Religious Education in the Secondary School

An Introduction to Teaching, Learning and the World Religions

James Holt, James D. Holt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032078021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000569162
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Secondary Education

Religious Education in the Secondary School is a comprehensive, straightforward introduction to the effective teaching of Religious Education (RE) in the secondary classroom. Acknowledging the highly valuable yet often misunderstood contribution of RE, this text shows how the subject can be taught in a way that explores the impact of religion on the lives of people and society, engaging pupils and preparing them to become individuals who celebrate and respect diversity.

This second edition has been thoroughly updated and includes a new chapter on 'Religion and Worldviews' and new material on the development and assessment of an RE curriculum. It is illustrated throughout with ideas for teaching at different key stages and offers expert chapters introducing you to both the World Religions and the core aspects of effective teaching and learning. With an emphasis on developing an understanding of the importance – and different ways – of meeting the learning needs of all pupils, key chapters cover:

• The nature of Religious Education.

• What is religion and worldviews?

• Understanding different pedagogies of RE.

• Effective planning and assessment.

• An approach to teaching across the Key Stages.

• Core subject knowledge in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.

Written by an experienced teacher, teacher educator and examiner, Religious Education in the Secondary School is a succinct compendium and has a real classroom applicability offering all trainee RE teachers, as well as those teaching Religious Education as specialists or non-specialists, a wealth of support and inspiration.

Part I

Introduction to Religious Education

DOI: 10.4324/9781003211617-1

Chapter 1

What is Religious Education?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003211617-2

Chapter outline

The nature and purpose of Religious Education

The aims of Religious Education

Suggested aims of Religious Education

The legal position of Religious Education

Collective Worship

The nature and purpose of Religious Education

Religious Education (RE)¹ is an incredibly valuable subject within the curriculum but is often misunderstood or even denigrated. Teachers of Religious Education (whether specifically trained or a nonspecialist teacher) should have an understanding of what they are trying to achieve through the subject; this will then help pupils, parents and school leaders understand the contribution RE can make to their lives, children, school and society. The lack of understanding about the nature and purpose of RE has been shown by leaders in society, and if shown by them, this view will also be shared by others. One example is the then School’s Minister, Nick Gibb, when he spoke to the RE Council of England and Wales in 2012. He spoke positively of religion as a ‘Rosetta stone’ to help understand different subjects. Then, to exemplify his point he continued:

A pupil who understands the religious context can walk into a nation’s great art collections and appreciate the nuanced iconography of paintings by men like Giotto and El Greco. A pupil who understands the restrained faith of the Quakers can appreciate the growth of London today as a financial powerhouse. A pupil who understands the great mathematical advances and discoveries under the Caliphs can appreciate how the first great European explorers navigated to new worlds.

(Gibb, 2012, p. 1)

This all sounds very positive, and was echoed somewhat by Michael Gove, who was then Secretary of State for Education:

Without doubt the constructive working and mutual understanding between faiths in this country is one of our greatest strengths. Educating children about different faiths is of immense importance in leading children to understand the history that has helped shape the values and traditions of this country, and of other countries and cultures.

(Linden, 2012)

Both Michael Gove and Nick Gibb miss the point about the purpose of RE. While recognising its value, they do so on the basis of a flawed assumption. This assumption is that RE’s greatest contribution is to help people to understand their own and other people’s culture, history and countries. It is important to recognise that good RE can and does do this, but the question needs to be considered as to whether this is the most important aim of RE and the underpinning approach to teaching in the classroom. If RE is pursued on that basis then it becomes a purely academic exercise with no attempt to understand people; and for the most part with no attempt to make it relevant to the pupils’ own experiences. It may be that the painting of the above approach to RE is simplistic and an extreme caricature; but the resultant actions that the understanding above caused suggest that RE’s immediate importance and applicability in the world was lost.

If RE is purely about understanding culture and history, the resultant RE lessons could be vibrant and evocative, but the telos, or the end point, which teachers would be working towards would be substantive knowledge focussed rather than any reference to other elements that it could be argued are central to good RE. Ofsted, in their 2010 publication Transforming RE, suggested that the purpose of the teacher is important:

There is uncertainty among many teachers of RE about what they are trying to achieve in the subject resulting in a lack of well-structured and sequenced teaching and learning, substantial weaknesses in the quality of assessment and a limited use of higher order thinking skills to promote greater challenge.

(Ofsted, 2010, p. 6)

This continued to be the case in Realising the Potential (Ofsted, 2014). It is for this reason that each individual teacher should undertake to reflect on the aims for teaching Religious Education. RE teachers should explore what other people have said and synthesise this into aims that will underpin their approach to RE. Of course, there are stated aims in national guidance, and also in the agreed syllabi but going through this process will help the teacher understand the aims of the classroom, and also help integrate with the aims of the curricula they follow. This chapter will explore various aims that have been put forward, and suggest that good RE focusses on a number of shared aims that can be reflected upon and developed by individual teachers.

