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Interlocutors, Human Rights Education and Interreligious Dialogue: A South African Perspective

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Human Rights and Religion in Educational Contexts

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights ((CHREN,volume 1))

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Abstract

Reflecting on interreligious education and human rights education in South Africa is complex. The different paradigms underpinning religious education in school environments embody deep philosophical differences. In this chapter an overview regarding interreligious dialogue and human rights educations is given within a social-cultural paradigm. This paradigm will be used to describe the propensity that interreligious and human rights education have to support interreligious dialogue. The position and knowledge construct of teachers as interlocutors remain a crucial part for any successful process in interreligious dialogue. However, if interlocutors do not internalize the knowledge constructs and values of human rights, they are bound to lack a crucial part needed for facilitating dialogue. An international project on, Human rights literacy: the quest for meaning (2012–2016) explored this phenomenon involving pre-service student teachers in 2013 and in 2015 including students in social sciences and law. This chapter will reflect on an analysis of the first phase of the project (2012–2014) on issues relating to interreligious dialogue and human rights education.

Originally partly published as “I am not the biggest fan of Human Rights, because of my Religion.” Human rights education and interreligious dialogue: A perspective from South Africa, in: M. L. Pirner, J. Lähnemann, H. Bielefeldt (Hrsg.) Menschenrechte und inter-religiöse Bildung, EB-Verlag Dr. Brandt e.K., Berlin 2015.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In August 2014 a group of parents called the Organization for Religion Education and Democracy (OGOD) took a few public schools to court because of imposing a Christian ethos on learners of non-Christian or non-religious worldviews and in which the parents have to obey the school’s ethos. The outcome of this court case was still in process when this paper was finalized.

  2. 2.

    Christian National Education is seen as mainly politicized and introduced by the Apartheid government after 1948. There are many different viewpoints on the implementation, history and legacy of this education policy.

  3. 3.

    (15) Freedom of Religion, Belief and Opinion—Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.

  4. 4.

    Male circumcision and ukutwala are religious and cultural customs in some ethnic and cultural groups in South Africa and there is an increase of younger people attending these initiation schools and girls being submitted to, for example, virginity testing that can be regarded as violating the child’s human rights. This debate is an ongoing issue in South Africa.

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Acknowledgments

This work is based on a research project supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. The grant holder acknowledges that opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in any publication generated by the NRF-supported research are those of the author(s), and that the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Cornelia Roux

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  1. Cornelia Roux
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Correspondence to Cornelia Roux .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Religious Education, Friedrich-Alexander-Univ Erlangen-Nürnb, Nürnberg, Germany

    Manfred L. Pirner

  2. Religious Education, Friedrich-Alexander-University, Nürnberg, Germany

    Johannes Lähnemann

  3. Lehrstuhl für Menschenrechte und Menschenrechtspolitik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universtiy Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nürnberg, Germany

    Heiner Bielefeldt

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Roux, C. (2016). Interlocutors, Human Rights Education and Interreligious Dialogue: A South African Perspective. In: Pirner, M., Lähnemann, J., Bielefeldt, H. (eds) Human Rights and Religion in Educational Contexts. Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39351-3_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39351-3_25

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