Sunday 23 November 2014

ALAN’S BLOG – The GCSE debate: The resistance to studying religion – Alan Brine

This is Part 3 of my search to map the landscape of the debate around GCSE and maybe help us come closer together in our thinking.

This is possibly one of the most disturbing features of our recent discussions. A number of colleagues have said they don’t want to have to teach about religions at Key Stage 4 as part of a subject called ‘Religious Studies’. The punters will walk away! One person even posted on Facebook to say they didn’t want to return to having to teach religious studies in Religious Studies! Can you imagine a historian saying s/he doesn’t want to teach history in the History GCSE?

I think we do get it. If you reduce teaching about religions to dreary, bloated lists of content then it will be dull. Also we know that for many students the ‘religious view of the world’ is outmoded and lacking in credibility. We need to strongly acknowledge the ‘contested’ nature of religion in their learning.

What we have failed to do in recent years is find enough models of teaching about religion and religions which are engaging and which students see as relevant to questions they are asking. Many teachers say they can keep students’ interest in religions going through Key Stages 2 and 3 but feel it falls away by the time they get to Year 9.

Read more <here>

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