Global terms: Other Evidence Informed Practice & Research

Research Summary: What is religion?

This is a themed report of relevant chapters of Christian Smith’s book Religion: What it is, how it works, and why it matters. This report focuses on the definition of religion; the how it works and why it matters themes will be covered in later reports. In a review of the book, Jose Casanova describes its definition of religion as ‘the best theoretical and analytical definition I know’. Smith grounds the need to understand religion in the need to understand the world. The approach is sociological and focuses on practices. Whilst certainly not avoiding discussion of religious beliefs, it takes a compatibilist approach to questions of their truth; meaning, the account of religion given is compatible with different religious, agnostic or atheistic truth-claims. The definition of religion is worth quoting in full, from page 3:

‘Religion is a complex of culturally prescribed practices that are based on premises about the existence and nature of superhuman powers. These powers may be personal or impersonal, but they are always superhuman in the dual sense that they can do things which humans cannot do and that they do not depend for their existence on human activities. Religious people engage in complexes of practices in order to gain access to and communicate or align themselves with these superhuman powers. The hope involved in the cultural prescribing of these practices is to realize human goods and avoid bads, especially (but not only) to avert misfortunes and receive blessings and deliverance from crises.’

Researcher

Christian Smith

Research Institution

University of Notre Dame

What is this about?

This is about understanding what religion is. Questions of how it works, why people are religious and why religions matter are taken up in different parts of Smith’s book, and will be treated in later research reports.

‘Anyone who wants to understand the world today has got to understand religion . . . Understanding many major problems today is impossible without accounting for religion’s influences . . . religion remains a crucial feature of human life.’ (Pages 1-2.)

What was done?

The book is a scholarly social scientific enquiry into its subject matter, drawing on a wide range of theories and studies in order to back up its conclusions. It uses examples of lived contemporary religion to illustrate these at regular points of the argument.

Main findings and outputs

Religion is a set of practices, based on convictions about superhuman powers.
The practices aim for access to, communication with, or alignment with the powers, which may be held to be personal or impersonal, towards the end of realizing human goods.
Religion also has secondary aspects, or ‘causal capacities’ that shape the characters of its different traditions and exert influence on the world. These include forms of social identity and community, aesthetic expressions, agencies of social control, authority, and so on.
Beliefs can of course be highly significant within religions. ‘There is no religion without some beliefs.’ (Page 30). But religion must be conceptually defined with reference to practices and their culturally prescribed meanings.
Individual people can participate in any religious practice from a wide variety of motivations, without fully or consciously agreeing with the related ‘established’ beliefs; the focus needs to be on the culture and tradition, what it says those practices mean and aim to achieve. ‘Religious practices are social realities irreducible to the beliefs of the people who enact them.’ (Page 32).
The subjective intentions of religious people matter hugely as examples of religiousness, and should be investigated, but this is a different question to that of the conceptual definition of religion.

Relevance to RE

The relevance of Smith’s analysis to RE is in offering some clarifications on subject aims and pedagogy. (Notice that the CORE report lays emphasis on understanding religion as a conceptual category and that Smith’s analysis offers a way to do this.) On Smith’s analysis, the primary subject matter would be religion, namely the range of religious practices observable in the world. What happens during these practices? For what goods do they aim? There would then be two secondary layers of enquiry, one into how repeated religious practices flow into aspects such as social identity, aesthetic expression and power, another into religiousness at the individual level.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Readers are certainly encouraged to read this book and consider further how its material might be relevant to RE practice. One clear limitation is that more discussion would be needed on how to base studies of non-religious worldviews on Smith’s model. Whether religions are best described as worldviews is also called into question. The model cannot provide a basis for a philosophical approach to RE where pupils are helped to debate religious truth-claims (but, again, would be compatible with one).

Find out more

Christian Smith, Religion: What it is, how it works, and why it matters, Princeton and Oxford (Princeton University Press): 2017.

For a brief summary and order details (paperback available at £17.99) see https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11200.html .

Casanova’s review of the book is at https://academic.oup.com/jcs/article-abstract/61/1/126/5303792?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Research Summary: Worldviews and Big Ideas: A Way Forward for Religious Education?

