Knowing Better in Religious Education

November 2022

Dr Jo Fraser-Pearce and Alexis Stones

Religious Education (RE) is by nature interdisciplinary and therefore has a distinctive contribution to make to the development of epistemic literacy in students. We define ‘epistemic literacy’ as:

Competency and proficiency in the identification, interpretation, understanding, questioning, navigation, application and communication of knowledge.

Our shorthand is “knowing well”.

In the first audio PowerPoint we introduce our research with an overview of a previous project that led us to explore the role of knowledge in RE. The idea of epistemic literacy emerged as a response to our observation of students’ confusion around the different types of knowledge in the RE curriculum. When opinion was confused with knowing something, a culture of respect inhibited challenge and criticality, resulting in the epistemic ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.

Pearce, J., Stones, A., Reiss, M. J., & Mujtaba, T. (2021). ‘Science is purely about the truth so I don’t think you could compare it to non-truth versus the truth.’ Students’ perceptions of religion and science, and the relationship(s) between them: religious education and the need for epistemic literacy. British Journal of Religious Education. doi:10.1080/01416200.2019.1635434

Stones, A., & Fraser-Pearce, J. (2021). Some pupils should know better (because there is better knowledge than opinion). Interim findings from an empirical study of pupils’ and teachers’ understandings of knowledge and big questions in Religious Education. Journal of Religious Education, 69 (3), 353-366. doi:10.1007/s40839-021-00155-5

Scroll down for lessons and resources from the RE and Science lessons. Free to access and download with no need for sign up. Please use and adapt!
“The New Biology: Implications for Philosophy, Theology and Education”
https://www.issr.org.uk/projects/the-new-biology/

In the second audio PowerPoint, we focus on what it looks like to do wrong to students in their capacities as knowers (Fricker 2007), and on how teacher talk can either hinder or support the development of epistemic literacy.

Stones, A., & Fraser-Pearce, J. (forthcoming). Is there a place for Bildung in preparing Religious Education teachers to support and promote epistemic justice in their classrooms? Journal of Religious Education

Drawing on notions of powerful knowledge (Young and Muller 2010; Young 2014), German and Nordic traditions of Bildung informed didatik and Klafki’s (1995) categorial Bildung, we present the case for epistemic literacy as a conceptual framework for teachers and students to develop a more nuanced understanding of the nature of knowledge than epistemology provides. The genesis of epistemic literacy is the result of an empirical study, while its rationale is theoretical. In the final audio PowerPoint we present the theoretical underpinnings that teachers might want to consider.

Questions for consideration:

^{Is enabling young people to know well a matter of justice?}
^{Does RE have a distinctive part to play?}
^{If the answer is yes, then what is the RE teacher’s role?}

Klafki, W. (1995), ‘Didactic Analysis as the Core of Preparation of Instruction (Didaktische Analyse als Kern der Unterrichtsvorbereitung)’, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 27 (1): 13–30.

Stones, A. and Fraser-Pearce, J. (2022). Epistemic Literacy as an Aim for Religious Education and Implications for Teacher Education. In B. Hudson, N. Gericke, C. Olin-Scheller and M. Stolare (Eds.) International Perspectives on Knowledge and Quality: Implications for Innovation in Teacher Education Policy and Practice. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Young, M. (2014), Knowledge and the Future School, London: Bloomsbury.

Young, M. and Muller, J. (2010), ‘Three Educational Scenarios for the Future: Lessons from the Sociology of Knowledge’, European Journal of Education, 45 (1): 2010, Part I

Dr Jo Fraser-Pearce is Head of Postgraduate Taught Provision at UCL Institute of Education. Jo taught RE for ten years and ITE for a further ten years which has contributed to her wide-ranging practical and theoretical understanding of RE. Her doctoral research was in spiritual education in Steiner schools. Her research interests extend to religious and spiritual education more generally.

Alexis Stones is subject lead for the PGCE Religious Education at UCL Institute of Education. She has worked for many years as an RE teacher with research activities in knowledge and subject specialisms, religion and science, sacred art and peace education. She is also a museum educator and lecturer for ITE at the National Gallery, London.