Meetings – Intercultural Education through Religious Studies (IERS)

30 Mar

Final Dissemination Event of the IERS Project on Saturday, April the 2nd in Turin, Italy

The IERS Project has collaborated with Italian Universities, Centers for the study on secularism, Foundations and Associations in order to organize a international conference entitled “The teaching of History of Religions and History of Free Though in Public School“, that will act as the final Dissemination Event of the IERS Project. In fact, six speakers will come from the IERS Project Team. These persons are:

Massimo Raveri, Professor of Religions and East Asian philosophies at the University Ca ‘Foscari of Venice – Head of IERS Project
Giovanni Lapis, Fellow Researcher Religions and East Asian philosophies at the University Ca ‘Foscari of Venice – IERS Project Manager
Tim Jensen, president of the International Association for the History of Religions – IERS Project Researcher
Isabelle Saint-Martin, director of the Institut européen en sciences des religions of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris – IERS Project Researcher
Daniel Marcuglia, Teacher of History and Philosophy and Catholic Religion at “A. Canova” High School in Treviso – IERS Project Piloting Teacher
Antonio M. Seoane Pardo, Teacher of History and Philosophy at “IES Campo Charro” High School in La Fuente de San Esteban (Spain) – – IERS Project Piloting Teacher

Here a detailed programme of the event:

DATE: Saturday, April the 2nd

VENUE: Circolo dei Lettori, Large Hall, Via Bogino 9, Turin (Italy)

Academic session: 10.00 a.m – 1.30 p.m

(Languages: Italian, English, French. Simultaneous translation IT>ENG, FR>ENG available)

Chair: Gian Enrico Rusconi, president of Centro Calamandrei, professor emeritus of the University of Turin

Opening Speech: Tullio Monti, director of the Centro Calamandrei

Speeches:

Mariachiara Giorda, professor of History of Religions at the University of Bologna, Centro Calamandrei: “The link between secularism and history of religion and free thought: the Italian experiences and our proposals”.
Giovanni Filoramo, Professor of History of Christianity at the University of Turin: “Towards a scientific study of religions in school”.
Silvana Ronco, president of the Association “XXXI Ottobre “: The need for teaching ‘history of religion and free thought’ in Italy”.
Alessandro Saggioro, professor of History of Religions at La Sapienza University of Rome: “The Toledo Principles”.
Manlio Graziano, professor of geopolitics at the University of Paris Sorbonne and Geopolitics of religions at the American Graduate School for International Relations and Diplomacy in Paris, “The usefulness of the historical and scientific study of religion as an antidote to religious fundamentalism”.
Tim Jensen, president of the International Association for the History of Religions: “The European experiences and the IERS Project”.
Francesca Cadeddu, researcher at the’ Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII’:” Religious Illiteracy: European strategies and North Atlantic Fascinations”.
Massimo Raveri, professor of Religion and East Asian philosophy at the University Ca ‘Foscari of Venice – Head of IERS Project and Isabelle Saint-Martin, director of the Institut européen en sciences des religions of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris: “The IERS Project”.

Session on the Italian experiences: 2.30 – 5.00 p.m.

(Languages: Italian)

Chair: Giovanni Lapis, IERS Project Manager and Beatrice Nuti, association UVA – Universolaltro

Youth associations of religious movements:

Silvia Facchinetti, spokesman for the Evangelical Youth Federation Italian
Sara Briniche, Islamic Association of the Alps
Union of Young Italian Jews
Guido Campanini, Ecclesial Movement for Cultural Commitment
School Labor Unions:
Igor Piotto, regional secretary FLC-CGIL
Cosimo Scarinzi, provincial secretary CUB School

Professional associations of teachers:

Marco Chiauzza, FNISM national vice-president
Grazia Dalla Valle, Secretary of Turin CIDI
Cinzia Mion, trainer of MCE

Parents’ Association:

Angela Nava, national president of CGD

Forum of Religions in Milan:

Giuseppe Plato, pastor of the Waldensian Church of Milan

IERS Project teachers:

Daniel Marcuglia
Antonio M. Seoane Pardo

Law & politics session: 5.00 – 7.30

(Languages: Italian)

Chair: Mariachiara Giorda, professor of History of Religions at the University of Bologna, Centro Calamandrei

Umberto D’Ottavio, Italian Republic’s Deputy (PD), former council member for Education of the Province of Turin
Alberto Melloni, Professor of History of Christianity at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and coordinator of the Commission on pluralism, freedom and the study of religious studies at school (COPLES) at the Italian Ministry of University, Research and Education
Davide Mattiello, Italian Republic’s Deputy (PD)
Silvia Chimienti, Italian Republic’s Deputy (Movimento 5 stelle)
Marco Grimaldi, Regional counselor of Piedmont (SEL)
Roberto Mazzola, professor of ecclesiastical law and canon law at the Università del Piemonte Orientale

Flyer available for download (in Italian)

15 Apr

Conference of the EU Project “Intercultural Education through Religious Studies” (IERS) in Augsburg

Augsburg. – The partners of the EU LLP Comenius Project IERS, in which the Chair of History Didactics is involved, will meet from 26th to 29th April 2015 to hold their third conference at Augsburg University.