The open-access article begins by summarising the findings of 2018 report from the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE), which we use here as a case study to illustrate current issues in Religious Education more generally. The CoRE report suggested that the subject name be changed from ‘Religious Education’ (RE) to ‘Religion and Worldviews’ (RW), which leads us to explore the meaning(s) of the term ‘worldview’, outline the distinction between institutional/organised and personal worldviews, and give an overview of academic debates about the ‘worldviews’ issue. This is followed by a discussion of some of the challenges and implications of the proposed change from RE to RW, addressing concerns that have been raised about dilution of the subject and decreased academic rigour. The article then suggests ways of using a ‘Big Ideas’ approach to the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) to engage students in discussion of ‘worldview’ as a concept and worldviews as phenomena. It explains the ‘Big Ideas’ approach (Wiggins and McTighe 1998; Wintersgill 2017; Freathy and John 2019) before discussing how Big Ideas might be used to select curriculum content, also considering what the implications of this might be for teachers and teaching.

Researchers

Prof Rob Freathy & Dr Helen John

Research Institution

University of Exeter

What is this about?

The article focuses on the issue of worldviews in Religious Education, asking the following questions:

What does the 2018 report from the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) suggest about worldviews in RE?
What is meant by the term ‘worldview’? Is a religion a worldview? Does everyone have a worldview?
What is the difference between an ‘institutional worldview’ and a ‘personal worldview’?
What are the benefits and challenges of incorporating worldviews into RE?
What are ‘Big Ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s)’ (Freathy and John 2019)?
How might ‘Big Ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s)’ help teachers to explore worldviews in the RE classroom? What are the implications for teachers’ professional development and for the classroom?

What was done?

This theoretical article is an academic response to the key findings of the final report of the Commission on Religion Education (CoRE 2018), which was sponsored by the Religious Education Council for England and Wales. It focuses particularly on the proposal to change the title of Religious Education (RE) to Religion and Worldviews (RW). It explores the meaning of the term ‘worldview’ how worldviews might be selected for inclusion in the curriculum. The article discusses the report’s recommendations for greater focus on multi-disciplinary, multi-methodological and reflexive, encounter-driven approaches. It suggests that teachers might use the ‘Big Ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s)’ (Freathy and John 2019) to achieve closer alignment between RW in schools and the academic study of religion(s) and worldview(s) in universities.

Main findings and outputs

The authors argue that key to the successful delivery of ‘a new and richer version of the subject’ (CoRE, 3) is generating in school students a better understanding of the concept ‘worldview’. Although there is disagreement over precise definitions of the term (just as there is with the term ‘religion’), Freathy and John suggest that this imprecision is something to be embraced. Teachers should explore the complexity of the terms and concepts with their students – focusing explicitly on their contested and imprecise nature – in order to further the students’ understanding of the term and of worldviews themselves. They argue that the report’s distinction between institutional and personal worldviews is a helpful one, albeit with some limitations, and will assist students in appreciating the diverse sources upon which they draw in the ongoing development of their own dynamic ‘worldview web’. Investigation into the institutional/personal distinction could also help students to be sensitive to diversity within institutional worldviews, based on individual and contextual lived experience. A better understanding of the fluid concept of ‘worldview’ will enrich and add rigour to the curriculum, as the report suggests, not act to ‘dilute’ it or to decrease its rigour, as critics have suggested. Building upon earlier research (Freathy and John 2019), the authors suggest that focusing on features of the academic study of religion(s) and worldview(s) – studying how we study – will enable teachers to incorporate the new ‘worldviews’ approach into their teaching without diluting the curriculum. Using these ‘Big Ideas about’ would involve encouraging students to consider explicitly:

Relevance to RE

This article would make excellent background reading for teachers who (a) need a brief summary of the final report from the Commission on Religious Education; (b) would like to know more about the ‘worldview’ concept; (c) want to know more about the Big Ideas framework; and/or (d) wonder how they might incorporate into their classroom practice a greater focus on ‘worldviews’.
The open-access article is entitled ‘Worldviews and Big Ideas: A Way Forward for Religious Education?’ and appears in Nordidactica 2019, Volume 4.

