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 After Religious Education 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.
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.