1 hr 29 min
Religion, Reductionism and Pedagogical Reduction PESGB Virtual Branch
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- Philosophy
How ought we to teach children about complex and diverse religious traditions and cultures in an age of conflict and misrepresentation? What is involved in the selections and simplifications of religious traditions for educational purposes? How are those selections and simplifications justified? Can reductive representations such as the ‘World Religions Paradigm’ really offer children a meaningful account of our diverse religious experiences and traditions? This paper addresses these questions by developing a theory of pedagogical reduction. I contrast the educationally constructive notion of pedagogical reduction to what is often taken to be problematic in understanding religion, namely reductionism. I propose that understanding religion entails the complex pedagogical practices of the give and take of pedagogical reduction.
Dr. David Lewin is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. David is co-founder of ‘Experiments in Educational Theory’ a forum for research in educational philosophy and theory: https://www.exet.org/. His research focuses on the intersections between philosophy of education, philosophy of religion and philosophy of technology. He is author of Technology and the Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge Scholars 2011) co-editor (with Todd Mei) From Ricoeur to Action: the Socio-Political Significance of Ricoeur’s Thinking (Continuum 2012) and (with Alexandre Guilherme and Morgan White) New Perspectives in Philosophy of Education (Bloomsbury 2014) as well as author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. In 2016 he published Educational Philosophy for a Post-secular Age (Routledge). More recent projects include a co-edited book with Karsten Kenklies East Asian Pedagogies: Education As trans-/formation across cultures and borders (Springer 2020), and a co-edited Journal Special Issue with David Aldridge; Love and Desire in Education: A Special Issue of Journal of Philosophy of Education (2019).
How ought we to teach children about complex and diverse religious traditions and cultures in an age of conflict and misrepresentation? What is involved in the selections and simplifications of religious traditions for educational purposes? How are those selections and simplifications justified? Can reductive representations such as the ‘World Religions Paradigm’ really offer children a meaningful account of our diverse religious experiences and traditions? This paper addresses these questions by developing a theory of pedagogical reduction. I contrast the educationally constructive notion of pedagogical reduction to what is often taken to be problematic in understanding religion, namely reductionism. I propose that understanding religion entails the complex pedagogical practices of the give and take of pedagogical reduction.
Dr. David Lewin is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. David is co-founder of ‘Experiments in Educational Theory’ a forum for research in educational philosophy and theory: https://www.exet.org/. His research focuses on the intersections between philosophy of education, philosophy of religion and philosophy of technology. He is author of Technology and the Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge Scholars 2011) co-editor (with Todd Mei) From Ricoeur to Action: the Socio-Political Significance of Ricoeur’s Thinking (Continuum 2012) and (with Alexandre Guilherme and Morgan White) New Perspectives in Philosophy of Education (Bloomsbury 2014) as well as author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. In 2016 he published Educational Philosophy for a Post-secular Age (Routledge). More recent projects include a co-edited book with Karsten Kenklies East Asian Pedagogies: Education As trans-/formation across cultures and borders (Springer 2020), and a co-edited Journal Special Issue with David Aldridge; Love and Desire in Education: A Special Issue of Journal of Philosophy of Education (2019).
1 hr 29 min