of the Dutch theologian A. A. van Ruler, that Christian theology needs a properly developed philosophy of history, and that history may simply be defined as the ongoing syntax of guilt and atonement, presents an interesting perspective for the dialogue between religions on history. To take care of these concerns it is of the highest importance that the historical presentation of religions be done in cooperation with experts from all religions who show a desire to not only accentuate conflict but also cross-fertilisation of the historical encounters of religious traditions. In this regard the South African situation, after the experience of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which an attempt at dealing with the shadows side of South African history was made, and in which reconciliation, truth and justice became the focus of attention, is more conducive to this kind of historical openness required for innovative curricular development than the Namibian one. In Namibia, the SWAPO government simply swept the atrocities of the past under the carpet of history, claiming that reconciliation is now embodied in the new Constitution, and that the nation simply has to move on, forgiving and forgetting. 5. Taking account of the cultural heritage and contextuality of the religious communities This is surely a very important point. Also in Southern Africa textbooks rarely reflect, in pictures, examples, illustrations, the cultural riches of minority groups. Even though much is spoken about the wonders of Ubuntu, emphasising our common humanness ( I am a person through other persons,
6 through community ), very little work of substance is done to uncover the origins, the history, the details of this all-pervading attitude vis-à-vis life. Idealisation and romantisation are also not very effective means of accounting for cultural heritage and contextuality! In the Namibian curricular process various assignments ask learners to bring to the class examples of cultural and religious heritage that could be taken up in future text books. It is important, as suggested in the standards given on this point, that religion not be reduced to ideas or even rituals, but that its effect on material culture be properly taken into consideration. 6. Dealing openly with topical issues of mission, tolerance and interreligious dialogue It is of the highest importance that truly ecumenical approaches, based on Samartha s idea of respectful Interfaith Dialogue, emphasising tolerance, based on respect and understanding, and a rejection of proselytising, be reflected in text books, to show how old paradigms have been overtaken. The examples mentioned in Standard Nr 6 are very relevant: the Chambésy Statement of 1977 underlining the fact that non-proselytisation does not mean not living according to one s deepest convictions; the Parliament of the World s Religions Declaration Towards a Global Ethic (1993) and the impact internationally of Religions for Peace. In the Namibian curricular work special emphasis is given to the fact that religions, different as they may be on points of creed, cult, community or culture, are in fact much closer on the issue of moral codes. This is the important insight behind the work of Hans Küng and others. More recently it has also been emphasised that religions may share a deeper level of reality approach, in spite of their differences: the reality of faithing, of looking at the world with the eyes of faith, trusting a Higher Power, showing reverence to aspects of life that elicit awe. In our own curriculum work it was important to emphasise that respect, resting on true understanding of the other, goes much deeper than mere tolerance, even though tolerance as such should not be sneered at. 7. Finding common ground in ethics It is important that text books give ample attention to the presence of the Golden Rule, the rule of reciprocity ( Love your neighbour as yourself, Do unto others as you would like them to do to you, or the negative form thereof: Do not do unto others.. ) in all world religions. Time and again, I am surprised to see how students react when they are confronted with this overwhelming evidence. When one takes the idea of legal codes back to Hammurabi and then move beyond Moses, another striking fact is discovered: the idea of moral codes with ten commandments, or eight guidelines, or five precepts, together with the further discovery: the enormous similarity in content. The Küng project, anchoring a global ethic in the Mosaic law, could strengthen its point by using more such examples to really show the universal agreement on the basic moral codes of humanity and of all religions. Of course, on the application of these standards, especially in the intricate field of human sexuality, we must honestly agree that there are still almost insurmountable differences. Spiritual leaders such as emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu are correct in challenging the world s religions to think deliberately and deeply about these remaining differences. 8. The life conditions of the students and their relevance for religious learning - and 9. Portraying religions vividly and age-appropriately In the RME curriculum process in Namibia this aspects has been taken into consideration very deliberately. It is easy to speak about learner-oriented education but what does that entail? How
7 does one ensure that the learners of a particular age group, culture, period in history, are heard before they are spoken to? We have taken into account various educational factors: the fact that life-related themes are in many instances a much better entry into the world of the developing child, teenager, adult; the fact that various learning styles are preferred by various learners (reading, writing, summarising, drawing, acting, music, projects, activities, games, quizes, etc.); the fact that a mix of cognitive, affective and practical approaches are always better than any one-sided approach; the fact that case studies (looking at specific examples, role models, negative influences, positive initiatives) and group work can be combined fruitfully, also promoting group spirit and bringing out the principle of gifts towards building up the body ; the stimulation of questions, curiosity, imagination, showing that the learners are not underestimated but challenged as to their own initiatives, usually bear good fruits. Curricula should be open-ended, in the sense of leaving open spaces for the teacher and the learners to fill gaps which they define, or to take highways and byways in the field of religion, as appropriate in their own context. 10. Some random points that could help to promote the aims of the standards - and an open question Broad goals/curriculum objectives: It seems to be important that any text book should also inform the parents, the learners, the community at large, about its specific goals and objectives, and that these be spelled out in terms of expectations and responsibilities, e.g. vis-a-cis the state, the individual learner, the parents and the community, religious communities, public life, religious texts, values and skills, issues and ideas (as was done in the Namibian curriculum, see pp. 2-3) Learning objectives: Similarly, learning objectives should be made clear, e.g. knowledge/understanding; analysis, synthesis, evaluation, personal-social skills; psycho-motor skills; pre-vocational skills; attitudes (RME curriculum, pp. 3-4) Text book and teacher: How is a proper relationship established between teacher and text book? Is there an ongoing process in place, ensuring that teachers get ongoing training and that they can give feedback on what works and what not in certain contexts? Text book and community: Similarly: How does the community at large gain access to interact with the text book process? The religions? The religious experts? The question about world religions : Prof Gerrie ter Haar, who has been working on the many and fast-growing community churches, especially in Africa, but also in the Diaspora, has pointed out that the concept of world religions is becoming outdated and controversial. Christianity is developing many new forms not to be captured under world religion headings. If we add together all the community churches world-wide (with many similarities in how they go about their business in a very undoctrinal way, with an emphasis on being a self-help community), they may become the world s largest religion! How do we deal with new religions and new versions of old religions in text book format?
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