Religious Literacy through Religious Education: The Future of Teaching and Learning about Religion and Belief

Journal article


Shaw, M and Dinham, A (2017). Religious Literacy through Religious Education: The Future of Teaching and Learning about Religion and Belief. Religions. 8 (7). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8070119
AuthorsShaw, M and Dinham, A
Abstract

This article reports on research undertaken between July 2014 and November 2015 in secondary schools (for young people aged 11–16) across England to ask what young people need to know about religion and belief in schools in order to increase ‘religious literacy’ when they go in to the workplace and wider society. The research arises in the context of an urgent debate which has been underway in England about the future of Religious Education (RE), a subject which remains compulsory in England under the Education Act 1944, but which gives rise to widespread confusion about its purposes, content and structure, as reflected in growing criticisms of the policy muddle that frames it. The key findings are: that there is an appetite for review and reform of teaching and learning about religion and belief in schools, inside and outside the RE space, in order to clarify confusion about its purposes, content and structure; that the key perceived purposes which are emerging are the ability to engage with diversity, and personal spiritual (but not religious) development; and that stakeholders want to learn about more religions and beliefs, and ways of thinking about them, which reflect a much broader and more fluid real contemporary religion and belief landscape of England and the world than education has reflected.

Keywordsreligious literacy; Religious Education; RE; education policy
Year2017
JournalReligions
Journal citation8 (7)
PublisherMDPI
ISSN2077-1444
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8070119
Publication dates
Print28 Jul 2017
Publication process dates
Deposited06 Jul 2017
Accepted23 Jun 2017
Accepted author manuscript
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