Religious literacy of Australia’s Gen Z teens: diversity and social inclusion

Abstract

Australia is a culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse country, however, learning about the religious dimensions of this superdiversity is inadequately reflected in the national school curriculum, notwithstanding recent attempts to address this at the state level in Victoria. Debates regarding the role of religion in school have raged across the country for decades and have impeded the introduction of learning about diverse worldviews and religions, and even research on this topic. Competing views of Australia's national identity, as a multifaith and/or secular and/or Christian nation continue to affect both policy and curriculum in Australia, and thereby the level of religious literacy of its citizens. Using data from a national study of young Australians and their worldviews, this research investigates levels of religious literacy and appreciation of religious diversity of 'Generation Z' Australians, for whom superdiversity is the norm. In doing so, it concludes that Australian curricula must evolve to include more content on diverse worldviews and better reflect the lived experiences of younger generations. This would in turn increase religious literacy and interreligious understanding in Australia. This study may also be instructive for those countries grappling to adjust to similar demographic and societal changes, challenges and opportunities.

How Does the Sense of Closeness to God Affect Attitudes toward Refugees in Turkey? Multiculturalism and Social Contact as Mediators and National Belonging as Moderator

“…Spirituality also positively affects the coming together of different cultures and their efforts towards the same goal (Farran et al 2003). Due to the presence of immigrants with different religious and ethnic backgrounds in countries such as America and Australia, it is seen that the majority of the people are accustomed to multiculturalism and different faiths and behave accordingly (Susan 2011;Halafoff et al 2020). Although the culture of the Syrians who came after 2011 is partially different, the fact that their religion is the same has accelerated the mutual adaptation process.…”

Diverse worldviews education and social inclusion: a comparison between Finnish and Australian approaches to build intercultural and interreligious understanding

“…The need for emphasising multiple literacies such as religious literacy and media literacy has also been reported in other studies (Halafoff et al 2019b;Poulter et al 2017). A critical approach to developing worldviews literacy, through worldviews education, considers and is aware of existing power relations and imbalances among diverse religious, non-religious and spiritual groups and states, and also of how worldviews and power relations are also shaped by intersections with other aspects of identity such as culture, gender, and sexuality diversity (Halafoff, Lam, and Bouma 2019a;Halafoff forthcoming).…”

“…Therefore, it is not feasible, nor indeed desirable to seek standardised strategies for worldviews education suitable for all countries. Worldviews education must, therefore, be context specific (Halafoff, Lam, and Bouma 2019a;Halafoff et al 2019b) though scholars and education policy and curriculum developers from different contexts can certainly still learn from each other.…”

“…Issues of social cohesion and preventing violent extremism, especially among young people, led the Council of Europe ( 2008), scholars and other intergovernmental and state agencies to focus more on educational strategies to respond to increasing religious and worldviews diversity in schools (Halafoff 2015;Jackson 2015). Calls by educators for more programmes on religious literacy and worldviews education, including religious, non-religious and spiritual dimensions, have stressed that these programs must be cognisant of the lived and complex superdiverse realities of young people, and for this to be reflected not only in policy and curricula but also in teacher education (Halafoff 2015;Halafoff, Lam, and Bouma 2019a;Halafoff et al 2019b;Jackson 2014Jackson , 2015Singleton et al 2019).…”

New Zealand Religious Community Responses to COVID-19 While Under Level 4 Lockdown

“…Findings from the International Social Survey Programme have indicated that individualized spiritual experiences are more important than belonging to a formal religious institution (Vaccarino et al 2011 ). These findings are backed up by an Australian study which found many youths identified as ‘spiritual but not religious,’ a category obscured by census data (Halafoff et al 2020 ). Given these demographic shifts, studies need to include a diverse range of religious groups and include non-religious perspectives.…”