It builds on a previous article by the same authors (search ‘Introducing ‘Big Ideas’ to UK Religious Education’ for equivalent RE:Online Research Report), in which they reflect on the application of the Big Ideas of Science Education project to the UK Religious Education curriculum: Rob Freathy and Helen C. John. 2019. ‘Religious Education, Big Ideas and the study of religion(s) and worldview(s).’ British Journal of Religious Education 41.1: 27-40. DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2018.1500351

Useful resources for a Big Ideas/Worldviews approach to RE/RW

A curriculum package for teachers to use to introduce ‘Big Ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s)’ will follow in 2020.
A ‘Big Ideas about’ approach can be seen in the secondary textbook called ‘Who is Jesus’, which is available online at <https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/education/research/networks/religionandspirituality/publications/ and in the ‘RE-searchers’ approach (primary), which can be found at RE-searchers approach
You might also find the original ‘Big Ideas for RE’ (Wintersgill, ed, 2017) report helpful:
https://tinyurl.com/y7ra365d

Please contact R.J.K.Freathy@exeter.ac.uk for further information about the ideas found in the article and the additional resources, or to get involved with the trialling the RE-searchers (Primary) or ‘Big Ideas about’ (Secondary) approach.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The article is primarily aimed at teachers and RE researchers and considers theoretical perspectives. However, it also gives an insight into practical resources available for ‘worldviews’ teaching at primary and secondary level (see details below).

Find out more

The open-access article is entitled ‘Worldviews and Big Ideas: A Way Forward for Religious Education?’ and appears in Nordidactica 2019, Volume 4.

https://www.kau.se/nordidactica/las-nordidactica/nordidactica-20194-kjerneelementer-og-store-ideercore-elements-and

Research Summary: What Can RE Teachers Learn From Contemporary Biblical Studies?

What does it mean to be a Muslim young woman in Britain today? With which religious and social values do these young women identify? This research tests the idea that Muslim identity involves having particular values, among female adolescents (13 to 15 years of age). The data demonstrate that for these female adolescents, self-identification as Muslim meant a distinctive profile in terms both of religiosity and social values.

Researchers

Ursula McKenna & Leslie Francis

Research Institution

University of Warwick

What is this about?

What values do young Muslim women in Britain have?
How can their religiosity be described?
Do young Muslim women in Britain have a particular profile, in relation to values and religiosity?

What was done?

The young Muslim women participated in a survey conducted across the four nations of the United Kingdom. From the 11,809 participants in the survey, the research compares the responses of 177 female students who self-identified as Muslim with the responses of 1183 female students who self-identified as religiously unaffiliated. Comparisons are drawn across two themes,
religiosity and social values.

Main findings and outputs

Religious identity is important to young Muslim women in Britain: 84% agreed that this is so, and 88% said that being Muslim was the most important factor in their identity.
Further, they tend to be surrounded by family and friends who think religion to be important.
Nearly three quarters regarded themselves as a religious person (71%) but only one quarter regarded themselves as a spiritual person (26%).
At least three in every five often talked about religion with their mother (66%) and slightly less frequently with their father (49%).
Studying religion at school had helped 90% to understand people from other religions and 81% to understand people from different racial backgrounds. 78% found learning about different religions in school interesting, and 68% found studying religion at school had shaped their views about religion.
89% believed in God, 94% believed in heaven, and 89% believed in hell.
The majority supported the views that we must respect all religions (94%) and that all religious groups in Britain should have equal rights (90%).
82% agreed that having people from different religious backgrounds made their school an interesting place.

Relevance to RE

There are two main ways in which this research is relevant to RE. Firstly, the findings can help teachers to be accurate when teaching about Islam in Britain today. Secondly, they can help teachers to understand the values and views likely to be held by their own female Muslim pupils.

Generalisability and potential limitations

These findings are generalisable, arising from a large survey analysed with high expertise.

Find out more

Ursula McKenna & Leslie J. Francis (2019) Growing up female and Muslim in the UK: an empirical enquiry into the distinctive religious and social values of young Muslims, British Journal of Religious Education, 41:4, 388-401.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2018.1437393 (open access)

Research Summary: Worldviews education: preventing violent extremism

‘Soft power’ (e.g. educational) approaches to counter and prevent violent extremism increase, internationally. Education for the prevention of violent extremism could benefit from drawing on insights from research on education about diverse religious and non-religious worldviews in Australia. This research indicates that these types of educational initiatives can assist with addressing religious vilification, discrimination and inter-religious tensions, and also with building religious literacy and social inclusion of young people. A critical approach to education about religions can assist young people to identify religions’ ambivalent role in contributing to both cultures of violence and cultures of peace. The researchers make a series of recommendations regarding religion, education and the prevention of violent extremism.

Researchers

Anna Halafoff, Kim Lam & Gary Bouma

Research Institution

Deakin University, Monash University

What is this about?

