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Part I
General introduction
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My work in the context of debates about religious education
Changes in religious education in the UK, Europe and internationally
I started my career as a teacher of religious education, then I became a teacher-trainer and finally a researcher and writer in the fields of religious diversity and intercultural education, and religious education. During my time as a teacher-trainer and researcher, I also edited publications concerned with religious education. I was founding editor of Resource, which was adopted as the journal of the Professional Council for Religious Education (PCFRE), later the National Association for Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE). I was then invited to edit the British Journal of Religious Education, which I did for 15 years. The present volume includes a selection of my writings from the early 1990s to the present.
My work over time relates especially to the impact of religious diversity on Western societies, and educational responses to this. National bodies, such as the Religious Education Council of England and Wales in the UK, European human rights bodies, such as the Council of Europe, and international institutions such as the UN and UNESCO all continue to take an interest in issues related to diversity and religious education in schools.
When I began working as a teacher in an English secondary school in the late 1960s, âreligious educationâ was already going through processes of change. Edwin Coxâs widely read book Changing Aims in Religious Education had been published recently (Cox 1966), not long after research by Harold Loukes, showing teenagersâ dissatisfaction with traditional forms of the subject which aimed to nurture young people into religious faith (Loukes 1961). Around the same time, Ninian Smart was appointed to the first department of academic Religious Studies at a British university, and he soon developed an interest in a broadly based religious education in schools (Smart 1968) and became involved in a project that had a strong influence on the subject at school level (Schools Council 1971). At this time, Owen Cole was among writers drawing attention to the increasingly multi-religious character of many urban schools in the UK (Cole 1972). Later, I had the privilege of working with Smart, Cole and others who were members of the Shap Working Party on World Religions in Education, and also of working with Edwin Cox, who joined my team at the University of Warwick after his retirement from London University (Jackson 1991a, 1991b). Later involvement with international organisations, such as the European Forum for Teachers of Religious Education (EFTRE), the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values (ISREV), the Council of Europe, the American Academy of Religion and the Religious Education Association, as well as collaborative teaching and research with colleagues outside Europe in countries such as Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and South Korea, as well as the United States, gave me opportunities to participate in international debates about the subject. My editorial work with the British Journal of Religious Education also enhanced my involvement with scholars from a variety of countries.
Thus, my work over time, initially in teaching, then teacher training, and next in empirical research and policy development, plus experience as a journal editor, reflects changes in religious education in the UK, Europe and more widely since the mid-1960s. The complexity of these changes at the European level is documented in an ongoing series of books from the REL-EDU project based at the University of Vienna, which gives a picture of developments across Europe. I have been privileged to be involved in this project, and co-edited the volume on Western Europe. Three out of six volumes have appeared so far, covering Western Europe (Rothgangel, Jackson and JĂ€ggle 2014), Central Europe (Rothgangel, JĂ€ggle and Schlag 2016) and Northern Europe (Rothgangel, Skeie and JĂ€ggle 2014). Readers are referred to these volumes for discussions of many of the different systems of European religious education. Although there are some generic influences for change, particular countries such as Hungary and Poland, which had no religious education in schools during the Communist period, have introduced forms of religious nurture, rather than education about religions (Rothgangel, JĂ€ggle and Schlag 2016). However, many European countries have needed to adapt their systems of religious education as a result of the combined influences of secularisation, pluralisation and globalisation (see, for example, Franken and Vermeer 2017).
In recent times, a significant factor affecting public perceptions of a broadly based liberal education has been âPisa rankingsâ, which have a damaging effect on subjects such as religious education, citizenship and the arts. Introduced in 2000, and administered every three years, Pisa is an instrument to rank over 60 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries according to a measure of the academic achievement of 15-year-old students in mathematics, science and reading. Pisa rankings have a strong influence on educational policies and practices in many countries. There are some serious negative consequences of these rankings. For example, through emphasis on a narrow range of measurable aspects of education, Pisa diverts public attention away from less measurable educational objectives such as physical, moral, spiritual, civic and artistic development, thereby narrowing public perception of the nature and aims of education. Measuring a wide diversity of educational traditions and cultures using a single, narrow, biased yardstick is likely to do serious harm to schools and their students, as well as influencing parental opinion as to which school subjects are âimportantâ.1
Key influences: secularisation, pluralisation and globalisation
To return to England as an example, when I began work as a teacher, religious education policy was determined by the 1944 Education Act (Gates and Jackson 2014). Within the state sector, this distinguished between âcountyâ and âvoluntaryâ schools. County schools received full state funding and had a form of religious education reflecting a non-denominational approach to Christian nurture, influenced by biblical studies. A much smaller number of voluntary aided schools, with a religious character, were mainly funded by the state, but received some funding from religious bodies, and they were allowed to teach their own form of religious education.
