New Delta page
Group members:
- Jasmina
- Mirjam
- Sanja
- Maja
- Nina
Distribution of roles:
Title:
Religious education in public schools:
A comparison of Slovenia and Croatia
No.1
Definition:
"Secularization can be defined as the process of diminishing church authority in private and social life, giving the individual a free choice of his/her religious affiliation" (Bruce: July, 2002). This process that happened through modernization is not the same in the two neighboring countries, Slovenia and Croatia, even though they share a similar post-transitional past. Post-transition involves "many different changes in a society which usually lead towards religious changes. In Yugoslavia the collapse led to different consequences in different parts: the Slovenian transition was a cultural one while in Croatia it was at the same time cultural defense" (Bruce v Kuburić and Zoe, 2006:18). Cultural defense phenomenon meant that political actors who kept stronger links between the state and the church had bigger political chance as the example of Croatia. In Slovenian case the church-state connection were weaker. Political actors kept weaker links with the religion, which is why Slovenia had fewer political choices. As Bruce also argues, countries who had been involved in civil wars (Croats, Serbs and Bosnians in civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991-95) had involved also their religion. Such countries used their religious identity to assert ethnic pride or "the excellence of one's owns customs and the inferiority of alien ones" (Marx in Kuburić and Boe 2006, 18).
Croatia has a problem with confessional/non-confessional religious education in elementary schools (involving the Roman Catholic Church) as well as the lack of choice within religious education in general. Therefore, we decided to compare Slovenia and Croatia who share the post-transitional past but they do not share the same problems.
Glossary:
1. Crucifix - križ
2. Confessional religious education - religijski pouk, ki poučuje kako verjeti tako da prenaša versko prepričanje, ustvarja religijsko identiteto in je pogosto tudi ritualizirano in osredotočeno na samo eno versko gibanje (verouk)
3. Educational legislation- zakon o financiranju izobraževanja in adimistraciji poučevanja v šolah
4. Non-confessional religious education - religijski nauk, ki poučuje o veri, različnih religijah in etiki ter vsebuje nauk o moralu (etika)
5. Obligatory and optional topics - obvezni in izbirni predmeti
6. Parish - župnija, župlja
7. Religious affiliation - verska pripadnost
8. Superficial religious structure - površinska verska sestava
9. Syllabus - učni načrt predmetov
10. The nature and quality of the former secular (ist) regime - narava in kakovost tvorca posvetnega režima
Research questions:
1. Social conditions which lead to de/secularization. (Jasmina)
2. What is the situation with Church - state and education relations in Slovenia? (Nina)
3. What is the situation with Church - state and education relations in Croatia? (Sanja)
4. How can be religion taught in public schools? (Maja)
5. What are the problems that can appear due to Churches excessive involvement in education? (Mirjam)
6. What can be the solution to those problems? (Mirjam)
7. Public opinion and some interesting incidents of Churches striving in excessive involvement in society. (Sanja)
List of literature:.
1. Bruce, Steve. 2002. God is dead, Secularization in the West. Accessible on: http://dannyreviews.com/h/God_Dead.html (accessed 14 March 2009).
2. Civil coalition, Stop to riskful sexual education. Accessible on: http://www.zamirnet.hr/stoprso/st2/cilj1.html (accessed 14 March 2009).
3. Drugi svet. Accessible on http://www.drugisvet.com/novice/verouk_v_javnih_solah.html, (accessed 13 April 2009).
4.Forum HNS, Vjeronauk u školi...yes or no?. Accessible on:
http://www.forum.hns.hr/index.php?topic=76.0 (accessed 12 April 2009).
5.Forum HR, Vjeronauk u školama. Accessible on:
http://www.forum.hr/showthread.php?t=120098 (accessed 12 April 2009).
6. Haralambos, Michael. 2001. Sociologija: teme in pogledi. Ljubljana: DZS
7. Kerševan, Marko and Roter, Zdenko. 1982. Vera in nevera v Sloveniji: 1968–1978. Maribor: Obzorja.
8. Kerševan, Marko. 1994. Religija, Evropa in Slovenci. Teorija in praksa 31 (3–4): 242–255.
9. Marinović Bobinac, Ankica and Marinović Jerolimov, Dinka. 2006. Religious education in Croatia IN Religion and pluralism in education, ed. Zorica Kuburić and Christian Moe, 39 –
10. Marinović Jerolimov, Dinka. 2004. Religion and patterns of social transformation. Zagreb: Institute for Social Research.
