{"title":"Muslim converts as a heuristic device for postsecular thinking: agonism as an alternative approach","authors":"Jeremiah O. A. Olusola","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00214-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00214-z","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The public resurgence of religious adherence in the West remains one of the defining qualities of this century. If secularisation theory can be understood to articulate the inevitable secularisation of post-enlightenment European societies, religious converts may be understood to epitomise some of the theory’s failings. Through a narrative-ethnographic investigation into the identity configurations and educational experiences of fifteen millennial (born between 1981 and 1996) Muslim converts, my doctoral research indicates that these converts tend to construct deeply religious identities, characterised by scriptural literalism. Set within the backdrop of an educational context that some perceive as increasingly censorious, these convert Muslims provide a heuristic device with which to examine the contested public spaces in which religious subjectivity can be expressed. This paper will bring literature challenging the securitisation agenda in education, into conversation with theories resistant to the impulse to seek consensus in social and educational debate. Advocating for more agonistic approaches to education, I will present examples from my data that warn of the ways in which ‘hardened’ secular and liberal biases may contribute towards an unmooring of the pluralistic endeavour. Located within contemporary debates about the importance of religion as a discursive aspect of modernity, the chilling of free speech and the place of transgressive thought, the paper encourages an expansion of opportunities to disagree.","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135341638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Religion and worldviews education and the paradox of inclusivity","authors":"Daniel Moulin","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00212-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00212-1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Paradoxes of inclusivity occur when attempts at inclusivity clash with the exclusive claims of some of the positions they seek to accommodate. In this article I identify and consider how such a paradox manifests in multi-faith religious education pedagogies—what I call the ‘paradox of interreligious inclusivity’ or ‘PIRI’, for short. After presenting some relevant and illuminating examples, I consider PIRI in regard to proposals in England for ‘religion and worldviews education’. By defining the conceptual problem at the root of challenges posed by such an innovation and pedagogical models more generally, I suggest greater recognition of the deep implications of PIRI are essential in any context when educators seek to include those of all religions and those of none in programmes of religious education.","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135972851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"AULRE 2023: Theory, policy and practice in RE—is this a time of divergence?","authors":"Stephen J. McKinney, Sean Whittle","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00217-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00217-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135933754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction to: The experiences of non-religious children in religious education","authors":"Anna Strhan, Rachael Shillitoe","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00208-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00208-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135870867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Voices of young people in the Synod","authors":"Stephen J. McKinney","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00210-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00210-3","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The absence of young people in Catholic churches in many parts of the world, especially in the more economically advanced countries, is a cause for great anxiety within Catholic communities. This is expressed in relevant research literature and the three recent synodal syntheses of England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. This article explores the key concept of synodality, some of the research on the religious affiliation (and disaffiliation) of Catholic young people and the voices and views of Catholic young people in the synodal process in the three syntheses. The views of the young people in the three syntheses are clustered under six themes: (1) absence from Church; (2) accusations of hypocrisy; (3) concerns about teaching on sexuality; (4) Catholic Social Teaching; (5) the importance of parents and (6) the ways in which young people can engage in the Church. Many of the comments of the young people in these three syntheses confirm some of the research findings and, crucially, the young people provide suggestions on the ways ahead in which they can be more active in the Church—‘being’ Church, rather than ‘doing’ Church.","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135870151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"After religious education: lessons from continental pedagogy","authors":"David Lewin","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00211-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00211-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper takes up the theme of divergent political and educational paths in Religious Education (RE) by drawing out some educational theories from the German tradition of what is sometimes called ‘continental pedagogy’. As a development of work undertaken within the <i>After Religious Education</i> project, my interest in this paper is what these theories have to say about one aspect of education, namely the educational logic governing curricular presentation and representation. Within the German tradition, there is an established focus on ‘didactics’ (the theory and practice of teaching) which informs the approach taken here. Rather than seeing RE as a particular corner of the curriculum with its own unique challenges, my main argument is that RE theory is part of wider educational landscape and therefore it could usefully engage more actively with the tradition of general didactics. The argument will present and contextualize the work of Wagenschein and Klafki, educational theorists who are not well known among Anglophone theorists of RE, but who offer insightful considerations of the holistic formation of the person to which RE can make a vital contribution.</p>","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert A. Bowie, Rosanne Aantjes, Mary Woolley, Sabina Hulbert, Caroline Thomas, Lynn Revell, John-Paul Riordan
{"title":"Science religion encounters, epistemic trespass, neighbourliness and overlapping domains: theorisation and quantitative evidence of extent","authors":"Robert A. Bowie, Rosanne Aantjes, Mary Woolley, Sabina Hulbert, Caroline Thomas, Lynn Revell, John-Paul Riordan","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00209-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00209-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study advances a concept of science religion encounter (SRE), with preliminary theorisation and shares findings on the extent and nature of such encounters reported by secondary religious education and science teachers. SREs are interdisciplinary engagements in classrooms involving subject knowledge from more than one subject. The researchers hypothesised they may arise unexpectedly, when a pupil asks a question, or be teacher-planned and intended. This article further elaborates the concept of SRE with reference to the concepts of ‘epistemic trespassing’ (ET), epistemic neighbourliness, and overlapping domains, introducing these to the field of education. The study is contextualised in the school classroom with quantitative data gathered among beginning and experienced teachers measuring whether this ET in SRE topics enter the classroom via ‘spontaneity’ or via a ‘deliberateness’. This clarifies the different roles a teacher may play and offers considerations for teacher development when navigating an SRE in ways that potentially reduce lost learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Personal worldviews: lessons from James Fowler","authors":"Mark Plater","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00204-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00204-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135266555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"English RE: under pressure?","authors":"Paul Smalley","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00207-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00207-y","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper will examine four potential areas of pressure to RE in England in the 2020s: Academisation—and the structural issues arising from ever greater numbers of schools being outside local authority control; the alleged secularisation of the curriculum through the Worldviews Paradigm; the financial situation of Standard Advisory Councils on Religious Education in England; and the teacher recruitment crisis. Taking a historical turn, it will then consider whether these are uniquely challenging to the subject, or whether the RE community might gain solace from a realisation that these challenges have been overcome at other points in history.","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135266416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Religion and worldviews: the triumph of the secular in religious education","authors":"Lynn Revell","doi":"10.1007/s40839-023-00205-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-023-00205-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":30871,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136012599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}