Methodical Approaches to Intercultural Education in Confessional Religious Education in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

After many years of neglecting the religious dimension within intercultural education, today there is a broad consensus in Europe that religious education represents an important dimension in the intercultural education of young people. Awareness of the connection between intercultural and interreligious learning is becoming increasingly stronger and more present. One of the important questions related to intercultural education in general, and especially to the religious dimension of that education, relates to the qualification of the confessional religious education teachers with regard to the achievement of intercultural goals and especially the qualification to develop intercultural competence in students. This paper consists of two parts. The theoretical part elaborates on issues related to the development of intercultural competence in confessional religious education. The second part presents some of the results of the quantitative research (descriptive statistics methods were used), which was carried out in the Republic of Croatia and aimed to examine the attitudes and opinions of religious education teachers regarding the necessary intercultural competence for work in schools. The results have revealed that religious education teachers highly value the development of intercultural competence in students, as well as great motivation and openness of religious education teachers of confessional classes for the development of intercultural education. At the same time, they point to the relative scarcity of methods within religious teaching that promote intercultural and interreligious learning.