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Research

Does Critical RE work in practice?

Angela Goodman

Research Summary

Critical Religious Education (CRE) is a pedagogy of religious education developed by Andrew Wright and various colleagues over the past two decades. Increasingly commentators have called for examples of it in practice. Over the past seven years a writing group associated with The Forum of Religious and Spiritual Education (FORASE) at King’s College London has been developing practical materials aimed at supporting teachers. An introductory scheme of work, aimed at year 7 students, has been trialled in a number of schools in and around London. In 2013, focus group interviews took place in four of these schools in order to ascertain the reception that the materials had received. The data suggest a very positive response to the introductory scheme of work and the CRE approach in general.

Researcher

Angela Goodman

Research Institution

King’s College, London

What is this about?

  • Critical RE, as developed by Andrew Wright and others, has been a strong influence on RE curriculum and pedagogy.
  • However, some commentators have offered criticisms of it, including a lack of practice examples.
  • The Forum of Religious and Spiritual Education (King’s College, London) has addressed this concern, developing materials including an introductory scheme of work for year 7.
  • This report is of the trial of the introductory scheme of work in schools in and around London.

What was done?

  • An introductory scheme of work, based on Critical RE, was developed and then trialled in schools in and around London.
  • In 2013, focus group interviews the took place in four of these schools, in order to ascertain the reception that the materials had received.
  • The interview data were then analysed to bring out key findings and recommendations.

Main findings and outputs

  • FORASE and the investigation of practice have developed Critical RE significantly
  • Teachers support the approach of Critical RE.
  • Further materials are needed in order to embed Critical RE further into teachers’ practice.
  • Initial teacher education providers should consider incorporating Critical RE into their programmes.
  • Students enjoy the approach and are able to meet the intellectual challenges involved.

Relevance to RE

The research suggests that the Critical RE approach could be investigated by teachers as a way to bring intellectual rigour to RE teaching, challenging students to debate different truth-claims and investigate and analyse different worldviews. A particular emphasis is that rather than any expressed viewpoint being held up as worthy or right, in the classroom, all should be subject to justification, evidence, argument and debate.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researcher makes the following statement:

. . . it must be acknowledged that any conclusions from this study are contingent as a result of the sample used. It is also important to highlight the fact that the study did not include any direct access to the students’ actual learning and thus conclusions are based on teacher perceptions alone. The author is currently undertaking further research into the actual impact of the approach on student learning.

Find out more

The full article is: Angela Goodman (2018) Critical Religious Education (CRE) in practice: evaluating the reception of an introductory scheme of work, British Journal of Religious Education, 40:2, 232-241.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2016.1256265

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