Rethinking Primary Religious Education

After a brief consideration of the history of religious education in England and Wales, this paper analyses developments under three main headings: pupils, religions and methods, and suggests that changes can be seen in the light if variations revolving around these three areas. The paper then describes the design of a new RE syllabus for Anglican primary schools in Wales using a life-of-founder approach and recommends the advantages of this approach for wider use.     

Confronting the Holocaust in Religious Education

Studies of Holocaust education in secondary schools have tended to focus on how the subject is taught as part of the history curriculum. Comparatively little work of either a theoretical or an empirical nature has looked at how the subject is handled in other curricular areas. Religious education is a case in point, for the field is marked both by a dearth of literature on appropriate content and by a virtual absence of research on teachers' practices. The need to address these lacunae provides the rationale for the article. In relation to content, two concerns dominate the discussion. The first is that the Holocaust may be portrayed as an act of religious intolerance; the second is that students may be offered a diluted or distorted account of the part played by Christianity. The empirical core of the article surveys the practices of 28 teachers of religious education in connection with both concerns. It also contains a content analysis of how textbooks used by the teachers treat the attempted annihilation of European Jewry. The article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings.     

宗教信仰与思想教育

据报道,某县委书记领着一位下乡干部去看当地农村的一批佛寺,这些佛寺全部修茸一新。佛寺中香火旺盛,善男信女甚     

Reviewing the Religious Education Review

In 2012 a Review of RE in England was initiated by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, in response to a perceived sense of crisis among the religious education (RE) community. Its recommendations, which include a new National Curriculum Framework for RE, were published in October, 2013. The fact that the proposed National Curriculum Framework for RE aspires to provide a curriculum model of excellence that all schools should follow, naturally invites careful study and scrutiny. This article considers the question whether the Review’s conclusions provides a democratically mandated, legally compliant, educationally convincing and socially appropriate future direction for RE in England. It is concluded that there are serious weaknesses in the proposals and that the Review process was a missed opportunity for the emergence and articulation of a model of religious education that is appropriate to the aims of liberal education in a democratic, increasingly diverse English society.     

Religion,Education, and Religious Education in Irish Schools

This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional religious training). They are published together with an introduction in Teaching Theology and Religion 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief overview of the curriculum, student learning goals, and pedagogical techniques employed in their courses.     

Religion,Truth and Religious Education

The main questions discussed are (1) what we are to count as ‘religion’, and what kind of propositions are central to religious belief, and (2) in particular, how can religious belief be sustained without a superstitious belief in the supernatural? R.M. Hare's views are first examined, and in part rejected: religious belief involves more than ‘commitment’, and is primarily concerned to assert that certain features of the world are worthy of worship. We need to consider how such assertions may be verified or falsified.     

On Qualifying Religious Literacy: Recent Debates on Higher Education and Religious Studies in Japan

This article describes and analyzes controversies in Japan brought about by an intercollegiate educational project on religion. The project team, consisting of selected members of the Japanese Association for Religious Studies and the Japanese Association for the Study of Religion and Society, has been planning a new system for qualifying undergraduates as “specialists in religious cultures” (shūkyō‐bunkasi). It is anticipated that students with this qualification will be engaged in various occupations that require knowledge of different cultures. The project reflects an increased awareness that the academic study of religion should play a social role and be recognized as worthwhile by the public. This article will focus upon the academic and pedagogical challenges that the project members faced in the process of planning a system to assess and qualify students’ literacy in religious traditions. It will argue that religious literacy involves the dynamic ability to put knowledge into practice as well as to reflect continuously upon previously acquired knowledge.