How can education help to prevent violent extremism?
What role can RE play in this?
Building religious literacy helps to prevent discrimination and tension.
Religion may contribute both to problems and solutions, and a critical approach to education about religion can help young people to understand this.

What was done?

The researchers reviewed a range of international evidence, including their own findings from a project investigating worldviews education in Victoria, Australia.

Main findings and outputs

Religious and inter-religious literacy are invaluable skills in an increasingly mobile and interconnected world and should be developed among all students;
Education about diverse religions, spiritualities and nonreligious worldviews should be included as part of prevention of violent extremism strategies in all government and faith-based schools to increase religious literacy, to reduce misinformation and negative stereotypes about religion, and to promote inter-religious understanding;
This education should be critical, and highlight religion’s ambivalent role in both creating and perpetuating cultures of direct and structural violence and in peacebuilding;
Exclusive narratives and ideologies, be they religious or political, which promote one worldview over and above others, are potentially dangerous and can play a role in radicalisation. Students should be made aware of this and critical thinking should be encouraged to question such narratives;
Teachers need to be trained in not only religious and inter-religious literacy but also in conflict resolution skills to navigate sensitive and difficult discussions pertaining to religion, violence and peacebuilding;
In contexts such as faith-based schools, education about diverse religions and worldviews can complement existing RI programmes.
More research needs to be conducted on the benefits and limitations of educational programmes about diverse worldviews.

Relevance to RE

Firstly, the research gives valuable policy emphasis to RE, showing that governments need to take seriously the subject’s contribution to a peaceful and productive society. Secondly, it gives challenges to RE teachers (and teacher educators), including learning to expose and manage the controversial elements of the subject and presenting religions through different lenses and perspectives.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The research findings arise from a broad, varied, detailed data-set. Some of the research focuses on Australia, but the issues are common with other jurisdictions e.g. the UK.

Find out more

Anna Halafoff, Kim Lam & Gary Bouma (2019) Worldviews education: cosmopolitan peacebuilding and preventing violent extremism, Journal of Beliefs & Values, 40:3, 381-395.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2019.1600113

Research Summary: What are the effects of migration on religion? Polish Catholics in the UK and Ireland

The question is often asked, how does migration affect religion? The number of Polish Catholics in the UK and Ireland has grown rapidly, but little is known about the religious aspects of their journey. This report is based on the researchers’ fieldwork with Polish migrants in the UK and Ireland. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with Polish migrants of various ages and class backgrounds, three possible outcomes are identified for Catholics transplanted to a new context. Firstly, they continue to practise in the same way as they did in their home country. Secondly, they begin to question their faith and leave the church altogether. Thirdly, they take the opportunity to explore their faith in a flexible and relatively independent manner.

Researchers

Kerry Gallagher & Marta Trzebiatowska

Research Institution

University of Maynooth, University of Aberdeen

What is this about?

When people migrate, how does it effect their religion.
Specifically, when Catholics migrate from Poland to the UK or Ireland, how does it affect their religion?
What kinds of continuities and changes can be found in their religious views and practices? How are these religious views and practices affected by the transplantation of themselves and their Catholicism to the new country?

What was done?

The data come from two research projects conducted between 2008 and 2013. The interview material from England and Scotland is drawn from a larger study of Polish priests and parishioners in Great Britain, carried out simultaneously in London, Nottingham, and Aberdeen. The Irish portion of the data comes from a project based in County Dublin. Both projects comprised interviews with Polish migrants as well as participant observation at masses and social and cultural events. Overall, data from 71 interviews inform this research: 10 from Scotland, 20 from England, 41 from the Republic of Ireland. All participants had been residents in the UK and Ireland for at least a year. Of the 71 interviewees, 58 were female.

Main findings and outputs

Polish migration into the UK and Ireland has been significant. Official statistics from 2011 and 2008 show that Polish is the second most spoken language in the UK, 600,000 people of Polish background live in the UK, and 200,000 in Ireland.
There is a deep link between Polish identity and Catholicism. The presence of Polish migrants has ‘transformed’ Catholic parishes in the UK, with comparable effects in Ireland.
But little is known of the effect of the journey on migrants’ religion. Does it strengthen or weaken it, for instance? Faiths moving from one place to another has always been part of the religious landscape.
There is some evidence that the migrants’ Catholic identity is unchanged by the move. Masses are in Polish, people stay connected to the Church, or their connectedness increases and helps negotiate the change to the new country.
Yet there is also evidence that migrants feel freer in the new setting, presented with new choices and opportunities including the decision not to stay part of the faith community.
There is also evidence that some people use the change as a way to explore their faith in a more individual, open, personal manner, which has also altered the status of priests.

