“Religion and Education in Canada” Session at Congress 2015
2015 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion
May 30 – June 2, 2015
http://www.cssrscer.ca/sites/default/files/CSSR_CFP_2015.pdf
held in conjunction with the
Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Conference Theme: “Capital Ideas”
http://www.ideas-idees.ca/media/events/2015-congress-humanities-and-social-sciences
Theme: Religion and Education in Canada
Session Organizers:
Christine L. Cusack, University of Ottawa, ccusack@uottawa.ca
Leo Van Arragon, University of Ottawa, lvanarragon@gmail.com
The issue of religion in Canadian classrooms is at a crossroads of conflicting opinion and ongoing political debate. From a recent judgment granting opt-out rights for religion courses in an Ontario Catholic school to the deconfessionalization of all primary and secondary institutions in Quebec, the issue raises a myriad of practical and theoretical questions about the intersection of diversity, inclusion, and exclusion. Deference to Constitutional guarantees, for example, have historically kept challenges to public funding of separate schools at bay, while institutional mandates that privilege enrollment based on religious affiliation pose ethical dilemmas for the citizenship project of public education. The future of religion in public classrooms invites diverse, interdisciplinary engagement, including reflections on contested territory such as the recognition of pluralism and the promotion of religious equality as a component of public morality. This session aims to explore innovative approaches to religion and education in the Canadian context and to assemble a diverse offering of viewpoints on the role of public education in a plural democracy.
We welcome paper proposals from faculty members and graduate students in a variety of academic areas including education, law, political science, public policy, sociology, and religious studies.
