In Paper two, Religion, the public sphere and higher education, Professor Craig Calhoun addresses the issues around extremism around religions. My program is also working with students from a diverse ethnic and socio-economic background, so this is something very close my own teaching practice.
What if the students have religion-based misogyny? The Indian caste system is also religiously justified. How do we deal with religion-basses sexism and discrimination? What if the teaching is about ethics, and a student said that these ethical problems are not even negotiable? What if a Christian student discriminate another gay student saying that being gay is sinful?
Of course I understand not all Christians think that being gay is sinful; some even are very welcoming towards gay people. Craig points out that Anglican Church welcomes and supports minority faith and their concern. However, how do I handle it if the religion-based sexism or any kind of discrimination happens in my class? I believe even religions themselves should be up for debate, including the political aspects and ethical aspects. However, this is really tricky because people usually don’t like their own faith being challenged. How do we hold some intellectual discussions without being offensive?
When considering faith and ethnic background in education, I agree with you that how and how much to respect students’ backgrounds is a big issue, and I think your point is very central.
As a tutor, we need to be very careful in monitoring the situation because the issue is, for instance, religiously based, as you describe.
Personally, I think the key is respect for the individual. And I think it’s essential to find a way to respect each other’s positionality as a tutor without judging the superiority or inferiority of each other’s positionality. But it is case by case, and if I actually encounter the situation, I might feel that I do not have enough experience to be able to observe and guide the situation properly without causing discomfort, as you say. So the only way is to build up the experience step by step.