Outline
1.0
Introduction
1.1 The
Concept of Religious Education
1.1.1 The
Progressives (George Albert Coe)
1.1.2
The
Reconstrctionists (Harrison Elliott)
1.1.3
The Liberals
(Paulo Freire)
1.1.4
Lifestyle
Education (Max Weber)
2.0
Socialization
2.1 Etymological
analysis
2.2
Sociological
meaning of socialization
2.3
Socialization
in Anglo-American Literature
2.4
Socialization
in German Literature
3.0
Religious
education as intentional religious Socialization (Educative Vision of John H.
Westerhoff)
3.1 Community
of Faith: Context of Religious Education
3.2
Means of
Religious Learning or Faith Acquisition
3.3
Personality
Types
3.4
Three ways of
Learning Process
3.5
Concerns of
Religious Education
4.0
The Igbo
Speaking People of Eastern
Nigeria
4.1 Education
and Socialization in Igboland
4.1.1
The
Family as the Pivot of Igbo Traditional Education
4.1.2
Education and
Religion
4.1.3
The Community
4.1.4
The “Dibia”
4.1.5
The “Ofo”
4.1.6
The Igbo
Individual: Subject of Education
4.2
Socialization
in Igboland
4.2.1
Music
4.2.2
Dance
4.2.3
Drama
4.2.4
Moonlight Play
5.0
The Influence
of the Missionaries
6.0
Expected Role
of Christianity (Religious Education) in Igbo culture.
6.1 Positive
and Dialectical Role
6.2 Corrective
and Substitutive Role
6.3 Extraordinary
Role
7.0 Criticism and Evaluation.
1.0 Introduction
The concepts of “religious education” and “socialization” look very
simple at first sight but upon exploration, becomes very difficult and
tactical. Many Educationists have propounded theories and hypotheses with
regard to the above concepts and each one sees the different concept from a
particular bias and societal orientation. However for religious education to be
really effective in any given culture or society, it is necessary to have
alongside a clear educative vision, one formulated to meet the needs of the
culture or society in question. The church in Igboland is more traditional,
family centered, faith sharing and community-oriented. Religious education and
socialization operative in the western world according to the various schools
of thought cannot adequately serve the catechetical needs of the Igbo speaking
people of Nigeria. The reason being that the meaning of religious education varies from
place to place. This fact is affirmed by G. Moran as he writes, “In the U.K,
there is a defined meaning to the term “Religious Education”, a meaning almost
completely at variance with the use of the same term in the U.S. Religious
Education in the U.K. usually means a subject in the curriculum of the state
school; in the U.S., Religious Education never means that.”
Going further he asserts, “Religious Education” can mean many things in the U.S., but one thing it dose not mean is a subject taught in the state
school”. He
therefore believes that if a fully developed theory of religious education ever
comes to birth in the English Language, it will probably be in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. For, “in those Countries many people combine their own experience
with literature from both the U.S. and the U.K."
I therefore intend in this paper to cite some examples of the hypotheses
propounded by some religious Educators and Sociologists on these two basic
concepts in order to have a fair treatment of the issue as it relates to the
Igbo speaking people of Nigeria. More so, to take a critical analysis of the Igbo themselves in the
Pre-western period, and the aftermath of Western colonization and missionary
activities; the result of which will lead to a formulation and re-formulation,
adaptation and re-adaptation of the concept of religious education and
socialization in Igboland. This paper cannot claim to have exhausted the issue
at stake; rather it lays bare some basic truths on the issue as well as
suggesting ways to improving the lives of the people through conscious raising
and inculturated religious education and socialization.
1.1 The concept of religious education
The major
thrust of the literature in religious education for the past decades has been
solely concerned with the personal, or with what professional educational
literature calls the psychological foundations.
Since the 1950s, we have benefited from a number of significant and formative
books having to do with development and growth, interpersonal relations, and
spiritual formation. Allen Moore believes that religious education since the
turn of the twentieth century has shared with progressive education a social
agenda and that has included issues such as racial inclusiveness, peace and
justice, improved international relations.
