Religious education, racism and citizenship: developing children’s religious, political and media literacy

This summer the newspapers were full of pictures of armed French police forcing Muslim women to remove articles of clothing on a beach in Nice. The pictures showing four policemen standing over the woman while she removed enough clothes to make sure her outfit was one that was ‘respecting good morals and secularism’. Some accounts reported that as police roamed the beaches of Nice making women undress, onlookers applauded and shouted ‘go home’. How can teachers support children making sense of such media stories? Teachers of religious education are often asked to justify the existence of their subject when the number of people who claim to be religious in the UK declines year on year. Yet, the incident described above is an illustration of how religion is rarely out of the news. Very often the presence of religion in the media also signifies questions of racism and discrimination and raises issues and questions related to freedom of expression, immigration and human rights that could be addressed in the Citizenship classroom. It makes sense then that some of these issues could be addressed with more thoroughness, nuance and depth if teachers were able to consider not just the civic, moral and political context and content of many of those issues but the religious as well. Later in this article we critique classroom approaches

Introduction to fundamental British values

The introduction to this special issue outlines the current context related to the imperative within the Teachers' Standards (2012) in England 'not to undermine findamental British values' (FBV). The introduction problematises the imposition of this standard in terms of teacher identity and the invasion of professional and pedagogic spaces by the securitisation agenda. The introduction also highlights the contributions of each paper in this special issue to the academic debate on the teaching of fundamental British values in schools and within teacher education. We are very grateful to the authors who contributed articles for this special issue and who worked to very tight timescales to submit and revise their work as the debate on fundamental British values moved at a rapid pace from 2012 until the present time. I would like to thank my co-editors Sally Elton-Chalcraft and Lynn Revell for their support and hard work in helping me to compile this special issue

Religious education and hermeneutics: the case of teaching about Islam

This article attempts to do three things: the first is an exploration of the ways in which Islam is presented in an essentialist way (with a focus on Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales), leading to stereotypes and unsubstantiated generalisations. Secondly, it provides a critique of essentialism, and finally a case is made for the role of hermeneutics in the teaching and learning of Islam

Using Video and Multimodal Classroom Interaction Analysis to Investigate How Information, Misinformation, and Disinformation Influence Pedagogy

Misinformation is accidentally wrong and disinformation is deliberately incorrect (i.e., deception). This article uses the Pedagogy Analysis Framework (paf) to investigate how information, misinformation, and disinformation influence classroom pedagogy. 95 people participated (i.e., one lesson with 7-year-olds, another with 10-year-olds, and three with a class of 13-year-olds). The authors used four video-based methods (lesson video analysis, teacher verbal protocols, pupil group verbal protocols, and teacher interviews). 35 hours of video data (recorded 2013–2020) were analysed using Grounded Theory Methods by the researchers, the class teachers, and groups of pupils (three girls and three boys). The methodology was Straussian Grounded Theory. The authors present how often participants used information, misinformation, and disinformation. They illustrate how the paf helps understand and explain information, misinformation, and disinformation in the classroom by analysing video data transcripts. In addition, the authors discuss participant perceptions of the status of information; overlapping information, misinformation, and disinformation; and information communication difficulties

Multimodal classroom interaction analysis using video-based methods of the pedagogical tactic of (un)grouping

Grouping of people and/or things in school can involve challenging pedagogical problems and is a recurrent issue in research literature. Grouping of pupils sometimes aids learning, but detailed video-based analysis of how teachers (and pupils) group or ungroup (termed ‘(un)grouping’) in classrooms is rare. This multimodal classroom interaction analysis study builds on previous work by exploring how the Pedagogy Analysis Framework can help untangle complicated classroom interactions involving (un)grouping and identifies sixteen types of (un)grouping. The sample size is one class of thirty pupils (10-year-olds), their class teacher, and teaching assistant. Four research methods were used (lesson video analysis, teacher verbal protocols, pupil group verbal protocols, and individual teacher interviews). Six hours of data were video recorded (managed using NVivo). Data were analysed by two educational researchers, the class teacher, and two groups of pupils (three girls and three boys). The methodology is Straussian Grounded Theory. Data were recorded in 2019. We present how often participants (un)grouped during a lesson. We propose and use a grounded theory for (un)grouping which we call the ‘Exclusion, Segregation, Integration, and Inclusion (ESII) model’. Additionally, we discuss how misinformation and disinformation can complicate analysis of (un)grouping and examine different perspectives on (un)grouping

