Research Spotlight: Buddhism in English Secondary Religious Education (11-14 year olds)
Romana Meereis’ research explores how Buddhism is represented across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. To investigate this, she analysed key documents such as Locally Agreed Syllabuses, examination specifications and textbooks. She also interviewed teachers, Buddhist studies academics, a member of a SACRE, and representatives from Awarding Bodies.
This spotlight offers a whistle-stop tour of Romana’s research on Buddhism at KS3. She found considerable discrepancy between Locally Agreed Syllabuses, that textbooks are often formulaic, and that teachers have mixed views about the usefulness of the LAS system. As she notes in her research these issues are not new and reflect concerns that have been raised by practitioners and academics about Indic/Dharmic traditions for many years.
Questions for consideration as you watch and read:
- If you have taught Buddhism, what was your experience? How did you find familiarising yourself with the syllabuses and finding appropriate resources? Do the experiences of the teachers and stakeholders Romana interviewed resonate with you?
- If RE becomes part of the National Curriculum in England, what do you think could be done to improve teacher’s experiences with Buddhism, or teaching religions that have not encountered before?
- What do you think could realistically change that would make a difference to your teaching?
- Does Romana’s research surprise you? Why? Why not?
Romana Meereis is a final year Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education.
Locally Agreed Syllabuses
Initially, Romana looked at 30 Locally Agreed Syllabuses (LAS) . These were chosen using a random number generator. She examined how many pages were included in each LAS and how many times the search term “Buddh” appeared. The most noticeable factor that emerged was the discrepancy between the syllabuses, some had around seven pages whilst one had just over three hundred, some only mentioned “buddh” twice, whilst others nearly two-hundred times.
There can also be a significant difference between different LASs from the same local councils. The 2018-2023 Lincolnshire LAS contained only two mentions of Buddhism, but the next version of the LAS contained 168. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the SACRE wrote;
“[This syllabus] reflects the many changes that have taken place since the previous one was implemented. Based on a worldviews approach, it encompasses both religious and non-religious perspectives. By following it, pupils will develop knowledge, skills and understanding about religions and worldviews, enabling them to play a full part in our local and national community. […] We are very happy to commend this syllabus, trusting that it will transform teaching and learning, achieve high quality RE for all and enrich community cohesion.” (Lincolnshire County Council, 2025, p. 4)
After looking at 30 syllabuses, Romana examined six in more detail. Originally, she had intended to look at nine, but three were unavailable to her, usually because they were behind a teacher log-in.
The researcher looked at Leicestershire, Sunderland, Rochdale, Hounslow, Hull and Wokingham (Bracknell Forest Council et al., 2018; Rochdale Borough Council, 2019; Leicestershire County Council, 2021; London Borough of Hounslow, 2021; Sunderland City Council, 2021; Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council, 2022). The following were some of the main features she noticed.
Organisation
The syllabuses were organised either systematically, going through one religion at a time and step by step, or thematically, answering one question across multiple religious and non-religious traditions.
Some had a mixture of both approaches. For example, Leicestershire included a combination of thematic and systematic topic areas. Overall, the LASs favoured a thematic or mixed approach, with only Hounslow following a strictly systematic approach.
Language
Hounslow was the only syllabus to refer to Buddhism as ‘Dhamma’ and the only one to use strictly Pali terminology; as can be seen in the naming of Buddhism “dhamma”, rather than the Sanskrit “Dharma”, and the naming of the Buddha pre-awakening “Prince Siddattha Gotama” rather than the Sanskrit “Siddartha Gautama”. In the Hull syllabus, ‘dharma’ (Sanskrit) is used next to ‘anicca’ (Pali) with no explanation that these two terms are in different languages, and in a section on vocabulary for use with 7-11year olds on the same page “dhamma” is used with no explanation that it is the same as ‘dharma’ but in a different language (Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council, 2022, p. 29).
Textbooks
Romana looked at four Textbooks for 11-14 year olds aimed specifically at Buddhism; McKain’s Buddhism, Constance’s Living Faiths – Buddhism, Wood’s Modern World Religions – Buddhism, and Kolka’s Religions to InspiRE for KS3: Buddhism. (Wood, 2002; Kolka and Clarke, 2012; Constance, Bowie and Clarke, 2013; McKain, 2017)
Topics
All four of the textbooks shared some topics, which she found particularly interesting as they had no central syllabus to follow, so these topics could be seen as what the authors believe important knowledge for 11-14 year olds about Buddhism is. Each textbook also had different topics unique to it, but these appear to be more in-line with authors interests, for example, one has a focus on art, and another on two Buddhist families living in England. Here are the topics that were present across all four textbooks;
| The historical Buddha and his life story | The Four Sights | The Four Noble Truths | The Eightfold Path | The Sangha |
| Different Buddhist schools | Meditation | Festivals | Inspirational Leaders | Buddhism in the UK |
| Wealth and Poverty | Symbols | Scripture | Pilgrimage | Five Precepts |
| Karma, impermanence, nirvana, rebirth | Types of prayer/showing devotion | animal/human rights | war and conflict | environment |
Images
Every double-page-spread of the textbook, excluding contents and references, had at least one image, but often two or three. This formatting style means that there often aren’t very easily applicable images that can be placed alongside certain topics, which leads to unusual image or caption choice. For example, on a page looking at the Four Noble Truths there was a graphic of a doctor in thought, and a photograph of a busy shopping street. The doctor was used alongside a discussion of the Buddha often being compared to a physician, and the shopping street was linked to shopping, consumerism, and craving, but the choice of these two images meant that there were no Buddhist images on the page – despite there being Buddhist artwork depicting him as a healer.
