Seeing, grasping and constructing: pre-service teachers’ metaphors for ‘understanding’ in religious education

ABSTRACT

Despite its centrality to most, if not all educational endeavours, what is meant by understanding is highly contested. Using Religious Education (RE) in England as a case subject this paper examines pre-service secondary school teachers’ construals of understanding. It does so by employing conceptual metaphor theory to analyse their linguistic discourse. Specifically, it examines the metaphors employed by participants in a series of focus group discussions (FGD) and provides important insights into how understanding is conceptualised by these pre-service teachers who are preparing to enter the RE profession. The metaphors employed by these pre-service teachers (‘understanding is SEEING’; ‘understanding is CONSTRUCTING’; ‘understanding is GRASPING’), focus on the dynamic and developmental nature of understanding (rather than on the outcomes) and reveal subject specific ways of thinking and practicing. This paper argues that each of the three conceptual metaphors employed by participants suggest particular ways of acting towards understanding with significant implications for teaching and learning in RE.

KEYWORDS:

• Understanding
• metaphor
• metaphor analysis
• religious education
• pre-service teachers
• initial teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Unlike other subjects, the Religious Education curriculum for schools in England is not determined by a statutory national curriculum, although recently Clarke and Woodhead (2015) and the Religious Education Council (REC 2018) have recommended otherwise. Whilst RE remains a compulsory subject in schools in England, its curriculum is determined locally with Local Authorities (LAs) producing RE syllabuses for use in state funded schools in their area through an Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC) established by their local Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE). There are currently over 150 SACREs in England (http://www.nasacre.org.uk/database). It is recommended, although not a legal requirement, for ASCs to consult relevant non-statutory guidelines such as the Model Syllabuses (SCAA, 1994); which were followed by the National Framework for RE (QCA, 2004) and accompanying Schemes of Work for RE (QCA, 2007); by the National Curriculum Framework for RE (REC 2013b); and the final report from the Commission on RE (REC 2018).

2. The review that follows pertains to the curriculum subject ‘Religious Education’ which is part of the basic curriculum in England (https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/other-compulsory-subjects). Local councils are responsible for determining this curriculum but faith schools and academies are free to establish their own curriculum. Documentation relating to national public examination specifications for GCSE and A Level ‘Religious Studies’ have not been included in this review as these specifications are commercially produced by independent examination boards.

3. Meaning ‘to transfer’ (from ‘meta’ = over, across; and ‘pherein’ = carry, bear).

4. Middle English: from Old French ‘comprehender’, or Latin ‘comprehendere’ (com = ‘together’ + prehendere = ‘grasp’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Walshe

Karen Walshe, PhD, is a senior lecturer at the Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter. She is course leader for the Secondary PGCE Religious Education course and programme director for the Masters in Education (online). Her main research interests are in religious education, professional learning, and teacher retention.