Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The perfect pupil
T2 - changing aims and changing measures of success in school RE
AU - Levitt, Mairi
AU - Muir, Fiona
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - In England and Wales religious education (RE) in non-faith schools has gradually changed from Christian education to the study of many religions and philosophies. However, the core values of RE have continued to be related to concerns about social cohesion and the building of shared values. The paper briefly discusses changes in RE since 1944 and then considers attitudes to RE among a group of year 11 pupils (age 15-16) in one large multicultural comprehensive school, collected through questionnaires and group discussions. The subject name had been changed from RE to Religious Studies (RS) in 2004. The focus here is on pupils’ ideas of ‘the perfect RS pupil’; used as a means to access their understandings of the subject’s aims and their teachers’ expectations. The most popular responses were that the ideal pupil would be knowledgeable about religions and be tolerant and empathetic. This is in accord with the current social and political agenda for RE but lays it open to criticism that tolerance becomes an end in itself encouraging indifference to religions rather than a critical, evaluative perspective.
AB - In England and Wales religious education (RE) in non-faith schools has gradually changed from Christian education to the study of many religions and philosophies. However, the core values of RE have continued to be related to concerns about social cohesion and the building of shared values. The paper briefly discusses changes in RE since 1944 and then considers attitudes to RE among a group of year 11 pupils (age 15-16) in one large multicultural comprehensive school, collected through questionnaires and group discussions. The subject name had been changed from RE to Religious Studies (RS) in 2004. The focus here is on pupils’ ideas of ‘the perfect RS pupil’; used as a means to access their understandings of the subject’s aims and their teachers’ expectations. The most popular responses were that the ideal pupil would be knowledgeable about religions and be tolerant and empathetic. This is in accord with the current social and political agenda for RE but lays it open to criticism that tolerance becomes an end in itself encouraging indifference to religions rather than a critical, evaluative perspective.
KW - Religious education
KW - RE Pupil
KW - Tolerance
KW - Empathy
KW - Critical RE
U2 - 10.1080/01416200.2013.830957
DO - 10.1080/01416200.2013.830957
M3 - Journal article
VL - 36
SP - 218
EP - 233
JO - British Journal of Religious Education
JF - British Journal of Religious Education
SN - 0141-6200
IS - 2
ER -