Refugee children have never been so numerous in Europe and especially in Greece, which is a major country of entry and hosting of refugees. These children are either accompanied or unaccompanied, and some have no relatives. According to the United Nations’ 1989 Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), “all CRC rights are to be granted to all persons under 18 years of age (Art. 1) without discrimination of any kind (Art. 2).” Refugee children, as all children, hold “the right to education” (Art.28), which aims to achieve “the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national, and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin” (Art.29, 1d). Greek law, moreover, addresses that they all should have access to a full range of educational services, including school, university, and vocational training programs. Within this context, we argue for synergy between peace education, democratic citizenship, and social pedagogy and its potential to enable all children in schools, refugee children included, to be educated. This chapter focuses on a current initiative in 18 Northern Greek schools in which there are reception classes with the aim of the project being that 150 schools providing secondary education that offer reception classes would have taken part by the end of the school year 2020–2021. The program is titled “School for All—inclusion of refugee children in Greek schools” and is organized and run by the Wergeland Center and the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs that aim to support all school members with the ultimate goal of creating a democratic and inclusive school environment. The use of the Council of Europe’s ‘Whole school approach' and the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (2018) are proposed to be used in practice. The first results that show reducing conflict are obvious, while it seems that a synergy between peace education, democratic citizenship, and social pedagogy can improve social cohesion within communities so as to increase resilience against conflict. Finally, the chapter reflects on the relationship between peacemaking and faith traditions, especially Greek Orthodox and Islamic traditions, as well as the value of inter-faith dialogue while aiming for inclusion.

Η παρούσα μελέτη διερευνά τον θρησκευτικό γραμματισμό και τη θρησκευτικότητα των νέων που αποφοίτησαν το 2020 από τη Γ΄ Λυκείου της ελληνικής Εκπαίδευσηςκαι έχουν διδαχθεί δέκα χρόνια υποχρεωτικά το μάθημα των Θρησκευτικών. Σκοπός της είναι να περιγράψει το επίπεδο του θρησκευτικού γραμματισμού και της θρησκευτικότητάς τους. Η έρευνα πραγματοποιήθηκε από 12-10-2020 μέχρι 20-02-2021 σε 996 απόφοιτους δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης μέσω ηλεκτρονικών ερωτηματολογίων. Τα συμπεράσματα που εξάγονται είναι πως οι νέοι στην Ελλάδα κατέχουν μέτρια ποσοστά θρησκευτικών γνώσεων και θρησκευτικότητας. Η συμβολή της έρευνας έγκειται στο ότι παρέχει μία εικόνα για το επίπεδο θρησκευτικού γραμματισμού και θρησκευτικότητας της σύγχρονης γενιάς στην Ελλάδα, η οποία θα έπρεπε να λαμβάνεται υπόψη στον σχεδιασμό του Προγράμματος Σπουδών της Θρησκευτικής Εκπαίδευσης.

The study examines which type of religious knowledge acquired in Religious Education in Greek Secondary schools can initiate both personal and collective change in understanding and appreciation of different cultures. It is blended research using participatory action-research with ethnographic elements methodology. The research gathered qualitative and quantitative data through questionnaires, focus groups, journals, and the technique of the “Most Significant Change” from four resources/target groups (students, teachers, parents, researcher). It took place during the 2017–2018 school year in a High and an Upper Schools in which the researcher participated in the school communities as a teacher. Statistical analysis (SPSS), content analysis and thematic analysis of the data show that religious knowledge, developed in Education with the aim of religious literacy, as defined in the context of Greek/European context, can operate on a personal and collective level, in cultivation of respect and underacting of cultural diversity. This is achieved when the religious knowledge is understood as experience and is meaningful when applied to the concepts of understanding, reflection and action. The overall finding is that transformative dynamics of religious knowledge facilitate both minor and major changes in the mindset of young people. Concluding, in Religious Education without sacrificing the religious content of the subject, a high degree of cultural recognition and acceptance of religious diversity can be achieved, and to a certain extent enable a change in attitude towards immigrants and refugees, in other words the ‘other’ as well as in communication and acquaintance between team members, recognition of and a greater degree of acceptance of otherness, and the development of relationships which were non-existent before.

This paper aims to present research on measuring competences for democratic culture. It describes the development of a multiple-item scale that measures competences in teaching democratic citizenship and human rights through religious education. A principal component analysis based on the 135 items of the Council of Europe’s Reference framework of competences for democratic culture was carried out in two phases, in order to construct and refine the scale. The result was a 52-item scale divided into six components. This was tested for its reliability, factor structure and validity; firstly on a sample of 123, and secondly on a sample of 403 secondary RE teachers (2018-19). The research scrutinises the concept of democratic competences as being the ability to mobilise and deploy relevant values, attitudes, skills, knowledge and/or understanding. It concludes that these competences are more complex structures than has been assumed.