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Journal Code: TETH

Article No: TETH12300
Page Extent: 5

Proofreader: Mony
Delivery date: 14 May 2015

IN OTHER CLASSROOMS

Special Section on Signature Pedagogies in

Comparative Perspective
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Teaching Religion in Brazil, in Public Schools and

Confessional Colleges

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Eduardo R. Cruz and Afonso L. Soares, Pontifical Catholic University

of So Paulo, Brazil

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Abstract. This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors
around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional
religious training). They are published together with an introduction in Teaching
Theology and Religion 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief
overview of the curriculum, student learning goals, and pedagogical techniques
employed in their courses.

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This short essay describes two personal experiences in a huge country with diverse situations, in a context that is broadly Western and European (Iberian). The first half (by
Afonso Soares) describes Religious Education (RE) in public schools, in a religiously
diverse (but overwhelmingly Christian) country with separation between church and
state. The second part, by Eduardo Cruz, describes RE in the context of a confessional
(albeit largely secularized) university. Our accounts are quite different because of the
differences in the contexts we describe: one describes the curriculum for public schools
that are open to some form of religious education, and the other describes mandatory
courses in confessional universities. Classroom activities, assignments, curriculum, and
approaches to teaching are quite different at this kind of university compared to public
high schools, and they vary from place to place. Classes in high school last only an
hour, whereas college classes are typically two to three hours long. What distinguishes
college-level work is more demanding activities, such as seminars prepared by groups of
students.

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Religious Education in Elementary and High Schools

The discipline of Religious Education (RE) is the result of the didactic transposition of
knowledge produced in the Sciences of Religion (ScR) for classes in elementary and
secondary public education. Unfortunately, there is not wide agreement between the
various sectors involved with the subject (education professionals, religious leaders,
political officials, and spokespersons for public opinion) about how the kind of knowledge acquired by religious experience of humankind should be related to the pedagogical methods that introduce it to young citizens in the school system. The difficulty is
indeed epistemological but also carries considerable political weight. There has long
been tension between ensuring the legitimate access of students to RE (on behalf of the
principle of religious freedom) and preserving the secular state (which cannot compromise with one or another religious denomination).

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Teaching Theology & Religion, Volume 18, Issue 3, July 2015

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In Other Classrooms
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In the 1930s Brazils secular state switched from refusing to allow any form of RE in
public schools to advocating that every family has the right to demand adequate religious formation in the public school system for their children on behalf of freedom of
worship. The problem has been to find a model that overcomes REs confessional
impasse (where each religious denomination wants to indoctrinate its own students). If
this were resolved it would benefit the learners themselves greatly, because they would
have access to a sensitive, though independent, presentation of the findings of the
studies of religion.
Brazilian law Article 33 of Law No. 9475 of July 22,1997 states that registration
for RE is optional, but it is an integral part of the basic training of the citizen. It also
constitutes a discipline in normal hours of public schools up to eighth grade, and it
secures respect for religious diversity in Brazil, prohibiting all forms of proselytism.
Therefore, RE in public education must be non-confessional. In reality, however, several
different theoretical and methodological models for RE continue to exist in different
public school contexts, each generating different content and postures (both political and
didactic) in teaching-learning situations.
In Brazil there are at least three embodiments of RE: the catechetical-doctrinal, the
theological-ecumenical, and the ScR-related.

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The Catechetical model is the oldest, it is related to contexts in which religion

enjoyed hegemony in society, and it still survives in current practice many continue betting on this hegemony, using, in turn, modern methods. It is followed by
the theological model, which is built in an effort to dialogue with secular and
plural society and on anthropological bases. The latest model is located within
ScR and provides theoretical and methodological references for the study and
teaching of religion as an autonomous discipline fully inserted into school curricula. It is aimed at opening the way for a more critical RE, laying its foundations
and requirements in the scientific universe within the commonplace of other disciplines taught in schools. (Passos 2007, 54)

