A critical policy analysis of local religious education in England

ABSTRACT

This critical policy analysis investigates the opinions and activities of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs) in England. It uses a critical approach to educational policy to examine the diffuse power structure of SACREs and give voice to those local councils. Using data gathered in an online survey of SACREs, conducted between January and May 2017, it critiques the activities of SACREs and, in identifying what they see as their future role, questions whether the complex, producer-based governance structure of religious education is preferable to a simple, neo-liberal centralised legal settlement. It suggests that those individuals and groups which are successful in surviving in the increasingly competitive, marketised, local RE policy landscape become intrinsic parts of the national neo-liberal solution.     

Including secular philosophies such as humanism in locally agreed syllabuses for religious education

The 2004 National Framework for Religious Education (NFRE) innovatively recommended that secular philosophies such as humanism, or secular worldviews, be included in locally agreed syllabuses for religious education (RE) in England. However, the NFRE is a non‐statutory document, and Agreed Syllabus Conferences (ASCs) and Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs), the bodies responsible for RE in each local authority (LA) in England, are not obliged to respond to its recommendations. This article reports the responses of 80 LAs to the recommendation to include secular worldviews, and examines the range of mechanisms for including secular worldviews across 27 agreed syllabuses. The author discusses key issues to consider when revising agreed syllabuses to include secular worldviews and concludes that, while there is not yet a best model for inclusion of secular worldviews, many locally agreed syllabuses are valuable in pointing ways forward.     

Spaces of contest for religious education reform in comparative perspectives: Scotland and Malawi as cases

Educational reforms, particularly in a contested subject such as Religious Education (RE), have unsettled boundaries principally because actors demand or expect different outcomes of these reforms. In the cases of Scotland and Malawi the present paper examines how different stakeholders have engaged with RE reforms. It thus ascertains whether, if at all, there are major points of difference on salient issues that underscore the micro-politics of RE reform in radically diverse national contexts, one African (Malawi) and other European (Scotland). It concludes that despite the complexity of RE as a school subject and subtle differences in national contexts in which it is debated and constructed, there is greater similarity on issues that underpin the micro-politics of RE reform in transnational contexts.     

A comparative study of how social cohesion is taught in Islamic religious education in Finland and Ireland

Abstract

Based on classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers, parents and students, this comparative study looks at how social cohesion is promoted in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) lessons in Muslim schools in Ireland and non-faith schools in Finland. The study analyses teaching in the following areas: intra-religious cohesion; inter-religious cohesion and commitment to society. The findings reveal that despite differences in the governance of IRE as a subject taught in both types of schools, the IRE classroom emerges as a space, whereby teachers use power as agents for internal governance of religion. The authors conclude with some implications and offer some considerations for future research and practice.     

Swedish religious education at the end of the 1960s: classroom observations,early video ethnography and the national curriculum of 1962

The aim of this article is to present a unique corpus of film-recorded classroom observations of sixth-grade classes (age 12–13) in the Swedish cities of Gothenburg, Partille and Trollhättan in the late 1960s. The material documents how RE could be taught in Swedish schools in line with the curriculum of Lgr 62 which internationally was an early attempt to design an approach to religious education (RE) which responded to demands of pluralism and objectivity and before the name of the subject was changed from Christian Religious Education (CRE) (Kristendomskunskap) into RE (Religionskunskap). The aim is also to scrutinise how the documented teaching and classroom activities relate to the curriculum of the time. 52 film-recorded classes in CRE have been analysed. One result – not surprisingly, as the teachers knew that they were being filmed – is that the content of teaching follows the CRE syllabus. As Christianity occupies the bulk of teaching time, it can be questioned whether the subject meets the objectivity requirement. There were few references to the experience of the pupils and the surrounding society. The heated public debate about the subject is not observable in the classroom.     

Preparing primary school teachers to teach religious education

Under the guidelines for Initial Teacher Training, all potential primary teachers are required to learn about teaching religious education. However, religious education is not a high priority on ITT programmes and trainees may often have little introduction to it. Given the sensitive nature of religious education, what is the best way to prepare trainees for teaching religious education, and how far do we need to take into account their views about the subject? This article reports on a study involving trainees on a one‐year PGCE course. All the students were preparing to teach in primary schools and were not specialist religious education trainees. The aim of the study was to discover how trainees felt about teaching religious education in the primary school and how far their feelings linked to their views about religion. The conclusions suggest that any effective preparation of the trainees needs to recognise the diversity of their starting points and allow them opportunity to reflect on their views of religion and religious education.     

