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Research Summary

This project, a collaboration between Professor Bob Bowie and Ms Katie Clemmey of the National Institute for Christian Education Research (NICER) and the Centre for Research Evaluation in Muslim Education with Dr. Farid Panjwani at University College London (now renamed the Centre for the Study of Education in Muslim Contexts (CEMC) ), sought to support teachers in seven contrasting secondary schools, teach RE more hermeneutically. It was informed by research that the use of texts in RE classrooms is and has been an ongoing problem for many years that continues with the revised GCSE. It was inspired by the thought that a more hermeneutical approach in the subject might help both the transition to Religion and Worldviews education and also the development of a stronger disciplinary knowledge base. It was grant funded by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust and supported by Bible Society. It was a qualitative study of 7 schools with 10 teachers working to apply hermeneutical techniques to their curricula.

Researchers

Dr Robert Bowie, Farid Panjwani & Katie Clemmey

Research Institution

Canterbury Christ Church University

What is this about?

Should schools help students become good interpreters of religion, worldviews, and sacred texts? Should they help students explore what it means to be a sacred text scholar? This report is for all those interested in teaching sacred texts, in particular, the Bible and texts sacred to Muslims including the Qur’an. This project was part of REsearch 7, a Culham St Gabriel’s initiative. Academic papers about the project will be forthcoming in research journals and monographs. It took place between October 2018 and July 2019.

What was done?

We recruited ten participant teachers from seven secondary schools with diverse pupil population profiles and socio-economic and cultural contexts. Initial telephone interviews were followed by drawing up some plans of the teachers’ ideas about what they might want to test in their classrooms. The teachers were given some CPD about hermeneutics and its application. A CPD day involved an introduction to hermeneutics, sacred text scholarship, and expert guidance on classroom hermeneutics. There was also time for planning discussions. The CPD also involved six online ‘bookclub’ sessions on a group video conferencing system following a set of readings. The participants then planned and taught lessons taking ideas from the CPD and readings and adapting their curricula At the end of the summer term there were in-depth individual interviews of all the participants, carried out by the principle investigators.

Main findings and outputs

1. The teachers described a sense of agency that hermeneutical tools gave students in activities around the interpretation of sacred text, e.g. asking about what texts meant to the original writers, or how different interpretations of them may be made today.
2. The teachers reported that pupils were positive about engaging with longer extracts of sacred text including students who they had thought would struggle or lack motivation in such activities.
3. Hermeneutical approaches in these cases led to a deeper quality of conversation in lessons about texts.
4. Hermeneutics was seen as a valuable dimension in curriculum design allowing for progression through multi religious study.
5. Almost all of the teachers developed competent hermeneutical lessons, some with excellent examples of student work.
6. From their key stage 3 changes, several teachers thought that hermeneutics would lead to better GCSE responses, particularly in explaining differences within religions. They also felt that a better space for hermeneutics could be included in exams.

Relevance to RE

There is a greater possibility for change and for reform of religious education if the idea of inhabiting the place of a sacred text scholar becomes part of Religion and Worldviews in schools. It offers one pathway to unlocking a disciplinary study of how people find significance and read meaning through worldviews. Students can progress between the study of different worldviews through the scholarly study of sacred texts.

Generalisability and potential limitations

It was a qualitative study focussed on teachers, and did not seek to measure the actual change in students. The participants were self-selecting so probably had an interest in sacred texts. Findings cannot be generalised from this study and further study is needed, though the teacher responses are promising.

Find out more

Teachers and Text: The Findings Report

https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/nicer/hermeneutics/

Research Summary

This post provides an overview of the Religious Education Teachers and Character: Personal Beliefs and Professional Approaches Research Report. The report details a study comprised of an initial phase of life-story interviews with 30 participants followed by a survey with 314 respondents.

Researchers

James Arthur, Daniel Moulin-Stozek, Jason Metcalfe & Francisco Moller

Research Institution

Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, School of Education, University of Birmingham

What is this about?

The research goals of this report and study are:

1. How do RE teachers’ personal beliefs and worldviews relate to their professional motivations?
2. How do RE teachers negotiate religious diversity?
3. What do RE teachers think about RE and pupils’ character development?
4. What differences in beliefs about pupils’ character development are there between RE teachers holding different worldviews?

What was done?

