Knowledge exchange, intergroup relations and ‘sharing space’: a community of enquiry for the professional development of teachers of religion and worldviews

ABSTRACT

We present a distinctive approach to knowledge exchange used in the ‘Shared Space’ project; an inter-disciplinary researcher–teacher partnership using Allport’s contact theory contact theory as a lens to interpret teachers’ self-reported practice in the subject Religion and Worldviews (RWE). By so doing, we created new professional knowledge and understanding of how RWE could be used as a vehicle for promoting community relations. At the project’s heart was a team of six whose collaboration across the theory-practice divide has proved unusually close and successful. Here we reflect as a team on our relationships, with each other and the project, through a ‘Collective Writing’ approach, identifying positive experiences, tensions and disagreements, and strategies used to (partially) resolve these. Issues we faced included potentially irreconcilable differences within and across disciplines related to ontology and epistemology. We identify three particular strategies we have used to address them: reciprocal hospitality and embodying Allport’s contact principles within a ‘community of enquiry’. We conclude that, despite the challenges, we have remained a strong and productive team, literally ‘sharing space’, by affording each team member equal status; collaborating towards common goals and in ways that have been supported by our respective institutions. 193/200

KEYWORDS:

• Religion and worldviews education
• knowledge exchange
• community of enquiry
• intergroup relations

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the University of Bristol’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account and a Westhill Trust Standard Grant. We would like to thank the National Association for Teachers of Religious Education for supporting our research ideas.

Disclosure statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and our ethical obligations as researchers, we are reporting that Rachael Jackson Royal serves as a Trustee of the Westhill Trust and Kate Christopher worked for NATRE as a consultant at the time when the project was undertaken. As advocacy groups, both NATRE and Westhill may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed paper. We have disclosed those interests fully to Taylor & Francis, and have an approved plan for managing any potential conflicts arising from our consultancy activities.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, University of Southampton [ESRC IAA impact award UoB]; Westhill Trust [N/A].

Notes on contributors

Janet Orchard

Janet Orchard is Director of Postgraduate Research at the School of Education, University of Bristol. She lectured previously at the Institute of Education, University of London and the Department of Education University of Oxford, having been a teacher and administrator in schools in England.  She is a philosopher of education taking a comparative interest in relationships between philosophy, religion and teacher education. She belongs to AULRE (the Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education) and the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values (ISREV) and serves on the editorial board of the British Journal of Religious Education (BJRE). She was co-opted onto the NATRE Executive from 2015 to 2021.

Amanda Williams

Amanda Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the School of Education, University of Bristol. Her research focuses on the development and reduction of racial prejudice across childhood.

Kate Christopher

Kate Christopher is a Secondary teacher of RE in East London and an independent RE adviser. Her advisory work is with teachers, both Primary and Secondary, in the development of practical teaching approaches to explore the evolution of the subject for the 21st Century.  Kate’s PhD is in Philosophy of Education. In her own work Kate uses philosophical, political and critical thinking to consider what can be claimed for the subject. She situates herself between theory and practice.

Shelley McKeown

Shelley McKeown is an Associate Professor in Social Psychology at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on applying social psychological theories to better understand and improve intergroup relations for youth in conflict and diverse settings. She has published numerous articles, a book, and an edited volume and has received BPS and APA awards for her research.

Rachael Jackson-Royal

Rachael Jackson-Royal, PhD, is a Head of RE in an all-girls school in the West Midlands. She is the exams and higher education officer on NATRE where she has been a member of the executive for many years. She is the editor of Research Update in the Professional Reflections of RE today and has written numerous books and blogs on the topic of RE. Her research interests include how to activate deep thinking in RE and develop excellent content knowledge in the subject area.

Kathryn Wright

Kathryn Wright is responsible for leading the strategic vision and planning of Culham St Gabriel’s Trust, an endowed charitable foundation. After teaching in East London secondary schools for a number of years, she became the RE adviser to the London Borough of Newham before going freelance in 2005. Until April 2019, she worked as a consultant for Culham St Gabriel’s leading the Teach:RE course programme. In addition, she was the RE adviser for the Diocese of Norwich, and also supported the Dioceses of Ely and St Albans. Alongside this she was a RE Quality Mark assessor and a Section 48 inspector. She was a co-opted member of the NATRE executive from 2015-2021 and is on the Board of the RE Council of England and Wales. Her doctorate in 2018 developed a framework for RE pedagogy in Church of England schools.

Sally Wai-Yan Wan

Sally Wai-Yan Wan, EdD, is a Professional Consultant at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include teacher education and development, curriculum and pedagogical design, and educational leadership. Recent publications have explored teacher leadership, teaching beliefs, and pedagogical practices of differentiated instruction.

Nuraan Davids

Nuraan Davids is Professor of Philosophy of Education in the Department of Education Policy Studies in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University. Her research interests include democratic citizenship education; Islamic philosophy of education; and philosophy of higher education. She is a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2020 -2021). She is a Co-Editor of the Routledge series, World Issues in the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education. She is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Education in Muslim Societies, Associate Editor of the South African Journal of Higher Education, and an Editorial Board Member of Ethics and Education. Her most recent international book publications include Teaching, friendship & humanity (Springer, 2020; with Y. Waghid); Teachers Matter: Educational Philosophy and Authentic Learning (Rowman & Littlefield – Lexington Series, 2020; with Y. Waghid); The Thinking University Expanded: On Profanation, Play and Education (Routledge, 2020, with Y. Waghid); Democratic Education and Muslim Philosophy: Interfacing Muslim and communitarian thought (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2020, with Y. Waghid).