Religious Education,Big Ideas and the study of religion(s) and worldview(s)

This article outlines the ‘Big Ideas’ approach to curriculum reform, as applied in the ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ project. A critical analysis follows of the outcomes of the University of Exeter’s ‘Identifying Principles and Big Ideas for Religious Education’ project, which sought to apply the same approach to Religious Education (RE) in English schools. This project made great headway in generating ‘Big Ideas’ to inform and improve the selection and sequencing of RE curriculum content. However, its primary focus on subject content knowledge means that ‘Big Ideas’ about epistemology and methodology are lacking. The article recommends an additional focus on multi-disciplinary, multi-methodological, inquiry-based, reflexive learning, which would ask why, how, where and by whom our ‘knowledge’ of religion(s) and worldview(s) is generated. In this regard, the article posits four ‘Big Ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s)’ to highlight the symbiotic relationship between knowledge and knower, and to reject the false dichotomy between the object of study and method of study. In so doing, it draws upon the theoretical framework underpinning the ‘RE-searchers approach’ to primary school RE, which correspondingly exemplifies how such ideas can be taught in practice.     

Significant learning in catholic religious education: the case of Temuco (Chile)

ABSTRACT

The object of this article is to reveal the teaching strategies used by teachers for religious education in Temuco, Chile. The paradigm used was qualitative and the design was a single interpretative case study. The data were collected by semi-structured interviews with pupils and religious education (RE) teachers. The results show convergences of successful strategies, such as the use of conversations to form opinions related with the pupils’ everyday interests. We conclude that significant learning for catholic religious education in schools (CRES) includes teaching strategies associated with individual and collective reflections and conversations on topical social issues. Thus, religious education may enable us to advance towards a pluralist approach to the teaching of religion.     

Nurturing identity formation in adolescence through narrative learning: a dialogue between the pedagogies of media literacy and religious education

ABSTRACT

In these last four decades or so, adolescence became understood as the time when young people ask fundamental questions about themselves, each other, the world, and one’s past, present and future life that seek unity of purpose and coherence. For most young people the digital media are popular modalities through which they seek, consciously or unconsciously, meaningful answers to such questions. Multimodal spaces are sites for adolescent identity construction, a reality that prompted media educators to focus more on youth as authors of multimodal productions that provide opportunities to create narratives of self. RE has been increasingly justified by the support it provides students to become subjects of life, and the potential to provide opportunities for meaning-making. This essay explores how these functions of RE become more possible through the creative pedagogy of MLE and the digital technologies it utilizes for storytelling, especially photography and film-making which can engage the processes of interpretation and meaning-making, imagination and critical reflection. The creativity of MLE can be positively utilized in RE for meaning-making and identity formation. This paper draws upon the Maltese context in which RE is more of a confessional nature (CRE). This model could significantly benefit from such an endeavour.     

Views of Omani post-basic education students about religious and cultural tolerance

The study aims to investigate the views of Omani post-basic education students (Grades 10–12) about religious and cultural tolerance. The sample consisted of 1390 male and female students in grades 10, 11 and 12, from four of Oman’s seven regions. A questionnaire was used to gather data, which consisted of 27 items divided into five domains. The results showed that students place a strong emphasis on the importance of religious and cultural tolerance, both within Oman society and worldwide. They are also not in favour of any type of aggression, religious and cultural symbols or the fuelling of disagreements between religions or cultures. The results also indicated that female students are more strongly concerned with tolerance than males, grade 12 students more concerned than those in grades 10 and 11, and students from Muscat more concerned than those in other less urban areas.     

Key values of a Dutch cooperation school and the practice of religious education

This article presents the results of a single case study from a cooperation school in the Netherlands. A cooperation school is the result of a merger between a public and a denominational school. Pupils from secular and religious backgrounds meet in the classroom. This religious diversity in this school is explored by an empirical research study. The research question was how key values of the school and of its teachers are exerted in religious education. Content analysis of interviews and videos of the ‘moment of contemplation’ show that there is a discrepancy between the school values and the practice of this moment. Conclusions concerning a social and a substantive perspective are drawn in the light of theoretical insight concerning diversity in religious education.     

Internationalisation and the validity of knowledge in religious education as a field of research

ABSTRACT

Building on the notion of validity claims within the discussion on international knowledge transfer in religious education as a field of research, three views on the contextuality of knowledge are discussed. From a classical perspective in the sociology of science, the issue of validity must be treated irrespective of matters of context. Secondly, from the perspective of postcolonial studies, this naïve view is criticised as a veiled form of Eurocentrism. Thirdly, these two general views are concretised in light of a reception process bridging the Global South and the Global North. To this end, exemplary factors contributing to the inclusion of Paulo Freire’s pedagogical work in discourses on religious education are analysed. What emerges through these analyses is a differentiated view of validity resting on the de- and recontextualisation of knowledge that allows for it to oscillate between different contexts.     