This study explored the lives of RE teachers using a mixed-method design, comprising an interview phase followed by a survey. This approach allowed for inductive inferences to be made from the interviews, which could be then substantiated through the deductive testing of preliminary hypotheses with the construction of the survey instrument. For each phase, a separate non-probabilistic sample of practising RE teachers who taught RE as their main specialism was recruited through professional organisations and advertisements, including social media.

The first, qualitative phase of the study was inspired by the narrative identity paradigm (McAdams, 1996; 2013; McAdams and Guo, 2015). This uses semi-structured interviews to explore participants’ self-understandings of the development of the course of their lives. In addition to standard questions used in this paradigm, the interview schedule also included questions about teachers’ perspectives on RE and character development.

The second, quantitative phase, was designed drawing on initial analyses of the interviews and employed measures of religious practice and style, as well as individual items about RE teachers’ perceptions of character education. The data generated from these questions allowed for analyses of the relationships between RE teachers’ worldviews, their perspectives on character education and their professional motivations.

Main findings and outputs

1. Personal worldviews informed RE teachers’ approaches in the classroom: RE teachers working in faith and non-faith schools were found to have a diverse range of personal worldviews – from atheism to theism, and all positions in between – but each kind of worldview supports a particular vision of what RE should be, and therefore generates an individual’s motivation to be an RE teacher.
2. RE teachers were found to have fair and tolerant views of other religions and worldviews: RE teachers who did or did not have a religious faith, in faith and non-faith schools, were found to have a fair and tolerant approach to religious diversity. However, this study’s findings suggest that RE teachers that have a religious faith were more open to interreligious dialogue and learning from other religions.
3. There was strong agreement among teachers with a religious faith that RE contributes to character education, and RE teachers should act as role models for their pupils.
4. RE teachers that have a religious faith were more likely to think religions promote good character: There were significant differences in perspectives between RE teachers who reported belonging to a religion, and those who did not. The former were found to be more likely to think that religious traditions provide a source of good role models; they were also more likely to care about their impact on pupils’ religious beliefs and to believe pupils emulate their religious views.

Relevance to RE

The findings of this study confirm the importance of teachers’ personal beliefs and experiences to their professional lives. It is proposed that more opportunities be made available for RE teachers to further reflect on their own worldviews and consider the implications of their personal views for practice. Professional literature and guidelines about RE could be revised to sensitively advise teachers on the best ways to incorporate their own commitments and orientations in their approach to religions in the classroom; these should acknowledge the diversity of teachers’ personal worldviews. Given the widely held belief found among participants regarding the contribution of RE to pupils’ character development, this report provides evidence to suggest that schools and LEAs should develop coherent rationales and syllabi for RE lessons to create further opportunities for developing character. This would strengthen the provision that RE can make in schools, and also help cultivate the character growth of pupils of all faiths and those of none, through RE.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The sampling was, for both qualitative and quantitative phases, non-probabilistic and dependent on participants’ self-selection. There may be bias in both samples, which comprise RE teachers who volunteered in response to advertisements in particular venues. They therefore may be more committed, better networked and more enthusiastic than teachers who did not respond to advertisements to participate in the study.

Find out more

https://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/userfiles/jubileecentre/pdf/Research%20Reports/RE_Teachers_and_Character.pdf

Research Summary

This research draws on data from a project involving 350 students, to explore why students in ten Christian ethos secondary schools in England and Wales recognised Religious Education (RE) as a significant contributor to their spiritual development. The concept of a narthical learning space (NLS) is used to examine young people’s experiences. It is argued that the concept of RE as a narthical learning space alongside the notion of young people as spiritual bricoleurs illuminates how the students in this study interpret the contribution of RE to their spiritual development. A narthical learning space (based on the narthex, the entrance to a church building) is a space between spaces where young people can explore issues of faith and spiritual development in safety. Bricolage is a process by which individuals create meaning, by making creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are to hand regardless of their original purpose.

Researchers

Ann Casson & Trevor Cooling

Research Institution

Canterbury Christ Church University

What is this about?

This is about how students in ten Christian ethos secondary schools in England and Wales view RE, in relation to its contribution to their spiritual development. Focus group data are analysed to show how, for the students, engaging with different religions cannot be separated from spiritual development, and some recommendations for professional practice in RE are drawn out.

What was done?

