Religious Education is at a crossroads, say researchers

Excluding Religious Education from the Baccalaureate in England risks unravelling years of progress in developing a subject rich in reasoning and discursive skills, say experts. The conclusion was reached by Professor James Conroy at a recent conference to mark the end of the Religion & Society Programme, a UK Research Councils' initiative which invested in the largest suite of research projects into religion in public life. Conroy noted that where Religious Education (RE) is given only a marginal place in the curriculum, teaching can be "dominated by somewhat crude comparisons, which misrepresent the 'being-in-the-world' nature of religious attachment". The study, conducted by the University of Glasgow, King's College London and Queen's University Belfast, involved in-depth observations and collaboration with teachers in 24 schools across the UK which self-identified as sites of good practice in RE. Researchers concluded that RE offers students a positive experience, develops their discursive abilities and contributes to multicultural awareness, and is often led by highly committed and thoughtful teachers capable of navigating the complex territory of religious beliefs and attachments in contemporary society. The researchers say the findings demonstrate that RE is at a crossroads: caught between a vision of Religious Studies as a rigorous academic discipline, concerned with exploring questions of meaning and value in the great religious and philosophical traditions; and an older vision of RE as satisfying a range of social and moral functions tangential to the study of religion.