The use of teaching materials in religious education in Sweden: a quantitative analysis of Swedish religious education teachers’ reported use of teaching materials in RE classrooms

Abstract

Recent studies show that religious education (RE) and various media outlets serve as increasingly important arenas for religious socialisation among Swedish youths. At the same time, it has been shown that media material, for example in the form of various news media, often make their way into RE classrooms to be used as materials alongside the more traditional textbooks. However, little quantitative research has been conducted in order to map RE teachers’ selection and use of materials in their classrooms, and what factors are involved in this selection. A nationally representative survey among 1292 RE teachers was conducted, and the results clearly show that textbooks are the most popular form of material, followed by pictures, sacred texts, documentaries, television news and news articles. Out of the relevant background variables, it was primarily school form, age, gender and religiosity that seemed to influence the teachers’ choices of material. The author concludes that familiarity with a certain form of material through personal experiences is a likely explanation for many of the correlations found and that further research is needed in order to explore the potential complexities that arise in the juxtaposition of classroom and media logics.     

Researching religious tolerance education using discourse analysis: a case study from Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Complementing existing studies on religious tolerance education which have mainly evaluated interventions using pre–post designs, this article argues that discourse analysis can be a viable alternative methodology for generating new knowledge in this field. To illuminate the potentials of discourse analysis, the article also presents a case study of the application of this methodology in analysing a religious tolerance education project in an under-represented Global South country, Indonesia – where religious conservatism and intolerance are on the rise. Following the contact hypothesis, the project involved students from different religions working on a film-making group assignment about religious tolerance. Three key discourses drawn upon by students in giving meaning to religious tolerance within these films are identified, namely, a discourse of nationalism, tolerant theologies, and romantic love; and their implications are discussed with regard to the promotion of religious tolerance in education.     

The challenge of religious education to deal with past and present Catholicism

Religious education (RE) in secondary schools in the Netherlands is challenged to redefine the educational aims. Concerning this debate, the preference for a cognitive approach is remarkably dominant, not only among scholars but among RE teachers as well. This appeal for a cognitive turn is based upon two hypotheses: first on the presumption of religious blankness among religiously unaffiliated pupils and second on a specific view on the way religious affiliation, religious reflectivity and religious tolerance are intertwined. The current article elaborates on a empirical research that questions both hypotheses. It first discovered the ongoing connection religiously unaffiliated pupils have with a former and conventional type of Catholicism, which impedes the development of their reflective personal religiosity as well as that of their interreligious openness. Second, this investigation revealed that personal connectedness with contemporary Catholic faith encourages these two developments. As such, this research contributes to a nuanced perspective on the chances and bottlenecks within religious learning by religiously unaffiliated and affiliated pupils. Concerning the redefinition of religious educational aims, it provides empirical arguments for a balanced combination of cognitive, attitudinal and experiential aims and advocates a preference for experiential and attitudinal aspects as a didactical starting point.     

The extreme as the normal; binary teaching and negative identification in religious education lessons about Islam

ABSTRACT

This article examines how representations of Islam in the media influence religious education. Reporting from a case study of religious education in an upper secondary school in Norway, the article analyses the way aspects of Islam are approached and structured by ongoing media debates. Based on research into media coverage of Islam in Norway, the article argues that when teachers adopt the polarized structure of media debates, they also come to privilege the more extreme actors in their teaching. Although the debates commonly present opposing views in order to give a balanced representation of the issue, the observed lessons often revolve around the most controversial side of the debate. This happens through what is called binary teaching and negative identification. In this way, lessons aimed at nuancing what is seen as biased media coverage of Islam, favouring controversial issues and extremism, may come to revolve around these same issues. The article claims that religious education in some instances reinforces the strong focus on controversial issues prominent in media coverage, confirming the ‘normality’ of extremism in Islam.     

Improving the pedagogy of Islamic religious education through an application of critical religious education,variation theory and the learning study model

This study presents a new theoretical and pedagogical framework based on the theories of Critical Religious Education (CRE), Variation Theory (VT) and the Learning Study model with the purpose of improving teaching and learning in Islamic Religious Education (IRE). It reports a Learning Study conducted in a secondary girls Muslim school in London on the topic of ‘Islam and being Muslim’. The aim of this research study is to examine if and how the proposed framework can be applied to IRE lessons, and how it affects the students’ learning. Thirty students of two seventh grade classes and their religious education teacher participated in the study. The data was collected through interviews and written tasks with the students before and after their participation in the study, video-recordings of the research lessons, and meetings with the teacher. Phenomenography and VT were utilised in the analysis of the data. The results suggest that the use of CRE, VT and Learning Study in teaching Islam contributes to students’ learning outcomes by means of helping teacher consider students’ diverse perspectives on religious phenomena when planning and implementing the curricular content, increasing students’ awareness of the ontological and epistemological dimensions of their faith as well as allowing them to make informed judgments about religious phenomena.