This master's thesis examines the issue of religious content in French public education. Its main purpose is to shed light on the situation in French public schools and to gain insight into the actual teaching of religious facts as foreseen in the French curriculum. France, which is the country with the most strictly enforced separation of state and religion, bases this on the concept of secularity à la française. This principle is now firmly rooted in French society and impacts many levels of social life, including public schools. Ideologically speaking, they are a neutral space in which religions and religious themes are discussed from a purely secular perspective. Pupils and teachers alike are not allowed to express their religious convictions, wear visible religious signs or in any other way attempt to show their religious identity in schools. The increasing cultural mix of pupils in schools, however, means that institutions can find themselves in conflict situations when it comes to religion. This is a rather complex issue which is not always easy to resolve, as it requires first of all good knowledge of religions, religious practices and, of course, the circumstances in which the incident took place, from the individual as well as from the school management, in order to be able to resolve the conflict.
|