Religion and Education

Gert Biesta is Professor of Public Education at Maynooth University, Ireland, and Professorial Fellow in Educational Theory and Pedagogy at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He writes about educational theory and policy, including Obstinate Education: Reconnecting School and Society (Brill | Sense, 2019).Patricia Hannam is County Inspector/Adviser for Religious Education, History and Philosophy in Hampshire, UK. Her research and writing interests include religious education, history education and educational theory, including Religious Education in the Public Sphere (Routledge, 2018).

“Following the publication of the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) Final report there has been a mood change in the theoretical discussions about the nature and purpose of RE. The true game-changing significance of the Commission's introduction of the language of worldview is beginning to dawn. This fine collection of essays from a variety of talented thinkers represents some green shoots heralding the paradigm shift that might be to come. The authors are a mixture of well-known old hands, including three who served as commissioners on the CoRE team, and some mid-career rising stars whose ideas will no doubt become increasingly influential. Their interests are wide-ranging across, amongst others, the representation of Islam, the nature of religion and of education, the place of theology in Catholic schools, GCSE question setting , pedagogy and hermeneutics. But the common theme is the offer of an alternative to a lazy approach to notions like knowledge, understanding and academic rigour that forget that our pupils are developing human beings and not just consumers of knowledge organisers. This book is a must-read for anyone wanting to grapple with the future direction of a Religious Education that takes seriously both religion and education.” – Trevor Cooling, Professor, National Institute for Christian Education Research, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK“This compilation is a valuable contribution to all people interested in religion and worldviews in public education. It can be seen as a call for focus on the fundamentals of religion in education. The volume comprises of several independent scholarly essays on what is the very ‘soul’ of religion in public education: religion and education. Each internationally recognized author draws from his or her scholarly background in their contribution so that the reader will find the issues brought up to resonate with and be relevant to several disciplines. While the individual works are diverse in their approach, topics and execution, the editorship and authors have managed to produce a contribution with coherence and high-quality. We simply need this kind of critical scholarship to lay the foundation against which more peripheral, but also important, issues can be analysed and solved, but also, when necessary, kept in the periphery of what is called good research, curriculum or practice concerning religion and worldviews in education. To me this book represents an urgent call for focus. Policy-makers, scholars, teachers and students alike will find this compilation a versatile, timely and high-quality research-based contribution to the discussion on religion in public education.” – Martin Ubani, Professor of Religious Education, University of Eastern Finland“Religious education is more important now than ever before as children and young people grow up in an increasingly diverse and complex world. This text nourishes – educare – and leads us – educere – into a broader and more ambitious understanding of religious education. The emphasis on the relational nature of the subject and a clarion call for a reframing and recontextualization of the subject rooted in both education theory and new understandings of ‘religion’ will no doubt bring the reader to attention and action. In their different ways, the authors challenge and disrupt some of the current understandings of religious education presenting their wisdom with depth, discernment and insight. This is an exciting contribution in current debates about the subject.” – Kathryn Wright, CEO, Culham St Gabriel’s Trust"The volume as a whole offers a strong plea to open up the discussion on RE [Religious Education] to a stronger consideration of an existential dimension, which does not only orientate teaching towards the imparting of knowledge, but also takes up the question of how students can shape the world with this knowledge and their attitudes. The demand to place the students' becoming subjects at the centre of all educational considerations must also be perceived and materialised again and again in religious education, dialogically and realistically".- Peter Schreiner translated from Zeitschrift fur Padagogik und Theologie, Vol. 74, Iss. 2. (May 7, 2022)

• AcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsIntroducing: The Forgotten Dimensions of Religious EducationGert Biesta and Patricia Hannam1 Education, Education, Education: Reflections on a Missing DimensionGert Biesta2 Education as Social PracticeRuth Heilbronn3 Education and Belonging to a Subject MatterDavid Aldridge4 Religion, Reductionism and Pedagogical ReductionDavid Lewin5 ‘Buddhism Is Not a Religion, But Paganism Is’: The Applicability of the Concept of ‘Religion’ to Dharmic and Nature-Based Traditions, and the Implications for Religious EducationDenise Cush and Catherine Robinson6 Teaching about Islam: From Essentialism to Hermeneutics: An Interview with Farid Panjwani and Lynn Revell, by Gert BiestaGert Biesta, Farid Panjwani and Lynn Revell7 On the Precarious Role of Theology in Religious EducationSean Whittle8 Implicit Knowledge Structures in English Religious Studies Public Exam Questions: How Exam Questions Frame Knowledge, the Experience of Learning, and PedagogyRobert A. Bowie9 What Should Religious Education Seek to Achieve in the Public Sphere?Patricia Hannam10 Reflections on the Seminar on Religion and Education: The Forgotten Dimensions of Religious EducationJoyce MillerAfterword: Reflecting on the Forgotten Dimensions of Religious Education: Conclusions and Ways ForwardPatricia Hannam and Gert BiestaIndex