Teaching Tolerance in Public Education: Organizing the Exposure to Religious and Life-Stance Diversity

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss how pupils’ exposure to religious and life-stance diversity should be organized through the formal curriculum of public education in order to best foster tolerance. The article examines two proposals: the Integrated French model and the Norwegian religious education model. In view of normative considerations and considerations of effectiveness, it argues that although each model has its merits, they are both problematic because they in different ways fail to adequately balance the need for relevant exposure to religious and life-stance diversity with sufficient neutrality. By taking the Norwegian model as a point of departure, the article concludes by proposing two improvements - one calling for a sufficiently neutral value basis, and the other for a more mindful use of educational methods.