11. NovSad:CEIR. Accessibleon: http://kotornetwork.info/research/joint/2005/RelPlurEdu.pdf (accessed 14 March 2009).
12. Rakar, Tatjana and Smrke, Marjan. 2006. Religious education in Slovenia IN Religion and pluralism in education, ed. Zorica Kuburić and Christian Moe, 9 –39. Novi Sad: CEIR. Accessible on: http://kotor-network.info/research/joint/2005/RelPlurEdu.pdf (accessed 14 March 2009).
13. Remond, Rene. 2005. Religija in družba v Evropi. Ljubljana: Modra zbirka – Delajmo Evropo.
14. Toš, Niko. 1993. Slovensko javno mnenje 1993/ 1. Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede, Arhiv družboslovnih podatkov. Accessible on: http://www.adp.fdv.uni-lj.si/opisi/sjm931.xml (accessed 14 March 2009).
15. Toš, Niko. 2001. Politbarometer, 1996- julij 2000. Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede, Arhiv družboslovnih podatkov. Accessible on: http://www.adp.fdv.uni-lj.si/opisi/pbsi_99.xml (accessed 14 March 2009).
16. Vrcan, Srdjan. 2001. Religija i religioznost u tranzicijskim procesima u Hrvatskoj. Split: Glas Dalmacije- Revija Dalmatinske akcije.
Minutes of the 1st group meeting:
Held on 24th February, 2009 in FDV library
Present: Jasmina, Mirjam, Maja, Nina
Absent: Sanja
Agenda:
1. Selecting the topic
2. Discussing the possible problem questions
3. Plans for the next meeting
4. Any other business
Item 1
Discussion: Due to our team decision to join two subjects in this project (English and Sociology of religion) we asked professor Marjan Smrke if he agrees that we fulfill our obligations by team work instead of working individually. Regarding his agreement we had to choose the appropriate topic, which we were able to select between 9 topics involving religion. We collected all the possible ideas from each one of us. We were in dilemma especially about two topics between which we struggled for a long time: Religion, magic and mantic or De/secularization and religious teaching in schools.
Decision: Because of more accessible literature and also our ideas we were more in favor of the topic about de/secularization and within about religious teaching in schools in Croatia and in Slovenia.
Item 2
Discussion: Discussing the possible problem questions made it easier for us to pick a topic of our interest at the beginning. We can deal with the topic about religious teaching from many points of view, and now we had to decide what would be the most appropriate one. We find it as an interesting topic because we can see the influences of religious believes in education in everyday life with differences between countries and their living circumstances.
Decision: We have to read more about the chosen topic that we will be able to formalize our research questions
Item 3
Before we choose our title, we have to discuss it first with professor Smrke. We all agreed to study the topic at home and discuss it ultimately on the next meeting so we can talk and discuss also about specific questions that we would like to research. Therefore, on our next meeting we plan to choose the specific title, determine the basic questions and distribute the tasks.
Item 4
We will contact Smrke and discuss about the topic with him.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 at 12.30 at FDV
Minutes taker: Mirjam and Maja
Chair: Jasmina
Minutes of the 2nd group meeting:
Held on 2nd March, 2009 in FDV library
Present: Jasmina, Mirjam, Maja, Nina, Sanja
Absent: /
Agenda:
- Selecting the topic and writing definition
- Choosing the research questions
- Planning our next meeting
- Any other business
Item 1
Discussion: On our last meeting we all agreed to select secularization as a topic. This time we finally decided that our research should be focused on education.
Decision: Regarding the fact that Mirjam comes from Croatia we decided to make a comparison of religious teaching involving in education between two countries - Slovenia and Croatia.
Item 2
Discussion: We thought about the negative sides of religious teachings in schools. We agreed that it is not wrong to have lessons about religion but it is wrong to impose only one religion as an option and to present it as the only truth. We discussed how faith should be a personal choice when the person is mature enough to accept or refuse a certain religious views and not a school subject for which you get estimated. School is an educational institution; it should not impose faith. We also asked ourselves how come that religious teaching in Slovenia is not taken as a subject in school while in Croatia it is - as well as in secondary school where there is a choice between ethics and religion.
Decision: we picked our questions for the research.
