INTEGRAL EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES: RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN FOCUS

Abstract

Religious Education, currently regarded as an area of knowledge, is part of the National Common Core of Brazilian education and is therefore a mandatory curricular component of Elementary Education, just like the other areas of knowledge. Like any field of knowledge, Religious Education has its object of study, didactics, and clearly defined assessment. Thus, as a field of knowledge, it aims to develop with students a specific and distinct form of work within a perspective of integral education, understood here as encompassing cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional aspects. In this context, the present article aims to reflect on the specific pedagogical practices of Religious Education as a curricular component and on its potential as an area of knowledge for integral education. Methodologically, this is an exploratory bibliographic study, with data analysis based on the guidelines proposed by Bardin (2016). The results show that Religious Education has increasingly gained importance within schools, even though it is offered to students on an optional basis. When taught in accordance with the BNCC and the National Curriculum Parameters, in a way that values life, religious existence, the search for the transcendent, and interreligious dialogue - without engaging in proselytism - it contributes substantially to the integral formation of citizens. Thus, Religious Education, as part of the human and religious formation of the individual, should not be seen merely as a simple curricular subject, but as an integral part of holistic human development, providing knowledge of the basic elements that constitute the Religious Phenomenon.