Thus religious education should be grounded in sociological and social-ethical
categories.
1.1.1 The Progressives (George Albert
Coe)
A revised
social theory of religious education is grounded in the works of George Albert
Coe and the other Progressive theorists who provided the first systematic theory of
religious education written from a sociological point of view. Coe’s concern
led him to address some issues like peace and justice, the rights of the poor
and radically oppressed, the rights of labor, and the causes of economic
justice. He was less vocal on the issue of women liberation and the protection
of the natural order although one might guess that they would be the central
concerns of his day. Coe and others who followed him believed that religious
education has a special responsibility to name social evil and to participate
actively in the radical reconstruction of the social order. Persons are not
realized apart from the realization of a new social order. More so, persons
were fully realized by participating in the community. Just as society teaches
individuals, individuals should help to improve the society through education.
Coe believes that the function of religious education is to create the kind of
social groupings that can expand into a new democratic order. The goal is to
manifest the kind of cooperative living that would model what society could
become.
1.1.2 The Reconstructionists (Harrison
Elliott)
Harrison
Elliott who succeeded Coe believed that the nature of the self makes evident
the importance of a social theory of education. He understood that the goal of religious
education was the transformation of “individual striving” into “cooperative
efforts”.
Elliott’s social process of education is summarized in the following order:
-
The focus must
be on social problems,
-
All possible
solutions must be considered,
-
Solutions must
be genuinely understood,
-
Accuracy in
dealing with facts is basic,
-
Use of church
history, bible life and teaching of Jesus to develop a Christian perspective,
-
Examine
Christian perspective in light of current situation,
-
Define
proposed solution in terms of action,
-
Test solution
and evaluate the results.
Since education
is a social institution, which must function in interaction with other basic
institutions of society, the role of education is to begin to reconstruct
itself at the time that it participates in the fundamental reform of other
social institutions. Educational reconstruction begins, for instance by
addressing such issues as:
-
Curriculum
(the question of what is learned and how knowledge is shared),
-
Governance
(the question of who makes decisions about who is educated and how they are
educated),
-
Schooling (the
question of how society is organized in order to educate).
The aim of the Reconstructionists
is the reform and the remaking of the social order and the basic institutions of
society. It also serves to regulate sexual activities of persons, procreation
and nurturing of the young. They talk about learning as social
self-realization. It is difficult to make a clear-cut distinction between the
Progressives and the Reconstructionists as regards their views on religious
education. Suffice it to say that both views are interwoven, with one
emphasizing the priority of the individual over the society and the other, on
the importance of social reconstruction of society.
1.1.3 The Liberals (Paulo Freire)
Liberation
education developed largely out of the Latin American historical experience
where poverty and oppression are the major social realities. Conflict between
the social classes is a major source of content in liberation education and the
methods of social analysis, political change and social praxis contribute to
learning. All liberation education is ethical in the sense that the meaning of
justice is understood and implemented within the context of a concrete social
or historic situation. Education is basically understood as doing justice
rather than learning about the theories or principles of a just order.
Liberation education is therefore primarily political action education. Freire
believes that individuals regardless of their social plight have the ability to
probe critically their social reality, understand the conditions that control
their lives and deal with these conditions in a transforming way. For him
education is a practice of and a means to restore dignity to people. Freire
pedagogical methods were developed first in Brazil with persons who were extremely poor, illiterate and politically
disenfranchised. Knowledge of their political welfare becomes the educational
praxis. More so, photographs of the daily life of the peasants helped to
sharpen their perception as to what is going on around them and to stimulate
what he calls “generative themes” or the “powerful symbols of the contradiction
of their lives.” Liberation education is based on the belief
that persons are motivated by visions and by a consciousness that they have a
role of self-determination. There are some concepts in human existence that
needs no explanations. Those who live with them know them. It is only when
profound and enriching questions are asked about a real situation that ethical
decisions can be made for that situation and education can begin to take place.
