Contribution of Confessional Religious Education to Intercultural Education in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

For a long time, the religious dimension was neglected within the framework of intercultural education, but during the last two decades, it has become its indispensable part. The inclusion of the religious dimension in intercultural education was triggered by the growing awareness of the importance of the religious dimension for the political, social, cultural and educational future of Europe and the development of the culture of coexistance. The need to further deepen knowledge of the religious phenomenon and to implement interreligious education and dialogue is becoming increasingly obvious. The fundamental school subject that systematically mediates religious knowledge in the Croatian education system is confessional Religious Education. The goal of this research is to analyse, present and evaluate the elements that indicate the openness of the confessional Religious Education curriculum to education for interculturality. The research results are based on a comparative analysis of Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic Religious Education curricula. The subject of the analysis were the following curriculum categories: domains, purpose, goals and outcomes. Although all three curricula show openness to the religious dimension of intercultural education, when it comes to the level of specific curriculum content, there is a noticeable difference in the percentage of outcomes and topics related to knowledge of other religions and the promotion of interreligious learning and dialogue.

Keywords

• Islamic Religious Education
• Catholic Religious Education
• curriculum of confessional Religious Education
• Orthodox Religious Education
• the religious dimension of intercultural education