Critical Religious Education in Practice

A Teacher's Guide for the Secondary Classroom

Christina Easton, Angela Goodman, Andrew Wright, Angela Wright

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781138123229
• eBook ISBN: 9781317302643
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

Critical Religious Education in Practice serves as an accessible handbook to help teachers put Critical Religious Education (CRE) into practice. The book offers straightforward guidance, unpicking some of the key difficulties that teachers encounter when implementing this high-profile pedagogical approach.

In-depth explanations of CRE pedagogy, accompanied by detailed lesson plans and activities, will give teachers the confidence they need to inspire debate in the classroom, tackling issues as controversial as the authority of the Qur'an and the relationship between science and religion. The lesson plans and schemes of work exemplify CRE in practice and are aimed at empowering teachers to implement CRE pedagogy across their curriculum. Additional chapters cover essential issues such as differentiation, assessment, the importance of subject knowledge and tips for tackling tricky topics. The accompanying resources, including PowerPoint presentations and worksheets, are available via the book's companion website.

Key to developing a positive classroom culture and promoting constructive attitudes towards Religious Education, this text is essential reading for all practising and future teachers of Religious Education in secondary schools.

CHAPTER 1

Critical Religious Education

An introduction

Once there were two pigs in a sty. They had everything that a pig would want, shelter, food, water and a huge puddle of mud. One night there was a terrible thunderstorm. Hail came crashing down on the ground, thunder roared and lightning flashed in the distance. As the storm grew closer, a bolt of lightning struck the sty and part of the fence around it fell to the ground leaving a big hole behind it. When the first pig awoke he took one glance at the outside world and just snorted. The second pig, however, peered through the gap and his mouth fell open, his ears pricked up, his tail straightened and his snout wrinkled. “Wow,” he said. He stepped out into the big wide world. “Come on,” he said to the other pig, but the other pig just snorted again so the pig went by himself. On his travels he saw a family weeping over the body of a young child. This upset him greatly. Further up the path he saw a father and his son playing together, smiling brightly. This made him extremely happy. As he journeyed even further up the path he saw a fox being beaten up by a badger. This made him feel really angry. The poor pig was confused by his emotions. He went on, his ears drooping and snout dragging along on the ground. At the top of a very large hill he stopped to rest under an apple tree. In that tree there was an owl. The pig asked the owl, “What is the meaning of life? I am confused. Why are we here?” The owl replied, “I cannot tell you. You can either return home and be a contented pig, or stay and be a discontented philosopher.”

Teachers tend to take it for granted that students understand what their subject is about, and why it is important to study it. This is not always the case in religious education. It is important that students begin to develop an understanding of the nature and value of religious education and that students own this understanding for themselves; it is not enough for the teacher simply to tell them. A flourishing religious education classroom is one in which the students themselves openly debate the nature and value of religious education.

Critical Religious Education (CRE) is grounded in the belief that controversial issues should be discussed openly in the classroom. This is a challenging task, and many teachers are concerned that they lack the confidence to facilitate this effectively and that it may be disruptive. However difficult this may be, we suggest that students can only become religiously literate if they are empowered to tackle controversial issues head-on.

The idea that students should explore the possibility that religious education is irrelevant is a very scary prospect for any teacher. However, it is an uncomfortable fact that many students will bring that attitude with them into the classroom. If it is left unaddressed it is likely to fester throughout Years 7–11. By tackling the issue head-on from the beginning, and encouraging the debate to flourish, there is a far greater chance that students will develop positive attitudes. This book is intended to introduce you to ways of enabling your students to perceive the intrinsic value of the subject.

Critical realism: the philosophy

Critical realism provides the philosophical framework for CRE. It adopts three basic principles: ontological realism, epistemic relativity and judgmental rationality:

(1)   Ontological realism argues that there is a reality which exists, and that it exists independently of human perception. Thus, if God exists, then whether human beings are aware of this fact or not has no impact whatsoever on the reality of God.

(2)   Epistemic relativity accepts the contingency of our knowledge of the world. On the one hand, we have no absolute certain knowledge of the actual ontological order of things; contra religious and secular fundamentalists. On the other hand, our knowledge is not completely arbitrary; contra radical constructivists and anti-realists. We have knowledge of the world, though such knowledge is always subject to revision and never complete; thus, despite the fact that science has much still to learn, we are still able to walk on the moon and perform heart surgery.

(3)   Judgmental rationality argues that the relationship between ontology and epistemology is necessarily a critical one. Our knowledge of the world is not based on absolute proof or arbitrary construction, but rather on informed judgment. This means that the basic paradigm of our relationship to the world is one of ‘faith seeking understanding’. This is so both for secularists and religious believers.

CRE: the pedagogy

Religious education is concerned with developing the beliefs, values, worldviews and spiritualities of students. However, this process cannot be reduced to the level of mere self-expression since we are relational creatures, whose identities are bound up with the way we relate to ourselves, to other human beings, to the natural world and to the presence or absence of God – or some other transcendent reality – in our lives. This means that our personal development is bound up with the way we experience the world, and the crucial question as to whether such experience is in harmony with the actual order of things. At the same time, religious and secular traditions cannot be reduced to the level of mere lifestyle options. Such traditions make claims about ultimate reality and about the appropriate way of living life in harmony with it. The common factor here is the ontological (and existential) question of our relation to the way things actually are. In CRE, students are encouraged to articulate their own understanding of ontological reality, with an awareness that their views are limited by epistemic relativity. They are then introduced to a range of alternative accounts of reality. They do so from within the horizon of their own given worldview. Consequently, they explore the relationship between their own worldview and the worldview of the religious or secular tradition they are studying.