1.1.4 Lifestyle Education (Max Weber)
Max Weber
introduced the concept of lifestyle into sociological literature by defining
lifestyle as a subculture of people who are formed around a shared way of life
based upon commonly held values and commitments. This model of religious
education shares some similar concept and assumptions with liberation education
especially the influence of Paulo Freire. Lifestyle education focuses on the
values and assumptions that influence how people live their public and private
lives. The focus is on transforming the personal awareness of persons in the
social context. In religious education, conscientization is often translated as
conscious raising to denote a process of apprehending one’s reality and a
vision of what one might become as a “liberated person”. Education has often
defined what actions are appropriate for a woman and what roles are permissible.
Women are socialized by family, school and other social institutions to take
their place in the home as wife, mother and volunteer in the domestic functions
of society especially school, church and child-serving programs such as
scouting and other nurturing agencies. Only with conscious-raising enterprises
have women come to protest the definition and the place of women in society and
to assume public and political roles in our society. The consequence has been
the need to change attitude and social order of work, family and politics.
2.0 Socialization
Socialization
as a concept in human development looks very simple to understand but extremely
difficult in the actual analysis. This is because, the process that go into the
becoming of personality are complex and numerous, both known and unknown. There
exists concept confusion about socialization, hence Brezinka asserts, “the term
socialization has gone through a variety of shifts in meaning over the years,
as the theoretical foundations of different socialization theories have been
criticized and revised, but it’s popularity continues unabated”.
Socialization as a concept can be applied to different fields of study-
sociology, political science, education, religion etc. The same is true in
theory formulations like religious sociology, professional sociology etc. We
also speak of socialization techniques, socialization institutions,
socialization program, and objects of socialization, socialization personnel,
agents of socialization and so on. All these terms stem from texts, which are
regarded as contributions to socialization research. A very quick definition of
socialization will be on the one hand referring to an inner process through
which people become “social”. On the other hand, to external process in
peoples’ environment through which they are “made social.” Included in these
external processes is education. However, it is important to analyze the term
“socialization” from its etymological viewpoint.
2.1 Etymological Analysis
Socialization as
a concept derives from the stem “social” which goes back to the Latin
“socialis” related to “socius’ and “societas.”
The substantive “socius” means: comrade, participant, “societas” means:
society, community, cooperative, connection to others. The adjective “socialis”
means: belonging to comrades, sociable, social, concerning society. Many senses
are associated with the English word “social”, from which the word
“socialization” and “to socialize” have been formed. Socialization as a term
belonging to the study of society dates back to the nineteenth century,
although the various meanings have been changed over the time. In social texts,
it refers on the one hand, to “any behavior or attitude that is influenced by
past or present experience of the behavior of other people direct or indirect,
or that is oriented consciously or unconsciously toward other people”, and, on
the other hand, to every “action directed in some sense toward the welfare
either of a whole society or it’s less privileged members.”
Brezinka
affirms that the word “sozial” was first adopted into Germany towards the end of the eighteenth century. However it became
widespread only after the mid-nineteenth century. The commonly encountered
meanings are the following:
-
Living
together, community, relevant to human,
-
Leading a
social life as an essential attribute of man or animals,
-
Interpersonal,
relevant to the relation between persons,
-
Relevant to
the situation, position or economic circumstances of a person in society,
-
Relevant to
qualities or modes of behavior which persons possess who, with respect to
accepted norms, are recognized as completely adequate members of their group,
-
Promoting
community, useful to the community, obligated to the community, showing regard
for others, relevant to the common good,
-
Relevant to
the advancement of lower social classes, economically weak and dependent groups
of persons; relevant to protecting the interest of workers and the improvement
of their condition,
-
Charitable,
benevolent, helpful, protective of those in need of protection, helpful to the
suffering.
2.2 Sociological meaning of Socialization
The term was
employed in connection with the most general question of sociology: “How do
groups arise?” or “how is society possible?” Brezinka citing different authors
attempts at various notions of the term socialization. Simmel believes that the
construction of a societal unity out of individual is achieved by socialization
process. Fraz Oppenheimer, a leading German Sociologist used the word
“socialization” as the animation of groups through the creation of values,
norms, and institutions such as law, religion and customs. Rudoff Lochner, a
German Pedagogue who attempted to develop empirical theories of education also
employed the term as a synonym for the process of forming groups, the formation
of community, the binding of persons to one another.