As indicated above, religious education, especially in âcountyâ schools, was changing. Many shifts were initiated within the schools themselves. However, changes in the academic study of religion in universities and the increasing ethnic and religious diversity of urban areas were also influential. A key driver of change was (and is) secularisation, characterised by a decline in religious belief and practice within Western societies. In England, this was reflected in an expressed desire by older school students to learn about and discuss issues concerning religion, but not to be told what to believe. This view was common among older students during my own early years of teaching in the late 1960s (see also Cox 1967). Much literature on religious education in Europe, and more widely, reports the continuing influence of secularisation.
A second influence for change is pluralisation, especially through the migration to European states of people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds. In Britainâs case, as a result of the decline of the Empire, migrants from a variety of former colonial states, especially South Asian, African and Caribbean countries, came to the UK. By the early 1970s, many British cities had communities practising â for example â Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam, as well as varieties of South Asian and Caribbean Christianity. Such changes influenced religious education at school level, especially in urban, âmulti-faithâ schools (Cole 1972). Forms of diversity have changed over time, and Steven Vertovecâs remarks on âsuper diversityâ, which give attention to shifting and interacting factors such as migration pattern, legal status, human capital, locality and transnationalism, should be registered (Vertovec 2006). Moreover, the danger of stereotyping religions, especially through media reports of religiously motivated violence, was exacerbated by the events of 9/11 in the United States and by subsequent events, such as the terrorist attack on the offices of French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January 2015 (Jackson 2015a). The events of 9/11 acted as a catalyst for the Council of Europe to include the religious dimension of intercultural education as part of its educational remit, something it had been contemplating for some years, but had not yet brought to fruition (see Part V, this volume).
A third influence is globalisation, often connecting aspects of life in particular countries with events in other parts of the world. The influential work of Ninian Smart in Religious Studies has been mentioned, partly through an educational project which linked his global approach to the study of religions with religious education in England and Wales (e.g. Schools Council 1971; Smart 1968). Events such as 9/11 also have clear, global implications. For young people currently, globalisation is especially reflected in the revolution in communication represented by the Internet, the mobile telephone and social media.
Speaking generally, changes resulting from the influences of secularisation, pluralisation and globalisation have varied in a number of ways across countries, not least because they have interacted with some contrasting national histories of religion and state, and different experiences in relation to migration. The particular situation of some post-Communist countries has also been mentioned. Thus, in various European states, there has been a transition in state education from forms of religious education, in which religious beliefs and values are transmitted to young people (sometimes called faith-based, formative or confessional approaches), towards types of âinclusiveâ religious education, in which young people from various religious and non-religious family backgrounds learn together about religious, and sometimes also non-religious, diversity. In some national contexts varieties of âinclusiveâ and âfaith-basedâ religious education co-exist (see the REL-EDU Project books).2
Educational encounters with religious diversity
My own work developed in settings where pluralisation, more than secularisation, was the dominant factor. When I moved to the city of Coventry in 1972, as a teacher-trainer, I met children and parents in schools who introduced me to their Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities. A genuine desire to understand the religious and cultural meanings of those I met led to a learning process which developed over time.
I was invited to make educational programmes for the BBC about these communities, for various age groups, and with a focus on the experience of young people and their families (Blaylock, Jackson and Marshall-Taylor 2002). I also began research studies, developing a methodology which led to various projects at the University of Warwick (see Part II, this volume), the development of an interpretive approach to religious education (see Part III, this volume), and the publication of books for children and young people for use in inclusive religious education. These books were written with the collaboration of families, and other community members, from a range of religious ancestries (e.g. Barratt 1994a, 1994b, 1994c; Everington 1996; Jackson 1989; Jackson and Nesbitt 1990; Mercier 1996; Robson 1995; Wayne et al. 1996). Although the approach was pluralistic in content, and impartial in approach, there was no distancing from religious communities or their members. Children, parents and other community members who practised religions were involved in educational activities concerned with increasing knowledge and understanding of children and young people at school, regardless of background, rather than with generating faith. Moreover, they were fully aware that they were participating in this process.
