Research Summary: Teachers and Texts: The Findings Report

This project, a collaboration between Professor Bob Bowie and Ms Katie Clemmey of the National Institute for Christian Education Research (NICER) and the Centre for Research Evaluation in Muslim Education with Dr. Farid Panjwani at University College London (now renamed the Centre for the Study of Education in Muslim Contexts (CEMC) ), sought to support teachers in seven contrasting secondary schools, teach RE more hermeneutically. It was informed by research that the use of texts in RE classrooms is and has been an ongoing problem for many years that continues with the revised GCSE. It was inspired by the thought that a more hermeneutical approach in the subject might help both the transition to Religion and Worldviews education and also the development of a stronger disciplinary knowledge base. It was grant funded by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust and supported by Bible Society. It was a qualitative study of 7 schools with 10 teachers working to apply hermeneutical techniques to their curricula.

Researchers

Dr Robert Bowie, Farid Panjwani & Katie Clemmey

Research Institution

Canterbury Christ Church University

What is this about?

Should schools help students become good interpreters of religion, worldviews, and sacred texts? Should they help students explore what it means to be a sacred text scholar? This report is for all those interested in teaching sacred texts, in particular, the Bible and texts sacred to Muslims including the Qur’an. This project was part of REsearch 7, a Culham St Gabriel’s initiative. Academic papers about the project will be forthcoming in research journals and monographs. It took place between October 2018 and July 2019.

What was done?

We recruited ten participant teachers from seven secondary schools with diverse pupil population profiles and socio-economic and cultural contexts. Initial telephone interviews were followed by drawing up some plans of the teachers’ ideas about what they might want to test in their classrooms. The teachers were given some CPD about hermeneutics and its application. A CPD day involved an introduction to hermeneutics, sacred text scholarship, and expert guidance on classroom hermeneutics. There was also time for planning discussions. The CPD also involved six online ‘bookclub’ sessions on a group video conferencing system following a set of readings. The participants then planned and taught lessons taking ideas from the CPD and readings and adapting their curricula At the end of the summer term there were in-depth individual interviews of all the participants, carried out by the principle investigators.

Main findings and outputs

1. The teachers described a sense of agency that hermeneutical tools gave students in activities around the interpretation of sacred text, e.g. asking about what texts meant to the original writers, or how different interpretations of them may be made today.
2. The teachers reported that pupils were positive about engaging with longer extracts of sacred text including students who they had thought would struggle or lack motivation in such activities.
3. Hermeneutical approaches in these cases led to a deeper quality of conversation in lessons about texts.
4. Hermeneutics was seen as a valuable dimension in curriculum design allowing for progression through multi religious study.
5. Almost all of the teachers developed competent hermeneutical lessons, some with excellent examples of student work.
6. From their key stage 3 changes, several teachers thought that hermeneutics would lead to better GCSE responses, particularly in explaining differences within religions. They also felt that a better space for hermeneutics could be included in exams.

Relevance to RE

There is a greater possibility for change and for reform of religious education if the idea of inhabiting the place of a sacred text scholar becomes part of Religion and Worldviews in schools. It offers one pathway to unlocking a disciplinary study of how people find significance and read meaning through worldviews. Students can progress between the study of different worldviews through the scholarly study of sacred texts.

Generalisability and potential limitations

It was a qualitative study focussed on teachers, and did not seek to measure the actual change in students. The participants were self-selecting so probably had an interest in sacred texts. Findings cannot be generalised from this study and further study is needed, though the teacher responses are promising.

Find out more

Teachers and Text: The Findings Report

https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/nicer/hermeneutics

Research Summary: Signposts – guidance for RE teachers from the Council of Europe, and a related teacher training module

The book Signposts – Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious worldviews in intercultural education (Jackson 2014) is a summary of Council of Europe initiatives on the dimension of religions and non-religious convictions within intercultural education, written by Professor Robert Jackson to help implementation of Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec (2008) 12 in the member countries. Signposts is structured around responses to a questionnaire sent to the ministries of education in the 47 member states, asking respondents to identify difficulties anticipated for policymakers and practitioners in implementing the 2008 recommendation in their own national setting, The book is structured around these issues and informed by examples from research and good practice. This article gives details of Signposts before concentrating on a partner project at The European Wergeland Centre (EWC) in Oslo, transforming Signposts into a teacher training module. It outlines the module, giving safe space as an example of the themes covered. The material is of interest to RE teachers and teacher educators, providing an introduction to resources intended to be used in either university-based or school-based teacher training.

Researcher

Kevin O’Grady

Research Institution

University of Warwick

What is this about?

