edna.edu.au

Teaching the Abrahamic Religions: Christianity in DialoguewithJudaism& Islam 15-17 April 2009

A very interesting conference.

Highlights was professor Andrew Wright from Kings College at teh University of London. His presentation on "Critical realism" is a challenge to the 'banking' and 'constructivist' pedagogical models. The key to teaching about the Abrahamic religions is not to teach as though we are all the same, but rather to learn from the points of difference. Relativity - not Relativism - is the key. 
"It is better to have a society of discontented philosophers than a society of contented sheep"
Our role as educators is to enable our students to grow in their religious literacy.
"Every student who walks into our classroom is already a theologian/ They already have language about God. Our job is to enable them to be better theologians"

Peter Vardy was also quite an inspiring speaker. His presentation argued that the history of the Abrahamic religions is a history of war, and that we havce an obligation to address this in our teaching. It is not our role to educate people in our own certainties.

The Dan website is at http://www.dialogueaustralasia.org/

Tags: islam pedagogy judaism christianity
Posted at 04:31PM Apr 18, 2009 by Nigel Mitchell  | 

Yad Vashem International Seminar 4-20 January 2009

Yad Vashem is the Israeli national Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. Their website (which is an excellent resource for educators and historians) is here: www.yadvashem.org

The Yad Vashem International Seminar is held each year in January and August.  A brief presentation of my feedback from the Yad Vashem seminar is contained here (.pdf file).

I will be writing and publishing a conference paper and/or a journal article later in the year using information gained from the seminar.

Tags: scholarships shoah holocaust judaism israel
Posted at 08:51PM Feb 13, 2009 by Nigel Mitchell  | 

Works Righteousness and the Synagogue of Satan

http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?id=770

This paper was presented to the First Joint Australian & New Zealand Religious Studies Conference, Lincoln University, Canterbury, July 4-7, 1996. It was later published by Gesher , the journal of the Council of Christians and Jews in Victoria, in their November 1996 edition and online .

The article is a response to, and affirmation of, Rightly proclaiming the word of truth - guidelines for Christian Clergy and Teachers in their use of the New Testament with reference to the New Testament's presentation of Jews and Judaism , a publication of the Council of Christians and Jews in Victoria (1995, since republished in 2007).

Tags: anti-semitism theology religious education judaism
Posted at 11:45AM Dec 24, 2008 by Nigel Mitchell  | 

Critical issues for Australian Catholic education into the 21st Century

I did my Masters in Religious Education at the University of South Australia, graduating in 1992. I was enrolled in external mode, so did not have much contact with my fellow students, but one of my colleagues, Helen Raduntz, asked a group of us to edit our theses to form the chapters of a book, which she published as:

Potential and opportunity: Critical issues for Australian Catholic education into the 21 st Century edited by Helen Raduntz, Auslib Press, Blackwood SA. 1995

My chapter is number 6: Teaching theology as religious education in a secondary school: some findings.

Tags: anti-semitism religious education christianity theology judaism
Posted at 10:49AM Dec 24, 2008 by Nigel Mitchell  |