ABSTRACT

Religious bigotry, including incidents of discrimination and violence based on religion, continues to rise across Australia. Religion is consequently considered a destabilising factor in Australia’s commitment to diversity. But does Australia’s religious diversity pose a threat to social cohesion or an opportunity? In Australia’s public schools, despite significant curricular and pedagogical advances in the areas of equity and inclusion, it remains unclear how and to what extent educators support the diverse religious identities of learners. Informed by an affective-discursive analytic, this study unpacks a series of emotional encounters at one primary public school in Sydney that serves a community where most families self-identify with a religion. Educators were invited to discuss how their school responds to religious diversity. This article explores the discomforting affects that entangle liberal humanist commitments to freedoms and secular schooling that emerged in focus groups. The article argues that emotional responses to learners’ religious diversity, particularly of fear or apprehension, speak to a broader national teacher education context in which how religious and secular beliefs and knowledges should come into conversation remains unsettled. If Australian teacher education is to prepare educators for social cohesion, how can learners’ religious identities be genuinely included in curriculum and pedagogy?

摘要

宗教偏执，包括基于宗教的歧视和暴力事件，在澳大利亚各地持续上升。因此，宗教被认为是澳大利亚多元化承诺的不稳定因素。但澳大利亚的宗教多样性对社会凝聚力构成威胁还是机遇？在澳大利亚的公立学校中，尽管在公平和包容性方面取得了重大的课程和教学进步，但仍不清楚教育工作者如何以及在多大程度上支持学习者的多样化宗教身份。这项研究以情感话语分析为基础，揭示了悉尼一所公立小学的一系列情感遭遇，该学校为大多数家庭自我认同宗教的社区服务。教育工作者受邀讨论他们的学校如何应对宗教多样性。本文探讨了焦点小组中出现的自由人文主义对自由和世俗教育的承诺所带来的令人不安的影响。文章认为，对学习者宗教多样性的情感反应，特别是恐惧或忧虑，涉及更广泛的国家教师教育背景，在这种背景下，宗教和世俗信仰和知识应该如何进行对话仍然悬而未决。如果澳大利亚教师教育是为了培养教育工作者的社会凝聚力，那么学习者的宗教身份如何真正纳入课程和教学法中？谈论更广泛的全国教师教育背景，其中宗教和世俗信仰和知识应如何进行对话仍然悬而未决。如果澳大利亚教师教育是为了培养教育工作者的社会凝聚力，那么学习者的宗教身份如何真正纳入课程和教学法中？谈论更广泛的全国教师教育背景，其中宗教和世俗信仰和知识应如何进行对话仍然悬而未决。如果澳大利亚教师教育是为了培养教育工作者的社会凝聚力，那么学习者的宗教身份如何真正纳入课程和教学法中？