Confronting pluralism of values and beliefs in a public school

Vzgoja in izobraževanje ter njena načela v slovenski javni šoli izhajajo iz koncepta človekovih pravic in pojma pravne države. Iz koncepta človekovih pravic izhajajo tudi skupne vrednote sodobne družbe, ki jih mora javna šola, ki je namenjena vsem, upoštevati, spoštovati in razvijati. Vzgoja v javni šoli si mora tako prizadevati, da bi njeni učenci prevzeli te norme in vrednote, ki izhajajo iz človekovih pravic. Da lahko to doseže, mora privzgojiti tudi zavest o dolžnostih do drugih, saj pravice nikoli ne nastopajo brez dolžnosti do drugih in javna šola mora to spoštovati. Zaradi slednjega mora biti javno šolstvo laično in ne sme biti pod monopolnim vplivom cerkve, strank ipd. V javni šoli mora biti prostor za vse, ne glede na spol, raso, verska ali druga prepričanja, spolno usmerjenost ali kakršne koli druge okoliščine. Poleg laičnosti mora v javnem šolstvu biti zagotovljena nevtralnost. Ker učenci prihajajo iz različnih okolij in imajo različne vrednote ali prepričanja, je treba spoštovati načelo nediskriminacije. To načelo je tisto, ki učence varuje pred tem, da bi bili zaradi svojih prepričanj, rase, barve kože, spolne usmerjenosti ali katere druge okoliščine neenako obravnavani, kar pa je pri vse večjem pluralizmu vrednot in prepričanj težko in predstavlja učiteljem velik zalogaj. Poleg načela nediskriminacije se mora v javni šoli upoštevati tudi načelo objektivnosti. Z njo učitelji zagotovijo obravnavo snovi ter posredovanje znanj, ki temeljijo na znanosti in znanstvenih dejstvih. S tem znanjem učenci pridobijo vednost, ki jim omogoča, da razmišljajo kritično. Razvijanje avtonomnega, kritičnega posameznika pa je ena izmed glavnih nalog javne šole, saj mu to omogoča uspešno udejstvovanje v današnji pluralni družbi. Naloga učiteljev je, da pri učencih razvijajo spoštovanje, strpnost ter empatijo do »drugačnih« ter da razvijajo sposobnosti medsebojnega sodelovanja in sprejemanja. Ker je razlik, bodisi kulturnih, rasnih, verskih ali kakršnih koli drugih, med učenci veliko, morajo učitelji znati te razlike umeščati v pouk na način, ki nikogar ne diskriminira ali kako drugače negativno obravnava. Z magistrskim delom sem v ta namen raziskala, kako naj učitelji ter drugi strokovni delavci šole vodijo pouk in kaj lahko naredijo v primerih, ko se med učenci pojavijo razlike, ki temeljijo na različnih prepričanjih ter vrednotah, ne da bi pri tem prišlo do nespoštovanja teh razlik. V ta namen sem sestavila realistične primere, ko do tega lahko pride, ter s teoretično raziskavo predstavila in opisala ustrezna ravnanja učiteljev ter drugih strokovnih delavcev šole za te primere. Z raziskavo sem dobila vpogled v delovanje učiteljev in strokovnih delavcev šole v pluralizmu vrednot in prepričanj. Ugotovila sem, da je pomembno, da se učitelji zavedajo svoje vloge ter ves čas pazijo na to, da delujejo nediskriminatorno, in enakovredno vključujejo vse učence, ne glede na njihove vrednote, prepričanja ali značilnosti njihovih družin.The principles of child rearing and education in Slovenian public school arise under the concept of human rights and the perception of rule of law. The concept of human rights is the main foundation of common values to modern society which must be followed, respected and developed by public schools and therefore it is aimed to pupils to adopt those values arising from human rights. For this to be achieved a public school must as well impart awareness of duties to one another, for the rights are never acted without the duties to one another and a public school must respect that. Due to the latter, public education must be secular and must not be under the monopolistic influence of church, political parties, etc. A public school is a place where all pupils must be treated equally regardless of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, belief, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, health or other status. Pupils come from different environments and have different values and beliefs that is why there is no place for discrimination, meaning that all pupils are protected from being treated unequally for their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, belief, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, health or other status. However, the amount of work that teachers do is due to this growing pluralism huge. Furthermore, there is another principle that public schools must follow: a principle of objectivity. With that principle teachers ensure that the knowledge they pass on to their pupils is based on science and scientific facts so they can develop critical thinking. Developing an autonomous, a critical individual is one of the main objectives of public schools for only such an individual can become a successful grown-up in today\u27s pluralistic society. It is the teachers\u27 task to develop respect, tolerance and empathy in pupils and to develop the ability of mutual collaboration and acceptance. Teachers have to implement all the differences – cultural, racial, and religious - into their lessons in such a way that no pupil feels discriminated or being considered badly. In my thesis, I tried to find out how teachers should carry out their lessons and what to do in the situations where there are differences among pupils based on different values without disrespect. I made realistic examples of such cases and used a theoretical research to describe corresponding teachers\u27 and other educational stuff\u27s behaviour in those cases. With the research I got the insight into activities of teachers and other educational stuff on pluralism of values and beliefs. I found out that it is important for teachers to be aware of their role, to work non-discriminative and equally integrate all the pupils regardless of their values, beliefs and family characteristics