Educating Year 3 pupils in accepting differences through religious education

Abstract

Human beings have always been on the move. Since prehistoric times they travelled in order to hunt for food and to settle in more opportune lands which would be suitable for their well-being. Throughout history, Malta has already experienced the settlement of foreigners in times of trade or war. We are now re-experiencing the same phenomenon, with the settlement of people with different cultural backgrounds, starting a family and raising and educating their children in our schools. The predominant religion followed in Malta is the Roman Catholic faith. Different cultures may bring with them different religions and beliefs but also different approaches towards that same religion. This provided the basis to this dissertation where the approach towards diversity taken by the current Maltese Religious Education syllabus was constructively criticised. Possible ideas how to improve this syllabus were also put forward. Furthermore, the dissertation gave a number of reasons why there is the need to review the current Religious Education syllabus, with one main reason being the phenomenon of globalisation. The result of this dissertation was a model of Religious Education explaining how it can help Maltese Catholic students accept and value differences and how to promote inclusion. Moreover, it presented two schemes of work, to be used with Year 3 pupils, to show how this model can be implemented.