This research article draws on the qualitative data generated in the ten Christian-ethos schools, in particular, as part of a wider project, from semi-structured focus group interviews with 350 students. The researcher spent two weeks in each of the schools over a period of two years. Students were interviewed in groups of 6 to 8 on the school premises. The original groups were selected by a key contact in the school, from years 7 & 8 (11–13 years old); year 9 (13–14 years old); and years 10 & 11 (14 − 16 years old) and where relevant years 12& 13 (16–18 years old). In addition, students from specific groups were interviewed; for example, the school worship committee, the school council, and student chaplains.

Main findings and outputs

• Students stressed that RE was different from all other subjects in school. It was a lesson where they were encouraged to be spiritual.
• They drew attention to RE as being a time and space to discuss the existential questions, in-depth topics and critical issues.
• Many students commented on how encountering the opinions of other people, and different worldviews influenced their spiritual development, learning about other religion ‘engaged’ their minds and helped them ‘understand other people’s kind of ways of thinking ‘(Year 9 Student).
• Students were exploring who they were and the roots of their beliefs within faith traditions.
• They had a fragmentary approach to the religious traditions; this was apparent in their perception that learning about and from others, provided an opportunity for them to reflect on elements relevant for their spiritual development.

Relevance to RE

The researchers sum up the relevance to RE in a succinct way: “There needs to be a recognition of the professionalism, the academic rigour of RE, alongside an acknowledgement that when engaging with religious traditions, and existential questions; there must be an openness to the implications and opportunities for spiritual development in the classroom.” The message for RE policy makers, curriculum developers and teachers is that RE needs to combine religious studies with opportunities for students to reflect on and discuss the meanings of what they study for personal and social life: this is what students will naturally do, and teachers need to recognise and build on it.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The data represent a reasonable sample size, and the clear arguments reflect the data faithfully.

Find out more

Ann Casson & Trevor Cooling (2019): Religious education for spiritual bricoleurs? the perceptions of students in ten Christian-ethos secondary schools in England and Wales, Journal of Beliefs & Values.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2019.1632596

Research Summary

‘Soft power’ (e.g. educational) approaches to counter and prevent violent extremism increase, internationally. Education for the prevention of violent extremism could benefit from drawing on insights from research on education about diverse religious and non-religious worldviews in Australia. This research indicates that these types of educational initiatives can assist with addressing religious vilification, discrimination and inter-religious tensions, and also with building religious literacy and social inclusion of young people. A critical approach to education about religions can assist young people to identify religions’ ambivalent role in contributing to both cultures of violence and cultures of peace. The researchers make a series of recommendations regarding religion, education and the prevention of violent extremism.

Researchers

Anna Halafoff, Kim Lam & Gary Bouma

Research Institution

Deakin University, Monash University

What is this about?

• How can education help to prevent violent extremism?
• What role can RE play in this?
• Building religious literacy helps to prevent discrimination and tension.
• Religion may contribute both to problems and solutions, and a critical approach to education about religion can help young people to understand this.

What was done?

The researchers reviewed a range of international evidence, including their own findings from a project investigating worldviews education in Victoria, Australia.

Main findings and outputs

• Religious and inter-religious literacy are invaluable skills in an increasingly mobile and interconnected world and should be developed among all students;
• Education about diverse religions, spiritualities and nonreligious worldviews should be included as part of prevention of violent extremism strategies in all government and faith-based schools to increase religious literacy, to reduce misinformation and negative stereotypes about religion, and to promote inter-religious understanding;
• This education should be critical, and highlight religion’s ambivalent role in both creating and perpetuating cultures of direct and structural violence and in peacebuilding;
• Exclusive narratives and ideologies, be they religious or political, which promote one worldview over and above others, are potentially dangerous and can play a role in radicalisation. Students should be made aware of this and critical thinking should be encouraged to question such narratives;
• Teachers need to be trained in not only religious and inter-religious literacy but also in conflict resolution skills to navigate sensitive and difficult discussions pertaining to religion, violence and peacebuilding;
• In contexts such as faith-based schools, education about diverse religions and worldviews can complement existing RI programmes.
• More research needs to be conducted on the benefits and limitations of educational programmes about diverse worldviews.

Relevance to RE

Firstly, the research gives valuable policy emphasis to RE, showing that governments need to take seriously the subject’s contribution to a peaceful and productive society. Secondly, it gives challenges to RE teachers (and teacher educators), including learning to expose and manage the controversial elements of the subject and presenting religions through different lenses and perspectives.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The research findings arise from a broad, varied, detailed data-set. Some of the research focuses on Australia, but the issues are common with other jurisdictions e.g. the UK.

