How does disciplinary literacy help pupils to thrive in RE?

Lars Unstad & Henning Fjørtoft

Research Summary

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