Item 3
Discussion: Before dividing roles for each one of us we had to discuss our subject with professor Smrke to find out if he agrees or not. When we mentioned it to him he accepted it and shared some facts involving our theme topic. He suggested for us some literature too.
Decision: On our next meeting we are going to divide a role for each one of us and expand our literature sources.
Item 4
Discussion: We will find the literature by ourselves too, although we get some recommended literature from professor Smrke.
Decision: Sanja will rewrite our definition, Mirjam and Maja will write minutes, Jasmina will type the research questions and Nina will search and type some literature.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 10th March, 2009 at 12.30 at FDV
Minutes taker: Mirjam and Maja
Chair: Jasmina
Minutes of the 3rd group meeting:
Held on 10 March, 2009 in FDV library
Present: Jasmina, Mirjam, Maja, Nina
Absent: Sanja
Agenda:
1. Discussion about PBL
2. Literature review
Item 1
Discussion: We opened our meeting with revising our previous work and individual tasks in general. Through our conversation we became aware that it would be good to redefine them.
Decision: We all agreed to make a better connection as a team and have a bigger role in giving suggestions to each other. We also decided to take more responsibility in editing and checking our spelling individually.
Item 2
Discussion: Since we made some improvements about our problem definition during the class we recognized a need to improve our research questions as well. Therefore, we will be able to take our work to the next step - division of (two) research questions for each one of us to answer (to focus on).
Decision: We agreed to go through some of the literature that seemed best for this task to be accomplished. We picked some articles for everyone to read and think about the questions as well - how we could improve them. We also made a decision to meet on Saturday morning on MSN to have an extra meeting and divide our roles.
Minutes taker: Mirjam
Chair: Jasmina
Minutes of the 4th group meeting:
Held on 14 March, 2009 on MSN
Present: Jasmina, Mirjam, Maja, Nina
Absent: Sanja
Agenda:
1. Research questions review
2. Dividing tasks regarding research
3. Any other business
Item 1
Discussion: On our last meeting we all suggested to make changes regarding our research questions. At home we read some more of the literature on our topic so our conversation led to the conclusion that it would be best to make the complete transformation of our previous questions.
Decision: Initiated by Mirjam we decided that the best way to present our subject would be through reduced number of questions which demand more diffused answers.
Item 2
Discussion: Now when we had the final questions, we explored the possible explanations of each one of them. We talked about the parts of the literature where we could find the answers and we aimed to discover some sub-questions as well.
Decision: Since some questions demanded more and the other less diffused answers, some of us will have to handle only one question and the rest of us two questions. On this point we individually picked our questions to work on.
Item 3
We divided our tasks on writing minutes, spell-check and improving our definition and decided our next meeting will take place on Tuesday - 17 March, 2009.
Minutes taker: Mirjam
Chair: Jasmina
Minutes of the 5th group meeting:
Held on 17 March, 2009 in FDV library
Present: Sanja, Mirjam, Maja, Nina
Absent: Jasmina
Agenda:
1. Literature check-up
2. Task division
3. Any other business
Item 1
Discussion: Professor Smrke provided us with some literature source that we have to examine and see if we can find some useful data for our research.
Decision: We decided to go through the literature individually at home and make copies of useful data, depending on our needs.
Item 2
Discussion: Our next topic was glossary writing. Our task is to find and define some words related to our research project that are hard to translate and perhaps dependable on the context.
Decision: Everyone has to manage defining two words regarding their research questions and check out what the rest of us did, checking the spelling and making improvements.
Item 3
Since this was our last group meeting, for our future collaboration we agreed to regularly keep in touch via e-mail, MSN and mobile phone.
Minutes taker: Mirjam
Chair: Jasmina
Sources
No.1: University of Michigan: Religion in Schools: A look at how religious practices influence education. http://images.google.si/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artistresource.org/LiGardiner/Design/Illustration/Prayer.GIF&imgrefurl=http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.weitz&usg=__N0v8cm3EtiNyMswnWLJ1DErDf4M=&h=360&w=254&sz=75&hl=sl&start=5&sig2=_yK3XoqPppbMsY92pfyA_Q&um=1&tbnid=ZBVlC5JqWyTJUM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=85&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dreligion%2Bin%2Bschool%26hl%3Dsl%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:sl:official%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=y8TTSYifI8yE_QbxsZTrBQ (Accessed on 4 April 2009).
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