With partners:
Questions for Reflection
While reading these extracts, consider the following questions:
1. If a Christian boy and a Muslim girl develop a strong friendship at school, which their parents don?t know about, it could be especially problematic for the girl at home. Knowing this, would you as a teacher continue to let them sit together in class? If so, how would you explain this to other students who understand the potential conflict?
2. In his Australia Day speech ?Towards one destiny?, the Prime Minister said that in ?preparing young Australians to be informed? teaching history should ?cover the great and enduring heritage of Western civilisation, those nations that became the main tributaries and enduring heritage of Western civilisation.? Is there something missing here if ?young Australians? are to become ?informed and active citizens??
3. During a focus group discussion, a Muslim girl asked another Muslim girl why she wore the hijab at school, but took it off during sport. She genuinely couldn?t understand why, once everyone had seen her without the hijab, she bothered to put it on again. Do students, even Muslim students, understand the reasoning behind religious practices ? not just their own but those of other religions?
To explore these questions further work through the four steps.