• Advise SLT members and educational authorities on implementing IRE through curricular, cross-curricular, and extra-curricular initiatives, ensuring alignment with policy frameworks;
• Create an IRE program tailored to the specific needs of the learners coming from diverse cultures;
• Execute an existing IRE program and within the school or other educational institution;
• Create inclusive, student-centered learning learning resourcesthat align with IRE principles;
• Ensure that all students of every faith and non-faith backgrounds have ample educational spaces that allows mutual enrichment and respect through learning about each other’s traditions;
• Recommend strategies for embedding IRE values into the school environment, ensuring policies and practices reflect intercultural dialogue, democratic values, and human rights.

• Define the concept of worldviews, religious or secular, and their impact on identity formation, education, and intercultural dialogue;
• Describe the main characteristics, beliefs, values, and practices of major world religions and secular traditions, including those of marginalised and underrepresented communities;
• Analyse religious and secular symbols, concepts, rituals, and terminologies and their sociocultural significance;
• Describe the main approaches to Religious Education, namely ‘Confessional’, ‘Study of Religions’, and the ‘Inclusive Religious Education,’ and their philosophical, pedagogical, and policy implications;
• Compare effective pedagogical strategies, techniques, tools, and materials that facilitate student-centered IRE and promote dialogue and critical thinking;
• Evaluate current policy frameworks (national, EU, and international) on religious education, freedom of belief, and intercultural education.

• Discuss the contemporary cultural trends including religious and secular pluralism, multiculturalism, and secularism, and their implications for IRE;
• Apply the main three models to pedagogies that promote Inclusive Religious Education within different educational contexts, adapting them to students’ needs and institutional policies;
• Construct an IRE programme including schemes of work and lesson plans with student-centered, inclusive resources;
• Plan curricular, cross-curricular, and extra-curricular initiatives that promote dialogue, inclusion, and critical thinking in religious education;
• Facilitate engaging discussions and critical dialogue that challenge biases, promote religious literacy, and empower students to navigate complex worldviews;
• Visit places of worship and secular cultural institutions, using them as learning spaces for intercultural engagement and experiential education.

This module will be assessed through: Forum; Assignment; Presentation.

Core Reading List

1. Nielsen, J. C., & Sapp, C. L. (2020). Educating about religious diversity and interfaith engagement: A handbook for student affairs. NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
2. O’Grady, K. (2019). Religious education as dialogue with difference: Fostering democratic citizenship through the study of religions in schools. Routledge.
3. Roebben, B., & Heimann, M. K. (Eds.). (2015). Inclusive religious education: International perspectives. Waxmann Verlag.
4. Skeie, G., Everington, J., ter Avest, I., & Miedema, S. (Eds.). (2018). Reimagining religious education: Belonging, diversity, and plurality in Europe. Routledge.
5. Stern, J. (Ed.). (2018). Teaching religious education: Researchers in the classroom. Routledge.

Supplementary Reading List

1. Arvard University – Pluralism Project: https://pluralism.org/
2. Brown, D.S. (2013). Interfaith dialogue in practice: Christian, Muslim, Jew. Rockhurst University Press.
3. Habermas, J. (2010). An Awareness of What is Missing: Faith and Reason in a Post-secular Age. Polity.
4. Halafoff, A., le Cornu, E., & Rajkobal, P. (Eds.). (2019). Diverse religious voices for peace. Springer.
5. McEvoy, J.G. (2014). Leaving Christendom for Good: Church-World Dialogue in a Secular Age. Lexington Books
6. Ryan, Mark, “Interreligious Dialogue in ‘A Secular Age'” (2015). Religious Studies Faculty Publications. 113, https://ecommons.udayton.edu/rel_fac_pub/113
7. Sivasubramaniam, M., & Hayhoe, R. (2021). Religion and education: Comparative and international perspectives. Symposium Books.
8. https://faithanddisability.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Resources-for-Inclusive-Religious-Education.pdf