A socio-religious hybridity strategy to respond to the problems of religious studies in Zimbabwe

[摘要] English: The aim of the study was to design a socio-religious hybridity strategy that attempts torespond to the problems of Religious Studies in Zimbabwean secondary schools. Thestrategy emerged against the background of several challenges with the currentmultifaith approach to Religious Studies, which excludes other local religions from thecurriculum. The curriculum is largely Christocentric, implying that the Christian religionis extensively covered. The aims of the syllabus seem to indicate that there is a needto teach various religions, but the content of the syllabus does not give space to otherreligions. This creates a monothelic curriculum that ignores the fact that some of thechildren have a religious orientation that may not necessarily be Christian. Secondly,the Religious Studies curriculum is not socially responsive to arm learners withknowledge on how to avert religious abuse, which is becoming rampant inZimbabwean society. Religious Studies is failing to respond to religious abuse. Theother challenge is that the indigenous knowledge system is not adequately covered,although it is important for the survival of the local people. The syllabus is silent on theindigenous knowledge system. However, the national examination system giveslearners questions relating to indigenous knowledge, with a low mark allocationcompared to the mark for Biblical question. This gives learners and teachers theperception that indigenous knowledge is unimportant for their survival. The othersignificant challenge is that the majority of the Religious Studies teachers inMatabeleland North are not trained to teach the subject, neither are they adequatelyprepared to teach other religions apart from the Christian faith.In response to these and other problems, this research study proposes a socioreligioushybridity strategy that will ensure a relevant curriculum that addresses thereligious needs of all learners through a hybridity approach. The strategy seeks toensure that Religious Studies is in line with democratic practices such as social justice,equity, recognition, inclusivity and improvement of human conditions. It will go a longway to contributing towards the peaceful co-existence of various religious groups andconsequently improving the lives of people through the study of religion.The study is grounded on critical emancipatory research, a theoretical framework thatdates back to the Frankfurt School of 1923. It has five working principles: theimprovement of the human condition, elimination of false consciousness, social transformation, social justice and emancipation. These principles underpinned thestudy and they become lenses through which to interrogate Religious Studies inZimbabwean schools. To complement the framework, I used participatory actionresearch to generate data with the coresearchers. Participatory action research waschosen for its emancipatory tendencies and because it seeks to work withdisadvantaged members of the community. The approach values its coresearchers asequal partners and believes that the people with the problems are the ones withsustainable solutions. In the study, I worked with a hybridity team consisting ofrepresentatives of various religious groups, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism,African religion, together with local leaders, Religious Studies teachers and learnersin Matabeleland North. The hybridity team's shared vision was to develop a strategythat responds to the challenges of Religious Studies in Zimbabwean schools. Theteam participated in discussions, workshops, and class observations and the focuswas to generate data that responded to the objectives of the study. The generateddata was subjected to critical discourse analysis, chosen because of its focus onpower relations, which are often problematic in the religious environment. Criticaldiscourse analysis complements critical emancipatory research and participatoryaction research in the fight for the marginalised members of the community. Data wasanalysed through three lenses, namely the textual, discursive and social practice level.The findings of the research were used to formulate a socio-religious hybriditystrategy.I have found that the hybridity of religions is a desirable way to improve the teachingand learning of Religious Studies. Owing to their lack of comprehensive religiousknowledge and prejudice, people tend to be afraid to engage other religions. It furtheremerged that recognising other religions as valid goes a long way to promote a cultureof peace in society, reducing the tendency of people using violence to express theirfeelings. The study revealed that religious extremists are often the perpetrators ofhuman abuse. Hence, people need to moderate their beliefs to achieve social justiceand recognise the good in other religions.Based on the generated data, I formulateda strategy that responds to the challenges of Religious Studies to foster curriculumrelevance for the learners. The limitation of the strategy is that it does not addressways in which extremists can be engaged to moderate their religious views, especiallythose that violate human rights, such as terrorism. My hope is that other researchers will explore this weakness to improve Religious Studies in Zimbabwean schools. Irecommend the use of this strategy in the quest for curriculum relevance inZimbabwean schools and elsewhere.

[发布机构] University of the Free State