Having Faith in Religious Education

This time last year, I completed my undergraduate degree to little fanfare. I had written my dissertation in a stuffy attic room at the top of a Leeds terraced student house over a number of weeks. Suddenly it dawned on me: I am graduating, I don’t yet have a job and the pandemic is making job markets look quite unhospitable. I knew then that the next academic year would be spent at my childhood home, and I began looking for a job in my hometown of coastal Sunny Worthing. In that anxious stupor I received a call: “I hear you’re planning on moving back to Worthing with a Theology degree. Ever thought of teaching?”

It was the new headteacher of a local Catholic School, the same school that I attended as a child. They needed a Religious Education (RE) teacher. Whilst I had tutored GCSE Maths, I had never entertained the prospect of becoming a teacher, let alone teaching RE. RE isn’t a real subject! Or so the world around me has said. It’s an important academic discipline, sure! But it doesn’t have much of a role to play in today’s secular society. Perhaps in a faith school it’s important for supporting religious ethos, but beyond that it’s only a feature of the holistic education that schools provide. RE is simply a relic of a less secular age, or at least, that was the narrative I had internalised. I contented myself with the idea that RE was uniquely placed to support argumentation and critical thinking skills, that it was something I loved talking about – surely there is value in that alone? – so I began cautiously wading into the application process of becoming a RE teacher.

Joshua House in class teaching Religious Education. Joshua was initially sceptical about the value of the subject.

One year on and my experience has helped me realise that RE done well is transformative, more than students of RE might ever realise. And whilst it is a feature of a holistic education, RE is not just a feature; it holds a unique space uncharted by other subjects.

Taking on board public perception of the subject as ‘outdated’ and ‘irrelevant’, discussions about the future of RE are taking place both within schools and at a policy level in the UK. These discussions have seen the rise of the ‘worldviews’ paradigm within RE, reflected most prominently in the release of the landmark report called ‘Religions and Worldviews’ by the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) in 2018. Their first recommendation is that the subject should be renamed to ‘Religions and Worldviews’ to reflect the variety of beliefs both religious and non-religious, and those of organised and institutional worldviews and personal worldviews.

Suddenly, this caveat transformed my perception of my work as a teacher of Religious Education. I was in a position to enrich young people’s knowledge about how others see the world, support them to develop empathy, ensure that different views are not only accepted but respected, celebrated and where there’s discomfort, to embrace challenge in a safe space for discussion. Where else is such explicit tutelage of these skills and the fact of this diversity found in the curriculum? I was laying the foundations for the work of open, curious, reflective and trusting peacebuilders, and I realised what a privilege I held.

RE is taught in both primary and secondary schools in the UK.

Take for example Charlie*, one of my younger students, whom I noticed was writing furiously during one lesson on the idea of ‘Human Dignity and Respect’. Charlie has a physical disability which inhibits their movement. Their writing on dignity and respect was drawn from their own experience of being disabled and Charlie bravely shared these reflections with the class. You could hear a pin drop as students suddenly considered what daily life looked like for Charlie. It is only in RE that a whole lesson could be dedicated to this topic and enable young people to build genuine reflection and empathy through deep listening.

Similarly, in my GCSE class, teaching predestination in Islam was not just a dry academic point. It was an opportunity to invite students to consider how different beliefs might change how someone interacts with the world and interprets everyday events. I watched as it slowly clicked over the course of the lesson. It is only in RE that young people are able to consider the world in such depth from another point of view.

Joshua in a classroom teaching RE.

This ‘worldviews’ paradigm gives RE a new lease of life in the modern world, by reframing what has always been so centrally special and unique about the subject: the opportunity to reflect and study how yourself and others view the world. Perhaps such a small name change can ensure that the core tenets are clear. Better yet, we can hope that it enables the subject to embrace a renewed reputation with the British public, ensuring that students not only become effective critical thinkers, but also that they learn to how to be respectful citizens with a deep understanding of religious identity, who celebrate difference and make a positively informed impact on the diverse global and local communities around them.

*Charlie is not the student's real name