Find out more

Anna Halafoff, Kim Lam & Gary Bouma (2019) Worldviews education: cosmopolitan peacebuilding and preventing violent extremism, Journal of Beliefs & Values, 40:3, 381-395.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2019.1600113

Research Summary

This is a critical scholarly essay, examining the following questions: What are controversial issues? Who decides whether something is controversial, and how does it affect how a subject is taught? These questions have been discussed often in relation to education, less so in relation to RE specifically. RE teachers need clarity and support, however. So, this research addresses the discussion to RE teaching, taking the example of ritual circumcision as a focus.

Researcher

Marie Von Der Lippe

Research Institution

University of Bergen

What is this about?

• What counts as a controversial issue?
• Who decides on whether an issue is controversial, and by what criteria?
• How does this discussion affect RE teaching, and by what principles should RE teachers be guided?

What was done?

The researcher summarises and criticises different perspectives on what counts as controversy, also drawing on some questions of law and policy and referring to the example of ritual circumcision. She closes with some practical suggestions for RE teachers.

Main findings and outputs

• Whether or not an issue is viewed as controversial often depends on the teacher’s background and the school and social context.
• Teachers need to weigh up whether the issue is a matter of fact, or of political debate, and can be presented as settled or open.
• So whilst ritual circumcision is a settled issue in some communities, it has been a matter of intense debate in Norway. Female circumcision is a settled issue (banned), male circumcision more open, though in Norwegian RE textbooks, female circumcision is presented as a violation whilst male circumcision is presented as a regular ritual practice.
• Should RE teachers teach about it directively (with one answer in mind) or non-directively (asking for debate)? We need to deliberate and decide, as with other possibly controversial issues, and make this conversation part of teacher training and development. Even if a particular issue appears settled, directive teaching may hinder students’ critical development, so important in democratic life.

Relevance to RE

The research poses real questions to RE teachers – again, ones which they will recognise. The suggestion that RE teachers develop a professional culture of deliberation over controversial issues and how to approach them in the classroom is very good. The research could provide a basis for a CPD session or departmental meeting discussion.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This is an interesting and useful scholarly discussion orientated towards guidelines for the classroom, The issue of data generalisability does not really arise, but the issues are certainly highly relevant to RE teaching and RE teachers may well find the guidance to be helpful.

Find out more

Marie Von Der Lippe (2019): Teaching controversial issues in RE: the case of ritual circumcision, British Journal of Religious Education.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2019.1638227

Research Summary

There already exists a large knowledge base about teaching and learning related to the origins, diversity and history of life on Earth. We know less about teaching and learning related to wider issues pertinent to both religion and science; so in this research, wider issues of student perceptions of religion and science were investigated. There were many instances where students used language that conveyed a misconception of the different bases of, or epistemic distinctions between, religion and science. The research shows that RE needs to attend to this problem – to help students develop what the researchers call epistemic literacy – so that students avoid misconceptions and develop insights into the specific knowledge forms manifested in religion(s).

Researchers

Jo Pearce, Alexis Stones, Michael J. Reiss & Tamjid Mujtaba

Research Institution

University College London, Institute of Education

What is this about?

• Teaching and learning about religion and science.
• ‘Epistemic literacy’ – how can teachers help students to understand that religion(s) and science have different bases for the claims that they make?
• A series of lessons (6 RE, 6 Science) was developed and taught, with these aims in mind; the research is also about what these lessons contained, what students said when reflecting on them and how their own perspectives changed.

What was done?

• There was a literature review on different accounts of the religion-science relationship (e.g. conflict, complementary).
• 40 students in years 9/10 took part in interviews before and after a specially designed series of 6 RE and 6 Science lessons.
• The interview data were analysed, conclusions drawn and recommendations for school and for RE practice identified.

