David Chidester
University of Cape Town

Since 1991, the Institute for Comparative Religion in Southern Africa (ICRSA), based at the University of Cape Town, has been involved in policy research, pilot projects, curriculum development, and text production to create a space in South African public schools for a religion education1 program that will meet the needs of an emerging democratic nation.2 Certainly, we are not alone in this work. While there are some detractors who want to maintain separate programs of single-faith religious nurture in the schools, there is also considerable interest and expertise all over the country in a framework that honors the diversity of South Africa itself. These resources are being drawn upon to create new curricula, new textbooks, and new teacher-training programs for multi-religious education. Recently, we have been encouraged by support from the national Department of Education for these new initiatives in teaching and learning about religions and religious diversity.3

Rather than reviewing religion education in the country as a whole, as many essays in this booklet have done, I will focus instead on the different ways that religion education has been taught in South Africa's classrooms. As our work on new models, methods, and materials for religion education in South Africa has developed, we have become acutely aware of the multiplicity of voices that can be heard in the process of fostering inter-religious communication in the classroom. Briefly, reviewing our work over the past decade, we have identified four types of voices -- evident in the actual teaching of religion -- that raise different challenges for religion education in this region.4 Some of the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches will be reviewed.

Authorial Voices: The Challenge of Representation

In the first South African textbook for inter-religious education, Festivals and Celebrations, designed for pupils aged ten to twelve, we adopted the strategy of using 'authorial voices.'5 What do we mean by this term? 'Authorial voices' assumes a conventional approach to education in which an omniscient authority conveys information. In the book noted above, five authors, from different religious backgrounds, are the dominant voices. They describe the sacred calendars, holy days, and religious rituals of South Africa's religious communities. These voices provide information on important traditional African rituals; on the Hindu Navaratri and Deepavali; on the Muslim Ramadan and Eid ul Fitr; on the Jewish Passover and New Year; and on the Christian Easter and Christmas. According to the promotional literature for this book, the "information, images, and pupil's activities are fun but at the same time respectful." The quality of respect is evident in the book's commitment to accuracy of representation.

While having certain merits, the use of 'authorial' voices raises the challenge of representation in at least two senses. On the one hand, coming from different religious backgrounds, the authors appear to be representative of the various religious constituencies reflected in the book. To refer again to the promotional literature, "Each section is written by a practising member of that particular faith or tradition, for whom the festivals and rituals have deep personal meaning." However, is this a requirement for textbooks in inter-religious education? Does each voice come from a recognised representative of the religion that is being featured? Who decides that the authors are in fact representative of the various religious constituencies they claim to represent? Even if the authors describe religious practices that hold for them "deep personal meaning," they are still confronted with the limits of description itself. For example, 'authorial voices' tends to fix and freeze the fluid repertoires of religious life into descriptive patterns that can be easily conveyed and assimilated.

In recognising the problem of representation posed by this approach, Festivals and Celebrations is based on an innovative teaching and learning method that takes description only as a point of departure. The descriptions provided by the "authorial" voices become a kind of working script for the performances and improvisations of pupils. Working individually and in small groups, the pupils themselves assume responsibility for the process of teaching and learning. Rather than being required to listen passively to an inter-faith forum, pupils are encouraged to engage actively in their own explorations of religious diversity. By assuming the roles of researchers, writers, presenters, and respondents, pupils are also producers of knowledge in this participatory process.

Gatekeeper Voices: The Challenge of Authenticity

In our second textbook, Sacred Places, the voices of 'gatekeepers' feature prominently in a richly illustrated tour of churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, and the sacred sites of African traditional religions.6 In this textbook, the official perspectives of religious 'gatekeepers' provide the primary frame of reference for a tour of sacred places. Such official voices seem to satisfy the interest of religious practitioners in ensuring authentic self-representation of the religious traditions that are included in educational programs. In contrast to our authors, who are among the laity in their communities, these 'gatekeepers' are members of the clergy, formally charged with the responsibility of maintaining standards of religious authenticity. While issues of self-representation are crucial to learning about religion, they are not always exclusively determined or permanently fixed by the official spokespersons of religious communities. Hence, this approach also has limits. As Judith Everington has observed, the multiplicity of interpretations and perspectives that constitute a religious tradition cannot always be reduced to a single essence or a set of fundamentals determined by a panel of 'gatekeepers.' In contrast to such official formulations, Everington proposes that "an authentic representation of a tradition is one which is effective in portraying the richness of its internal complexity and diversity."7 Hence, 'gatekeeper' voices do not necessarily resolve the challenge of authenticity.

In the South African context, the notion of authenticity is especially important as it has been linked by apartheid ideologues with a commitment to "self-determination." Such "self-determination," however, has led to the forced separation of people under a promise to preserve the purity of distinct languages, cultures, and religions. Even in our current situation, some critics of religion education continue to advocate a kind of religious apartheid in which pupils from different religious backgrounds will be nurtured in their "own" religion in public school programs. Such a policy of religious apartheid in public school education can further entrench differences and divisions in the name of religious authenticity.

As Judith Everington has found, we need "to recognise the fluid nature of the 'boundaries' of religious tradition, the internal diversity of each tradition and the processes by which traditions are internally contested and are continually growing and changing."8 Alas, 'gatekeeper' voices (and, in our case, the gatekeepers of educational policy) are often interested in defending rigid boundaries around religious traditions. As such, they can frustrate the educational aims and objectives of learning about religious diversity.

