Research Summary: Asking pupils to make predictions about religion, to sharpen up their critical thinking
UK education and RE are highly politically controlled, and some writers think that RE’s emphasis on tolerance of different religions has prevented pupils from thinking critically about religion. Pupils’ learning about religions has often been found to be superficial and many popular resources present religions in terms of familiar stereotypes. The writer shows how this is especially true regarding Islam, which has undergone a transformation (once a world religion associated with the Middle East, now a potential source of terror), but its transformation is not reflected in syllabuses or resources used to teach about it. She argues that bringing questions in to RE from Sociology could help to address this weakness. Students could critically consider questions such as: how are Muslims likely to be treated and understood in the UK? Why are young Muslim girls more likely than their mothers or grandmothers to wear the veil?
Researcher
Lynn Revell
Research Institution
Canterbury Christ Church University
What was done?
This is a critical survey of relevant literature and other materials including official documents, RE text books and examination papers.
Main findings and outputs
- There is a discrepancy, generally, between religions as they are experienced and known in the world and religions as they are presented in textbooks and examined in RE.
- Regarding Islam, there tends to be an assumption that Muslims have common views and concerns and that the religion is not really diverse.
- Examination papers from 1997 to 2013 were analysed; it was striking how little questions about Islam had changed. On page 58 the author states:
- ‘Islam is now the fastest growing religion in the developing world, the meaning of Jihad has become a matter of popular discussion and the role of women in Islam has become an issue of international debate. These changes are not reflected in most of the questions: it is as though the Islam examined by students is the same Islam that existed a generation ago.’
- Yet examination papers do sometimes ask pupils to think critically, and the relationship between liberal values of tolerance and a lack of pupil criticism is not clear. The fact is that many different kinds of ideas influence RE in different ways.
- Using sociological questions may help pupils to be more critical. How are Muslims likely to be treated and understood in the UK? Why are young Muslim girls more likely than their mothers or grandmothers to wear the veil? This should not be based on ‘projection’ (unfounded assumptions) but ‘prediction’ (where observation and analysis are used).
Relevance to RE
- Regarding policy and curriculum, it would appear that examination boards should take a fresh look at their specifications and examination papers.
- In relation to school-level curriculum and pedagogy, teachers might reconsider approaches to Islam in the light of this research. They should take care to address the variety of Muslims and experiences and ask pupils to follow suit.
- Teachers should test the sociological questions mentioned by the author (above) for their value in helping pupils to think critically. Further, no doubt teachers and pupils will have questions of their own about the experiences of Muslims in UK society. These can be added to the list and would provide an interesting basis for follow-up research, based in classrooms.
Generalisability and potential limitations
The research draws on a varied and wide range of resources and uses these as a basis for a potentially very useful suggestion to teachers to test in their own practice.
Find out more
Predicting religion, Journal of Beliefs and Values 36:1, 54-63
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13617672.2015.1014652