Research Spotlight: Ways of knowing: Diving into disciplines

This research spotlight brings together a carefully selected range of scholarship to support teachers engaging with disciplines and “ways of knowing” in Religion and Worldviews education.

Download the reading list here

As you read this research spotlight you might like to consider;

• How does a disciplinary approach to RE change the types of questions pupils are encouraged to ask, and how might this influence the depth of their understanding?
• Which disciplinary lenses (for example, theological, philosophical or human and social sciences) are currently strongest in your curriculum, and where might there be opportunities to deepen or rebalance them?
• What practical strategies from this reading could you adapt to help pupils engage more critically with texts, concepts or lived experience in RE?

This research spotlight highlights both broader curriculum thinking and subject-specific research, helping teachers to situate disciplinary RE within wider conversations about knowledge. Foundational work such as Christine Counsell’s writing on taking curriculum seriously and the Education Endowment Foundation’s work on disciplinary literacy provides a useful starting point, emphasising that subjects are shaped by distinctive ways of asking questions, constructing knowledge, and communicating understanding. Together, these pieces help frame why a disciplinary approach matters, particularly for building pupils’ ability to think carefully and critically within RE.

Alongside this, a growing body of research focuses specifically on how disciplinary thinking operates within Religion and Worldviews education. Reports such as Panjwani, Bowie and Clemmey’s work on hermeneutics foreground the importance of interpretation in engaging with religious texts, while the multi-disciplinary worldview report by Benoit, Hutchings and Shillitoe explores how different lenses contribute to richer understanding. Fraser-Pearce and Stones’ Knowing Well in Religious Education further develops this by examining what it means for pupils to gain depth and coherence in their knowledge. These studies are complemented by classroom-focused research, including Ryan Parker’s work on engaging primary pupils with parables, and Sophie Smith’s Farmington report on strengthening disciplinary literacy across transition points. Together, they illustrate how disciplinary approaches can move beyond theory into meaningful classroom practice.

Finally, a range of articles and books offer practical interpretations of these ideas for teachers at different phases of their careers. Katie Gooch’s work on “scholarly” RE in the primary classroom and Helen Sheehan’s exploration of intensive practice in ITE both show how disciplinary knowledge can be developed through carefully structured teaching. Earlier contributions, such as Stephen Pett’s discussion of insider and outsider perspectives, continue to shape thinking about standpoint and interpretation in RE. These ideas are extended through key texts including Reforming RE (Chater, ed.) and the Ways of Knowing toolkits for primary and secondary phases from RE Today, which provide accessible strategies and classroom resources. Taken together, this reading list supports teachers to deepen their subject knowledge, refine their curriculum thinking, and develop pupils’ understanding of how knowledge is constructed within Religion and Worldviews.