The IERS Project, which is financed by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union (Comenius Multilateral Projects), takes on the challenges for education policy posed by an increasingly multi-cultural and multi-religious Europe. At present, religious education at state schools in the European member states shows many different forms; but scientifically based, critically oriented, historically and interculturally structured learning in religious studies is still poorly developed. The project rationale is based on the conviction that an a-confessional, objective, high-quality teaching about history and the present state of religion supports the development of social, civic and intercultural competences educating towards a constructive and critical understanding of cultural and religious differences. The Chair of History Didactics at Augsburg University contributes its expertise in the qualitative evaluation of the Learning and Teaching Modules.

The IERS Project is a two-year initiative (December 2013 – December 2015) with two overlapping phases. The first project phase plans to create innovative teaching tools in form of digital modules combining information and communications technology with up-to-date academic findings from the studies of religions. The aim of the project is to create at least 20 digital modules categorised in three thematic blocks. These are:

introductory modules on the methods of religious studies,
introductory modules on the historically developed religions and
modules on specific topics that deal with ‘religion’ as the driving force of human action and thought in historical as well as contemporary circumstances and social constellations.

An already concluded baseline study seeking to describe the current way of teaching about religion all over Europe completes this process of the first phase. The second phase of the project includes extensive pilot activities in which the digital modules are evaluated from the point of view of history didactics and tested in actual classes. Based on the feedback, an accompanying handbook is developed, which will also contain the analysis of the baseline study, a general introduction and additional information material.

The members of the project consortium are Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italy) as project coordinator, École Pratique des Hautes Études (France), Syddansk Universitet (Denmark), Universidad de Salamanca (Spain), Oxfam Italia Intercultura (Italy) as well as Universität Augsburg (Germany). In addition to the didactical evaluation of the module concepts, the Chair of History Didactics at Augsburg University has also taken on the management of the distribution of the project results and the pilot phase, in which a range of schools from Italy, Denmark, France, Spain and Germany are involved.

The conference in Augsburg will focus on optimising the module development and digitalisation as well as on starting the practical module testing by the partner schools. So as to achieve a sustainable dissemination of the project results the agenda further includes the greater involvement of relevant stakeholder groups.

Contact (national):
Felix Petzold M.A.
Project manager (national) of the IERS Project (LLP)
Augsburg University
86135 Augsburg
Phone 0049(0)821-598-5554
Email: Felix.Petzold@phil.uni-augsburg.de

29 Oct

Paris: meeting report

IERS_Team_Paris

The IERS “Intercultural Education through Religious Studies” Project’s Partners attended the three-days Meeting in Paris, from 21 to 23 October, hosted by Prof. Isabelle Saint-Martin at the Institut européen en sciences des religions, part of the École pratique des hautes études.

The aim of the meeting was to assess the core actions of the Project, such as the Digital Modules productions, the Baseline Study creation and the Teachers’ Support Activities. In particular the discussion concerning the Digital Modules production fostered an exchange of views between the associated schools’ teachers who also attended the Meeting.

The outcomes of the Meeting were an improved awareness of the next steps to be followed in order to provide further synergy between universities and schools and in order to deliver the final version of the Project products, such as Digital Modules and Baseline Study, by the end of the year 2014.

The Meeting was characterized by a smooth and friendly atmosphere that further enlightened the value of fruitful cooperation among European partners.

21 Oct

Paris meeting

Starting today, the Institut européen en sciences des religions of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes hosts a three‐day meeting (October 21-24, 2014) to work with the European project partners in presence in Paris for assessing one year of IERS project activities and plan together the next steps.

During the meeting the international consortium will focus on the following main issues:

Conclusion of the baseline study which analyze of the state of the art of both National and European approaches regarding religious education and their relations with the studies of religions.
Assessment and discussing of the Digital Modules’ contents & design, as well as the Digital Modules Piloting Plan, in particular with teachers from partner schools.

Participants from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the University of Salamanca, the University of Augsburg, Oxfam Italia Intercultura, and University of Southern Denmark, together with teachers of partner schools from each country, are attending the event.

06 Jan

7 Jan. Intercultural education through religious studies: IERS project kick‐off meeting

Starting today, the Dipartimento di studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Mediterranea of the Università Ca’ Foscari hosts a three‐day meeting (January 7-9, 2014) to work with the European project partners in presence in Venice for launching the IERS project activities.

During the meeting the transnational teams and the working methods will be defined in order to approach the first main issues:

to provide an analysis of the state of the art of both National and European approaches regarding religious education and their relations with religious studies in European educational systems;
to select several topics covering crosscutting issues of different religions to be developed in digital modules for learning purposes.

Participants from the Institut Européen en Sciences des Religions, the University of Salamanca, the University of Augsburg, Oxfam Italia Intercultura, and University of Southern Denmark are attending the event.