My theoretical approach to understanding the religious lives of others, and to utilising this in religious education, was eclectic. I have compared it to playing jazz music (see Chapter 1, this volume). Initially, I tried out ideas from the phenomenology of religion, but found this approach problematic for providing workable field methods. The methods and theory I utilised over time resulted from trial-and-error learning and consultation with colleagues from various disciplines. Instead of attempting to describe Hinduism as a set of beliefs and practices, for example, I talked about the relationship between individuals, groups of various kinds to which they belonged, and the broad Hindu tradition. This was not a reduction of a religion to the sum of its participants, nor was it an anti-realist deconstruction of religions; it was a statement about the complex social reality of religions (see Part III, this volume). Religions were understood in terms of the relationship of individuals to the groups they belonged to, and the relationship of both to aspects of the wider religious tradition. The term âinterpretationâ was used both for exploring the relationship of individuals, groups and the wider tradition and for explaining anotherâs meaning through comparison and contrast of that personâs description of experiences with oneâs own nearest equivalent understandings.
What I have not mentioned so far is the impact of religious informants on me. There was an influence of their meanings, conduct and relationships on me as a researcher, learner and person. Although I did not adopt their beliefs, reflection on aspects of their way of life influenced and sometimes deepened my own perspectives. I called this âdeepeningâ of view âedificationâ, part of a broader concept of reflexivity, which also included a critique of the processes of interpretation and a retrospective critical review of methods used.
Thus, in my own work and that of my colleagues, there emerged an interpretive approach to the study of a religion as practised by adherents, involving the key concepts of representation, interpretation and reflexivity (including edification) (see Part III, this volume). These concepts have been adapted for use in different contexts, including experiments in using the approach by children learning about religions in their own locality (Jackson 1990), in the development of books for children and young people (see above), and as a theoretical stimulus and set of tools for analysing research on young peopleâs learning about religions in schools (see Part III, this volume). I am pleased to say that these ideas are also being utilised, developed and taken creatively in new directions by others (e.g. BrĂ„ten 2013; Iversen 2013; Kvamme 2017; OâGrady 2013).
Inclusive religious education: information-based, neutral and detached and information-based impartial and dialogical approaches
My own experience as a teacher and teacher-trainer exemplifies a ânon-confessionalâ approach to religious education (Schools Council 1971). However, ânon-confessionalâ approaches are not all of the same type. In various Western democracies, two different generic approaches to âinclusiveâ religious education have emerged. The first, which I will call here an âinformation-based, neutral and detachedâ approach, confines the subject to learning information about religions (or religions and philosophies, such as secular humanism). The approach is highly sensitive to criticism concerning any influence that religious ideas studied might have on pupils engaging in religious education. Study methods emphasise scientific objectivity and neutrality, and tend to be influenced by academic religious studies in universities. Student-to-student dialogue about religions is discouraged or prohibited, since its content might be construed as potentially influencing participants (e.g. Jensen 2010).
The second, which I will call an âinformation-based, impartial and dialogicalâ approach, aims to provide accurate information about religions (and sometimes other world views) together with opportunities for students to discuss what they have learned, with one another and with the teacher, under the teacherâs guidance and moderation. Concerns about inappropriate influence upon student participants are addressed through adopting methods which aim to promote impartiality, rather than detachment or neutrality (Jackson and Everington 2017). Contact with members of religious (and belief) communities is encouraged as a learning resource, with care given to educating all participants about their roles. For example, a representative of a religious community invited to a school to speak, has the role of informant, and must not attempt to persuade students to adopt her position. In teacher-moderated classroom dialogue, students are encouraged to express their religious stance or their personal views about religions in a civil way, and to learn to live together peacefully with those who hold different views. The interpretive approach is an example of this information-based, impartial and dialogical style of religious ed...
