Does Religious Education Work?

According to the authors of a recent study the answer to the question, 'Does Religious Education Work?', is 'A heavily qualified yes.' They go on to say: 'In general religious education offers students a positive experience and a pedagogy that focuses on developing their discursive abilities and makes a contribution to multicultural awareness.'  The report is the result of a three-year investigation carried out by the University of Glasgow, King's College London and Queen's University Belfast (where a one-day seminar on the report was held recently).  Using qualitative and quantitative methods, researchers investigated the practices and outcomes of religious education in 24 schools across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

While the report regards religious education generally positively it also makes clear that, in the schools it investigated, the subject 'did not, in the main, make students religiously literate' and that it suffered from poor resourcing, conflicting expectations and insufficient time to deliver courses appropriately.  It found that many teachers are undervalued, under-confident and under-qualified to teach the subject and so, not surprisingly, 'religious education struggles to enjoy a well-defined academic space in schools.'   These difficult circumstances are compounded by the many competing expectations placed on the subject, for example: nurturing pupils in particular communities; multicultural awareness; dealing with truth claims and pluralism; sex and relationships education; citizenship education; moral development; philosophical understanding; social and community cohesion; religious literacy; spiritual development.  With so many demands teachers can become confused about what is expected of them:  'the ambiguities around the dominant aims and purposes of RE make it difficult for some teachers to articulate a sense of value and status for the subject.'

The section of the report on exams and RE highlights the difficulties for teachers who are juggling the requirement to deliver an academic syllabus in very limited time while, at the same time, creating space for discussion, deliberation and 'soft' skills such as social, emotional and spiritual development. It also points to the direct impact syllabus writers can have on pedagogy and, hence, the need to reflect upon current assessment styles.

Considering the scale of the problems with religious education described in the report, it might be possible to query the overall conclusion that RE does work; most of the evidence points in the other direction. However, there are more elements of the research to be published and it is hoped that, where there is evidence which substantiates the affirmation that RE does work, it will be spelled out more clearly in these publications.

Perhaps, the most important point to note from this report is the incredible job done by those teachers who, on a daily basis, make RE work by engaging with the complexity of the subject's content, identity and status as well as creating valuable and meaningful learning experiences for young people.

For more information about the project visit the project's website.