Relevance to RE

RE sets out to prepare young people for life in twenty-first century Britain, and the research is an example of how the country’s social and religious make-up changes all the time; teachers need to keep in touch with this. The relationship between migration and religion is a significant one but is perhaps under-explored in RE. Young people can sometimes express prejudices about it. Perhaps the researchers’ methodology offers a good model for a community or lived religion RE topic where pupils meet members of different communities and talk with them about how the experience of moving countries has affected their religious beliefs and practices.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The data are drawn from two fairly large-scale quantitative studies. The researchers acknowledge that their ‘snowball’ (spreading via networks) sample is not representative, but does reflect different settings and chime with other relevant literature.

Find out more

The full article is: Kerry Gallagher & Marta Trzebiatowska (2017) Becoming a ‘real’ Catholic: Polish migrants and lived religiosity in the UK and Ireland, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 32:3, 431-445.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537903.2017.1362883?journalCode=cjcr20

Research Summary: What was the REDCo project and what were its findings?

This is a summary review of a very large and influential European research project on religion and education – Religion in Education. A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries?’ or REDCo. The project involved specialist researchers from Germany, Holland, England, France, Norway, Russia, Spain and Estonia and ran from 2006-2009. It focused on the role of RE in European societies, especially how it might help promote dialogue between religions, in the context of citizenship education, based on Robert Jackson’s interpretive approach to RE. The article gives the background, research methodology and findings of the project; the findings especially are of relevance and use to RE teachers, helping to define and defend RE’s purpose in contemporary society and point towards the forms of teaching that serve it.

Researcher

Wolfram Weisse

Research Institution

University of Hamburg

What is this about?

What was the REDCo project (2006-2009)?
What were its research methodologies?
What were its findings?
How do they help to clarify the purpose of RE in contemporary Europe, including the UK, and what do they suggest about the forms of teaching that enable RE to fulfil its purpose?

What was done?

This article is a summary review of a major 3-year project investigating RE through a range of methods (questionnaire, interview, analysis of video-recorded lessons, etc.) in 8 European countries.

Main findings and outputs

Religion needs renewed attention within European education systems, in relation to promoting dialogue and handling or reducing conflict.
A multinational study enables comparison and highlights potentials, as do mixed research methods: participant observation, semi‐structured interviews, questionnaires (qualitative and quantitative) and videoing of RE lessons were all used. Students in the 14‐ to 16‐year age group were studied in all the countries.
Their views and experiences of RE were established (positive and negative).
From the project’s detailed findings (e.g. over 8000 pupil questionnaires were analysed), recommendations for RE were brought out. These follow:
Education should promote active rather than passive tolerance, i.e. getting young people from different cultural and religious backgrounds to actually engage and work together.
Religious diversity needs to be actively valued, at school and university level.
Both religious and non-religious world-views should be included.
These changes will not be possible without professional teacher education.
For school students still in the process of forming their opinions, encounters with people of different religions and philosophies can be an important step towards:
Respecting others’ views, despite disagreements.
Understanding how different cultures and religions can be expressed in different ways by different people.
Helping to prevent the misuse of religion to generate political conflict.
School students believe this form of RE to be desirable and possible; and they see school, rather than the family or peer group, as the place where it should happen.

Relevance to RE

This summary review is helpful to teachers in presenting evidence on the purpose of RE in society, as young people see it, or wish for. It is based on extensive expert research, and can be referred to by RE teachers when explaining and defending the subject’s importance in the curriculum, to parents or colleagues, for instance. For more detailed analysis of RE teaching within the REDCo project, readers are advised to consult individual REDCo studies, e.g. Marie von der Lippe’s research in Norway, which we have reported separately under the title: Talking about religion and diversity.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The findings have strong generalisability, having resulted from an international investigation characterised by high breadth and depth and including the UK. The data are about a decade ago at the time of writing and re-investigation would be useful.

Find out more

Reflections on the REDCo project, British Journal of Religious Education 33.2 pages 111-125 (published online 18 February 2011), 10.1080/01416200.2011.543589

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2011.543589

Research Summary: What is professionalism in RE teaching?

