The dispute over the place, accommodation and tolerance of religion and religious expression in South African public schools, as well as globally, has been vehement. This is, to some extent, because public schools reflect the multicultural and religious societies in which they are found. In addition to their diverse backgrounds, public schools in South Africa and elsewhere are dominated by Christianity, with most people claiming allegiance to it and, sometimes, discriminating against the other minority religions. This has led to governments developing a plethora of legislation, policies and regulations to redress the dominance, unequal treatment and discrimination of the dominant religion. This study was undertaken to answer the question: “How do public schools promote the learners’ right to freedom of religious expression?” This interpretive multisite case study explored the experiences of the SGB chairpersons, principals, Life Orientation educators and learners at three public secondary schools in the Bohlabela District of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The research used interviews, document analysis and observations to elicit the participants’ views and understandings of how their various schools’ religious observance policies promoted the learners’ right to freedom of religious expression. The findings revealed that most schools have not changed the way they conduct religious observances since the promulgation of the National Policy on Religion and Education of 2003. Moreover, learners still experience religious intolerance and religious discrimination because schools promote single-faith religious observances. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2021. / pt2021 / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

Num contexto de iniquidade social em que os matizes étnicos são escala de privilégio a partir da vinculação com os valores europeus advindos ainda do processo colonial, qualquer traço de negritude ou vinculação com as culturas nativas tende a ser fonte de discriminação. Tal realidade se reflete de forma potencializada em desrespeitos e perseguições nas escolas nos momentos em que estas pertenças têm de ser assumidas em função de preceitos religiosos.Este trabalho procura debater tensão entre a multiplicidade de matrizes que compõem a cultura, e por consequência a religiosidade brasileira, e a ascensão de um pensamento religioso hegemonizante no ambiente escolar. Esta discussão foi proposta a partir da implementação de oficina culinária tradicional com professores, funcionários e alunos de Educação de Jovens e adultos. A oficina, uma intervenção artístico-pedagógica chamada Conversa ao pé do fogão, calcada nas leis 10.639 e 11.645 versou sobre as matrizes étnicas afro-brasileiras por meio do resgate da Tradição Oral. Nas cozinhas dos estabelecimentos de ensino, rememorando os saberes dos mais velhos, os participantes prepararam pratos típicos afro-brasileiros amplamente difundidos enquanto discutiam os choques, atritos e tensões entre essa cultura e a escola. Reunir-se em círculo, contar histórias, cozinhar, comer e discutir foi o meio de trazer a tradição oral e a ancestralidade para um ambiente em que a suposta laicidade escolar esconde uma cosmovisão específica e excludente, tentando propiciar acolhimento e inclusão da miríade de formas de ver, pensar e entender o mundo presentes na cultura brasileira. / In a context of social inequality where ethnic nuances are a scale of privilege based on the linkage with European values still derived from the colonial process, any trace of negritude or attachment to native cultures tends to be a source of discrimination. This reality is reflected in a potentialized way in disrespect and persecution in schools at a time when these belongings have to be assumed due to religious precepts. This work seeks to discuss tension between the multiplicity of matrices that shape the culture, and consequently the Brazilian religiosity, and the rise of a hegemonizing religious thought in the school environment. This discussion was proposed from the implementation of traditional culinary workshop with teachers, staff and adult students. The workshop, an artistic-pedagogical intervention called \"Conversation at the foot of the stove\", based on the laws 10.639 and 11.645, approached the Afro-Brazilian ethnic matrices through the rescue of the Oral Tradition. In the kitchens of educational establishments, recalling the knowledge of their elders, participants prepared typical Afro-Brazilian dishes that were widely disseminated while discussing the shocks, frictions and tensions between this culture and the school.To gather in a circle, to tell stories, to cook, to eat and to discuss was the means of bringing oral tradition and ancestry to an environment in which the supposed school secularism hides a specific and exclusive worldview, trying to foster acceptance and inclusion of the myriad forms of seeing, thinking and understanding the world present in Brazilian culture.