RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN A GENERAL EDUCATION COMMUNICATION CURRICULUM AT A SECULAR UNIVERSITY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Abstract

Challenges to Religious Education (RE) are highlighted in the theme of this year’s conference. However, this paper narrativizes its potential and positionality in Communication Studies (CS), particularly advancing Asian Communication Theory (ACT) in a General Education (GE) Communication course or curriculum at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). In line with ASEAN Integration that kicked off in 2015, regional and Indigenous or local concepts, frameworks, and models have been sought in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These include perspectives and worldviews of religions that flourished in Asia. Interestingly, with Buddhism and Hinduism within the region or adjacent countries, the Philippines has synagogues of Judaism, mosques of Islam, and cathedrals of Christianity. These all embody an indispensable intellectual resource that can advance ACT. Initially, this paper (1) revisits policy declarations or statements that promote the integration of such topics in the curriculum. For instance, in the ASEAN Work Plan on Education (WPE) in 2016-2020 first priority was ASEAN identity through Indigenous knowledge and local history. Further, it (2) reviews research within the same period. For example, Miike (2016) explains Asiacentricity as a metatheoretical framework with four dimensions: (a) linguistic, (b) religiousphilosophical, (c) historical, and (d) aesthetic. In terms of practice, this paper (3) reports the transformations of COMM 10- Critical Perspectives in Communication such that it now accommodates Hebrew, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and other Asian and Indigenous concepts and worldviews. This is an output of classroom-based action research in the Second Semester of the Academic Year 2022-2023.