Main findings and outputs

• Most students’ views on the religion-science relationship changed; of these 21, 18 moved from a view that religion and science are incompatible to a view that they are compatible.
• 8 within this group moved to a view that religion and science answer the same question in different ways.
• 5 referred to what the researchers call ‘coalescence’, i.e. that there can be a ‘cross-section’ between ‘belief and evidence’.
• 13 students expressed their appreciation of the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the natures of religion and science, and their relationship(s). Some mentioned that they did not usually get this opportunity in RE, and they considered the approach effective.
• RE teachers already deal with religious difference, so are well placed to ask students to consider questions such as whether or not religion and science are competing for the same explanatory space.
• In some ways. subject compartmentalisation does not help students to grasp these issues.

Relevance to RE

RE teachers could seek opportunities with science colleagues for cross-curricular collaboration, to follow up the ideas presented through the research. The researchers also recommend that the religion-science questions are addressed in more areas than the origins of life and the universe; e.g. medical ethics and artificial intelligence are good areas in which to consider the contributions of religion and science together. RE teachers could also work with students to identify criteria can be used to evaluate religious and scientific explanations, and offer students different models of the religion-science relationship to evaluate.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The sample of 40 students and number of 12 lessons are fairly limited, but evidently sufficient to generate interesting findings, which teachers are invited to follow up in innovative ways that should engage and challenge their students.

Find out more

Jo Pearce, Alexis Stones, Michael J. Reiss & Tamjid Mujtaba (2019): ‘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.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2019.1635434

Research Summary

This research draws on findings from an religious education (RE) test done by 52 Swedish 12-year-old pupils in three different classes on two occasions at the beginning and end of the 2011/2012 academic year. The purpose is to examine whether RE knowledge development can be identified generally, whether there are differences between classes, and if so whether they can be related to communication patterns and describe directions of knowledge development within RE. The findings show that RE
developments over the course of the academic year can be identified in all three classes, and that there are differences among the classes in both achievement levels and developments. What counts is the degree to which the communication practices of the classes facilitate RE learning. Among the individual communicative factors, ‘asking questions’ when one is curious or does not understand is an important factor. The greatest developments seem to be among less complex and learning-about forms of RE knowledge.

Researcher

Christina Osbeck

Research Institution

Gothenburg University

What is this about?

This is about 12-year-old RE pupils and their levels of success in developing subject knowledge. Are there differences between classes? (In the three classes studied, general levels of progress in core subjects are roughly the same, at slightly above the national average.) If there are differences, do these correlate with any particular communication practices that are established within the classes? Do they also correlate with pupil experiences of school, such as stating that schoolwork and RE are enjoyable, or feeling that you are good at RE?

What was done?

A test was developed, in two parts, with four tasks altogether, spanning different elements of RE knowledge. The first part was taken in the Autumn of the school year, the second in the Spring. The test scores were analysed, closely, with attention to differential development rates in each class and in different test items.

Main findings and outputs

• When other variables are factored in, there remains a difference in development of knowledge between classes, one class showing a statistically significant higher rate.
• There is also a statistically significant higher rate of development of knowledge in relation to one type of test task, across the three classes: this test task focuses on knowledge of Judaism and the Bar Mitzvah; the lowest rate of development occurs where pupils are asked to interpret a picture of a square containing a church and a mosque, and whether the picture could have been taken a hundred years ago.
• Membership of a particular class, or kind of class, appears to impact positively on knowledge development in RE.
• The communication practice within this class, of pupils asking and answering questions about matters about which they are curious or unsure, appears to impact positively on knowledge development in RE.
• Other important positive factors in knowledge development in RE are existential discussions at home (for ethics), viewing yourself as good at RE and seeing schoolwork and RE as enjoyable.

Relevance to RE

The final paragraph of the article reporting the research (reference below) brings out the relevance to RE teaching very well. As a paraphrase: teachers need to learn effective questioning and to encourage pupils to formulate and ask questions; teachers need to focus hard on pupils’ knowledge development, and set up a classroom climate to promote it; teachers should aim to promote knowledge of aspects of RE which are harder to achieve than others, or are neglected, including learning from religion; and overall, teachers should work on the basis that classroom questions visualise learning, both teachers and pupils gaining information about what pupils know and do not know.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This is a fairly small-scale study, though carried out through a sophisticated methodology. The data are analysed carefully to bring out some clear and important messages for RE teachers.

