In Europe, religious education is recognized as a resource, a tool used for the purpose of promoting democratic values, realizing human rights and active citizenship. More precisely, religious education serves as one of the tools for accomplishing European policies in the matters of coexistence in a pluralistic Europe. The institution that promotes it the most is the Council of Europe, connecting it with the principles of its own organization, namely human rights, democracy and the rule of law.  (Council of Europe 2003, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014; Keast, 2007; Jackson 2014) The need to expand and deepen knowledge about the religious phenomenon within the school education system is becoming increasingly obvious, and education for interreligious learning and dialogue in the context of intercultural education has become particularly important.

International research has shown that two aspects are particularly important for interreligious learning:

1) cognitive aspect: knowledge about other religions can greatly contribute to overcoming prejudices and stereotypes that prevent communication;

2) emotional and interactive aspect: collaborative learning, learning through encounters that promote empathy and mutual respect among members of different religions, is recognized as the most effective method of interreligious learning. (Korkeakoski – Ubani, 2018; Whitworth, 2020; Rothgangel – Jäggle – Aslan, 2020; Sweetman 2021)

Although there seems to be a tendency in Europe to implement interreligious learning through a non-confessional and value-neutral model of religious education, it should be pointed out that certain recommendations and declarations (Council of Europe 2008, 2011, 2015) show that confessional (the term used in the documents is ‘denominational’) religious education can achieve the goals of the religious dimension of intercultural education: ‘learning about religions and non-religious beliefs is not incompatible with denominational learning, as both types of learning help to shape values and attitudes, especially those needed to promote the core values of the Council of Europe’. (Council of Europe 2009) Although there are differences in those two approaches, there is no obstacle to the achievement of intercultural goals, but it is necessary that the approach to learning about religions includes and respects certain principles and values, advocating holistic teaching as parents have the right that their children are religiously educated in accordance with their religious affiliation. An open attitude and critical reflection must be advocated in every model. Religious education must promote intercultural goals, reduce ignorance, remove prejudices and stereotypes.

In this analysis, the main research question revolves around the extent to which confessional religious teaching, in all three versions present in the Croatian national curriculum, is open to intercultural education. It is important, in fact, to answer the question relating to the extent to which religious education takes into account interreligious education and dialogue within the framework of intercultural education.

In the Croatian educational system, the subject primarily responsible for this issue is religious education. There are three confessional religious education curricula in the national curriculum: the Catholic religious education curriculum, the Orthodox religious education curriculum, and the Islamic religious education curriculum. The aim is to investigate the representation of the Council of Europe’s policy guidelines on the religious dimension of intercultural education within the subject curricula of Islamic, Orthodox and Catholic religious education. The theoretical premises of the research were based on the guidelines contained in the fundamental document of the Council of Europe on the religious dimension of intercultural education (Council of Europe, 2008) and intercultural competence (Jackson, 2014). The key concepts of the content categories stemmed from the aforementioned theoretical framework and in the context of the educational policies of the Council of Europe, they are expected to be implemented in the subject curricula at the national level.

Quantitative methodology was used for the research. The quantitative research was implemented using the method of comparative content analysis which included three subject curricula of religious education in the Republic of Croatia: the Catholic religious education curriculum, the Orthodox religious education curriculum, and the Islamic religious education curriculum. The units of analysis consisted of the following curriculum categories: purpose, goals, domains, outcomes, learning and teaching of the subject. This analysis is sometimes supplemented with elements related to other categories of the curriculum, such as connections with other school subjects. The analytical matrix consists of detailed analysis criteria that include the following aspects: 1) in regard to the cognitive aspect, to investigate the presence of discussion on other religions, i.e., to investigate how much importance is given to the acquisition of knowledge about other religions (religious communities) in a particular curriculum. 2) in regard to the emotional and interactive aspect, to investigate how important the following values are in each individual curriculum to the promotion of interreligious dialogue: coexistence, dialogue, cooperation, mutual respect (especially regarding members of other religions / religious communities / worldviews).

At the level of educational policies, the Republic of Croatia opted for the principles of intercultural education, in accordance with the educational policy of Western European countries. In the matters of educational reforms, Croatian legislation was guided by European recommendations and documents on European lifelong competences, integrating them into educational programmes. This paper will present the results of a comparative analysis of religious education curricula, which has not yet been represented in the scientific-research context in the Republic of Croatia. Considering the representation of the religious dimension of intercultural education in the curricula of confessional religious education, the implementation of the Council of Europe guidelines is expected in its versions. Nevertheless, it is expected that the results of the comparative analysis will reveal the existence of differences in the content representation of the religious dimension in the three subject curricula of confessional religious education.

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