A new major resource for teachers has just been published by the Council of Europe and the European Wergeland Center (EWC). The Signpost Teacher training module deals with questions of teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education. At the online launch of the module on 25th November 2020 more than 100 participants were eager to learn more about the purpose and the concept of it.

One of the authors, Dr. Angelos Vallianatos from Greece, explained in his introductory remarks that the module is designed for teacher councils, teachers and teacher students in priority but also for policy makers. Furthermore, it is not only a resource for RE teachers but for teachers of all subjects. Matters around religions and world views can occur in any setting of school life. Therefore, the manual follows a whole school approach.

The different panellists of the event all highlighted how important this work is for education since we are living in more and more heterogeneous societies. Former ICCS president and director of the Comenius-Institute in Germany, Dr Peter Schreiner, underlined that these kind of tools give the opportunity to reflect on one’s own perspective on these issues but also to get into an exchange with others. Haldis Holst from Education International emphasized that for the sake of the children’s right to education, we need to address these issues whether they might be difficult and controversial or not.

In the course of the event, participants had the possibility to ask questions and to participate in a poll. The latter showed which aspects participants would prefer to work on more closely. 29% voted for working on pedagogical approaches for understanding religions and non-religious world views, 20% for the classroom as a safe space and 20% for human rights issues and the right of freedom of religion and belief.

Ana Perona-Fjeldstad, Director of EWC, assured that the EWC will take this into account when promoting the module. In this context, the EWC is already working on:

  • Designing interactive workshops about the manual in different languages
  • Translations of the manual in multiple European languages
  • Digitalisation of the materials to make it more user friendly

The teacher training module itself is already downloadable here.

In the end, hosts and participants were very happy about this opportunity of exchange and discussion.

Background

Signposts Teacher Training Module is based on “Signposts – Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education” which has been translated into 13 languages but also draws upon another Council of Europe publication: Living with Controversy – Teaching Controversial Issues Through Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights (EDC/HRE). The manual has a solid basis and direct link to Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)12 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the dimension of religions and non-religious convictions within intercultural education and the Council of Europe Framework of Competences for a Democratic Culture (RFCDC).