Baha'i
Buddhist worldview traditions
Christian worldview traditions
Contextualising the diversity of worldviews
Hindu worldview traditions
Humanist worldview traditions
Jain
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jewish worldview traditions
Muslim worldview traditions
Pagan
Rastafari
Sikhi worldview traditions
Soka Gakkai
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Zoroastrian
Research // Research of the Month

Developing opportunities for diversity and progression in Religious Studies at A Level

October 2023

Hayley Ellen

Questions for consideration:

  • How can schools and colleges collaborate with Theology and Religious Studies (TRS) departments in universities as part of an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and enrichment strategy?
  • How can we highlight the transferable skills and progression opportunities offered by the study of Religious Studies at A Level?
  • How can schools and colleges support universities to address the decline in enrolment in TRS at higher education level?
  • How can we improve the perception of Religious Studies (RS) at A Level within schools and colleges?

This project was born out of a college wide focus on EDI which led to an in-depth audit of potential opportunities and aspects of our RS A Level course. Due to specification requirements, time constraints and student need it was clear that whilst we would make the most of opportunities to look at EDI within our teaching time, we should also look for subject related opportunities to explore EDI beyond the classroom.

I work as Head of Department in a large, inclusive Sixth Form College in Essex which offers both Philosophy and RS at A Level. I also wanted the project to support our students to consider what it would be like to study TRS or a related subject at a higher level. To do this I arranged a series of lunchtime subject talks. I used the Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education site to identify contacts in Higher Education and emailed to ask them outlining the EDI project and asked if they would be interested in delivering a talk. I did not specify the topic but asked if the talk could be either an extension of an A Level topic, for example one talk focussed on the question ‘Is God Male?’ or on a topic not included in the A Level course, for example contemporary food ethics in Judaism and Jainism.

To further encourage students to consider studying RS at a higher level I planned a whole day event titled ‘why study TRS at university?’. This involved a programme of talks including;

  • Making an application to study TRS
  • Subject taster lecture
  • Why study TRS at university, what skills you could develop and what careers it could lead to.

This event was very successful, and we hope to have several students applying for TRS courses next year. To build on this project over the next academic year I am now in the planning stage of organising a RS and Philosophy conference for colleagues in local schools and have begun to explore the possibility of streaming our lunchtime talks to other schools, widening the impact of the project.

My message to other teachers is:

  • Send emails out to HE institutions and local employers in related fields asking if they would like to collaborate, for example I arranged for a local Hospice to deliver a talk on the ‘The ethics of end of life care’.
  • Look at the TRS website-it is fantastic and has so many excellent resources on it.
  • Think about how you could use enrichment opportunities to go beyond the specification and explore EDI in your subject.

If you want any information about this project please email me: ellenh@colchsfc.ac.uk

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