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The catechetical and theological models (defended by the leadership of the Catholic
Church) develop from the idea that the citizen has the right to obtain, with the support
of the state, a religious education consistent with the faith that the Church confesses. In
contrast, the ScR model, develops from the idea that , religion is a social and cultural
phenomenon subject to personal cultivation and therefore argues that knowledge of
religion is part of the general education and contributes to the complete formation of the
citizen, and should thus be the responsibility of school systems and subject to the same
requirements of other areas of knowledge that make up the school curricula (Passos
2007, 65)
Obviously, the ScR approach does not ensure abstract neutrality. Educating someone
means imparting knowledge and values. Thus the ScR approach is not the same as those
who would advocate some sort of generalized religion.
Proponents of ScR as the epistemological basis for RE see it as the best way to
answer the theoretical, social, political, and pedagogical challenges to the study of religion for the formation of citizens, in order to reduce confusion between religiousoriented education and education for citizenship (Soares 2010). With proper training,
ScR teachers can foster citizenship and humanization among the pupils, through knowledge of religion and values preserved by religious traditions.

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Brazil
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How Is Knowledge about Religion Handled in Classrooms?

There is no simple answer to how teachers design courses and teach about religion in
the RE classroom. The rules are not clear. Different states in Brazil have different RE
curricula. Nevertheless, among the followers of all three models of RE, there is a consensus that the best way to engage students is the existential approach.
Assignments and activities typically used to facilitate this kind of learning in our students vary. At first, and generally speaking, teachers encourage students to share their
personal experiences with their classmates (their life story, the context where they live,
their culture, religious practice). The activities may vary depending on the age of the
children and the maturity of the class. The teacher can ask an open question, such as:
Tell us about your life, your family, and your neighborhood. Or the teacher can assign
an individual activity: Write an essay about how you became who you are today?.
This type of activity generates a lot of discussion and exchange of information and perceptions in the classroom. The teacher must carefully identify situations of conflict,
racism, or prejudice and, little by little, can suggest other possible views to students,
showing that we can evaluate cultures, religions, and situations differently, insofar as we
allow ourselves to change.
Another productive activity is to ask students to speak, write, draw, or act out things
that exist in the world (good or bad). Then they do the same with things, feelings, or
values that they wish existed (or so they think). Sharing results gives way to discussing
topics such as faith, values, cultures, rituals, religion, God/gods, and the spiritual world.
When it comes time to study religious rituals, it is always helpful to begin the discussion with actual experiences from the students own family and school life. Students are
encouraged to see the presence of rites at various stages of their lives, whether they are
explicitly religious or not (examples include singing the national anthem, flag raising,
graduation ceremonies, girls debutante balls, inaugurations of banks and public buildings, and so forth). From this starting point, the teacher extends the discussion to the
importance of rituals in our daily lives. Ritual creates meaning that is beyond scientific
models (and so it of course should not be excluded from human knowledge). The students personal experiences relationships that the teacher can build between social
reality and the different religious experiences present among pupils.

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Religious Education in the University Setting

Our university, Pontifical Catholic University of So Paulo (PUC-SP), is a typical large
confessional university of some fifteen thousand undergraduate students with diverse
religious and spiritual backgrounds. Most students are somewhat indifferent to religion
as a subject of discussion, and are wary of religious norms and doctrine. The discipline
of religious culture (in the case of PUC-SP, Introduction to Theological Thought) is
aimed at freshmen, but (freshmen twice?). They arrive with some curiosity about this
kind of course, not knowing what to expect, even though many of them initially assume
that it will be little more than confessional religious instruction.
One major hurdle has little to do with religion itself. For many reasons (too many to
discuss here), most students can only attend university part-time. This is especially true
of private universities. Therefore, even when students are actually interested in this
introductory course in religion, they often do not have much opportunity to study
outside of class.
That said, we approach this situation as a challenge, not an obstacle. Our approach
draws on some forty years of shared experience, as well as several research projects