• What is the background to the book Signposts, and what are the book’s key themes?
• How is the Signposts teacher training module organised, and how is it intended to be used?
• What do Signposts and the teacher training module have to say about the issue of safe space, as an example of one of the issues covered?
• Where can Signposts and the teacher training module be obtained?

What was done?

The article is an introductory summary of Signposts and the related teacher training module, written by one of the consultants on the EWC teacher training project.

Main findings and outputs

• Signposts’ themes grow out of Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec (2008): understanding of cultural diversity must include attention to the role of religions and non-religious convictions in society. The book addresses potential difficulties identified by education ministries in the 47 member states.
• The form of education advocated is distinct from faith nurture, and concerned with understanding of plurality, though complementary with faith nurture. Attitudes and competences are involved: e.g. challenging racism, fostering tolerance.
• Seven themes are identified: terminology associated with teaching about religions and non-religious convictions, didactics, safe space, religions in the media, non-religious convictions, human rights and linking schools to communities.
• The EWC teacher training module team includes colleagues from Albania, Greece, Norway, Sweden and the UK. In the module, Signposts chapters are summarised into key points, links to other Council of Europe themes – e.g. Competences for Democratic Culture – and personal and professional implications for teachers.
• Following each chapter summary, follow-up activities are presented, enabling trainers to help teachers to reflect on their practice and improve their pedagogy.
• The module is suitable for university-based or school-based teacher training. All sections could be used, or some selected to address particular needs.
• Safe space is an example of an issue covered, referring to an inclusive classroom atmosphere where young people discuss their views openly together. Activities include practice writing to parents in preparation to teach their children about a controversial issue, considering classroom ground rules and analysing examples of pupil speech.

Relevance to RE

The Signposts and Signposts teacher training programme taken as a whole is designed with the clear aims of helping teachers to teach about religions and non-religious worldviews and helping teacher educators to prepare teachers for this task. The article reported here gives initial information about the programme. Interested teachers and teacher educators are advised to download the documents from the links provided below.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The article is a presentation and discussion of some research-based professional development resources for RE teachers and teacher educators, which should be of general interest and use. Again, Signposts is structured around potential problems in implementing Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec (2008), identified by education ministries across the 47 Council of Europe member states, indicating that there is a very broad basis for focusing on the issues chosen.

Find out more

Kevin O’Grady, Signposts: guidance from the Council of Europe on the dimension of religions and non-religious convictions in intercultural education, SO-didaktik (2017; 56-60), also available for free download at https://issuu.com/so-didaktik/docs/so-didaktik_nr4_2017

Robert Jackson, (2014) Signposts – Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious worldviews in intercultural education, Strasbourg (Council of Europe Publishing), also available for free download at http://ru.theewc.org/Content/Biblioteka/COE-Steering-documents/Recommendations/Signposts-Policy-and-practice-for-teaching-about-religions-and-non-religious-world-views-in-intercultural-education

The Signposts teacher training module is available for free download at https://theewc.org/resources/signposts-teacher-training-module-teaching-about-religions-and-non-religious-world-views-in-intercultural-education/

A blog piece by Ana Perona-Fjelstad, Angelos Vallianatos and Kevin O’Grady about the Signposts teacher training module is now available at https://www.reonline.org.uk/initial-teacher-training/the-signposts-teacher-training-module/

Research Summary: Learning outside the classroom in RE / Religion and Worldviews

A practitioner action research community of practice of teachers and mid-level policy enactors was formed, to engage with the question of how to enhance RE /R&W in primary schools serving socially disadvantaged children. The members’ professional values and assumptions were explored, and the needs of primary teachers in contexts of social disadvantage were assessed. The advantages of effective school-community partnerships were highlighted, leading to a recognition of the importance of learning outside the classroom in RE / R&W. A model was developed, centring on the importance of spaces for encountering the lived experience of religion, asking challenging questions, and sharing learning objectives.

Researchers

David Lundie, Waqaus Ali, Michael Ashton, Sue Billingsley, Hinnah Heydari, Karamat Iqbal, Kate McDowell & Matthew Thompson

Research Institution

School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow; Knowledge to Action, Blackburn; School of Education, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool; Outwoods Primary School, Warwickshire; Liverpool Community Spirit; Forward Partnership; St Cleopas Primary School, Liverpool

What is this about?

This is about improving RE/R&W provision for primary age children in areas of social disadvantage. It is about the importance in this respect of learning outside the classroom, especially encounters with lived religion, pursuing challenging questions, and sharing learning objectives.

