Religious Education 5-12

Derek Bastide

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429638091
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First published in 1987. The book is intended for class teachers (and trainee teachers) in primary schools who wish to teach religious education well but are unclear as to how they might. Firstly, this book maps out the changes that had taken place with regard to changing aims and objectives in the subject; children and their understanding of religion; and the broadening understanding of the notion of religion and considers the implications of these for the teacher. Secondly, it investigates ways in which the teacher can approach religion in the classroom. It develops five complementary approaches: thematic work, world religions, festivals, the Bible and biography. These are illustrated with numerous examples. There are also many accounts of successful pieces of teaching. Thirdly, the book recognizes that many teachers are not confident themselves in the world of religion and attempts to provide information and understanding at the teacher's own level. Overall the book sets out to be a straightforward, practical guide to the primary classroom teacher. It aims to provide a framework (rather than a straitjacket) in which teachers of different styles and from different backgrounds can work.

1    Introduction

It is very easy for class teachers to feel out of date! New and exciting but dimly perceived areas such as micro-computing and craft design technology are rapidly developing in schools. This increase in the breadth of the curriculum necessarily puts additional strain upon the teacher. However, it is not just the addition of new elements which puts on the pressure; it is not only a question of new areas but of new ways in old ones—new approaches to the teaching of reading, of mathematics, science and so on.

Very few areas of the curriculum have experienced changes in quite the same way as religious education. Revolution is a not infrequent way of describing it. In twenty years, religious education has come down from the pulpit and now sits at the cross roads of a multicultural society. Its aims have undergone a radical transformation and its subject content has inevitably shown a considerable shift. The role of religious education which has been emerging gradually has been confirmed officially by the Swann Report, Education for All (1985), which has made it, in school terms, a central plank in the bridge of understanding between the various ethnic groups in the country.

In the past twenty years, therefore, religious education has gradually changed its role and this implies a change too in its aims and to an extent in its content. Teachers, caught up in the middle of this, are puzzled by it. Some are not interested and have no intention of teaching it. The evidence suggests, though, that most are unsure about what religious education is trying to do in the school and feel guilty about their ignorance. A teacher put it down bluntly but succinctly.

I used to know what to do. I know it has all changed now but I’m not really sure in what way. I know that there’s a lot more world religions in it now but I can’t say that I’m very familiar with them. That all leaves me not really knowing what to do!

It is this situation which this book seeks to address. It is for all teachers and students in training for teaching (and, of course, for all those interested in the area) who want to offer the best they can in religious education but who are not sure what they ought to be doing and for whom much of the subject content is unfamiliar. The book attempts to deal with both prongs of this need—both the need for help with subject content as well as with approaches in the classroom.

New approaches to religious education do involve children looking beyond the traditional Christian content of RE and thus puts the teacher in interesting but often unfamiliar territory. A definite attempt has been made to provide teachers with information for them to use, principally about a number of world religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism), on Christian festivals and on some aspects of the Bible. It would be misleading to make false claims about this information. To try to deal adequately with, say, Islam, in 2–3000 words, even by focussing on those dimensions which would be most suitable for children, is an impossibility. It is intended to be a first stage of finding out, a plotting out of the area which can lead the teacher easily to follow it up in one of the books listed in the resources’ section.

Teachers do need, and also feel the need, for some information and understanding of religion and religions if they are going to work successfully in religious education. They also need an understanding of how to approach it in the classroom—and this involves an interrelationship of the aims of the subject, the age, stage and experience of the children and the subject content. The first three chapters focus upon the meaning of religion, children’s understanding of religion and a consideration of the aims and objectives of the subject.

The approach of the book is essentially practical. It seeks to tie down both aims and subject material into specific schemes of work—but without falling into the trap of trying to provide a blue print. The British educational system has fostered a tradition of teacher individuality for too long for this to be successful! What it does is to provide practical assistance in two ways:

(i)  through topic schemes of work laid out with aims and an outline of possible approaches or of the general development of the subject content;

(ii)  through detailed accounts recording experiences of successful religious education work done in school.

