| dc.description.abstract | Integral to the Life Orientation curriculum is democracy and human right. This article contends
that considering human rights cannot simply be a theoretical exercise as the implementation
thereof affects lived human experience. Currently held narratives of lived experience need to
be dialogically explored. Integrally linked to any such exploration is the identity of the
explorer. It can be said that individuals are made to varying degrees by systems and networks
of power in society, including dominant discourses. However, they also have the capacity, by
exercising individual agency, to make themselves according to the way in which they respond
to the intersections that shape identity, including ethnicity, culture, class, religion, gender,
sexual orientation and so forth. This article seeks to explore teacher identity and, in particular,
teacher religious identity, with a view to transformed Religion Education. The argument is
made for Life Orientation teachers to negotiate their religious identity from a position of
‘religious identity paralysis’ or ‘religious identity paradox’ or even ‘religious identity flexibility’
to one of ‘religious identity transformation’. Both in-service and pre-service teachers
participated in the studies informing this article. | en_US |
