In this second paper of the symposium the aim is to compare the conception of ethical competence in syllabuses from two neighbouring countries in two parts of the world. They have been selected so as to represent two countries, South Africa and Namibia, with a recent history of liberation from racialised apartheid systems; and two “older” democracies, Canada and USA, in the western world, neigbouring but still different. For South Africa and Namibia the national curricula are analysed, for USA and Canada a sample of states/provinces is made; the latter to limit the studied material.
Of interest in the preliminary analyses carried out so far, is that the forming of ethical competence within the respective curricula mirrors interesting different patterns in organising ethics education as part of a RE-subject, or not. One can also note that the understanding of religion, culture, and secularisation, or a secular understanding of the state, influences how ethics education is organised – and seemingly also affects what kind of ethical competence that is expressed in the curricula.
As both papers in the symposium are developed in close cooperation the analysis of the curricula from the Nordic countries will in relevant parts be made use of also in the analysis of the curricula under study in this study.