Find out more

Christina Osbeck (2019) Knowledge development of tweens in RE – the importance of school class and communication, British Journal of Religious Education, 41:3, 247-260.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2017.1361379

Research Summary

The human development (HD) model for religious education (RE) emphasises how students develop personally from studying religion. However, detailed teaching practices for ‘learning from religion’ are not fully understood. In this research, lesson observations, school documents and interview data were collected from two Christian primary schools in Hong Kong (HK) . Two lessons were analysed as examples of the teaching for student development in RE lessons. This study found that the teachers helped their students engage with religion by giving them opportunities to associate religion with their lives through religious and moral-related contents. The use of daily life and religious experiences with discussions was the pedagogical approach for moving RE from just ‘the teaching of religion’. Moreover, various opportunities for student reflections to enhance personal and moral development were observed. It is suggested that future studies should consider examining the theory of the adopted model and its classroom practice, which can aid understanding regarding the role of RE for student development and its global identity.

Researcher

Mei-Yee Wong

Research Institution

The Education University of Hong Kong

What is this about?

• The human development model of RE includes learning from religion as well as learning about it, but how to do so is not well understood.
• Therefore, examples are presented from two Hong Kong schools, where teachers engaged students by making links to their own religious or moral concerns, or daily life experiences.
• Student reflection to enhance personal and moral development was observed during these lessons.
• The model outlined may help to show the role of RE in student personal development, and help the subject to be clear on its own identity.

What was done?

• A Protestant primary school and a Catholic primary school were selected for the study.
• Multiple sets of data were collected, including lesson observations supplemented with documents and individual interviews. Lesson observations and analysis revealed teaching practices, individual interviews revealed the participants’ opinions on current practices and the observed situations, and documents (e.g. textbooks and teaching plans) provided demographic information to contextualise the observed lessons.
• The lessons were video-recorded, transcribed and analysed. All post-lesson student and teacher interviews lasted from 30 minutes to one hour and were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed.

Main findings and outputs

• First, the observed lessons differed from the original ideas in the HD model, and although the ‘engagement’, ‘exploration’, and ‘reflection’ stages were present to various extents, the third stage, ‘contextualisation’, was not observed (because the schools were Christian schools and the lessons about Christianity, it may not have been needed).
• Second, the lessons started from the engagement stage and ended with the reflection stage.
• Third, using questions, and asking students to reflect on their pasts and plan for a future moral life assisted their personal growth.
• Fourth, life and values-related elements in activities and discussions were identified as vital opportunities for achieving the goal of reflection. They ‘transcended the lesson’. They included asking students to think about how they would act in different future situations.

Relevance to RE

The research is quite timely, because though these issues are far from new, there is concern that an emphasis on knowledge in RE might weaken the subject’s potential to contribute to pupils’ personal development. This research shows, again, that engagement with religion and pupil personal development are interdependent within RE. Teachers can think about how to engage pupils with religion by thinking about (for example) the situations described in parables, and how they might act in similar situations in the future. The research is primary-focused, but more controversial situations could be chosen for secondary level.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researcher recognises that the sample is small, but the pedagogy offered is nevertheless there for teachers to try out, evaluate and refine.

Find out more

Mei-Yee Wong (2019) Current teaching practice for religious education in Hong Kong: implications for ‘learning from religion’, Journal of Beliefs & Values, 40:2, 133-145, https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2018.1548827

https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2018.1548827

Research Summary

The research was conducted during 2018 in a secondary school in South Yorkshire, England with a class of 11–12-year-old boys and girls and the class teacher of religious education (RE), in consultation with the head and deputy head of the RE faculty. The focus of the project was on the extent to which existing research findings can assist teachers to deal with issues of religious diversity, including how the classroom can be a ‘safe space’ for dialogue and discussion and how media influences can be managed; issues identified in the Council of Europe publication Signposts (written by Bob Jackson and available for free download at http://www.theewc.org/Content/Library/COE-Steering-documents/Recommendations/Signposts-Policy-and-practice-for-teaching-about-religions-and-non-religious-world-views-in-intercultural-education ). The findings highlight: the need for teachers to be given support in learning skills for managing classroom dialogue; the interest of young people in exploring difference; and the benefits to teachers of participation in classroom-based collaborative research.

Researchers

Dr Kevin O’Grady & Professor Robert Jackson

Research Institution

University of Warwick

What is this about?

• Making use of research findings to help teachers to strengthen and refine RE pedagogy.
• Assisting teachers to teach Y7 pupils to manage issues of religious and cultural diversity and difference.
• Ways in which Y7 pupils value RE, and how to build on these to secure progressively better engagement.
• Why and how teachers can benefit from contact with researchers and research findings.

