Reconciling Catholic Responses to Religious Education Reform in England – Empirical & Analytical Reflections

McGrail, Simon and Towey, Anthony (2020) Reconciling Catholic Responses to Religious Education Reform in England – Empirical & Analytical Reflections. International Studies in Catholic Education, 12 (2). pp. 236-255. ISSN 1942-2539

Text McGrail Towey Reconciling Catholic Responses to Religious Education Reform in England.docx - Accepted Version Download (2MB)

Abstract

Recent policy reforms regarding Religious Education 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 Religious Education such as ‘academic accessibility v academic rigour’, ‘confessional truth v critical doubt’, ‘exclusivity v inclusivity’ and ‘information v formation.’ Although these risk fomenting partisan 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, Religious Education becomes a spacious place, deliberately mapped by co-ordinates of paradox.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	This article has been accepted for publication in International Studies in Catholic Education, published by Taylor & Francis.
Keywords:	Religious Education, Catholic schools, Examination Reform, Pedagogy, Paradox.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities
Depositing User:	Peter McGrail
Date Deposited:	03 Aug 2020 15:42
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2024 15:12
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3117

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