Rob Freathy

The necessity of historical inquiry in educational research: the case of religious education

This article explores the mixed fortunes of historical inquiry as a method in educational studies and exposes evidence for the neglect of this method in religious education research in particular. It argues that historical inquiry, as a counterpart to other research methods, can add depth and range to our understanding of education, including religious education, and can illuminate important longer‐term, broader and philosophical issues. The article also argues that many historical voices have remained silent in the existing historiography of religious education because such historiography is too generalised and too biased towards the development of national policy and curriculum and pedagogical theory. To address this limitation in educational research, this article promotes rigorous historical studies that are more substantially grounded in the appropriate historiographical literature and utilise a wide range of original primary sources. Finally, the article explores a specific example of the way in which a historical approach may be fruitfully applied to a particular contemporary debate concerning the nature and purpose of religious education.

Ethnic Diversity, Christian Hegemony and the Emergence of Multi-Faith Religious Education in the 1970s.

1 This article provides a detailed reconstruction of the processes leading to the formation of the widely influential Birmingham Agreed Syllabus of Religious Instruction (1975). This is contextualised within one of the most significant periods in the history of race relations in the United Kingdom. The authors discuss how this syllabus, and other landmark reforms in religious education (RE) in English schools from the late 1960s, responded to ethnic diversity by promoting supposedly culturally pluralist, multi-faith approaches to RE, which were subsequently perceived as eroding the Christian foundations of British/English national identity. They argue that the vilification of these curriculum reforms by culturally conservative critics was in fact based on an erroneous assessment of the extent to which these renounced the Christian hegemony of RE. They also critique the assumption that the religious clauses of the 1988 Education Reform Act represented a simple transition from culturally pluralist to assimilationist policies for the subject. 1

Secularists, Humanists and religious education: religious crisis and curriculum change in England, 1963–1975

With particular reference to religious education, this article provides an account of the campaigns of Secularists and Humanists in England in the 1960s and 1970s and locates them within their broader religious context. These campaigns, which have been both underplayed and overstated in the existing historiography, failed to garner the levels of support required to fulfil their ultimate aims. Nevertheless, Secularists and Humanists did make a significant contribution to public and political discourses at the time and created opportunities with the potential to exert influence over the development of religious education, collective worship and moral education. Their involvement was welcomed, indeed fostered, by many leading Christians and religious educationists. Secularist and Humanist campaigns also precipitated parliamentary discussion and provoked considerable opposition from Christians in other quarters. Finally, some observations are made about the ways in which this episode in the religious history of education can contextualise comparable contemporary debates.

Context, complexity and contestation: Birmingham’s Agreed Syllabuses for Religious Education since the 1970s

The present article offers an historical perspective on the 1975, 1995 and 2007 Birmingham Agreed Syllabuses for Religious Education. It draws upon historical evidence uncovered as part of ‘The hidden history of curriculum change in religious education in English schools, 1969–1979’ project, and curriculum history theories, especially David Labaree’s observations about the distance between the ‘rhetorical’ and ‘received’ curricula. We argue that, contrary to the existing historiography, curriculum change in religious education (RE) has been evolutionary not revolutionary. Multiple reasons are posited to explain this, not least among which is the capacity and agency of teachers. Furthermore, we argue that ongoing debates about the nature and purpose of RE, as exemplified in the Birmingham context, reflect the multiple expectations that religious educators and other stakeholders had, and continue to have, of the curriculum subject. These debates contribute to the inertia evident in the implementation of RE curriculum reforms. A consciousness of the history of RE enables curriculum contestations to be contextualised and understood, and, thereby, provides important insights which can be applied to ongoing and future debates and developments.

The Triumph of Religious Education for Citizenship in English Schools, 1935-1949.

The failure of the Association for Education in Citizenship to gain official support for the secular and pedagogically progressive forms of education for citizenship that its founder members endorsed has previously been explained by the political impotence of the associations founder members and the professional conservatism of the educational establishment. However, this paper proposes that, as part of a wider cultural conservatism in England between 1935 and 1949, citizenship was recast in a Christian mould in response to foreign ‘secular’ political ideologies and that this enabled religious education to gain official endorsement as an essential form of education for citizenship. 1 The author would like to thank Professor William Richardson of the University of Exeter for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this article.

Towards international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education

This article calls for international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education (RE). To this end, it provides a rationale for focusing upon the concept of professionalisation and a theoretical justification for international comparative research, particularly identifying its significance in terms of the development of RE in England and Germany. The article outlines a methodology for exploring the concepts of professional knowledge, professional self-organisation and politics and professional development. The proposed methodology involves a systematic analysis of primary documentary sources including: (1) academic and professional journal articles and textbooks; (2) the archives of relevant institutions and organisations; and (3) external evidence, such as inspection and research reports. An analytical case study of two leading journals in each national context, Religion in Education in England and Der Evangelische Erzieher in Germany, in the immediate post-war era is appended to illustrate the benefits of implementing such a methodology across national boundaries.

