Religious education in two secular multicultural societies. The Turkish and Dutch case compared

In this paper we present in the first section the historical antecedents of the Turkish and Dutch educational system regarding religion(s) in education. In the second section we will outline the different approaches in religious education in both countries. In the third section the focus is on the relationship between state and church. In the fourth section the issue is how in both countries curricula and textbooks for religious education are constructed, checked and approved. Finally, we will summarize the most remarkable points of comparison between the Dutch and the Turkish case regarding religion(s) in education. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd

A plea for inclusive worldview education in all schools

Taking personhood education (‘Bildung’) of students as the aim of schools, the author argues that worldview education should form an integral part of this education in all schools. It is shown that such a conceptualisation of worldview education is adequately combinable with citizenship education. In worldview-citizenship education the emphasis is first of all on students’ appropriation and (continuous) development of their own worldview. A second important aim of this modus of education is that students should learn to live together in the context of the school as an embryonic society which represents different worldviews. With this two−fold aim the individual or personal and the social or communal side of the pedagogical coin are kept together. In the final part a concrete example of an inclusive practice of worldview citizenship education is described in a partnership of a Christian, a state, and an Islamic elementary school in the area of Amsterdam South−East

Criticality in Dynamic Arrest: Correspondence between Glasses and Traffic

Dynamic arrest is a general phenomenon across a wide range of dynamic systems, but the universality of dynamic arrest phenomena remains unclear. We relate the emergence of traffic jams in a simple traffic flow model to the dynamic slow down in kinetically constrained models for glasses. In kinetically constrained models, the formation of glass becomes a true (singular) phase transition in the limit $T\to 0$. Similarly, using the Nagel-Schreckenberg model to simulate traffic flow, we show that the emergence of jammed traffic acquires the signature of a sharp transition in the deterministic limit \pp\to 1, corresponding to overcautious driving. We identify a true dynamical critical point marking the onset of coexistence between free flowing and jammed traffic, and demonstrate its analogy to the kinetically constrained glass models. We find diverging correlations analogous to those at a critical point of thermodynamic phase transitions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Public, Social and Individual Perspectives on Religious Education. Voices from the Past and the Present

Inspired by Charles Taylor's recent quest for the meaning of religion today, this article concentrates on the question of the meaning of religious education (RE) today. The focus is not so much on the 'what' but instead more on the 'where' (the locus) and the 'how' (the function) of RE. The view on what is held to be a pedagogically tenable position regarding RE is build up by methodologically using a differentiated practical-theological three-course model that distinguishes between the public, the social and the private domain. Developments and tendencies within the three domains are shown in respect with religion as such and RE in particular. It is made clear what this may mean for religious educators and philosophers of religious education today, who conceptualize religious education as an impossible possibility. © Springer 2006