School Catechesis and the Sense of Religious Identity of a First-grade Pupil – A Case Study

Abstract

In a world full of cultural pluralism, a child faces the difficult task of choosing from a variety of values, norms, behaviours, or rituals. It grows up amid the cultural structure of the family, but also in school and peer environments, representing elements of a moral culture focused on professing a specific faith. Making choices is a search for identification, a sense of community, belonging, and at the same time being different from others. From the beginning of its existence, a child seeks to belong to a social group. It does that by encountering different cultural spaces in the process of growing up. As a result, the child shapes its social identity and with it its religious identity, which may be modified during its development and upbringing in the family and school environment. The article presents a case study of a seven-year-old child who, after experiencing school catechesis, was characterised by a greater identification with the Catholic faith. The qualitative research established the functioning of elements of the child’s religious life which did not come from its family environment, but were formed as a result of experiencing religion during school catechesis.