In CRE, the fact that a plurality of worldviews is taught means that there can be no common agreement assumed between the worldview of the student and the topic studied. CRE deals with contested worldviews and hence inevitably operates with tensions both between different religious and secular horizons of meaning, and the horizons of meaning of the students. However, this does not mean that this necessitates a fundamental gulf between them. What unites them is a common desire to understand reality and to live in harmony with it. Such exploration does not require adherence to the religion being studied, since to teach or learn about something is not necessarily to advocate it.

This focus for learning will require students to reflect on the variation between different worldviews. Indeed, students need to experience such variation in order to learn. Deep understanding is only possible by considering how and why something is similar or different to something else. These are the fundamental assertions of the Variation Theory of Learning, which began with the work of Ference Marton, and which underpins CRE in practice. By carefully considering other worldviews, students will come to see their own tradition in a new light.

The tension between ontology and epistemology – between ultimate reality and the various accounts we offer of ultimate reality – forms the driving force of CRE. It is not acceptable for a teacher to attempt to impose a particular worldview on students, nor is it sufficient for students to merely express an unjustified personal preference for one belief system or another. Instead, by cultivating a deep understanding of students’ horizons of meaning and the horizons of various religious and secular traditions, religious education should aim to empower students to make informed judgments about the ultimate nature of reality and the implications of this for the way in which they choose to live their lives.

CRE: pedagogy into practice

A religiously literate person is one able to think, feel and act wisely in relation to ultimate questions about the nature of reality (truth) and the meaning of life (truthful living).

Learning is not just about

•    inserting facts into empty minds

•    enabling students to express their thoughts and feelings

Learning is about

•    bringing students into a richer and more discerning relationship with the world

Knowledge is a developing two-way relationship between

•    the horizon of meaning of each student

•    the – normally disputed and controversial – horizon of meaning of the topic being studied

Knowledge is personal - it has to do with students’

•    reason and comprehension

•    feelings and emotions

•    actions and behavior

•    judgments and commitments

CRE: curriculum planning

Stage 1: expression

•    students come to class with an understanding of the topic, however limited

•    they are given the opportunity to express their initial preliminary understanding

Stage 1 enables students to express the various experiences, perspectives and attitudes towards the topic that they are bringing with them into the classroom. Self-expression is not the main aim of CRE, but rather an important means to a greater end.

Stage 2: variation

•    students are introduced to new ways of understanding the topic

•    because most topics are controversial, they are introduced to more than one perspective on it

Teachers often avoid introducing new perspectives to students because they worry about indoctrinating them. This means that they are often left to rely on their own experiences and their horizons are not expanded. If students are offered more than one perspective on a topic, the issue of indoctrination becomes redundant.

In selecting a variety of new perspectives, teachers should

•    take account of the previous experiences of students and seek to add to them

•    seek to identify variations that are relevant and important

•    avoid too many variations within a single lesson

Stage 3: exploration

•    there will be tensions between students’ preliminary understanding and these new perspectives

•    exploring these tensions will develop their religious literacy

Our understanding of the world is limited. There is much that we do not know. Though we put our faith in particular understandings of the world, it is important that we remain open to new ways of making sense of life. There is a tendency to think that a learning sequence must end in the resolution of a controversial issue. CRE contends that leaving an issue unresolved can be a vital aspect of learning. Students will develop their religious literacy by struggling to answer unresolved questions. What matters is that they engage in the process, rather than arrive at a commonly shared view.

Critical thinking is non-negotiable

The stress on epistemic relativity focuses on students’ learning. It should be part of the teacher’s thinking in so far as they have a responsibility for expanding the horizons of students by introducing them to disputed variations. The teacher should be committed to enabling students to develop into discontented philosophers. Fundamentalism (in terms of only presenting one view) and relativism (in terms of avoiding grappling with the possibility of an ultimate truth) are not an option for the teacher when planning and implementing lessons. However, they can of course be addressed as specific truth claims, in and of themselves, within the classroom.

CHAPTER 2

Critical Religious Education

Handling controversy in the classroom

Teaching religious education (RE) can sometimes feel a bit like leading a large, unruly crowd across a minefield. At every moment, there is a risk of an ‘explosion’; someone might say ‘the wrong thing’ and cause offence and upset. You might think that adopting a critical pedagogy in your RE teaching makes it an even riskier business; drawing attention to disagreements between (and within) religions, and asking students to critically reflect on these disagreements is a bit like asking children to approach and examine dangerous mines!

In this chapter we show that, contrary to this, CRE alleviates rather than exacerbates classroom conflict. We look at the issues that all RE teachers face in virtue of teaching about controversial issues, and suggest that CRE by its very nature provides principles and strategies that respond to these difficulties. In particular, we...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• How to Use this Book
• Overview
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Critical Religious Education: An Introduction
• 2 Critical Religious Education: Handling Controversy in the Classroom
• 3 Critical Religious Education: An Introductory Scheme of Work (Year 7)
• 4 Critical Religious Education and World Religions: An Exemplar Scheme of Work For Teaching Islam (Year 8)
• 5 Critical Religious Education and Philosophy: An Exemplar Scheme of Work for Teaching Science and Religion (Year 9)
• 6 Critical Religious Education and Ethics: An Exemplar Scheme of Work for Introducing Moral Decision Making (Year 9)
• 7 Critical Religious Education and GCSE Religious Studies
• 8 Critical Religious Education and Assessment
• 9 Critical Religious Education and Differentiation
• 10 Critical Religious Education and the Importance of Subject Knowledge: A Guide to Useful Resources
• Index