A research conference hosted in partnership with the Irish Centre for Religious Education (ICRE), the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), as well as the Mater Dei Institute Educational and Research Trust, was held recently in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. The theme of the conference was Toward Mutual Ground: Religious Pluralism in Educational Practice in Irish Schools, and it offered practitioners from a broad range of schools and educational contexts an opportunity to discuss the question of how to recognise and respond to religious pluralism in schools in Ireland.
The keynote speakers outlined the main principles for understanding religious pluralism, reflected upon international research, policy and practice concerning approaches taken to religious pluralism in educational practice, and highlighted the current situation and challenges in the Irish context.
One of the speakers, Rev Dr Niall Coll, a senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the College, presented his paper “Religious Pluralism in Educational Practice in Northern Ireland”. It sought to explore the debate about the place of Religious Education in both controlled and maintained schools in an increasingly diverse Northern Ireland. In the paper Rev Dr Coll surveyed the characteristic approaches to Religious Education in both types of schools. He explored also the implications for Religious Education in relation to the growth of a more culturally and religiously diverse society. This is evidenced by the recent requirement that Religious Education students at Key Stage 3 study two world religions other than Christianity. The paper concluded with an analysis of the place and importance of multi-faith education in Catholic schools today.
Rev Dr Coll is currently revising the paper into an article for publication in a volume edited by Gareth Byrne and Patricia Kieran, provisionally titled “Towards Mutual Ground” which is to appear in 2013.