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The ability to encourage pupils to engage with diversity is crucial for RE teachers who believe that the capacity to negotiate difference with integrity and openness is key to living well in a modern liberal society. This article is not about the need to address diversity in Religious Education, that argument has been made thoroughly from a number of perspectives (Barnes, 2014 Jackson, 2004). The focus of this article is the relationship between the way we engage with diversity, that is a plurality of often opposing views, ways of living and community living. We argue that the dominant paradigm within RE, the World Religions model, works to minimise difference through the presentation of essentialised constructs of religiosity. We contrast the World Religions approach to a liberal educational model which encompasses difference as part of a deep engagement with knowledge itself. Using examples from lessons available from a widely used teachers’ web site in the UK on the Mosque we show how the World Religions approach ignores or downplays the significance of historical, cultural, social and theological differences between beliefs and thus serves to discourage exploration of issues that may be controversial or offensive. After a consideration of the educational benefits of a liberal approach to learning, we show how, using the example of teaching about the mosque, a Worldviews approach, can facilitate a focus on difference and the individual, that upholds liberal educational promise for a multidisciplinary understanding of religion and belief. Throughout the article we draw on examples of work designed to create resources for teaching Islam through a world religions approach funded by Culham St Gabriel.

The relationship between extremism and schools is a seemingly contradictory one. The UK Prevent Duty’s aim (to prevent and also root out extremism in schools) is often, ironically, blamed for aiding the radicalization process, but it is also identified by states and international bodies as a primary tool with which to combat it. In the early 21st century there has been a development of policies and law designed to prevent violent extremism (PVE) as a part of an international response to 9/11 in 2001 and the war on terror. Policy approaches to extremism in education were revised and reworked in the first and second decades of the 21st century in response to various events, including the 2005 London and 2017 Manchester bombings, and the increasing fear that education system had allowed homegrown terrorists raised in England to commit terrorist acts. The promotion of fundamental British values in school and teacher education contexts has been met with varied responses. Since the inception of this strategy, it has been criticized from a number of perspectives. The National Union of Teachers passed a motion at its annual conference in 2016 condemning the idea of promoting “fundamental British values” as an act of cultural supremacism and other researchers have noted that conceptually the strategy is flawed and counterproductive. In 2014 a document that was to become known as the Trojan Horse letter was leaked to Birmingham City Council, which outlined an alleged plot by hardline jihadists to take over a number of Birmingham schools. The outcome of the affair had ramifications beyond that initial cluster of schools and impacted on the way all schools engaged with the counterterrorism agenda. The furor surrounding the event acted as a catalyst for the generation of policy that introduced an even greater meshing between education and the security agenda, resulting in the concepts of Muslims being seen as a “suspect community” and teachers being positioned as “agents of surveillance.” Research has also investigated the extent to which there has been a “chilling effect” in educational settings in the early 21st century as a result of the Prevent policy, with both teachers and learners feeling under scrutiny, and cautious about speaking freely in their educational environment. Many researchers consider that teachers face a dilemma—to deliver governmental policy uncritically (the safe option to ensure compliance and positive outcomes in terms of Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills); or to challenge a perceived governmental stranglehold and take the more risky option, whereby teachers critically explore effective ways of promoting British values. Some scholars in the second decade of the 21st century have argued that teachers have subsumed counterterrorism policy into their own safeguarding practice. Extremism, values, and education is an emerging field in educational research, that is uncovering (among other things) the extent to which educational professionals from Early Years to university level challenge the prejudicial implications of the Prevent Duty legislation, are providing open spaces for critical and informed debate, and are adhering to policy to prevent violent extremism.

School involvement in government initiatives to combat radicalisation is an international phenomena, in the UK government has focused on the role of the teacher in detecting radicalisation through the Teachers’ Standards of 2012, the Counter Terrorism Act 2015 and the activation of Prevent in 2011. The Prevent Duty has been described as a geographical pre-crime space characterised by surveillance, risk, fear and the notion of the pre-criminal. This article explores the way teachers understand their practice in this pre-crime space. The data discussed in this study is part of a larger study that interrogates the way teachers approach the teaching of Islam in schools. This article reports on a series of dialogical interviews and analyses the way 57 teachers with a particular responsibility for Religious Education have negotiated this new role. It argues that teachers commonly situate their practice in relation to Prevent in the context of a safeguarding agenda and that most legitimise their role through the employment of a discourse of vulnerability. The research suggests that the ways teachers approach issues of extremism in the classroom is in part informed by their existing views on racism, social class and political ideologies.

This paper examines the implementation of the Prevent Duty to actively promote fundamental British values in English Further Education (FE). After critically reviewing the history of Prevent and th...

In this article we seek to problematize the presence of the requirement within the Teachers' Standards (DfE 2012), that they “should not undermine fundamental British values” in the context of initial teacher education in England. The inclusion of this statement within the Teachers’ code of conduct has made its way from the counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent and raises questions about Britishness, values and the re-lationship between the State and the profession more generally. We argue that the in-clusion of the phrase within a statutory document that regulates the profession is de facto a politicization of the profession by the State thereby instilling the expectation that teachers are State instruments of surveillance. The absence of any wider debate around the inclusion of the statement is also problematic as is the lack of training for pre-service and inservice teachers since it means this concept of fundamental British values is unchallenged and its insidious racialising implications are unrecognized by most teachers.

