This article explores the mixed fortunes of historical inquiry as a method in educational studies and exposes evidence for the neglect of this method in religious education research in particular. It argues that historical inquiry, as a counterpart to other research methods, can add depth and range to our understanding of education, including religious education, and can illuminate important longer‐term, broader and philosophical issues. The article also argues that many historical voices have remained silent in the existing historiography of religious education because such historiography is too generalised and too biased towards the development of national policy and curriculum and pedagogical theory. To address this limitation in educational research, this article promotes rigorous historical studies that are more substantially grounded in the appropriate historiographical literature and utilise a wide range of original primary sources. Finally, the article explores a specific example of the way in which a historical approach may be fruitfully applied to a particular contemporary debate concerning the nature and purpose of religious education.

The necessity of historical inquiry in educational research: the case of religious education

In response to contemporary concerns, and using neglected primary sources, this article explores the professionalisation of teachers of Religious Education (RI/RE) in non-denominational, state-maintained schools in England. It does so from the launch of Religion in Education (1934) and the Institute for Christian Education at Home and Abroad (1935) to the founding of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (1973) and the British Journal of Religious Education (1978). Professionalisation is defined as a collective historical process in terms of three inter-related concepts: (1) professional self-organisation and professional politics, (2) professional knowledge, and (3) initial and continuing professional development. The article sketches the history of non-denominational religious education prior to the focus period, to contextualise the emergence of the professionalising processes under scrutiny. Professional self-organisation and professional politics are explored by reconstructing the origins and history of the Institute of Christian Education at Home and Abroad, which became the principal body offering professional development provision for RI/RE teachers for some fifty years. Professional knowledge is discussed in relation to the content of Religion in Education which was oriented around Christian Idealism and interdenominational networking. Changes in journal name in the 1960s and 1970s reflected uncertainties about the orientation of the subject and shifts in understanding over the nature and character of professional knowledge. The article also explores a particular case of resistance, in the late 1960s, to the prevailing consensus surrounding the nature and purpose of RI/RE, and the representativeness and authority of the pre-eminent professional body of the time. In conclusion, the article examines some implications which may be drawn from this history for the prospects and problems of the professionalisation of RE today.

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The Professionalisation of Non-Denominational Religious Education in England: Politics, Organisation and Knowledge

Purpose:To inform current international debates about educating for wholeness and purpose, this article gives a critical analysis of spiritual development as a goal of state-funded schooling in Eng...

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Spiritual Development as an Educational Goal

In this editorial, we discuss the past, present and future of research and scholarship on the relationship between religious education, law and the judiciary, through national, international and supranational perspectives. The past is explored through highlighting previously published articles in this journal over eight decades, illustrating some perennial issues and challenges, both in the UK and internationally; it thereby acts as a catalyst for the new scholarship and research in this special issue. The present is explored through a discussion of the papers of this special issue, which range from Colombia to Scotland and from national to international/supranational perspectives, exploring various issues related to religious education, law and the judiciary. We then present broad comments on the future of research and scholarship on the relationship between religious education, law and the judiciary.

National, international and supranational perspectives on religious education, law and the judiciary: past, present and future

This article examines the contribution of Basil Yeaxlee to the development of religious education in schools as expressed in selected writings, including editorials of the journal ‘Religion in Education’ and unpublished material.

Geoffrey F. Chorley

Papers

The Work of Basil Yeaxlee