The aims of Religious Education

In developing aims for RE it is important for a teacher to critically examine statements that could be found in an individual’s approach to, and understanding of, RE. It might be useful for the reader to consider their own positive and negative responses to the stimulus aims below before reading the associated commentary. It must be said that not all of the stimulus aims listed below are appropriate and each of these aims is deliberately vague, and in some cases provocative, in order to enable a teacher to explore their initial thoughts about the nature of, and approach to, teaching RE.

1. RE is bringing children up to be true to their own religion and culture.
2. RE is helping children to develop their own ideas and values.
3. RE is teaching children about the major religions of the world.
4. RE is teaching children morals.
5. RE is helping children to be tolerant in a multi-cultural society.
6. RE is teaching children to accept Christian beliefs and values.

1 RE is bringing children up to be true to their own religion and culture

At first glance this may seem to be an inappropriate aim of RE in a state secondary school. RE in schools should be non-denominational. John Hull suggests that any approach to RE should be ‘a syllabus which can be taught by any well trained and well informed teacher, regardless of his faith, to any pupil whose interest can be caught, regardless of his faith’ (1984, p. 179). It is hoped that the teacher would have a positive neutrality: ‘It does not mean that the teacher does not care but that he cares for them all, accepting them as they are’ (p. 181). To enable a child to be ‘true’ to their own religion and culture suggests that the purpose of RE is to foster faith; and while this may be appropriate in a school with a faith basis, in a state school this is not appropriate.

However, to argue that RE can be neutral also suggests that it cannot be positive about existing faith. As a subject that engages with pupils’ own beliefs, it is important that pupils feel that their contributions are valued and that their beliefs (or lack of) are taken seriously. Also, in RE the teacher must be careful that nothing is done that might require a child to contravene their own religion or culture. This does not mean that questions are not asked, rather that practices that might be deemed to be wrong or offensive are avoided. Simple examples might include not having children portray the Prophet Muhammad; or utilising material that might unquestioningly present a perception of a faith that is out of step with the traditional understanding of that faith. Consider, for example, the following passage from a story about a child’s experience of being taught Islam: although it is fiction, it is based on the author’s own experience:

Aya tried to follow along in her textbook, but when the book described her sect, the Shias, as a radical group that broke away from mainstream Islam … Aya grew increasingly uneasy. The word radical made it sound as if she belonged to the wrong side.

(Al-Marashi, 2020, p. 205)

There are many things that can be learnt from this experience. First, the statement that Shia broke away from mainstream Islam suggests that Sunni Islam is the normative or ‘true’ Islam, whereas Shi’a Muslims would argue that theirs is the original and normative Islam. Similarly, although radical has many different meanings, and can be positive in this context, it was seen to be negative in the way that it questioned the child’s self-identity. There are other examples that can be seen in the characterisation and representation of religions across the board. One of the key things for teachers of RE to consider is the use of language in the classroom. Is it inclusive and does it account for the diversity of understandings? This does not mean that RE is not challenging, but it is respectful of a faith’s self-understanding.

2 RE is helping children to develop their own ideas and values

The Commission on RE (2018) suggest that through the study of RE ‘young people come to a more refined understanding of their own worldview – whatever this happens to be – as well as those of others’ (p. 5). What is meant by a worldview will be explored in Chapter 2. The point that RE helps pupils develop their own ideas echoes earlier publications such as the National Curriculum guidance for RE (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 2007) which suggests that RE:

encourages pupils to learn from different religions, beliefs, values and traditions while exploring their own beliefs and questions of meaning. It challenges pupils to reflect on, consider, analyse, interpret and evaluate issues of truth, belief, faith and ethics and to communicate their responses.

(p. 275)

In this way RE can be seen to help pupils develop their own ideas and, based on their exploration of other people’s views, to develop their own values, which might mean responses to questions of meaning and moral and social issues. In a multi-faith society, which can also be described as secular, or post-religious, it is important for everybody to develop reasoned responses to their identity that will include ideas and values. For some, these will be religious, but for other pupils they might well use a reflection on others’ experiences to develop their own views.

This approach comes with a potential danger that needs to be acknowledged. A large number of faiths, and perhaps those from a non-religious worldview, would see this pick-and-mix approach to the development of ideas and values as seriously flawed; that certain of the ideas are meaningless without a basis in the faith. RE is also, in being as objective as possible, not the approach that has sometimes been ‘referred to as “market place religion” – the idea that children are given an objective description of a variety of religions and then encouraged to choose one for themselves’ (Read et al., 1998, p. 5). In agreement with Hull it should be recognised that:

truly educational teaching is directed to all pupils alike, since no distinction is made in divergent education between Christian pupils, Jewish pupils and pupils of no religious affiliation. … It does not mean that the teacher does not care but that he cares for them all, accepting them as they are.

(Hull, 1984, p. 181)

It also raises the question as to whose values are the pupils exposed to? Should the RE teacher be the person who ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• PART I: Introduction to Religious Education
• PART II: Planning in Religious Education
• PART III: Teaching and learning in Religious Education
• Index