In this way it is intended to provide a firm framework of structure with enough room for teachers to use their own professional judgment and their own best ways of working. Two of the topic schemes are extended themes, one (Pilgrimage) from a world religion base and the other (Masada and the Dead Sea Scrolls) from a Biblical base, which look in detail both at the subject content for the teacher and also at ways in which the work could be approached in the classroom.

Anyone who looks at the teaching of religious education will inevitably notice considerable variations in practice. It therefore seems sensible to outline the approach of this book before it is read.

First of all, it assumes that religious education in school is different from religious nurture which is the work and privilege of the appropriate religious community.

The underlying view is that the study of religion in school should aim at all levels at fostering an understanding of religion along with the related attitudes of respect and empathy. Understanding, like conceptual thinking, is developmental and teachers would expect different levels of understanding at five years and at twelve years of age. The teacher should nevertheless aim at encouraging understanding at whatever level. It goes without saying that teachers should select subject content which assists the overall development of understanding, respect and empathy.

As this is the overriding aim there is a sense in which content is less important than intention. If we are to try to judge success in our religious education teaching, then we would probably be much more satisfied if our children had some feeling for awe and mystery or had some understanding of a pilgrim’s feelings in Jerusalem or Mecca than if they could (only) recite the names and dates of the Ten Gurus of Sikhism. This is not to denigrate subject content or information. While it is possible to have information without understanding, it is never possible to have understanding without some facts; you cannot understand in a vacuum. In order for anyone to understand anything of the pilgrim’s feelings in Jerusalem or Mecca they have to know something of what happened and happens there that gives the places their significance. However this point is being emphasized to make the distinction that in the end religious education is not about knowing lots of facts about religions but about developing a sympathetic understanding of them.

That is the essential approach to religious education and that will determine the sort of content that a teacher might select but still leaves considerable flexibility for the interests and styles of different teachers. There are however four more assumptions in the book which determine its approach.

(i)  Children should be introduced to some degree to a number of religions. In this book the focus has been placed on those religions which flourish in Britain and which have considerable numbers of followers. It is significant to note that there are now numerically more Muslims than Methodists here. Hence the emphasis is upon Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism as well as upon Christianity. All children, it is advocated, should be given the opportunity of some learning contact with a number of religions.

(ii)  The experience of religion for the overwhelming number of children in Britain is Christian and so it would be expected that for most children, certainly in the younger years, the majority of their religious education would be concerned with Christianity. It may well be that in the multiracial schools there could be a policy of equal time for each religion but this would not be the norm in most schools.

(iii)  Religion should be presented to children as a living activity: activity because it is to these aspects of religion which the children we are concerned with relate most readily and living because they are not dead relics of a past age. There has been a danger that religious education has tended to focus almost exclusively upon the past and this is well illustrated by its earlier concentration on Bible stories. The story dimension of religions is important but it needs to be placed alongside areas which are concerned with what it means to be a religious adherent today—festivals, worship, communities, stories of people living out their faith.

(iv)  It is very important with the youngest children to lay the right foundations and it may well be necessary for the teacher of these years to work without the security of much explicit or conventional religious material. There is a danger of introducing material too early and it is at this level that teachers find that they have to make the hardest decisions. This is considered further in Chapter 5.

The book focusses upon five complementary approaches to religious education: thematic work, world religions, Christian festivals, the Bible and biography. Of these the strongest emphasis has been placed upon two—world religions and the Bible—because it is around these that teachers express most concern. Approaching RE through world religions is seen by very many teachers as a new and exciting development but one which is largely unfamiliar to them. How can they introduce it into their classroom? The Bible, for so long almost the text book of RE, will remain for very many teachers the central element in their religious education work. They are often only too aware of the sorts of difficulties which Goldman pinpointed but still wish to devise more suitable ways of using Biblical material in their classrooms. These are very pressing concerns for very many and this book attempts to offer ways of proceeding.

The aim of the book is to present a framework rather than a straitjacket. There are undergirding aims but there is still sufficient flexibility to a teacher to open the RE wardrobe and to select items which both provide a coordinated outfit but also which is suited to the teacher, the situation and the children.

2 What Are We Trying To Do: Some Aims and Objectives

A number of primary school teachers attending courses at a teachers’ centre were asked the following question: ‘What do you think ought to be the aim of religious education in school?’ Here is a sample of their replies.

