THRE501 - The Hermeneutic Communicative Model of Religious Education

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

THCT565 Reflecting on Faith, Recontextualising Tradition

Unit rationale, description and aim

A number of learning and teaching strategies will be utilised in this unit. These include self-directed activities and readings; seminars; critical reflections; and collaborative work.

In this unit, participants will analyse the history and theories of religious education in Australia, including the magisterial (catechetical) approach, the kerygmatic approach, the life-centred (experiential) approach, the Shared Christian Praxis approach, the social science (typological) approach, and the educational approach. Participants will then examine the Hermeneutic-Communicative Model (HCM) of religious education. The theories will be evaluated utilising findings from the Melbourne Scale typology developed as part of the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) research, that is, as potentially reconfessionalising, secularising, correlational or recontextualising. Participants will then rehearse the practical application of the HCM through developing skills in dialogue and moderation. The knowledge and dispositions considered in the previous units in the course will provide participants with practice in articulating their informed, communicative and critical witness to the Christian tradition.