Research Spotlight: Essentialised, sanitised and Eurocentric: an analysis of (mis)representations of Christian attitudes to homosexuality and African Christianities in English RE textbooks

Jonny Trigdell, Department of Education, University of Oxford

Jonny explores how textbooks can participate in the ‘matrix of domination’ as in the current absence of RE in the National Curriculum in England they are often used for planning, teaching and revision in the secondary school RE classroom. This also matters as RE is taught by an increasing number of teachers with other specialisms. He also notes that textbooks often suggest that Christianity is not always as positive about homosexuality as textbooks might suggest. We need to ensure that what we present to students in our pluralistic, diverse classrooms represents the wide range of different lived experiences that there are for example students may be from the African diaspora and/or the LGBTQ+ community.

Jonny’s work found that there is a real trend of essentialisation and there is no recognition of the messiness of religion. Whilst this is understandable it means there is not a very accurate or rich portrayal of lived religion. He also notes that ‘bad religion’ ceases to be ‘real religion so if you do not fit the sorts of things that liberal people in the UK would not agree with, for example the subjugation of queer people, than you cease to be seen as a Christian. Sanitisation means we refer to things as either liberal or traditional in Christianity and never anti LGBTQ+ whereas in teaching about Islam we would say this. Finally, textbooks are Eurocentric, we look at Christianities developed in Europe or America, particularly Protestant or Catholic. Jonny would like to see other churches such as the Ugandan churches, not as passive groups but as theology makers.

So What?

Firstly do read Jonny’s paper Essentialised, sanitised and Eurocentric: an analysis of (mis)representations of Christian attitudes to homosexuality and African Christianities in English RE textbooks

• Ask questions about this in the right places; exam boards, DFE, resource makers
• Engage with LGBTQ+ people and with people from non-Eurocentric Christianities
• Think reflexively about textbook content and the sources being used in your teaching
• Promote epistemic justice – tolerance comes from being able to understand other’s viewpoints, not from excluding them More about this in this research spotlight and policy briefing)
• Challenge sanitisation, essentialisation and Eurocentrism in RE whenever you can
• Tell the whole story (or at least make it clear that the story you tell is incomplete!)