Conceptualising Religion And Worldviews For The School

This timely volume addresses current debates surrounding the transition from the teaching of religious education (RE) to the more holistic subject of Religion and Worldviews (R&W) in England, and posits criteria for best practice among educators in varied settings and in a broader international context. By examining empirical sources, governmental reports, and in particular the 2018 final report from the Commission on Religious Education (CORE), the volume suggests key principles needed to guide the transition and ensure that R&W is effectively integrated into curricula, pedagogy, and teaching resources to meet the needs of all student groups. By effectively conceptualising R&W, the volume gives particular attention to the intersections of the subject with democratic citizenship education, intercultural competence, and religious literacy. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in religious education and teacher education as well as the philosophy and sociology of education more broadly. Those interested in education policy and politics, as well as citizenship and schooling in the UK, will also benefit from this volume.

Religion and Worldviews: The Triumph of the Secular in Religious Education provides the first serious analysis and review of the Commission on Religious Education’s proposed worldviews framework for the subject. It argues that religious education has an important contribution to make to the aims of liberal education and examines whether the shift to a worldview framework is capable of overcoming current weaknesses and initiating a new positive direction for the future. Chapters explore the role of worldviews in Religious Education, covering key debates including: Whether there is need for new legislation on RE The nature of professionalism and the role of ‘experts’ The extent to which there is educational value in study of the personal worldviews of students The role of the religious voice in RE The relation of religions to religious worldviews The aims of RE The relationship between the state and religion Consideration of the nature of a worldview The personal reflections of a member of the Commission on its proposals The chapters provide all that is necessary to understand and to evaluate the current debate on the appropriateness of a worldviews approach to RE. Bringing together leading names in the field, this is essential reading for trainee and practising teachers of Religious Education, RE advisers and schools’ leaders responsible for curriculum development.

This timely book offers a critically important contribution to debates around the meeting place of religious and secular worldviews in education. Edited by five leading figures in the field, and drawing on expert international scholarship and research, the book provides cutting-edge analysis that bridges the religious and secular in global educational contexts. Considering the role of the United Nations, UNESCO, OECD and PISA in varied international contexts, the book draws on critical analysis of primary empirical research and secondary critique to offer a coherent blend of theoretically complex yet practical analysis of policy implementation. Throughout this accessible and logically structured volume, the authors assert that the meeting place of religious and secular worldviews is one of the most important and pressing issues for religion in education. As a field-defining work of research into education, religion and worldviews, the book will be essential reading for scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of religious education, religious studies, philosophy of education and international education.

Religious Education and the Public Sphere reveals, through an analysis of theory and practice, that religious education is resting on historic and persistent assumptions about both religion and education. Drawing on work from Arendt and Weil, new ideas emerge regarding religious education's constituent elements: education and religion. It offers a new and timely proposal for religious education and argues for a broader understanding of religion, bringing a fresh contribution to current discussions regarding the relationship between religion and education in the public sphere. Some practical considerations emerging from theory developing through the earlier parts of the book are presented in the final section, including the teacher's role and what should guide religious education curriculum. At a time when there is raised interest in the role of religion in the public sphere internationally, this book aims to contribute something new, both theoretically and practically, to discussions regarding the role of religion in education is and relevant to educational contexts worldwide. This book will be vital reading for academics and researchers in the fields of religion and religious studies, education, philosophy of education and religious education, and will also be of great interest to teachers and policy makers working in the field of religious education in the public sphere.

This volume presents the findings of a number of empirical and theoretical studies on education about religions and worldviews (ERW) conducted in the Western societies of Britain, Ireland, Canada, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Educational programmes about diverse religions and worldviews began to be investigated and implemented as strategies to encourage interreligious understanding and social cohesion, particularly following the 2005 London bombings when a fear of youth radicalisation and home-grown terrorism became prevalent. In addition, as a growing number of people in Western societies, and young people especially, declare themselves to have no religious affiliation, state actors are currently grappling with the reality that we are living in increasingly multifaith and non-religious societies and government education systems have become places of contestation as a result of these changes. This volume examines ERW research and policies in a number of diverse places in the hope of identifying common themes, overlapping insights and best practices that can inform research and policy for religious literacy and interreligious understanding in other contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies.

This book offers an account of religious schooling committed to ‘queer-thriving’ and envisions how queer staff and students can live their lives without being ‘accommodated’ within heteronormative religious traditions. Engaging with queer theological perspectives across the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, the book begins by situating queer thriving as a viable part of the work of the religious school, and not just as something reserved for progressive education more broadly. Taking three areas that are typically used to justify religious heteronormativity (religious texts, religious values, religious rituals), it engages queer theologies to showcase how an educational approach committed to queer thriving can be enacted in religious schools in ways that are also theologically sensitive. The book then explores how religious school communities can navigate differences around queerness and religion in ways that are supportive of queer staff and students. It takes desire as an everyday reality in classrooms and applies a queer lens to this to challenge heteronormativity and to imagine alternative modes of relationship between staff, students, and communities that enable queer staff and students to thrive. Showcasing possibilities of resistance for the opposition between religious and queer concerns, it will appeal to researchers, postgraduates and academics in the fields of religion and education, whilst also benefitting those working across philosophy of education and educational theory, sex education, sociology of education, social justice education, queer theologies, religious studies, and sociology of religion.

This novel and contemporary anthology brings important topics about race, religion, and identity to the foreground to address the challenges facing Muslim schoolchildren today. Through interviews and case studies, the chapters explore topics such as multiethnic education, teacher diversity, and culturally responsive pedagogy, providing insights into necessary changes and ways to enhance schools. Taking into account cultural touchstones such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the Trojan Horse affair, the book argues for an urgent, transformative accommodation of Muslims to take place within schooling in order to improve the educational standards of Muslim children within the United Kingdom, including several chapters that focus on Muslim education in locations such as Yorkshire, Peterborough, High Wycombe, and Tower Hamlets, and further afield. This book will be of importance to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students studying religious education, secondary education, and multicultural education more broadly. Policymakers interested in education policy and politics, as well as race and ethnicity in educational contexts, may potentially benefit from the volume.