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Western Theory, Indigenous Religion, and Local Material: Enhancing Learning Motivation among Students of Religious Studies in the Asian Context
Author(s) -
Chan Shunhing
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
teaching theology and religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.165
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1467-9647
pISSN - 1368-4868
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9647.00092
Subject(s) - indigenous , context (archaeology) , newspaper , sociology , psychology , pedagogy , mathematics education , social psychology , social science , history , media studies , ecology , archaeology , biology
One of the difficulties in teaching religious studies in Asia is that many religious theories and case studies are closely related to Western countries and therefore the knowledge and teaching material have a strong Western cultural bias. The cultural differences make teaching rather difficult and, most importantly, lower students' motivation to learn. To deal with the problem, this researcher attempted to introduce material on indigenous religions in various subjects in order to test whether such material would enhance student motivation. The material included newspaper articles, articles in books and journals, television programs, and documentary films. This paper is the result of an experiment in education and personal reflection on the use of indigenous religious materials in teaching religious studies in the Asian context.