This chapter explores the way student teachers understand their professional role in relation to the UK's counter terrorism legislation as it relates to schools. Recent discussions on the nature of teacher professionalism characterise the relationship between the state and teachers whereby teacher’ autonomy is increasingly eroded and compromised by policy. Using Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity as a theoretical lens we analysed data collected from fifteen interviews with post graduate student teachers and one hundred and fifty questionnaires. Despite a normative attachment to notions of professional objectivity and political detachment in the classroom, most student teachers interpreted their new duties (to prevent radicalisation and promote fundamental British values), as legitimate and were uncritical of legislation and policy that expects them to play an overtly political role in schools. We argue that recent legislation and initiatives around extremism and radicalisation repositions teacher professional identity so that their involvement as part of a counter terrorist strategy is normalised.

This article attempts to do three things: the first is an exploration of the ways in which Islam is presented in an essentialist way (with a focus on Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales), leading to stereotypes and unsubstantiated generalisations. Secondly, it provides a critique of essentialism, and finally a case is made for the role of hermeneutics in the teaching and learning of Islam.

This paper considers the way in which Christian Religious Education (RE) teachers articulate the difficulties and challenges they experience both in school and with their peers as they navigate their way through their Initial Teacher Education. The paper offers a unique exploration of the relationship between elements of the three discourses of faith identity, emerging professional identity and the requirements of a performative teacher training context. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 184 student RE teachers across three universities. It became clear that all students interpreted the Standards and policy guidelines ambiguously, as being value-laden or value-free. The idea of the ‘good teacher’ as someone who was, by very definition, neutral and objective immediately made the faith position of students problematic. This is a key point in relation to the notion of performativity and education and the disproportionate impact it made on Christian students. It appeared as though many ...

This article explores the way pupils in English primary school perceive Islam through discussion of Islam in the media. The research suggests that pupils are aware of Islam as a world religion and of many of the images and popular discourses associated with Islam. The research also suggests that while a minority of pupils expressed explicit racist or prejudiced views about Islam many pupils appeared to perceive Islam and Muslims as ‘foreign’ and ‘alien’. The article questions the effectiveness of an approach to teaching Islam that does not include pupil’s negative preconceptions of religion and which focuses on presenting an idealised or monolithic version of Islam.

This article addresses teachers' understanding of spiritual development in public and religious schools in Boston and Chicago. It examines how teachers define spiritual development in different educational contexts and looks at the way they relate spirituality to a number of factors including community, identity, and character. The data from the research indicates that teachers understood spiritual development within the specific environment of their school but that they all located the need for spirituality within education as part of the reaction against the perceived negative side effects of modern society.

This article argues that RE in England is shaped by a number of factors that promote a rigid definition of religiosity and which discourage engagement with new, unconventional or non-mainstream forms of religion. The article identifies the close relationship between RE and the national church and other faith communities as well as a reliance on local agreed syllabi as key characteristics in the inability of RE in England to fully engage with contemporary forms of religion. It ends by calling for a revaluation of the basis for RE and a greater engagement with other disciplines involved in the study of religion.

This article is concerned with assessment of those in England training to become citizenship secondary teachers. We sketch the background to initial teacher education for secondary citizenship education, outline the methods of an empirical project on assessment of trainees and draw attention to emerging issues. We describe practice in selection, assessment of written assignments and assessment of teaching. We discuss issues relating to the provision of explicit experience of citizenship education for trainees in schools, the attempts that are being made to develop integrated and progressive approaches to assessment and the nature of the balance between specific and generic matters in the assessment of citizenship in ITT. Assessment of citizenship trainees is undertaken without serious controversy, is reliant on generic ITT practices and somewhat distinct from what one might expect given the expansive rhetoric about citizenship education.

This article explores student teachers' attitudes to and experience of character and values education in schools and looks at their assessment of the opportunities provided by schools for the development of character. The data from over 1000 student teachers in two universities indicates that while they are overwhelmingly in favour of developing their skills in the area of moral development, their opportunities to do this are uneven and are dependent on their course and their teaching placement school. Whilst character education is seen as part of citizenship education in the school curriculum in England, the data indicates that it is not part of the formal curriculum of teacher education.

This article is based on research into the way student primary teachers experience religious education when they train in schools. The research findings suggest that the experience and quality of training in many schools is not adequate and that this experience undermines student confidence in relation to religious education. The author argues that despite the increased reliance on school as an arena for the training of teachers, in the case of religious education many student teachers do not have the opportunities to observe or teach religious education even where the school or student is keen to do so.

edited by Ednan Aslan, Oxford, Peter Lang, 2011, 309 pp., £420 (hardback), ISBN 978-3-631-63013-6Textbooks for religious education in the UK have been the focus of several recent investigations. ...

This is an investigation of Character Education in American public schools in the Chicago area. The research involved interviewing almost 700 children from a wide variety of schools and ages. The children were asked about their views on citizenship, Americanness and identity. They were also asked explicitly what they thought of Character Education. The results indicate that, despite a similar programme of education, teaching attitudes and teaching materials, the most marked difference between the children's responses correlated strongly with the type of school, magnet or non-magnet, they were attending. This indicates that the social and political background, which determines their school, does have an impact on the way that an educational programme is received and understood, at least in the terms of how children articulate their ideas, if not in terms of how these programmes affect their behaviour.