Reconciling Catholic responses to Religious Education reform in England – empirical and analytical reflections

Abstract

Recent policy reforms regarding Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales have provoked a variety of reactions among faith communities, ecclesial stakeholders, academics, practitioners, senior leaders and students themselves. In this article, we assess the situation in the Catholic context using empirical and analytical tools which shed light on the nature of the subject in a manner relevant to the non-faith sector and internationally. We demonstrate that vectors of reform have drawn attention to key pedagogical aporia in RE such as ‘academic accessibility vs academic rigour’, ‘confessional truth vs critical doubt’, ‘exclusivity vs inclusivity’ and ‘information vs formation.’ Although these risk fomenting partizan binaries at an important time in the evolution of the subject, we contend that such tensions actually underpin the discipline, helping to articulate both its peculiarly holistic ambition and its transformative possibilities. Thus understood, RE becomes a spacious place, deliberately mapped by co-ordinates of paradox.

Keywords:

• Religious Education
• Catholic schools
• examination reform
• pedagogy
• paradox

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Anthony Towey is the director of the Aquinas Centre for Theological Literacy at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, UK.

Peter McGrail is a priest of the Archdiocese of Liverpool and Head of the Department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies at Liverpool Hope University.

Notes

1 In early discussions with the Department for Education, these included Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, Heythrop College, Leeds Trinity University Liverpool Hope University, Newman University, Birmingham and St Mary’s University, London.

2 External reviewers included education experts Dr Joanne Pearce (University College London) and Dr Ann Casson (Canterbury Christ Church University) as well as diocesan RE advisors.

3 Catholic pathways for 14–16 year olds were offered by three of the four national awarding bodies, AQA (2016), Edexcel (2016) and Eduqas (2016) – see reference list for details.

4 Geoff Whitty quoted in Morgan (2015).

5 See British Social Attitudes survey (2019). Accessed 7 July 2020. https://www.natcen.ac.uk/news-media/press-releases/2019/july/a-britain-that-is-losing-its-religion,-has-faith-in-science-and-is-adopting-more-liberal-ideas-about-sex-and-relationships/

6 For example, in 2020, the top five schools in Surrey at GCSE were all Catholic, an astonishing metric given they number just 10% of the schools in the county. https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/10-best-secondary-schools-surrey-16560166.amp

7 Respondent # 43554532.

8 Respondent # 43551004.

9 Respondent # 43772936.

10 Respondent # 43990882.

11 Respondent # 43567678. As a counterpoint, it is noteworthy that a teacher in the qualitative phase questioned why technical language was regarded as such an obstacle in High School when her 8 year old was using the term transubstantiation at primary level. School 2Tb.

12 School 2S5.

13 Moreover, when combined with realpolitik on the part of school leaders who are themselves under pressure to maximise the number of ‘pass’ grades, this tension between attainment and accessibility has the potential to threaten hard-won policy coherence between local diocesan and national ecclesial bodies.

14 School 7P.

15 School 1P 2018 evidence.

16 See Towey and Robinson (2018). The pattern of the reform has forced many schools to choose between the Bible or Ethics with the result that only about 10% of Catholic schools and 1% of other schools are opting for Scripture modules with AQA, the largest GCSE provider.

17 School 3S4b. For example, Question. ‘Which has been the most interesting thing you have studied in the last 18 months?’ Answer. ‘Mark’s Gospel and like how it would impact like on our lives now’.

18 See, for example, ‘A Message Wrapped in Words’ https://youtu.be/MOx_Dcnu04o, accessed 7thJuly 2020.

19 Understanding Christianity ‘used in over 4,500 schools across the country,’ accessed 7 July 2020, https://www.understandingChristianity.org.uk.

20 ST 1a q.2 art.3‘Videtur quod Deus non sit’.

21 They were admittedly hectic times but the hermeneutical calumny regarding Genesis formed part of set of online model assessment answers which were taken down at the insistence of a CREDO member. Even more astonishingly, it was pointed out to another exam board that they had managed to design one-third of an A-level in Christianity with no reference to Jesus, an oversight that was hastily rectified.

22 Respondents ## 4357131, 43871697, 4351004, 43560366, respectively.

23 G.K. Chesterton in The Daily News 12 December 1903 quoted in Paul Rowan (2017), The Scrappy Evangelist, 173.

24 For example, the category of transcendence is present in the interim report of the Commission on Religious Education (2017) and it is absent from the final publication (2018) – for details, see Towey (2019).

25 It is noteworthy that in The Republic, Plato (2007) uses story to lay the foundations of his ethics in Book II (Myth of Gyges) epistemology in Book VII (Allegory of the Cave) and anthropology in Book X (Myth of Er).

26 The Commission on Religious Education was an independent body which met regularly over a period of 2 years 2016–2018 chaired by the Dean of Westminster. Rev. John Hall with one of the authors, Towey, among its appointees. It was convened by the Religious Education Council, a body of individuals and stakeholder affiliates from faith traditions which has exercised a degree of oversight around the subject since the 1970s.

27 See Clayton et al. (2018).

28 See National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE) outline of statutory obligations, accessed 7 July 2020, https://www.natre.org.uk/about-re/legal-requirements/.

29 Despite these reservations, the Welsh Assembly are at the time of writing holding a consultation on adoption of the central tenets of the Commission’s recommendations which can be accessed via https://www.commissiononre.org.uk/final-report-religion-and-worldviews-the-way-forward-a-national-plan-for-re/.

30 CORE (2018), Final Report, p.14 section 3b.

31 Respondent #44490888. Some 28% identified the second religion as the most or among the most engaging topics.

32 Cf. pioneering development in Belgium of the ‘dialogue school’ Boeve (2016, 174–199).

33 Aristotle (2009) Ethics II.ii.

34 Curriculum Directory Symposium, St. Katherine’s, Limehouse, 5 January 2019.

35 For example, the 1990s saw Citizenship and Critical Thinking introduced in English schools but neither have flourished particularly well.

36 Respondent #43612152.

37 Respondent #44030882.

38 Thomas Lickona in Arthur (2015, 4).

39 British values were coined by Prime Minister David Cameron as ‘democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for and tolerance of those of different faiths and none’. Designed to curb extremism, they call to mind for us the slogan cuius region eiusreligio – ‘in a ruler’s land the ruler’s religion’ which inter alia formed part of the Treaty of Westphalia which ended Europe’s religious wars.

40 See http://jordanbpetersen.com.

41 Stock in Devanney (2018, 3).

42 An allusion to Bruce Chatwin’s (1988) travel memoir of the same name which examines how aboriginal humans found their way across the trackless outback.

43 For example, one might contrast the English with Australia, see Rymarz (2016, 2017).

44 National Catholic RE Advisor.

45 ‘The word “God” is a Theology in itself, indivisibly one, inexhaustibly various, from the vastness and simplicity of its meaning’. Idea of a University (1852) II:3. For further consideration of Newman's position see Towey (2020).