This article draws on research carried out in 24 UK schools over a three year period. It looks over problems with defining how teachers in general can be seen as professionals, then it considers the theme of teacher professionalism in RE specifically. It shows how RE teachers are often confused about what being a professional RE teacher means. Is it about passing on faith? Is it about making sure that pupils meet examination targets? Why have many RE teachers reached for philosophy as a way to boost their professional esteem? The article argues that a genuine focus on religious literacy and the ability to help pupils gain in religious literacy are the true characteristics of RE teacher professionalism, but failure to grasp this has meant that RE teacher professionalism is in decline.

Researcher

James C. Conroy

Research Institution

University of Glasgow

What is this about?

What is professionalism in RE teaching?
What does it mean for a teacher to be professional?
What does it mean for a teacher of RE to be professional?
How does professionalism in RE relate to religious faith?
How does professionalism in RE relate to the preparation of pupils for examinations?
Why have many RE teachers turned to philosophy as a way to boost their professional esteem?
How can a focus on religious literacy restore professionalism to RE teaching?

What was done?

The researcher went through the data of a large research project on RE in the UK, bringing out examples that relate to the issue of RE teacher professionalism. The original project used a combination of different research methods. They included observation in schools, focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, expert seminars, reconstruction of classroom events through theatre, conference feedback, teacher-led research, textbook and teaching materials analysis and examination papers analysis.

Main findings and outputs

Teacher professionalism is harder to define than e.g. professionalism in law or medicine, because it is less clear what teachers need to know and be able to do.
Teachers seem less able to have control over their conditions of work and practices. They work in a command and control culture.
RE teachers struggle with further complications, e.g. the interest of religious groups in their work and general lack of clarity over what RE is for. Pupils expect them to have an identity in relation to religion, so it can be hard to separate their personal and professional identities.
Some RE teachers try to shape a professional identity by embracing ‘accountability’ and concentrating on pupil ‘performance’. Examinations represent an unhealthy obsession and much time and energy are spent in rehearsing students to give model answers according to set formulae.
This means that RE’s knowledge base shrinks, and with it teachers’ professionalism.
It can also mean that issues of truth are not debated and RE becomes in effect a matter of different ‘opinions’.
The use of non-specialist teachers can add to these problems.
Where there is a professional approach, it is based on religious literacy – viewing knowledge of religion as professional knowledge, and equipping learners with it as professional practice. Such teachers ask students to consider religious interpretation, symbolism and ritual, but rarely seem to focus on theology.

Relevance to RE

On policy, the nature and scope of RE’s content should be identified. It needs to be stressed that RE’s content has educational value and is not intended to form lists of key points for examinations.
On curriculum, the RE curriculum should aim to provide learners with knowledge and understanding of religion, including opportunities to debate issues of truth in the light of their studies. This is not the same as a philosophy and ethics approach, though it may overlap.
On pedagogy, shrinkage of RE’s knowledge base for purposes of examination rehearsal should be avoided.
On teacher development, RE teachers should have or gain broad knowledge of religious traditions. They should develop the ability to teach this content to learners in an engaging way, relating it to learners’ likely or actual questions including questions over truth.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The findings are presented through a fairly small number of examples from the project, but the author reports that such examples were numerous. They are consistent with other research and with a great deal of educational opinion. The article does not go into how the main recommendation could be put into practice (that is, how religious literacy could be put at the centre of RE teacher’s professional work, or how the obsession with examination training could be overcome).

Find out more

Religious Education and religious literacy – a professional aspiration?, British Journal of Religious Education 38.2 pages 163-176 (published online 6 April 2016).

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01416200.2016.1139891

Research Summary: What does it mean to be Jewish today?

This research is about how US Jews engage with Judaism today. It shows the importance of considering different dimensions of Jewish life and identity. The key finding is that ‘cultural Jews’ (who do not regularly practice Jewish rituals or join with synagogues) still feel strong connections to the Jewish community. The research suggests a new way to understand Jewish identity.

Researchers

Janet Krasner Aronson (et al)

Research Institution

Brandeis University

What is this about?

Judaism
How Jewish people identify as Jewish
Jewish communities in the US

What was done?

Survey data on the Greater Boston Jewish community were used. Fourteen measures of behaviour were analysed, to identify a series of types of Jewish identity.