What was done?

One of the researchers joined a school’s RE faculty for a series of discussions and planning meetings, during which a small number of research reports were used as the basis for a series of enhancements to a Y7 scheme of work on Christianity and the environment. The researcher then observed the research-enhanced lessons, keeping an observation log. A sample of pupils completed questionnaires about their experiences of the lessons, a further sample also participating in interviews that explored these in more depth. Members of the teaching team were also interviewed about the project’s contribution to their professional practice.

Main findings and outputs

• Discussion of controversial issues of religious and cultural difference is aided by clear classroom ground rules, especially when pupils contribute to the identification and setting of those rules.
• Contact with representatives of religious groups in the local area (e.g. by interviewing relatives or family friends as homework) helps build pupils’ motivation and their sense of RE’s relevance.
• Religious texts should be approached through a hermeneutical questioning framework: e.g., what would this have meant when originally written and read? What different interpretations are possible? What different meanings or interpretations might be given to it today, by people of different backgrounds or interests?
• Pupils experience RE as interesting when it investigates different views of the world and lifestyles, and differences between people. Pedagogy is successful when it genuinely enables such investigation.
• Contact with researchers and research findings can give teachers increased confidence and new angles on classroom practice. The non-judgmental, collaborative, subject-specific nature of this joint research contrasted positively, for the teachers, with being ‘monitored’ or receiving generic, data-driven CPD.

Relevance to RE

RE teachers could adopt the pedagogical strategies outlined in the research to their own situation and practice. They could make links to researchers and research and undertake similar projects of their own. Culham St Gabriel’s would be very interested to discuss and help shape such projects. Email Kevin@cstg.org.uk

Generalisability and potential limitations

The study was only of one school, but could prove to be a useful pilot to follow up in others. The action research methodology and published research sources used are broader and more established. The concept of research-enhanced teaching (where a research finding is used to model a small-scale ‘tweak’ to classroom practice, costing little time or effort relative to the significant positive effects) calls for further exemplification, which the researchers hope to generate in further studies.

Find out more

Kevin O’Grady & Robert Jackson (2019): ‘A touchy subject’: teaching and learning about difference in the religious education classroom, Journal of Beliefs & Values, DOI: 10.1080/13617672.2019.1614755

Research Summary

This is a critique of history textbooks. It analyses the language they use, what they leave out, the stories they tell and from whose point of view, and the ethical issues they sidestep, for example, the plight of Palestinian refugees. As shown below, it is very relevant to RE teaching.

Researcher

Michael H. Romanowski

Research Institution

Qatar University

What is this about?

Textbooks are a dominant educational tool, which do not deserve a reputation as impartial resources that teach facts and skills. They have to be used and approached critically.

What was done?

The methodology is to survey and scrutinise the language textbooks use, the narratives they promote, whose points of view they serve, what they leave out and what ethical issues they avoid.

Main findings and outputs

The findings are that through language choice, promotion of certain narratives and partial interests, omissions of content and avoidance of ethical issues, textbooks tend to give privilege to some voices and leave out others. However, this lack of balance can be addressed in the classroom.

Relevance to RE

RE teachers should find particular use in the professional practice strategies that are suggested, which are transferable to RE textbooks:

• Don’t assume that pupils have prior knowledge of terminology. Take time to discuss the important words used, their possible meanings and the perspectives behind their use.
• Teach pupils how a textbook’s version of an event is limited and one of many. Get them to ask questions about why an event is covered, whose viewpoint is given, whose left out, whose interests are served, whether the account is believable and backed up by other sources.
• Draw on the ‘six facets of understanding’ of Wiggins and McTigue, asking students to explain (why is that so?), interpret (what does it mean?), apply (where else can I use this knowledge?); develop perspective (whose point of view is this?), empathy (do I understand it?) and self-knowledge (how does who I am shape my views?).

Generalisability and potential limitations

It shouldn’t be assumed that the problems are found in all or most RE textbooks, but the professional practice strategies offer good ways for teachers to teach pupils to use materials critically and develop understanding and responsibility.

Find out more

Michael H. Romanowski, ‘Reading Beyond the Lines’, in James R. Lewis, Bengt-Ove Andreassen and Suzanne Anett Thobro (eds.), Textbook Violence, Sheffield (Equinox): 2017, 7-23.