Religious education (RE) has been recently introduced into the Russian educational system as a compulsory regular school subject. The present study offers a critical analysis of one of the most popular Russian textbooks of RE. This critical analysis supports our earlier findings regarding the controversial character of RE in Russia. Despite the…

RE in Russia has been recently introduced as a compulsory regular school subject during the last year of elementary school. The present study offers a critical analysis of the current practice of Russian RE by comparing it with RE in Sweden, Denmark and Britain. This analysis shows that Russian RE is ambivalent. Although it is based on a…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ideological, political and social implications of the preference for orientating the public school curriculum in Russia towards Orthodox education. In some regions of the Russian Federation, Orthodox preferences increased by 20% over 4 years, and the indices reflecting enchurchment in the Russian regions…

Plans by the Hong Kong Government to introduce moral and national education (MNE) as a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools in 2010 encountered strong opposition. The controversy over the plans has lasted for two years, with the government and its supporters claiming that the subject will help to instil a stronger sense of national…

The question of religious education is one of the most controversial questions in the current discussions on religion and politics in Russia. Most notably a new subject, Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture (FOC), is of interest because it differs markedly from Western European approaches to religious education. Referring to "Culturology"…