(a) To get the children to know something about God. Hardly any of them seem to go to Sunday school these days so it’s the only opportunity they’ll have to learn about Him.

(b) I don’t know. I never teach it myself. I’m not religious.

(c) To give the kids some knowledge of their religious background. After all they’ve got to know something to understand Milton and Shakespeare.

(d) To help the children to have some understanding of how other people live and what they believe. To make them more tolerant I suppose.

(e) To make children Christian.

(f) To make children better behaved, I guess—though it doesn’t seem to work!

It is this wide range of answer which shows how much confusion there is about the aims of RE. Views certainly do differ though it is possible to detect three broad—and differing—approaches:

(i) the ‘confessional’ approach;

(ii) the ‘giving them the facts’ approach;

(iii) the ‘understanding religion’ approach.

Briefly, these mean:

The ‘confessional’ approach sees the aim of religious education as leading pupils into Christian commitment—replies (a) and (e) above fit neatly into this approach. This approach assumes the truth of the Christian religion and would seek to initiate pupils into it over the period of compulsory education. In practice, this aim is little different from that of the Church or the Sunday school. Sometimes it has been called the ‘missionary’ approach. It is interesting that reply (b) might also subscribe to this view of the aims of religious education—although she does not agree with it!

The ‘giving them the facts’ approach rejects completely the ‘confessional’ approach with its desire to teach children to be Christians. It adopts a completely neutral view of whether religions are true or false; they are around and children ought to know about them. Reply (c) above fits well into this approach.

The ‘understanding religion approach rejects both these approaches. It starts from an uncommitted position but does not feel that just giving children information is sufficient. Children need to be helped to understand religion. Reply (d) fits partly into this approach.

How Did All This Come About?

Historically in England there has always been a close link between school and church. Most schools before 1870, the date when compulsory education for all was agreed, were founded by religious bodies and transmitted their religious teaching. Most of the schools built as a result of the 1870 Act continued the practice of giving religious instruction although of a non denominational kind. In the 1944 Butler Education Act, when religious instruction was made compulsory, it was only making mandatory what was universal practice.

The 1944 Education Act required the following with regard to religion:

(i) that religious instruction should be given in every county school;

(ii) that each day should begin with an act of worship;

(iii) that there should be a right of withdrawal for both pupils and teachers on the grounds of conscience;

(iv) that each local education authority should formulate its agreed syllabus for religious instruction (or adapt that of another authority).

This clearly implied a ‘confessional’ approach to religious teaching. The name of the subject, religious instruction, the daily act of worship, the provision for parents to withdraw their children from both the teaching and the worship and of non-believing teachers to refuse to enter into this part of the curriculum on the grounds of conscience all showed that what the Act intended was that children should be inducted into the Christian religion. Agreed syllabuses, written at this time, make this abundantly clear. Here is an example from the Surrey Syllabus of 1945:

The aim of the syllabus is to secure that children attending the schools of the County … may gain knowledge of the common Christian faith held by their fathers for nearly 2000 years; may seek for themselves in Christianity principles which give a purpose to life and a guide to all its problems, and may find inspiration, power and courage to work for their own welfare, for that of their fellow creatures and for the growth of God’s Kingdom.

This approach to religious teaching reflected the sort of society at the time. Most people identified in some way and at some level with the Christian religion. A large majority turned to the churches for the rites of passage...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 What Are We Trying To Do: Some Aims and Objectives
• Chapter 3 Children and Religion: Age and Understanding
• Chapter 4 What Do We Mean By Religion?
• Chapter 5 An Implicit Approach Through Themes
• Chapter 6 An Introduction to Five Religions
• Chapter 7 Teaching World Religions
• Chapter 8 An Extended Topic: Pilgrimage
• Chapter 9 Christian Festivals
• Chapter 10 Teaching Festivals
• Chapter 11 The Bible
• Chapter 12 An Approach Through Bible Background
• Chapter 13 Understanding the Bible
• Chapter 14 Teaching About Jesus
• Chapter 15 An Extended Topic: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Masada
• Chapter 16 Belief in Action
• Chapter 17 Resources
• Index