Alongside this, there are no references for the images, the only references referring to copyright/the photographers. If a pupil were particularly interested in a photo from a textbook, they would find no further information about it in the references, and the captions rarely explain where images can be found. This creates (unnecessary) barriers for young people to interact and explore the material more deeply if they wished to do so.
Activities
The textbooks often contained activities for the students to do on every double-page spread. Whilst the majority focused on comprehension of the material given, some were particularly notable.
An activity from one textbook, portrays Buddhism as a monolithic tradition, and doesn’t reflect the plurality and diversity within it. An academic named Fujiwara argued that in Buddhist textbooks, precepts were often compared with Islamic Sharia law; when in her experience they are not considered so regularly in daily life, and that to the Japanese Buddhists she showed the textbooks, this form of Buddhism seemed unrecognisable (2019, pp. 244–245).
Interviews
For the work on 11-14 year olds, Romana interviewed teachers, as part of wider work involving visits to their schools, academics, and a Buddhist representative on a Standing Advisory Council for RE (SACRE).
When speaking to the SACRE representative Harry, not his real name, she heard that the Buddhism taught in the LAS he worked with did not align with his Buddhist tradition. Because of this, he had to modify how he spoke about Buddhism when conducting school visits, as pupils had no, or very little, knowledge of his tradition.
When asked if he would raise this in meetings, he said:
“[I just felt like] this is the content. It’s fixed because it’s agreed – I don’t know – with some exam boards or something. And so that’s it. And there’s no opportunity to change it”.
This is particularly interesting as Harry is referencing higher-up decision making processes, and exam boards, which don’t exist for 11-14 year olds or LASs.
When asking teachers about KS3 and the move to a national curriculum (interviews were carried out in 2023/2024) the teachers had very differing opinions. One reported that they liked the freedom to choose what they taught within the guidelines of their LAS, and they wouldn’t want a more prescriptive syllabus, whilst another said;
“We’re not a confessional subject, so there doesn’t need to be a reflection of the local area. There needs to be a national curriculum that allows the students to access what it means to be religious, to have a religious worldview and to become religiously literate. […]Because if you’re choosing to not teach Judaism because they’re already getting that information from their practice, and that’s where I kind of go. “But we’re not confessional” […] We are enabling the students to get what it means to be religious in the same way that history teachers are, you know, teaching students about what history is and how you could view it, interpret it, apply it, ignore it, rather than trying to turn them into historians. So, yeah, I’m intrigued by why demographic runs an academic subject.”
When asked about LASs, three of the teachers demonstrated very different views. One didn’t use hers and felt that it wouldn’t push her students enough, so made all of her resources. Another used a LAS from a different part of the country as it had a pronounced multi-disciplinary approach. Finally, one teacher explained that her school chose to use another LAS because it just did not align with what her Head of Department decided would be “higher ability religious studies”, but more so, their chosen LAS was structured in a way which reconciled with the way they wanted to teach. Their LAS was thought to be too broad to the point of being tokenistic.
To conclude
This chapter of Romana’s thesis examines Buddhism within KS3 Religious Studies in England. The research found mixed provision across the country, largely due to the LAS system.
It also found that textbooks are fairly formulaic and lack references, although they cover a wide range of topics. Finally, teachers expressed differing opinions about the LAS system and the move to a national curriculum.
It is important to note that concerns about discrepancies between resources, and about the accuracy and representation of texts, images and activities, are not new. These issues have been highlighted by practitioners and academics for many years, including in the work of Morgan, Cush, Nesbitt and Jackson, amongst others.
References
Bracknell Forest Council et al. (2018) ‘Wokingham Pan-Berkshire RE Syllabus 2018-2023’. Available at: https://wsh.wokingham.gov.uk/sites/schoolshub/files/2023-10/Wokingham%20Pan-Berkshire%20RE%20Syllabus%202018-2023_1.pdf(Accessed: 26 March 2024).
Constance, M., Bowie, R. and Clarke, G. (2013) ‘Living faiths. 1], [Schülerband: Buddhism / Mark Constance ; illustrations: Gareth Clarke’, in J. Dyson (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fujiwara, S. (2019) ‘Buddhism in RE Textbooks in England: Before Shap and After the Call for Community Cohesion’, Religion & Education, 46(2), pp. 234–251. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2018.1469906.
Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council (2022) ‘Agreed Syllabus for Religion and Worldviews’.
Kolka, D. and Clarke, S. (eds) (2012) Buddhism: for KS3. 1. publ. London: Hodder Education (Religions to inspire).
Leicestershire County Council (2021) ‘Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus’.
Lincolnshire County Council (2025) Lincolnshire County Council Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2025-30. Available at: https://www.lincolndiocesaneducation.com/_site/data/files/key_documents/CA54AAE1426142B5E48C9F7991EDEA9F.pdf (Accessed: 10 October 2025).
London Borough of Hounslow (2021) ‘Widening Horizons’. Available at: https://www.groveparkprimary.co.uk/docs/RE_Syllabus_-_Widening_Horizons_Dec21_v3.pdf (Accessed: 30 April 2024).
McKain, N. (2017) KS3 Buddhism. Harper Collins.
Rochdale Borough Council (2019) Rochdale Agreed Syllabus 2019-2024. Available at: https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/bowlee-park-community-primary/UploadedDocument/143f30ae-5fe9-4453-a3d4-e8900abbef73/rochdale-re-agreed-syllabus-2020-2025.pdf (Accessed: 30 April 2024).
Sunderland City Council (2021) ‘Sunderland Agreed Syllabus’.
Wood, C. (ed.) (2002) Buddhism. Core ed., [key stage 3]. Harlow, Essex: Heinemann, Part of Pearson Education (Modern world religions, [4], Core student book).