Religious Education in the Mirror of a Life Trajectory

The study of religious education is of great interest in analyzing how schools and educational authorities address the demands of multicultural and multi-religious societies and states. As diversity increases through migration, globalization and conflicts, schools are faced with equally diverse challenges, one of which is the religious and cultural diversity that characterizes schools and communities. While many studies have focused on this change and its impact in politics, school and classroom, relatively few have focused on how teachers and educators have fared. Sitting between the new policies and school demographics, teachers and educators have shaped the policy in their engagements.

The study of life trajectories shows that the lines between religion and religious education are blurred in personal life histories, and that positions can shift due to personal and contextual developments. They point to the innovative and unexpected turns that individuals trace in their personal life journeys. This book reminds us that we need to pay more attention to the teachers, principals, managers and public intellectuals who shape and are shaped by the changing context of religion and religious education.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Religion & Education.

Abdulkader Tayob holds the chair in Islam, Religious Values and Public Life in Africa at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has published extensively on Islam in South Africa and modern Muslim intellectuals. Currently, he leads a project on religion education in South Africa that interrogates the history and future of the programme with social scientists, educators and teachers.