Suspending Disbelief: Engaging with Mystery
The first question one can ask before reading Key Characteristic #1: Engaging with Mystery, is simply, how can you engage with mystery through Religious Education? Dr. Dan White (2008) states in his opening sentence of Key Characteristic 1 that, “Catholic pedagogy must prepare students to engage with mystery and be open to encounters with the Divine as they explore the realities of their world and secular life experiences”. In order to prepare students to encounter the ‘mystery of the divine’ a Catholic pedagogy must: reflect a fine balance between ‘searching for truth’ and ‘celebrating truth’ (D’Orsa, 2012). To allow for this balance to occur there needs to be a interplay between content, the challenging …show more content…
This engagement needs to be meaningful. The Sydney Religious Education Curriculum (2006) engages with the students in a way that is meaningful to them and on a level that is both cultural and historical. This cultural and historical engagement allows students to form their own opinions using interpretive methods. The Sydney Diocese has identified the importance of critical reflection and constructive questioning, and has inturn, aligned its units to support the interpretive approach. Interpretation is a key component of the Year 7 Unit: Ways of Prayer (CEO Sydney, 2006). The unit implements an interpretive approach, which encourages students to bring their own experiences into the classroom. This interpretive approach, challenges students to use their experience to find their own position within religious education. This approach to catholic education, supports the notion of engaging with the mystery that is put forward by White (2008), whilst also establishing their identity as individuals and as members of the …show more content…
This challenges teachers to become more aware of the theoretical and theological underpinnings of any learning and teaching activities utilised for religious education in Catholic schools. Faith is both a personal assent of truth and a received theological virtue; the transmission of the Christian message through teaching implies a mastery of knowledge of the truths of the faith and of the principles of spiritual life that require constant improvement’ (Educating Together in Catholic Schools, n. 26). When the school provides a catholic education it is offering the opportunity for the transformation of the individual through education; allowing students to be informed and forming the student in the Catholic vision and story. When searching for truth, it is the school that offers opportunity for students to apply a broader worldview to all aspects of life. However, it is the teacher 's task to ensure that all pedagogical and pastoral decisions in all key learning areas not only the religious education curriculum; placing emphasis on the gospel values of Jesus and the Catholic Social teachings to offer students the experience and knowledge required to develop a Catholic way of being and seeing the world
The first question one can ask before reading Key Characteristic #1: Engaging with Mystery, is simply, how can you engage with mystery through Religious Education? Dr. Dan White (2008) states in his opening sentence of Key Characteristic 1 that, “Catholic pedagogy must prepare students to engage with mystery and be open to encounters with the Divine as they explore the realities of their world and secular life experiences”. In order to prepare students to encounter the ‘mystery of the divine’ a Catholic pedagogy must: reflect a fine balance between ‘searching for truth’ and ‘celebrating truth’ (D’Orsa, 2012). To allow for this balance to occur there needs to be a interplay between content, the challenging …show more content…
This engagement needs to be meaningful. The Sydney Religious Education Curriculum (2006) engages with the students in a way that is meaningful to them and on a level that is both cultural and historical. This cultural and historical engagement allows students to form their own opinions using interpretive methods. The Sydney Diocese has identified the importance of critical reflection and constructive questioning, and has inturn, aligned its units to support the interpretive approach. Interpretation is a key component of the Year 7 Unit: Ways of Prayer (CEO Sydney, 2006). The unit implements an interpretive approach, which encourages students to bring their own experiences into the classroom. This interpretive approach, challenges students to use their experience to find their own position within religious education. This approach to catholic education, supports the notion of engaging with the mystery that is put forward by White (2008), whilst also establishing their identity as individuals and as members of the …show more content…
This challenges teachers to become more aware of the theoretical and theological underpinnings of any learning and teaching activities utilised for religious education in Catholic schools. Faith is both a personal assent of truth and a received theological virtue; the transmission of the Christian message through teaching implies a mastery of knowledge of the truths of the faith and of the principles of spiritual life that require constant improvement’ (Educating Together in Catholic Schools, n. 26). When the school provides a catholic education it is offering the opportunity for the transformation of the individual through education; allowing students to be informed and forming the student in the Catholic vision and story. When searching for truth, it is the school that offers opportunity for students to apply a broader worldview to all aspects of life. However, it is the teacher 's task to ensure that all pedagogical and pastoral decisions in all key learning areas not only the religious education curriculum; placing emphasis on the gospel values of Jesus and the Catholic Social teachings to offer students the experience and knowledge required to develop a Catholic way of being and seeing the world