Let’s not shy away from addressing controversial issues in the classroom

This blog is dedicated to Andy Squires, a great boss who encouraged me in promoting an RE curriculum that includes both religious and non-religious worldviews and addresses controversial issues in the classroom. Young people need a safe space to discuss difficult questions about the benefits and challenges of living in an increasingly multicultural society and here is my argument.

If Religion and Worldviews is to remain relevant to young people this will sometimes involve discussing controversial issues that arouse strong feelings, particularly those that raise questions about authority and power. In this blog I will argue that we should not avoid these moments of complexity or uncertainty, which are a natural part of our subject matter. Helping our young people acquire the tools to make sense of complex and often emotive issues could be the most important thing we do for them.

The world is complex and there is no getting away from controversial issues. Examining an issue that arouses disagreements might take us out of our comfort zone. We can see it as akin to sex education, uncomfortable at times but absolutely crucial for students to encounter, for their future health and confidence.

I suggest that we therefore need to embrace interpretation. Instead of using short lines of text to make a point, often with no acknowledgement of context, we could consider taking more time and exploring different ways text can be interpreted. We can help our young people in their developing critical awareness by exploring with them different interpretations, including interpretations we or they may not agree with. We can show the roots of each school of thought or tradition, the claims or purpose of the text, and the context in which the text was written as well as how this particular mode of interpretation has come about.

Of course any source can be open to this process, not just text. Outlooks, practices and traditions can be traced to a way of thinking and made sense of in context, offering a more textured and complex understanding of belief, belonging and culture. In becoming more comfortable exploring different interpretations, we are halfway there to understanding the roots of ideologies at play in current controversial issues, a key part of making sense of where the controversy has sprung from.

I propose that the consequences of not allowing young people to engage critically with aspects of religion and worldviews can lead to a limited understanding of religion, history, beliefs and ethics. It is also to reduce the intellectual challenge of the subject. As well as the educational case for critical analysis, there is the moral case for preparing our pupils to make sense of, engage with and thrive in a complex, diverse world.

Teachers might feel they lack the expertise or confidence to broach controversial issues, and we do need to both do our research and tread carefully. However if we steer away from critically analysing religions to avoid any difficult conversations, this can also trivialise religion. We can hold on to an educational argument in our uncertainty; we sometimes need to address controversy for educational reasons, in other words, so our young people gain a valuable understanding. A critical engagement with religion and worldviews is a particular approach that could feel uncomfortable to some pupils, so we have to defend it educationally, while approaching certain topics with sensitivity and care. Such care does not dilute our overall aim, it is part of our professional toolkit.