What was done?

There were three cycles of action research. In each cycle, problems were identified and success criteria envisioned. Data was collected to support deliberation in each cycle. For the first and second cycles, there was an online training needs analysis of 26 teachers. For the second and third cycles, interviews and surveys with primary age pupils were undertaken, as well as surveys of places of worship and discussions with NASACRE.

Main findings and outputs

1. Two-way authenticity: there is a need for authentic encounter between the voices of marginalised young people and authentic representation of lived faith. What gets in the way of this: turning field sites into museums or illustrations of textbook accounts of faith, or silencing ‘difficult’ questions from pupils.
2. Importance of sharing learning outcomes: schools and field sites should understand one another’s purpose in the relationship. A respectful and safe atmosphere is needed, with understanding the lived experience of faith; an openness to questions, as well as opportunities for reflection, resisting the tendency to treat places of worship as either a museum or an extension of the classroom.
3. Children ’emphasised the importance of hearing the visitor speak about their beliefs in their own words, how they live and worship, beliefs about God or gods, services they attend, how their religion is different to others, traditional stories, charity work and the relevance of religious buildings they are visiting’ (page 8).
4. ‘A majority of the children said they would welcome the opportunity to ask questions about another person’s religion and how they lived, and that they would feel comfortable expressing their own views, though they did not feel that it would be appropriate to challenge a person’s religious beliefs. 79% agreed that visiting places of worship and welcoming religious visitors was useful in helping them understand a particular faith’ (page 8).
5. Many places of worship said they welcomed when teachers shared their learning aims ahead of a visit to enable them to understand pupils’ levels of prior learning.
6. Making the most of the opportunities from learning outside the classroom requires careful partnerships, effective preparation, the sharing of learning objectives and a willingness from pupils and field visitors alike to encounter challenging perspectives. The authors recommend the setting-up of an online portal to allow teachers and places of worship to link to one another, access self-evaluations, exemplification materials, and share aims and lesson plans.

Relevance to RE

The research illustrates the potential benefits of learning outside the classroom in RE / R&W, but also the work and care needed to maximise these. Teachers and others should be guided by it to develop genuine partnerships, based on the needs of schools and partner faith communities; and to prepare visits thoroughly, with close attention to the purposes brought by all participants and the kinds of questions children might pose and the experiences they might have.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Whilst action research studies are not generalisable as such, relying on contextual validity, the mixed-methods approach and professional rigour of this study mean that it is more than worthy of the attention of those seeking to address related concerns. Moreover, the findings regarding best practice in RE/R&W through school-community relationships are (at the very least) useful starting points for colleagues wishing to develop such relationships; and a reminder of the importance of these.

Find out more

David Lundie, Waqaus Ali, Michael Ashton, Sue Billingsley, Hinnah Heydari, Karamat Iqbal, Kate McDowell & Matthew Thompson (2021): A practitioner action research approach to learning outside the classroom in religious education: developing a dialogical model through reflection by teachers and faith field visitors, British Journal of Religious Education, DOI:10.1080/01416200.2021.1969896
The article is available open-access.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01416200.2021.1969896

Research Summary: Learning About Religion through Dialogue (LAR-D) final update report November 2021

Schools were linked to a selected and trained faith practitioner for an extended period of time, enabling an ongoing relationship to develop. The extended connection allowed for greater depth of dialogue, and thus, improved learning about the religion and culture of the faith in question. Schools reported that the project had reinvigorated their Religious Education and provided valuable professional development for staff.

Researchers

Mark Plater
Funding by All Saints Educational Foundation

Research Institution

Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln

What is this about?

Usually when schools have faith visitors (or make visits to places of worship) this is for a one-off, brief experience, and does not provide time for pupils and faith practitioners to get to know each other and to feel fully relaxed in discussing the complexity of issues that might be explored. Creating opportunity for longer term connections, it was hoped that genuine friendships might develop, enabling a much deeper level of connection and understanding.

What was done?

Funding was obtained to support six schools in a pilot programme, providing funds to release classroom practitioners for training events, and other project expenses. Faith practitioners from the selected religions were then identified, police checked, and trained by the Leicester based St Philip’s interfaith centre before being introduced to the relevant schools. Schools were then free to develop activities with their selected faith practitioner as appropriate to their needs.

Main findings and outputs

Two participating schools were unable to proceed with the programme for various reasons, but all of the others benefitted enormously from the programme, claiming that it had, strengthened teacher confidence in teaching about that religion, broken down stereotypes and assumptions, and given RE teaching an increased profile in the school.
Ongoing reports were provided on progress at three points during the programme, and a final report summarises the main outputs and overall impact.

