851 research outputs found
Beyond the Catholic-Protestant divide : religious and ethnic diversity in the North and South of Ireland
No full textPaper presented to the IBIS conference Old structures, new beliefs: religion, community and politics in contemporary Ireland, University College Dublin, 15 May 2003.This paper explores the challenges posed by the ethnic diversification of contemporary Irish society for conventional understandings of and responses to issues of religion, community and politics. It argues that the particularities of social and institutional histories and structures in the North and South have eclipsed wider considerations of both race and ethnicity and religious identity beyond the Catholic-Protestant divide. This has, in turn, served to obscure the many dynamic changes that such diversity has catalysed both within Irish civil society generally, and within the island’s traditional religious institutions themselves. The paper discusses the promises and potentials of conceptualising religion or religious identity and the relationships between religion and ethnicity within broader cultural and political fields, and their implications for the “new” (multicultural) Ireland.Not applicableti -TS 07.07.10
Author is part of the school of Sociolog
Is self-assessment in religious education unique?
No full textThis paper addresses the question: is self-assessment in religious education unique? It first presents an overview of some challenges for assessment from subject differences, and then reviews the generic literature on self-assessment. It builds on earlier empirical research on self-assessment in religious education, carried out in an English state secondary school (Fancourt 2010); this was used to propose a variant of self-assessment which is tailored to the demands of religious education – reflexive self-assessment. Its implications for more general understandings of the relationship between subject pedagogy and self-assessment are discussed, especially the recognition of values not only in religious education but in other subjects too, reinforcing the need to develop subject-specific variants of self-assessment that reflect the breadth of learning outcomes
Student teachers' perception of their role and responsibilities as Catholic educators
No full textThis article is concerned with 26 primary and secondary student teachers' early perception of themselves as Catholic educators in Scotland. It analyses their perspectives on what it means to be a Catholic teacher, what is expected of them by the Church and what motivated them to chose this particular career path. Discussion of these issues reveals an astute awareness of their role in the Catholic sector but a deep apprehension about their ability to succeed in fulfilling this. Their religious biographies and identities highlight much about the Scottish context of which they are a part, yet their responses to faith indicate differing levels of confidence in teaching, particularly with regard to the content of the Religious Education curriculum which they are expected to implement. The challenge these students present to the major stakeholders in Scottish education is to provide them with adequate support in developing their own faith - and knowledge and understanding of it - in order to enable them to carry out their role as Catholic teachers effectively within the state funded system
Interreligious Dialogue For Peace : III Conference : The Role of Religions in Georgia – 1918-2018
No full textRecommended from our members
Communication and Marketing of Services by Religious Organizations in India
No full textMarketing communication is a vital strategic tool for religious organizations to achieve competitive differentiation. The determinants of religious organizations’ use of direct and indirect communication channels offers valuable insights into their modus operandi. This paper uses novel primary survey data on 568 Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Jain organizations spread over 7 major states in India that we collected over the period 2006-2008, to investigate the determinants of communication channel selection by religious organizations. The findings suggest that state-specific effects for Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal; and religion-specific fixed effects for Muslims play a predominant and persistent role in communication channel selection decisions. Religious organizations adopt direct channels more extensively to communicate changes to non-religious service provision. In a competitive framework, religious organizations also use indirect channels more extensively in response to information received about competitors. Additionally, intensive market competition leads religious organizations to increase their use of direct channels in response to information received about competitors through direct channels. Collectively, the findings suggest that across all religions in India, marketing communication plays a very important role for religious organizations in order for them to differentiate themselves from other competitors
Negotiating identities : Irish women religious and migrations
No full textAs the population of Ireland continued to decline in the post-independent period, the
number of women entering religious life rose substantially, reaching a peak in the late
1960s. Many of these women lived some or all of their lives outside Ireland. However,
despite the recent growth of Irish migration or diaspora studies, very little attention has
been given to the role or experience of Irish women religious, who themselves tend not to
publish subjective accounts. This is undoubtedly the case with respect to Irish women's
migration to England in the twentieth century.
Based on the oral history testimonies of twenty-one Irish women religious, this thesis
seeks to explore this under-researched area. It focuses specifically on subjectivity and
identity formation; on the ways in which Irish women religious have inhabited, negotiated
and contested a sense of self as Irish, as women and as Catholics/religious over the course
of their lives and in the context of the societies in which they have lived. Utilising various
theories, it looks at the complex ways in which subjectivities are formed and displayed,
taking account of the role the women play in constructing a self identity as well as other
contributing factors, such as how the women feel they are positioned by others and their
socio-historical situation. In allowing the voices of Irish women religious to be heard, this
thesis challenges the stereotype of religious as silent, without a voice. By focusing on a
group of women thus far disregarded, it contributes to our knowledge not only of women
religious but Irish women's migration more generally, providing new insights for this
expanding area of research
Conflict sensitivity and religious associations : an action research journey in Southeast Asia
No full textThe associational sector has gained recent prominence, and scholars increasingly recognize the dualistic potential of civil society and social capital to promote either peace or violence. However, research to date gives little attention to the large proportion of associations that influence conflict unintentionally, as an externality produced during the pursuit of other goals. This emergent cluster of theory, which centers on the work of Robert Putnam and Ashutosh Varshney, tends to generalize the nature and causes of such externalities in ways that overlook associational complexity and dynamism. Therefore this thesis explores the applicability of conflict sensitivity, an organizational planning approach that originated in the humanitarian aid sector, for understanding and improving the social impact of religious associations in conflict-vulnerable multifaith societies. The author undertook action research with two local interfaith associations in Mindanao and Singapore to test the usage of the ‘Do No Harm’ conflict sensitivity framework among religious audiences in settings of ethno-religious conflict. More than 160 Protestant, Roman Catholic and Muslim leaders contributed empirically through participatory social analysis, surveys and interviews. The study finds that ‘Do No Harm’ holds relevance and usefulness for religious associations, yet it requires conceptual and practical adaptation of its impact analysis components. Further, while the data support the importance in existing theory of bridging or intercommunal associational structures, there is strong evidence that individual mindsets and intentional human agency are equally central in shaping associational impact. Further, the public prominence of religion in Southeast Asia contrasts with Western-influenced liberal democratic assumptions, exposing a ‘religion gap’ in existing associational theory. Religious culture is shown to be a major influence shaping the formation and incipient change of group identities through associational life. Thus it is argued that wherever religion plays a public role, it should be consistently integrated into studies of associational social impact
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