2.3 Socialization in Anglo-American
Literature
-
Irvin Child
defined socialization as the whole process by which an individual born with behavioral
potentialities of enormously wide range is led to develop actual behavior,
which is confined within a much narrower range.
-
Edward Zigler
together with Irvin sees socialization as the whole process by which an
individual develops, through transaction with other people, his specific
patterns of socially relevant behavior and experience.
-
Frederick
Elkin defined socialization as the process by which we learn the ways of a
given society or social group so that we can function within it. This definition
favors very much the learning process.
-
Orville Brim
sees socialization as acquisition of learning. The individual acquires the
culture of his group through learning. It is also a process by which society
creates persons suitable to carry out its functional requirements.
2.4 Socialization in German Literature
-
Dieter
Claessens sees socialization as a process of transmitting and receiving
sociological contents. He calls this a comprehensive process of value
transmission between society and individual or a process of handing down
culture.
-
Friedhelm
Neidhardt defines socialization as the transmission or transfer of behavioral
dispositions by Socializers to Socializands.
-
Klaus
Mollenhauer holds that socialization comprehends all learning processes whose
result constitutes a human organism as a member of a society.
3.0 Religious Education
as Intentional Religious
Socialization (Religious Educative Vision of
John H. Westerhoff)
Having seen the different schools of thought as regards
religious education and the views of Sociologists and others who have attempted
a definition on the concept “socialization”, we shall now attempt a combination
of the two concepts in the educative vision of John Westerhoff. He hails from
the United States of American, member and pastor of the Episcopalian church, a
well- known pastoral theologian and the professor of religious education at Duke University Divinity School, Durham. His esteemed personality is reflected in his many writings which
includes more than twenty books and articles on different subjects like
religious education, liturgy, theology, spirituality and so on. He reflects and
writes on religious education from a pastoral point of view rather than a
scholastic or scientific one, which makes him a more pastoral religious
educationist than a scholastic one. As a basis for his educative foundation, he
analyses the two sets of thinking regarding education. He holds that two groups
of educationist abound. The Environmentalists who place importance on nurture
(B. Skinner, E. Durkheim), and the Maturationists, who place importance on
nature (J. Dewey, J. Piaget and L. Kohlberg). The Environmentalists are more
interested in socialization, while the Maturationists focus more on
development. Westerhoff believes that the developmental concept of education is
important to the understanding of education from the point of view of
socialization.
Basically, Westerhoff’s educative vision is based on the
socialization point of view, as he has his theological vision from the
liberation point of view. He thinks socialization is the best concept to
understanding religious education at it’s best. He however distinguishes
between religious education and socialization. The latter according to him
includes education, but education is a distinctive aspect of it. He holds that
education refers to all intentional efforts made by persons or groups to aid
individuals in acquiring the knowledge, skill and disposition that make them
more or less able and acceptable members of the society. Hence he considers
education as intentional socialization or holistic socialization process. It is
from this basic vision that he accepts religious education as religious
socialization.
3.1 Community of Faith: The Context of
Religious
Education
The community of
faith consists in:
-
Groups of
persons who share a common story and vision
-
A group of
meaning interaction
-
A group of
three generations: past, present and future
-
A group which
has a corporate life
-
Baptism and
Eucharist, the means of Christian initial and nurturing.
3.2 Means of Religious Learning or Faith
Acquisition
These consist
of:
-
Ritual or
symbolic sharing - the way of
expressing or celebrating the faith and faith-experience of a community through
symbols. Ritual means the rites of a community, which binds the past, the
present and the future.
-
Actions
and behavioral shaping - the
life actions of the community of faith in the individual and corporate level
have an immense power to convert people to Christian faith. Our individual and
corporate actions in the society make a lot of influence in the society. As a
community of faith we engage in three levels of actions: personal,
interpersonal and social.
-