Relevance to RE

First hand experience of dialogue with people from faith traditions is vital in order to make RE come alive and feel relevant and meaningful. However, there are benefits in developing long term dialogue relationships with a person of faith, rather than in brief encounters such as are usually organised (one-off speakers, or short visits to places of worship), helpful though these are.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This was a small-scale pilot study, and hoped-for further funding to expand the project is still being sought. Also, the project was interrupted by Covid and lockdowns, and some schools giving greater emphasis to Core subjects during the time that the study was in flow.

Find out more

https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/884

Research Summary: Introducing ‘Big Ideas’ to UK Religious Education

This report details the research undertaken at the University of Exeter to apply the ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ model (Harlen 2010) to Religious Education. The notion of ‘Big Ideas’ has been mooted as a suitable tool with which to negotiate the tricky task of curriculum reform. At the University of Exeter, the ‘Identifying Principles and Big Ideas for Religious Education’ project sought to follow Harlen’s example, given the lack of coherence in the RE curriculum at present (OFSTED 2013). A symposium of academics, consultants and RE specialists met on Dartmoor to try to identify Big Ideas for RE with the purpose of improving curriculum content selection and sequencing, and these have since been released in a wide-ranging report (Wintersgill 2017). Professor Rob Freathy, who was one of the lead researchers on this project, has also conducted research into how RE might take full advantage of the insights found in Harlen’s work by focusing not only on Big Ideas ‘in RE’ but also by considering methodological questions: Big Ideas ‘about RE’.

Researchers

Professor Rob Freathy & Dr Helen John

Research Institution

University of Exeter

What is this about?

The RE curriculum has long been recognised to be a problematic issue, with OFSTED describing it as overcrowded, incoherent, and confusing for pupils (OFSTED 2013). The Science curriculum faced similar problems and has been revised based on a ‘Big Ideas’ model (Harlen 2010, 2015), drawing on the research of Wiggins and McTigue (1998). At the University of Exeter, Dr Barbara Winstergill and Professor Rob Freathy sought to identify Big Ideas that would apply to the RE curriculum. Working with Professor Michael Reiss (UCL Institute of Education), who was on the team of international scientists who produced the ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ (Harlen 2010), they convened and directed a symposium on Dartmoor. Academics, RE specialists and consultants drafted the ‘Big Ideas for Religious Education’, which were published by the University of Exeter in 2017 (Wintersgill 2017; available online).

However, while the ‘Big Ideas for RE’ document focuses squarely on curriculum content and sequencing, Professor Freathy was also interested in developing Big Ideas about methods, methodology and epistemology. In other words, he felt it important for pupils to consider how the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) is conducted. His research thus extends onwards to consider the ‘Big Ideas about’ angle, as well. The ‘find out more’ article below illustrates how that distinction might come into play.

The key questions in the Big Ideas project can thus be summarised as follows:

• How can we improve selection and sequencing of curriculum content in RE? Might the ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ project provide a means?
• What would ‘Big Ideas for RE’ look like?
• ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ listed (a) 10 Big Ideas of Science and (b) 4 Ideas about Science. How might we map that distinction onto RE?

What was done?

A symposium of experts met to draft the Big Ideas for RE. Further reflections and feedback were requested from participants. The final report was edited by Dr Wintersgill. Professor Rob Freathy and Dr Helen John wrote an article engaging in critical reflection on the Big Ideas for RE report.

Main findings and outputs

The symposium found that Big Ideas for RE could usefully be used to select and sequence content in RE. They could be modelled on the Big Ideas in Science Education project. Six Big Ideas for RE were identified, and are entitled as follows (see the report for full descriptions):

1. Continuity, Change and Diversity: this big idea reflects on continuity and diversity within and between religious and non-religious traditions.
2. Words and Beyond: this big idea reflects on the difficulty in expressing some of our deepest-held beliefs in everyday language.
3. A Good Life: this big idea reflects on the concerns religious and non-religious traditions have with striving towards living a morally good life.
4. Making Sense of Life’s Experiences: this big idea reflects on religious, spiritual and transformative experiences.
5. Influence, Community, Culture and Power: this big idea reflects on the interactions between religious/non-religious worldviews and wider communities and cultures.
6. The Big Picture: this big idea reflects on the ‘grand narratives’ put forward by religious and non-religious worldviews to explain how and why the world is as it is.

