Study Overseas

There is a world-wide interest in human spirituality today. This is to be understood as a reaction against the global domination of money, and the spread of financial values into every area of modern life. Although the market promises life and abundance for all, it is becoming clearer every year that prosperity is available only to those inside the market. For those outside, whether in the so-called third world or developing countries, or within the rich world itself, the market is creating sharp contrasts between poverty and wealth.

As human values are challenged by monetary values, there is an urgent sense of need for the values of the human spirit. This is the context in which there is a world-wide revival of interest in spiritual, moral and religious education. Sometimes this takes a rather specific and narrow form, when a nation seeks to hold onto its traditional values by creating a very clear and perhaps dogmatic instruction for school children in the traditional religion of that country. Sometimes a new form of educational religious education appears, in which young people are encouraged to encounter the spiritual and religious values of several traditions, in order to enrich and deepen their own human development.

In this respect, there is a striking contrast between Europe and North America. While several provinces of Canada make formal provision for religious education in the state schools, it is generally only practiced in the Roman Catholic school systems. There seems to be a fear that the multi-cultural character of modern Canada will not be reflected successfully in religious education, or might arouse controversies which would be politically harmful.

Meanwhile, in the United States of America there has been a traditional separation between religion and the state. This is often interpreted as meaning that the state schools cannot offer religious studies to their children. Thus in the United States of America, religious education is mainly to be found in the religious communities themselves, taking mainly Jewish and Christian forms, depending upon the tradition of the religious community.

In Europe, things are very different. In most countries of Europe there is some kind of state-funded religious education provided in schools. This takes many different forms, ranging from the recently created world religions curriculum in Norway, which includes the study of humanism, to the mainly traditional Christian orthodox religious education of Greece, and the Roman Catholic religious education typical of Italy and Spain. However, throughout Europe as a whole there is a tendency towards re-capturing the European spiritual traditions through a religious education which will be both descriptive and critical, and yet at the same time rich in values and spirituality for all children. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, religious education has replaced the older communist indoctrination, and in some European countries such as the Netherlands and Germany religious education in either the Protestant or the Catholic tradition may be taken by the student as an alternative to ethical programmes.

The major European country which does not have state-sponsored religious education is France, because of the historical division between the state and the Roman Catholic church. However, even in France there is a good deal of discussion today about the desirability of introducing a new form of religious studies. After all, it is said, if French young people had received a good education about Islam, the Muslim minorities of France would, hopefully, be more easily accepted, and there would be more understanding between France and her North African neighbours.

The religious education of England and Wales is, in many respects, a model for the rest of Europe. Here, religious education has been a compulsory school subject for all children, regardless of their religious faith or lack of it, since 1944. Religious education is taught from a world religions syllabus, for which the many local education authorities are responsible. The emphasis is upon Christianity, but there is also a requirement that children should learn the teachings and practices of the principal world religions represented in Great Britain. This means, for example, that all school children in England and Wales are taught about Islam, since Islam is certainly well represented in Great Britain. The six major religions which usually feature in the local agreed syllabuses are Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and the Sikh faith. The articles which follow describe several aspects of the English system.

There are a number of interesting features of the way religious education is dealt with in England and Wales. First, although compulsory religious education is required in law, the implementation of the syllabus is a local responsibility. This is the only subject of the curriculum which is decided by teachers and parents. Second, religious education in England and Wales is secular. This means that the purpose of the subject is not to proselytize or evangelise, nor even to deepen faith in any particular religion. The purpose of the subject is to make a contribution to the human and educational development of children by enabling them to understand something of religion and religions, and to develop their own sense of values in living through an encounter with the values and the spirituality of the religions of the world.

Indoctrination is strictly forbidden; the approach must always be descriptive and critical. Children are invited to question and to debate. Moreover, the subject is secular in the sense that the teachers of religious education are ordinary teachers. They are not necessarily ordained as ministers of religion. Indeed, it is not required that the teacher of religious education should have any particular faith of his or her own. Religious education is treated as a professional responsibility. Specialist teachers who must be graduates in theology or religious studies are trained along side the specialist teachers in other curriculum subjects.

In the third place, the religious education we teach in England and Wales is both critical and spiritual. We seek to enable children to develop thinking skills, to evaluate evidence, and to become well informed about the modern world. We also expect children to develop a critical sense of the values of society, and thus to develop their sense of citizenship within a diverse society.

In many countries, such as in the USA, religious education is part of a theological course, or is taught within a department of theology. However, in Britain this is not the case. Since religious education is such an important part of the ordinary school curriculum, religious educators are generally located in departments or schools of educational studies. Thus religious education specialists work and teach side by side with geography educators, mathematics educators, and specialists in all the various educational disciplines.

All this means that religious education in Britain offers a challenging area for research. Whether the interest is in the personal and spiritual development of children and adults or in the relationships between the state and religion, whether the interest is in methods of teaching or the question of syllabus construction, teachers and administrators from many countries come to Britain.

Not only is the research student located in a school of education but there is a continual series of local and national conferences and consultations, resources and special agencies, new publications and projects, which offer to the religious education researcher a wide and stimulating scene. As you read the rest of this online magazine, I hope that you will gain an insight into the religious education situation in England and Wales, and that you will be encouraged to take your interest still further.

Author:

University of Birmingham EnglandJohn M Hull