Establishing interfaith dialogue through film

Abstract

Abstract This study establishes whether the shared experience of learning texts, and the engagement of ideas elicited from such texts can lead to ‘discovery’, ‘negotiation’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘acceptance’ among senior secondary school students of Moslem and Jewish faith. Thus, the central focus combines three key areas of enquiry: firstly, whether the study of literature can lead to a change in attitudes; secondly, an examination of how text selection influences the educational environment for fostering the principles of multiculturalism; thirdly, whether this exercise could lead to a programme of interfaith study to serve the explicit aims of the National Curriculum Statement of ‘Education for Democracy’, taken from the Preamble of the Constitution which aims to heal the divisions of the past, free the potential of each person and build a united South Africa 1. The principles that “underpin the curriculum are social transformation, outcomes based education, and high knowledge and high skills.”2 1 Department of Education, National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12 (General), Pretoria: Department of Education, 2002, p1 2 Ibid