A Comparative Research on the Trend of Religious Education in Formal Schooling and Adoption of Agreed Syllabus in Multi-religious Societies

这项研究旨在对发达国家和发展中国家的宗教或价值观教育的性质有一个总体的了解，重点是少数群体与主流文化之间的关系。15位研究者对11个国家（美国、英国、荷兰、韩国、中华人民共和国、马来西亚、印度尼西亚、菲律宾、泰国、土耳其和黎巴嫩）的案例研究进行了调查和报告。在两年期间举行了四次大会，并在英国、中华人民共和国、黎巴嫩和土耳其进行了实地研究，明确了发达国家和发展中国家政府在国家或正式课程中反映宗教少数群体价值观方面的宽容态度。还试图建立正规主流教育系统所接受的宗教选择模式的框架或将其纳入主流。我们发现，一些因素，如宗教的存在，政治稳定，伊斯兰因素，教育的分散化，以及经济发展水平，可以发挥关键作用，在确定政府对少数民族宗教的态度，接受正规课程和国家学校系统。

This study intended to have the general insight over the nature of the religious or values education in developed and developing countries focusing on the relation between minority groups and mainstream culture. The case studies of eleven countries (USA, UK, Netherlands, South Korea, People's Republic of China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and Lebanon) were investigated and reported by fifteen researchers. Four general meetings were held during two years and field studies in the UK, People's Republic of China, Lebanon, and Turkey were conducted under this project.Difference between developed and developing countries was made clear in terms of the governmental attitudes of tolerance towards the religious minorities in reflecting their values in national or formal curriculum. An attempt was also made to establish the framework or categolization of the patterns of religious options accepted by the formal mainstream schooling system. We found that several factors such as the existence of established religion, political stability, Islamic elements, decentralization of education, and the level of economic development may play the crucial role in defining the governmental attitude towards the religions of minorities to be accepted in the formal curriculum and national school system.