Freathy and John’s article goes on to suggest that big ideas are also required to reflect on how we study religions and worldviews. They identify the following 4 ‘Big Ideas about the Study of Religion(s) and Worldview(s)’ that pupils should also be introduced to:

1. Encountering Religion(s) and Worldview(s): Contested definitions and contexts: this big idea recognises how contested descriptions/definitions are of the nature of religions/worldviews, the concepts of ‘religion’/‘worldview’ themselves, and the dynamic nature of the contexts involved, for example.
2. Encountering Oneself: Reflexivity, Reflectivity and Positionality: this big idea recognises that who we are affects (and sometimes determines) how we study, what we study, and what we find out about it.
3. Encountering Methodologies and Methods: Discernment and Diversity: this big idea focuses on the multi-disciplinary and methodologically diverse nature of our field of enquiry.
4. Encountering the Real World: Relevance and Transferability: this big idea recognises that the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) is a vital tool in understanding the world around us.

Relevance to RE

The Big Ideas are designed to be overarching concepts that help draw together and make sense of the many disparate facts that pupils might encounter in the classroom. Using the Big Ideas report (Wintersgill 2017), teachers might be encouraged to think about how they could orient schemes of work around Big Ideas. In addition, they might introduce pupils to different ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) from Freathy and John’s article. The RE-searchers approach (a primary resource but adaptable for secondary; see resources on RE:Online) could be used to encourage reflection on the Big Ideas about side of this research.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The Big Ideas for RE body of research is in its infancy but, given the success of the Science Education project, there is great promise for its success in RE. Teachers are encouraged to offer feedback to Professor Freathy.

Find out more

23. Freathy, R. and John, H. (2019). Religious Education, Big Ideas and the Study of Religion(s) and Worldview(s). British Journal of Religious Education. 41(1): 27-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2018.1500351

https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/collegeofsocialsciencesandinternationalstudies/education/research/groupsandnetworks/reandspiritualitynetwork/Big_Ideas_for_RE_E-Book.pdf

Research Summary: How does disciplinary literacy help pupils to thrive in RE?

Religion has played a key role in reading instruction in many education systems, but this has been challenged by increasing religious diversity and the spread of non-religious worldviews. There is growing interest in the role of disciplinary literacy in education (i.e. the ways in which a discipline’s knowledge is created, shared and evaluated), and the role of the reader.

This research focuses on how adolescents experience reading in religious education (RE). It shows that they relate meaning-making in RE to developing respect and tolerance; that whilst teachers focus on conceptual understanding, students request a focus
on lived religion; and that student meaning-making in RE thrives in a learner-active setting.

Researchers

Lars Unstad & Henning Fjørtoft

Research Institution

Department of Teacher Education, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

What is this about?

• Disciplinary learning in RE.
• What adolescent students value in RE.
• How adolescent students experience learning in RE.
• Differences between teachers’ and students’ perspectives on students’ learning in RE.

What was done?

A series of RE lessons was observed, across three Norwegian secondary schools. The observations were followed up by group interviews with pupils and individual interviews with teachers.

Main findings and outputs

The study resulted in three main findings.

• Firstly, for the students, meaning-making in reading in RE is closely related to the purpose of developing respect and tolerance.
• Secondly, there was a discrepancy in the view of reading to learn in RE. While the teachers understood learning in RE as developing conceptual understanding based on representations of religion in textbooks, the students underlined the role of lived experience, and encounters with sites of worship and representatives from various religions, to build background knowledge.
• Thirdly, students reported that meaning-making in RE was negatively influenced by a transmission-style pedagogy and suggested that exploratory and inquiry-oriented styles of teaching would be more productive.

In general, students are able to value knowledge in RE as useful in developing respect and tolerance. Greater awareness of the many academic traditions that inform RE could provide the students with disciplinary relevant strategies. They need to attend to differences between insider and outsider perspectives, using contextual and interpretive approaches to learning.

Relevance to RE

The research is useful at policy and pedagogical levels. In policy terms, it echoes other findings that students will value the subject when it has a focus on lived religion and social cohesion. Pedagogically, it suggests that teachers should aim to balance approaches grounded in academic disciplines with those based on direct dialogue and encounter; and that it will help students to find meaning in RE if teachers avoid an overly transmissive style, and encourage exploration and enquiry.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The authors recognise that this is an exploratory study. However, it builds on sixty years’ research on pupils’ motivation, confirming findings that they engage when the subject relates to their own perceived needs and identities.

Find out more

The original article is Lars Unstad & Henning Fjørtoft (2020): Disciplinary literacy in religious education: the role and relevance of reading, British Journal of Religious Education, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2020.1754164

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01416200.2020.1754164