Polyphonic Voices: The Challenge of Diversity

A third textbook, African Religion and Culture Alive!, began to address the challenge of diversity through the use of fictionalized voices. This approach attempted to engage students with the complexity of multiple perspectives in learning about religion.9 The term "polyphony," of course, is drawn from Mikhail Bakhtin's analysis of the multiple, disparate, and hybrid voices at play in literary works of fiction.10

The actual creation of the text noted above grew out of an ongoing conversation among three educators, from different backgrounds, who came together to explore the repertoire of African traditional religion as a living heritage of religious and cultural resources. Relying on a tape recorder, as well as on mutual respect, collaboration, and friendship, the three authors transformed their own voices into as many as eight different dramatis personae. In this text, the polyphony of multiple voices evokes the fluid and vital character of a religious tradition that is simultaneously the most ancient and the most modern religion in South Africa.

In educational theory, the principle of polyphony clears a space for one of the greatest achievements of the classroom, the cultivation of a capacity for surprise and laughter. Unfortunately, what Bakhtin called the "European popular culture of laughter," has been vigorously suppressed by educational theory and practice, as Norbert Elias demonstrated, through rationalised and embodied discipline.11 Experiencing laughter as a challenge to their authority, missionaries and educators have often condemned pupils in South African schools to a serious regimen of silent memorisation.

Alternatively, the use of fiction can open up a free space of conversation that includes laughter. In the text of African Religion and Culture Alive!, for example, humor is generated by the recurring problems that the fictional character of "the Professor" encounters with his automobile. Although these problems are based on real problems, they become, in the fictionalised context of the text, vital opportunities for pupils to connect their exploration of African religion with the immediate situations and circumstances of the world around them in ways that are enjoyable. As our promotional literature claims, we strive for "information, images, and pupil's activities [that] are fun but at the same time respectful." Our experiment in producing a fictionalised, polyphonic text for teaching and learning about African traditional religion suggests one avenue in which respect and laughter can merge into a more exciting educational process of discovery.

Dialogical Voices: The Challenge of Participation

In view of the above approach, it still remains a challenge to make fictionalised voices more real. By making fictional voices "real," I mean that we are seeking to move from the creative modelling of conversations to the faithful recording of actual intra-religious and inter-religious dialogue as resources for texts in religion education. We call this fourth category of voices 'dialogical' because it arises out of a process of ongoing research that has involved inter-religious inquiry and conversation.

Let me offer a practical model. We undertook a project a few years ago-the Pupil's Project-in which young people were not the targets, but the producers of educational material. As they visited different religious communities, the pupils reflected on what they learned. Their observations were recorded. On videotape, their insights and confusions were on display for a year in an exhibit at the South African Museum. In the process of editing that video, we were struck by both the seriousness and the fun of the project. Some of the children's observations, I am sure, would not have been approved by the official "gatekeepers," such as one girl's observation that a sacred place of prayer looked exactly like a "Barbie Doll house."

Other observations, however, should give 'gatekeepers' and other defenders of the faith pause for reflection. For example, the children consistently wondered about gender relations in the religious communities that they visited. Repeatedly, they observed that men and women were separated "so the men would not be distracted." The 'gatekeepers' must certainly wonder about the significance of that research finding by the children! In sum though, this approach has offered a unique and more creative way for students to raise fundamental questions about various belief systems.

Conclusion: Generating Questions

The challenge of participation in a multi-religious society leads us to draw together the different types of voices in the process of teaching and learning. While 'authorial' and 'gatekeeper' voices continue to be heard, they are orchestrated through a 'polyphonic dialogue' in which the pupils themselves provide the primary material for the religion education program. In this kind of dialogue, textbook 'authorial' voices do not ask all the questions and 'gatekeepers' do not give all the answers. Both questions and answers (which generate more questions) are produced by participating in the learning process. As pupils are encouraged to engage in research outside of the classroom, participation involves a broader conversation about religion. Through such participation, pupils can explore the diversity of religious life in South Africa through sacred times and places, through stories and rituals, and through the different ways of imagining what it means to be human.

END NOTES
1 South Africa's Department of Education uses the term "religion education," which will be used throughout this essay.
2 David Chidester, Gordon Mitchell, Isabel Apawo Phiri, and A. Rashied Omar, Religion in Public Education: Options for a New South Africa, 2nd. ed.; UCT Press, Cape Town, 1994.
3 Department of Education. "Introducing Religion Education into Schools," Manifesto on Values, Education, and Democracy; Department of Education, Pretoria, 2001, pgs. 43-45.
4 An earlier version of this discussion appeared in David Chidester, "Man, God, Beast, Heaven, Light, Burning Fire," in Trees Andree, Cok Bakker, and Peter Schreiner, eds., Crossing Boundaries: Contributions to Inter-religious and Intercultural Education; Münster and Berlin, Comenius Institute, 1997, pgs. 161-67.
5 Janet Stonier, Nokuzola Mndende, A. Rashied Omar, Saraswathi S. Pillay, and Azila
Reisenberger, Festivals and Celebrations; Juta, Cape Town, 1996. 6 Janet Stonier and Tracy Derrick, Sacred Places; Juta, Cape Town, 1997.
7 Judith Everington, "A Question of Authenticity: The Relationship between Educators and Practitioners in the Representation of Religious Traditions," British Journal of Religion Education 18, 2, 1996, pg. 70.
8 Ibid., 71; see Robert Jackson, "Religion Education's Representation of 'Religions' and 'Cultures,'" British Journal of Educational Studies 43, 3, 1995.
9 Chirevo Kwenda, Nokuzola Mndende, and Janet Stonier, African Religion and Culture Alive!; Via Afrika, Cape Town, 1997.
10 Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and his World (trans.) Hélene Iswolsky; Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1984.
11 Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process: The Development of Manners, Changes in the Code of Conduct and Feeling in Early Modern Times; Urizen Books, New York, 1978.

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