An introduction to religious, moral and values education

It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the new Religious, Moral and Values Education section of Cogent Education.

In an educational climate that is strongly influenced by the neoliberal school reform agenda, and in which students’ worth is judged by the extent to which they perform against sets of externally prescribed standards and outcomes, scholars have for some time now sought to counter such discourse through robust programs of research that draw attention to the religious, moral and values dimensions of education. The establishment of the journal’s new section is a testament to such research trajectories and their potential for impact.

Religious Education in both school settings and in faith-based contexts in a globalised world may be characterised by several emerging features. These include a diminished sense of the communal and the collective (that is, membership of groups defined by beliefs, social networks, and so on), and the emergence of a spirituality that increasingly disassociates itself from formal religion (Rymarz et al., 2021). There is, then, a need to explore the relationship between religion and education in all aspects of formal and non-formal educational settings.

Since globalisation can act to destabilize young people’s moral values (through factors such as television, print media, the internet, and the prioritization of economic values), moral education has an important role in helping learners to make sense of the world that they inhabit, and to make decisions about whether to retain or discard certain values, in a contemporary milieu (Halstead, 2010).

There is a juxtaposition between the values that are promoted by globalised and neoliberal philosophies of education – such as competition, calculatedness, performativity, and a focus on the student’s future ‘becoming’ – and the values that are promoted through Values Education in encouraging civics and citizenship – including (but not limited to) collaboration, social responsibility, creativity, and experimentation. In neoliberal approaches to education, learners are “incited” to “conduct themselves as competitive subjects” (Wilkins, 2012, p. 202). As Ball (2003) notes, learners organise themselves in response to attainment targets, performance indicators, achievement standards and the like. They are compelled to constantly measure themselves “against a narrow vision of studenthood and citizenship” engaging in “competition, individualism, utility and pragmatism” (Keddie, 2016, p. 120). Can these seemingly opposed sets of values be reconciled?

While there is a potentially infinite range of issues that emerge in relation to Religious, Moral and Values Education, some of the pressing issues that we hope to focus on in this new section include:

• Empirical research, conceptual work and critical analysis in relation to the effects of globalisation on Religious, Moral and Values Education.

• Innovative approaches toward teaching and student learning in Religious, Moral and Values Education (either separately or together) that seek to harness the potential of new pedagogies, technologies or learning design.

• The challenges facing Religious Education in the context of faith communities, faith-based schools and secular schools in a globalised world.

• Religious, Moral and Values Education in early childhood contexts.

• Approaches to character education in a globalised world.

• Citizenship and civics education in response to neoliberal policy.

• Moral and religious development.

• Innovative methodological approaches to studying various aspects of the religious, moral and values dimensions of education.

The new Religious, Moral and Values Education section of the journal offers an opportunity to engage with these and other issues in new and innovative ways. The section will foster rigorous, ethical research practices that will be underpinned by critical peer review processes. As Senior Editor, it is my pleasure and privilege to invite those whose research reflects the religious, moral and values dimensions of education to use this platform to publish their work.

Brendan Hyde
Deakin University, Burwood Melbourne Australia
[email protected]