Conceptualising and researching the professionalisation of Religious Education teachers: historical and international perspectives

Current discussions on Religious Education (RE), both in Germany and England, focus on the quality of teaching and the professionality of teachers, but neglect the historical and institutional process of professionalisation upon which conceptions of teaching quality and teacher professionality hinge. This article seeks to provide definitional clarity by differentiating between individual and collective professionalisation; exploring teacher professionalisation in general and in the special case of RE; and operationalising the concept of RE teacher professionalisation for the purposes of planned historical and international comparative research. A threefold conceptualisation of professionalisation is proposed, consisting of the following inter-related levels: (1) initial and continuing professional development; (2) professional self-organisation and professional politics; and (3) professional knowledge. The breadth, complexity and significance of the historical and institutional processes associated with the professionalisation of RE teachers at each of these levels is described and discussed. It is argued that further historical and international comparative research on these lines would contribute a broader and deeper understanding of the presuppositions of RE teacher professionality beyond current debates.

On Holy Ground: the theory and practice of Religious Education

APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group). 2014. RE and Good Community Relations. www.reli giouseducationcouncil.org.uk/media/file/APPG_report_RE_and_good_community_re.pdf. Barnes, L. Philip. 2014. Education, Religion and Diversity: Developing a New Model of Religious Education. London: Routledge. Cooling, Trevor. 1996. “Education is the Point of RE – Not Religion? Theological Reflections on the SCAA Model Syllabuses.” In Christian Theology and Religious Education: Connections and Contradictions, edited by J. Astley and Leslie J. Francis, 165–183. London: SPCK. DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families). 2010. Religious Education in English Schools: Non-Statutory Guidance 2010. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sys tem/uploads/attachment_data/file/190260/DCSF-00114-2010.pdf. Department of Education and Science. 1971. Prospects and Problems for Religious Education: The Report of a Seminar Held at St. George’s House Windsor in March 1969. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Lévi Strauss, Claude. 1972. The Savage Mind. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe). 2007. Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools. www.oslocoalition. org/documents/toledo_guidelines.pdf. Parker, S. G., and R. J. K. Freathy. 2014. “Resolving the Crisis in Religious Studies.” SecEd. Accessed April 10, 2014. http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/blog/resolving-the-crisis-in-reli gious-studies. Reed, Esther D., Rob Freathy, Susannah Cornwall, and Anna Davis. 2013. “Narrative Theology in Religious Education.” British Journal of Religious Education 35 (3): 297–312. Religious Education Council of England and Wales. 2013. A Review of Religious Education in England. Accessed May 17, 2014. http://resubjectreview.recouncil.org.uk/media/file/ RE_Review.pdf. Whately, Hugo. 2008. “What is Wrong with Religious Education? A Response to Philip Barnes.” Journal of Beliefs and Values: Studies in Religion and Education 29 (1): 29–37.

Initiating Children into Hermeneutical Discourses in Religious Education

Abstract In response to previous articles in this journal by Rachel Cope and Julian Stern, and using an example of classroom practice, this article promotes a form of multi-faith religious education in which primary-school pupils (age 5–11) are re-conceived as joint researchers working alongside their teachers, through processes of imaginative and empathetic dialogue, to investigate the effectiveness of different methodologies and methods of studying religion(s). This pedagogical strategy seeks to teach pupils the disciplinary knowledge and skills associated with the communities of academic practice concerned with theological and religious studies, and more specifically to initiate them into the hermeneutical discourses which underlie theological and religious research and teaching. Moreover, it is argued that some of the suggested practices could be applied to the study of spirituality in any context and could contribute to the spiritual development of participants.

Narrative theology in Religious Education

This article advocates a pedagogy of Religious Education (RE) based upon a narratival framework informed by both narrative theology and narrative philosophy. Drawing on the work of narrative theologians including Stanley Hauerwas, the article outlines the nature of the framework, describes the four phases of learning that comprise the pedagogy, and explains how such an approach can overcome existing difficulties in how biblical texts are handled within RE. Working from the narrative assumption that individuals and communities are formed by reading, sharing and living within stories, it suggests that the pedagogy might encourage pupils to think about how the lives of Christians are shaped by their interpretations of biblical narratives, to offer their own interpretations of biblical and other texts, and to consider the stories – religious, non-religious or both – which shape their own lives. In so doing, the article moves away from a ‘proof-texting’ approach to the Bible towards one in which pupils are enabled to think about the significance of biblical narratives for both Christians and themselves.