Compulsory education in the primary school : a conflict between teachers' rights/professional ethics and the demands of a mono-cultural society?

Abstract

This study seeks to discover whether the current approach to the teaching of "Religion" in Maltese State Primary Schools is in conflict with the teachers' role and also their rights to freedom of belief. Chapter One deals with a definition of the word "religion" and also attempts to define what it is to be "religious". The second chapter examines the great influences that religion, especially Catholicism has had on Maltese culture and history and also the special place (with its ups and downs) that its teaching has enjoyed in our schools. Chapter Three is an attempt at defining the concept "education" and also the related concept ''indoctrination". The problems faced by the current "religious education" syllabus and also some alternative approaches are examined in Chapter Four. The sources of the above mentioned conflict are first tackled in this chapter and continue to be explored in Chapter Five which also backs the arguments of the previous chapter with the findings of the empirical research.