Main findings and outputs

You cannot (as many studies do) really typify Jews as ‘religious’ or ‘unreligious’. It isn’t that simple.
Instead, you have to consider different factors of Jewish identity and how they interact, especially as increasing numbers of Jews do not affiliate to any denomination such as Orthodox or Reform.
(From related studies) 62% of US Jews report that their Jewish identity is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture – only 15% name it as mainly religion.
Formal affiliation with Jewish institutions, particularly synagogues, is not necessarily as strong a marker of Jewish identity as it is often considered. It does not appear to translate into bringing Judaism into the home or developing emotional connections to the Jewish community.
But ‘cultural’ Jews, though less likely to be members of synagogues, feel far more connected to the local and worldwide Jewish communities and to Israel.

Relevance to RE

The research can certainly be of use in developing teachers’ knowledge of contemporary Judaism. It also opens up wider questions, that can be discussed as part of RE lessons in order to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of religion as a conceptual category: what are some of the different forms that religious identity takes? Can you be religious without participating in worship or rituals? Can you even be religious without believing in God?

Generalisability and potential limitations

The survey analysis methodology sets out to be generalisable and has evidently been applied with great care. Whether the findings would be repeated in the UK is an open question. The analysis is very detailed, much more so than can be reflected here – those interested are strongly encouraged to refer to the original article.

Find out more

The original article is Janet Krasner Aronson et al, A New Approach to Understanding Contemporary Jewish Engagement, Contemporary Jewry (2019) 39:91–113. It can be freely accessed via the link below.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-018-9271-8

Research Summary: The Art of Narrative Theology in Religious Education

This project, funded by the Bible Society and Westhill Endowment Trust, developed curriculum resources for use with Key Stage 3 pupils using the contemporary biblical paintings of Brian J. Turner (www.bibleproject.co.uk) which show biblical scenes in a quirky, contemporary style that is both engaging and thought-provoking. This use of art serves to bring the idea of interpretation to life for pupils, giving license to their own, personal interpretations of the narratives, and introducing the concept of participation in respectful dialogue with the beliefs and interpretations of others. Over the course of 12 lessons, pupils are introduced to the Bible and explore a selection of eight significant biblical narratives. They also consider the single, over-arching narrative of the Christian faith – the story of creation, fall and redemption – that runs through the Bible as a whole, and to which each of the individual narratives contributes.

Researchers

Professor Rob Freathy, Professor Esther D Reed, Dr Anna Davis & Dr Susannah Cornwall

Research Institution

University of Exeter

What is this about?

The project seeks to develop a pedagogy of Religious Education (RE) based upon a narratival framework informed by both narrative theology and narrative philosophy. Working from the narrative assumption that individuals and communities are formed by reading, sharing and living within stories, the project team suggest that such a narratival pedagogy of RE might encourage pupils to think about how the lives of Christians are shaped by their interpretations of biblical narratives, to offer their own interpretations of biblical and other texts, and to consider the stories – religious, non-religious or both – which shape their own lives. In so doing, the project seeks to move away from a ‘proof-texting’ approach to the Bible towards one in which pupils are enabled to think about the significance of biblical narratives for both Christians and themselves. The resultant pedagogy comprises four phases of learning: (1) encountering narrative; (2) interpreting narrative; (3) understanding narrative in community contexts; and (4) reflecting on narratives of self and others. This pedagogy has been implemented in practice to form a set of commercially-published curriculum materials for use with KS3 students (Freathy, R., E. D. Reed, A. Davis, and S. Cornwall [2014]. The Art of Bible Reading. Buxhall: Kevin Mayhew Ltd).

What was done?

Curriculum materials for an initial 3-lesson block were designed and trialled. A workshop for local schools was held in Exeter Cathedral based on the materials. A further 7-lesson block was designed and trialled. An academic article was published on the approach, outlining the underlying theories.

Main findings and outputs

Narrative theories are widely accepted as proposing that human beings – both as individuals and within societies – experience, understand and explain life not as a succession of disconnected momentary occurrences but primarily in ‘story’ form, as a series of on-going, interconnected narratives that are subject to time and bound up with history, culture and context. These narratives comprise multiple interweaving layers that include, but are not limited to, shared texts, histories and traditions, and the realities of daily life experiences.
Narrative theories have been adopted by many Christian theologians as a way of talking about the doctrines and practices of their faith. These theologians understand the Bible first and foremost not as a set of abstract moral commands or doctrinal edicts but as a collection of stories that tell about the revelation of God through history, and perceive communities of faith as ‘living stories’ comprising individual members whose community life is an on-going interpretation of biblical narratives. Less widely known or developed is a similar embracing of narrative theories by scholars of Judaism and Islam among other faiths.
We understand narrative as a descriptive (rather than prescriptive), flexible and inclusive term that can hold shared meanings for both faith traditions and a range of pragmatic thinkers, including those of non-foundationalist and other perspectives. The term does not presuppose the acceptance of particular worldviews or beliefs but can be accepted by theists, atheists, agnostics and others. It is equally important, however, to ensure that each of the faith traditions can recognise and share the narrative approach that is developed.
A narrative approach – drawing upon narrative theology and narrative philosophy – makes possible the study of how people understand the narratives – faith-based or otherwise – that make up their own lives, and how they understand the narratives of the lives of others, challenging the commonly-held view that we exist as neutral individuals with uniformed and objective identities and outlooks.

