Journal of Religious Education最新文献

Living and working through the challenges of a pandemic offered a unique research opportunity to engage with some core questions about what really matters in Religious Education (RE) in countries across Europe. The What Covid Reveals to Religious Education Specialists research project sought to provide a reflective space for RE specialists, drawn from the board members of the European Forum for Teachers of Religious Education (EFTRE), to consider their experiences of RE during the Covid-19 pandemic and to begin to articulate what they might want in the future for RE in light of their experiences. Areas explored in the online qualitative survey included: challenging questions and issues, social unrest, student–teacher relationships, learning scenarios, valued dimensions in RE, opportunities for the future, and ‘ideal’ RE. Respondents were from sixteen of the twenty-two countries present on the EFTRE Board, offering their individual perspectives from Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe. Using the tool ATLAS.ti, an inductive analytical approach was employed; a number of key group ‘themes’ emerged from the responses, which provided a basis for further analysis. This paper will present some of the main findings in dialogue with the focusing research stimulus question: What does Covid-19 reveal to RE specialists about their subject? The project is a European collaboration involving researchers from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Wales.

Abstract

As perspectives from the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky have made a substantial impact in the field of educational sciences, they have generated interest even in the field of religious education. To address some possible implications of Vygotskyan perspectives for religious education, this study focuses on Vygotsky’s notion of symbolic mediation, compared with perspectives from theological publications, interviews with religiously affiliated students as well as curricula and textbooks. Based on a comparison and discussion of these sources, the study argues that Vygotsky’s psychological perspective on symbolic mediation as key to human self-determination is not in conflict with theological and empirical approaches to religious symbols but that the latter display a wider variety of perspectives. It is argued that while religious education may benefit from Vygotskyan perspectives, a reflection is also needed on how to deal with the framing of religious symbols by varying theological positions and conflicting worldviews in different religious education settings.

England and Wales are now amongst the least religious countries in the world. According to Census data between 2011 and 2021, the number of people identifying as having ‘No Religion’ jumped by over 8 million, from 25% to 37%. Further, although there was a small upward shift in those identifying with minority religions, during the same period, the number of people identifying as Christian dropped by 5.5 million to 46.2% of the population. Wales is particularly irreligious. Here, 47% ticked ‘No Religion’ compared to 44% ‘Christian’. But even in Northern Ireland, where the majority still identify with a Christian denomination, the non-religious population has nearly doubled (from 10 to 17%) in the last decade. This surge in the non-religious will (and ought to) affect policy in a wide range of areas, but it is likely to be most profoundly felt in education; be that via reforms designed to better accommodate non-religious learners or attempts to reverse what is seen as a threatening trend by some religious groups and organisations. In this paper I explore the implications of this rapid demographic shift on religious education (RE). I argue that, while some may view the growth of the non-religious as a ‘death knell’ signalling the subject’s impending demise, it actually presents an unparalleled opportunity for revitalisation.