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developed in our graduate program in Religious Studies. Rather than teaching religion,
our basic goal is to evoke students own religious sensibilities and experiences, insofar
as they are relevant to the academic context. The first step is to offer epistemological
grounding for the claim that both scientific and religious knowledge stem from common
cognitive mechanisms that fulfill basic human needs. We discuss criteria for the recognition of religion in our society, contemporary trends, and the importance of studying
them. We also show how scholars from different areas approach religion, and how religion is implicit in many academic undertakings and in society at large.
Rather than resorting to a textbook, we provide students with a number of short texts
(in many cases, contemporary materials from newspapers and the internet), PowerPoint
presentations, videos, and movies, stimulating small group or classwide discussion.
Second, we present theology as an academic discipline in search of
interdisciplinarity, in the context of any university, not just confessional ones. We
examine what theology has to learn from the natural and human sciences, and what it
offers to them. What does it mean to say that theology concerns the same reality as the
other sciences, sub specie aeternitatis? Finally, we proceed to the ethical realm: what
are the main ethical concerns in students own milieux? How do academic disciplines
deal with them? What is the specific contribution of religion, and the role of theology in
it? Is religion the root of all evil, as Dawkins (2008) puts it, or seen more accurately,
is it a source of good?
Building upon our many years of experience, we recently published several volumes
on the relationship between theological thought and academic experience from different
fields of knowledge. The fields include the Natural Sciences, Law, Health, Culture, Education, and so on. The inaugural volume in the series is on Theology and other areas of
knowledge (Passos 2010). The publishers website gives a helpful synopsis of the entire
Teologia na universidade series (Paulinas 2011, in Portuguese).
The following curriculum comprises these two main points (religion at large and theology) over two semesters:
Academic (scientific) compared to religious forms of knowing
Religion anthropological roots and forms
Religion and its presence in society
World religions, their profile and challenges
Theology as an academic discipline, and its relationship with different areas of
knowledge (the content changes from class to class, according to the preferences of
the students major)
Religion and ethics local and global challenges
What is expected from students is, first, to recognize the presence of religion in their
everyday affairs religion as more than just one component of cultural life, attended to
mostly over the weekends. There are religious overtones in whatever they think and do,
whether they recognize it or not. Second, they should recognize that common sense
about religion in the contemporary world is marred by prejudice and emotionalism (for
example common misunderstandings about Islamic practice). There is, therefore, a need
for a more scientific approach to religion. Third, theology is not just a matter of church
polity, but is a valid and necessary partner in academic dialogue. Finally, students must
explore proper ethical stances in face of the many challenges in our world, and look at
the proper role of religion in them.
Opportunities for assessment happen throughout the course and at its end. Besides
regular tests and end of term papers, students are evaluated when leading seminars

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(usually involving PowerPoint presentations), and in other more informal ways. Each
teacher in each class will have different ways of evaluating their students learning. The
main purpose of evaluation is not to measure memorization but to allow students to
overcome commonsensical thinking about religion in their everyday life.
Despite several informal follow-up evaluations of courses, it is hard to say how successful our classes are at achieving our goals. Most students end up with a more favorable view of the issues discussed during the course and, hopefully, of their own religious
choices. The degree of information retained varies, but at least students gain the skills to
seek information on their own from proper sources. The amount of explicit Christian
(and Catholic) doctrine that is taught changes from one field of knowledge to the other,
depending on the sense of opportunity (for example, what is being reported through the
mass media), student demand, and especially the connections between our syllabus and
other courses in the curricula.
Despite being a curriculum designed for confessional universities, content and
methods are designed as though they were for secular universities. Our goal is that any
student could profit from these courses, regardless of their professional interests, religious upbringing, or choice of college or university. That is a positive aspect of our university being perhaps the most secularized among other confessional universities:
doctrinal elements are only presented after a lengthy detour, making them more plausible for a usually skeptical audience. In our estimation, this approach engages more
intelligently other academic areas, and allows for a better presence of religion and theology in the public arena.

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Bibliography

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Dawkins, Richard. 2008. Root of all Evil? London, U.K.: Channel 4.

Passos, J. D. 2007. Ensino religioso; construo de uma proposta. So Paulo, Brazil:
Paulinas.
Paulinas. 2011. Teologia na universidade. http://www.paulinas.org.br/sala_imprensa/
?system=news&id=397&action=read (accessed 13 April 2015).
Soares, A. M. L. 2010. Religio & Educao: da cincia da religio ao ensino
religioso. So Paulo, Brazil: Paulinas.
Passos, Joo Dcio, ed. 2010. Teologia e outros saberes: uma introduo ao pensamento
teolgico. So Paulo: Ed. Paulinas.

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