A practical review of energy saving technology for ageing populations

Fuel poverty is a critical issue for a globally ageing population. Longer heating/cooling requirements combine with declining incomes to create a problem in need of urgent attention. One solution is to deploy technology to help elderly users feel informed about their energy use, and empowered to take steps to make it more cost effective and efficient. This study subjects a broad cross section of energy monitoring and home automation products to a formal ergonomic analysis. A high level task analysis was used to guide a product walk through, and a toolkit approach was used thereafter to drive out further insights. The findings reveal a number of serious usability issues which prevent these products from successfully accessing an important target demographic and associated energy saving and fuel poverty outcomes. Design principles and examples are distilled from the research to enable practitioners to translate the underlying research into high quality design-engineering solutions

Teachers' perspectives on the relationship between secondary school departments of science and religious education: Independence or mutual enrichment?

There is a gap in the research on the relationship between secondary school subject departments, particularly where, as in the case of science and religious education (RE), there is not the traditional relationship that may be seen in science and maths or across humanities subjects. More awareness of content taught in other departments is important for pupils' coherent experience of curriculum and schooling. This article reports on data from 10 focus groups with 50 participants from six universities, where student teachers of science and RE revealed a complex picture of relationships between the two departments in their placement schools. Furthermore, this article reports findings from a survey where 244 teachers and student teachers of science and RE shared their perspectives on the relationship between the two school departments. The measure was adapted from Barbour's typology, a classification describing the nature of the relationship between science and religion in a range of literature. The terms ‘conflict’, ‘independence’, ‘dialogue’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘integration’ were presented to teachers of both subjects. Little evidence was found of conflict between science and RE departments, but more ‘independence’ than ‘dialogue’ between the two departments was reported. In the light of these findings, the benefits of boundary crossing are explored alongside the role teachers should play in boundary crossing

Science and RE teachers' perspectives on the purpose of RE on the secondary school curriculum in England

Renewed interest in curriculum in English schooling over the past decade has emanated from a particular focus on the place and role of knowledge in the class-room. Significant changes in policy and examination specifications have led to changes in religious educa-tion (RE). However, little is known about teachers' perspectives on the purpose of RE. We asked teach-ers of science and RE what they understood as the purpose of RE on the school curriculum. Data from 10 focus groups and a survey with 276 secondary teachers demonstrated that many secondary teach-ers of science have a different understanding to RE teachers of the purpose of RE on the school curricu-lum. Findings also show a lack of consensus from RE teachers on the purpose of RE, suggesting the impact of the knowledge turn in RE is not as strong as the Ofsted Research Review implies. Findings are signif-icant as little is known about how knowledge works across disciplinary boundaries in schools. If students are to come to a full understanding of how knowledge works, teachers need to have some understanding of how knowledge is being constructed and utilised in other curriculum subjects. Knowledge of the intended purpose of RE is important for respectful co-existence of subjects on the curriculum and essential when RE is declining as a subject in secondary schools

Science religion encounters, epistemic trespass, neighbourliness and overlapping domains: theorisation and quantitative evidence of extent

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

Calibrating fundamental British values: how head teachers are approaching appraisal in the light of the Teachers’ Standards 2012, Prevent and the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, 2015

In requiring that teachers should ‘not undermine fundamental British values (FBV)’, a phrase originally articulated in the Home Office counter-terrorism document, Prevent, the Teachers’ Standards has brought into focus the nature of teacher professionalism. Teachers in England are now required to promote FBV within and outside school, and, since the publication of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act of 2015 and the White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’, are required to prevent pupils from being drawn towards radicalisation. School practices in relation to the promotion of British values are now subject to OfSTED inspection under the Common Inspection Framework of 2015. The research presented here considers the policy and purpose of appraisal in such new times, and engages with 48 school leaders from across the education sector to reveal issues in emerging appraisal practices. Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of Liquid Modernity is used to fully understand the issues and dilemmas that are emerging in new times and argue that fear and ‘impermanence’ are key characteristics of the way school leaders engage with FBV