Relevance to RE

Teachers may wish to explore and experiment with a narrative approach in the classroom. Explanations and lesson resources are available in the YouTube video (URL above), the academic article (Esther D. Reed, Rob Freathy, Susannah Cornwall & Anna Davis [2013] ‘Narrative theology in Religious Education’, British Journal of Religious Education 35[3]: 297-312), and the textbook (student and teacher editions).

Generalisability and potential limitations

The main limitation is that people often assume a narrative approach must be based solely on narrative theology, and that narrative theology must be inherently Christian. It will take further work to convince people that a narrative methodology can be used effectively to conceptualise any faith tradition, and that a narrative pedagogy can be inclusive of all students, regardless of their own faith/non-faith position. Understanding that a narrative approach should also be considered as merely one of many possible and legitimate approaches is also required.

Find out more

Esther D. Reed, Rob Freathy, Susannah Cornwall & Anna Davis [2013] ‘Narrative theology in Religious Education’, British Journal of Religious Education 35[3]: 297-312

Research Summary: The lived religious beliefs and experiences of English Hindu teenagers at home and at school

This is a study of the lived religious identity and practice of Hindu teenagers in the UK. Utilising an ethnographic approach, it investigates how Hindu teenagers in the UK experience their religion at home and at school. There is found a contrast between these teenagers’ home life and school experience. Hindu teenagers experience a strong sense of cognitive dissonance pertaining to their religious identity: their home life being a healthy relationship with their religion but their school experience being a sense of anger and shame. There is an outline of what the teenagers themselves believe is lacking in the RE classroom and what they regard as the key features of their Hindu faith.

Researchers

Joseph Chadwin

Research Institution

University of Vienna

What is this about?

How do Hindu teenagers in England experience their religion, at home and at school?
Are there contrasts between these two arenas?
What do Hindu teenagers in England see as the key features of Hindu faith?
What do they believe is lacking, or would like to see more of, in the RE classroom regarding Hindu tradition?

What was done?

There was a prior survey of existing relevant literature, and an ethnographic study of 30 London secondary pupils who self-identified as Hindu. The ethnographic study consisted of a series of semi-structured interviews.

Main findings and outputs

There is immense variety within the category of Hinduism; researchers should accept the multiplicity and fluidity of lived religious identities and experiences.
Such acceptance characterises much recent RE literature but Hinduism is still a ‘blind spot’ sometimes significantly mishandled in school RE.
12 of the pupils were apathetic to their Hindu identity, 18 highly engaged with Hindu beliefs and practices. 25 stressed how Hinduism is highly internally diverse. 28 were unhappy about absence from or superficial treatment of Hinduism within the school curriculum. Only 1 was happy; the school in question received visits from Hindu community members. The unhappiness is a source of anger for them and means that Hinduism, in their view, is really for the home.
A ‘secularised’ ‘yoga-for-relaxation’ type of activity offered in school added to the Hindu teenagers’ sense of anger.

Relevance to RE

The findings include the Hindu teenagers’ views on what is lacking (or needed) in school RE:

26 referred to the importance of Hindu values, and the need to reflect these in curriculum coverage: equality, honesty, non-violence and love.
These can be, but should not be, obscured by attention to Hinduism’s ‘strangeness’ or exotic appearance.
Informed teaching about the meaning of yoga is lacking, but should be included; the same also applies to puja.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The author acknowledges that his is a small and localised sample. However, he argues that the ‘small window’ of the ethnographic data is much needed, providing an in-depth examination.

Find out more

The original article is available on an open-access basis: Joseph Chadwin (2023) The lived religious beliefs and experiences of
English Hindu teenagers at home and at school, British Journal of Religious Education, 45:3, 251-262, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2023.2184326