One of the things I often do as an RE adviser is reassure teachers that they do not need to be experts before they teach RE. This is particularly important in primary schools, where teachers are expected to teach an enormous range of subjects. Yet when it comes to RE, I often meet teachers who feel that if they do not know enough about a particular religion or worldview, they should not really be teaching it.
I understand that feeling. We have all been there.
There can be a fear of getting something wrong, of pronouncing a word incorrectly, or of being asked a question by a pupil and not knowing the answer. But what happens when that lack of confidence becomes a reason not to teach something?
I have seen teachers become so uncomfortable with unfamiliar terminology or concepts that they avoid the topic altogether. At its worst, a unit of work can disappear from the curriculum because the teacher does not feel confident enough to teach it.
That should concern us. The answer to not knowing something is not to remove it. The answer is to learn it.
This is one reason why I value the new RE:ONLINE website. There are many excellent resources on the site, but three areas stand out for me: the subject knowledge essays, the glossary and the resources explaining a Religion and Worldviews approach. Together, they help teachers become increasingly confident and knowledgeable over time.
Subject Knowledge
When I work with teachers who are less confident in teaching different religions and worldviews, one of the first places I direct them to is the RE:ONLINE subject knowledge materials.
The core knowledge essays provide accessible starting points for teachers who want to develop their understanding of a particular tradition, for example Islam. They offer trustworthy, quality-assured information that teachers can return to whenever they need it.
What I find most powerful is that teachers can develop their knowledge alongside their teaching. They can read before teaching a unit, revisit the material when questions arise and build their understanding over time.
I also think there is something healthy about recognising that teachers are still learners. We sometimes create an expectation that the teacher must be the person in the room who knows everything. Education does not work like that.
There is nothing wrong with saying, “I’m not sure. Let’s find out.” In fact, that can be a powerful model of learning. The important thing is not stopping at “I don’t know”. It is remaining curious enough to find out more.
For subject leaders and headteachers, this matters too. They do not need to know everything about every religion and worldview, but they do need to know where teachers can find reliable support when they need it.
Religious literacy matters
The second resource I would encourage teachers to explore is the RE:ONLINE glossary.
At first glance this might seem like a straightforward recommendation, but I think it opens up a much bigger conversation about religious literacy.
In my race equity work, I often talk about racial literacy. If we are going to have meaningful conversations about race and racism, we need to become familiar with the language and concepts involved. I think something similar happens in RE.
Teachers sometimes encounter unfamiliar terms and worry about getting them wrong. Pronunciation matters, of course. If we are going to speak respectfully about religious traditions, we should make the effort to learn how words are said. But vocabulary is about much more than sounding knowledgeable.
Language carries meaning. Sometimes there is no perfect English translation for a religious concept. A single word may give us an approximate meaning, but it does not always capture the depth, history or significance contained within the original term.
This is why becoming familiar with religious vocabulary matters. It deepens understanding. We should not expect teachers to know every term they might encounter, but we should expect them to become increasingly confident in engaging with language that is unfamiliar. That is part of becoming religiously literate.
Understanding a Religion and Worldviews approach?
The third area of RE:ONLINE that I strongly recommend is the section exploring a Religion and Worldviews approach.
There are still misconceptions about what this approach means. For me, it is important that teachers understand it because it changes the questions we ask.
A Religion and Worldviews approach takes seriously diversity, continuity, change and context. It begins with people’s lived experiences and recognises that religion and non-religion are interpreted in different ways by different people.
This is important because religions are not simply collections of beliefs where everyone agrees on exactly the same interpretation. People debate, disagree and understand their traditions through different historical, cultural and social lenses.
Teachers do not need to become specialists in hermeneutics, but they do need to understand a simple principle: people interpret, and interpretation matters.
This connects closely with my own work around race and equity. When we think about diversity, we sometimes assume it is enough to add more diverse people into the curriculum. We need to go further and think carefully about representation.
Take Islam; if a teacher’s experience of Islam has largely been through one cultural community, it can become easy for that experience to stand in for Islam as a whole. Yet Islam, like Christianity and other traditions, is a global, diverse and internally varied religion.
If we present only one expression of a religion, we are not simply missing an opportunity to teach about diversity. We risk teaching an incomplete picture of that tradition.
One of the things I find most useful about a Religion and Worldviews approach is that diversity is not treated as an afterthought. It is part of the knowledge itself. People live their religions and worldviews through the lenses of culture, geography, history, community, family and personal experience.
This is also why the language of lived religion matters. RE:ONLINE’s subject knowledge resources and films allow teachers to encounter religious and worldview traditions through lived experience rather than as abstract systems. That requires a different kind of confidence: not simply confidence in knowing facts, but confidence in navigating complexity.
Perhaps that is why I keep returning to these resources. They give teachers somewhere to start.
If you do not know much about a religion or worldview, begin with a core knowledge essay. If you are unsure about a term, use the glossary. If you want to understand a Religion and Worldviews approach, explore the films, explanations and supporting materials.
I do not think we should expect teachers to become experts before they are allowed to teach. That is not realistic. What we should expect is curiosity.
The most worrying response to a gap in knowledge is not saying, “I don’t know.” It is saying, “I don’t know, so I won’t teach it.”
Developing religious literacy, like developing racial literacy, takes time. It comes through reading, listening, asking questions, encountering difference and being willing to learn. That is what RE:ONLINE offers: a place to begin. Ultimately, that is what we should want for our teachers and our pupils, not the confidence that comes from believing we already know everything, but the confidence to keep learning.
About
Shammi Rahman is an inclusive leadership and race equity consultant, RE adviser and educator. With over 23 years’ experience in education, specialising in Religious Studies, she supports schools and organisations with diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. Shammi is an RE adviser and is a former member of the NATRE executive. She also sits on the OCR History and Religious Studies Subject Advisory Board and Oak National Academy.