Engaging with religious epistemologies in the classroom: Implications for civic education

Our point of departure in this paper is the observation that in many secular societies—which may be so in variable degrees, especially in the West—as well as in societies emerging out of religious conflict, there may be the perception that educational systems ought to promote civic values while sidestepping religious or cultural values. This entanglement, in our view, presents a challenge that is deeply political, because effective participation in a society is directly relevant to ideals about equity, social justice, power relations, and the common good. We suggest that when religious and cultural affiliations are excluded from such ideals, this makes effective participation more possible or perhaps less so, especially for certain social groups such as minority and marginalized groups or groups that have been victimized in a conflict situations.