Religious education

About: Religious education is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 9554 publications have been published within this topic receiving 65331 citations. The topic is also known as: faith-based education & RE.

Death and life after death : children’s concepts and their place in religious education

Abstract: The thesis addresses the issue of what are primary school age children's concepts of death and life after death and explores their place in the teaching of Religious Education in the UK.A synopsis of the doctrines and death rite practices of the six major religions are reviewed. The place of those concepts in Religious Education is presented and discussed. Qualitative and quantitative research method techniques are employed using semi- structured interviews and questionnaires. Two age groups of primary school children are targeted for the purposes of the interviews and main research study questionnaire 一 7-8 (Year 3) and 10-11 (Year 6) year olds. A total of fifteen interviews was conducted as a pilot study. The main research study questionnaire involved 763 respondents from eleven schools ― 406 from a multi-faith and multi-cultural region and 357 from a culturally more homogenous region. These elements allow for age and gender demographic factors and for the environmental factors ― belonging to a faith community and living in a multi-faith and multi-cultural region to be analysed. Four hypotheses were formulated and focused on the patterns of association between children’s concepts of death and life after death and four independent variables —— age, faith, gender and location. The following hypotheses were tested for evidence of the patterns of association between the variables through a quantitative test of significance:1. Age: Younger children are as able as older children to conceptualize death and life after death2. Faith: Children with no faith-base are as able as those with a faith-base to conceptualize death and life after death3. Gender: Boys are as able as girls to conceptualize death and life after death4. Location: Children not living in a multi-faith and multi-cultural region are as able as those who do to conceptualize death and life after death The results of the analysis were as follows: Age hypothesis: there was a difference between younger and older children. Faith hypothesis: it was possible to trace differences according to faith-base. Gender hypothesis: there was only a difference between boys and girls with respect to what they think comes after death. Location hypothesis: there was a difference according to location. The tests of significance were then complemented by examining patterns in the qualitative data to explore trends and exceptions where appropriate. A range of examples of the children’s responses are used to illustrate the findings and are evaluated. This research shows that children are willing and able to express their concepts of death and life after death regardless of age, faith, gender or location. The research affirms that children are capable of considering the concepts of death and life after death and they should be given the opportunity to explore them further. School is m advantageous and universally available place where meaningful consideration of the search of these concepts should occur as school is a familiar environment for discovery, learning and understanding for children. Religious Education is the most relevant area of the school curriculum where children’s discovery and learning can be focused on the exploration of these concepts through investigating ultimate questions with the rites of passage and doctrines of the major world religions. The quantitative and qualitative data produced and analysed in this thesis provide sufficient confirmation to support the meaningful and worthwhile updating of Religious Education syllabi for implementation by teachers and those responsible for Religious Education.

Humanism, non-religious worldviews and the future of Religious Education

Abstract: This article considers whether non-religious worldviews ought to be included in the curriculum content of religious education (RE). While the immediate context is that of the campaigns of the Religious Education Council for England and Wales (REC) and the British Humanist Association (BHA) to extend the content of RE to include non-religious worldviews, the arguments reviewed have a wider application to RE elsewhere. A short account is provided of the 2013 REC Framework and of current legislation governing RE. The main part of the article is devoted to the evaluation of a number of publicly expressed recent arguments advanced by humanists in favour of including non-religious worldviews in the RE curriculum. Critical attention is also given to two further considerations, that of the principle of inclusion and that of the aim of RE to challenge religious bigotry and intolerance. It is concluded that the case for the inclusion of non-religious worldviews in the content of RE is unconvincing on educational gr...

Educational Roots of Political Crisis in Egypt

Abstract: Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 I. Roots of Modern Education Chapter 3 II. Early Religious Education Chapter 4 III. Mamluk and Ottoman Education Chapter 5 IV. British Occupation of Egypt 1882-1919/1957 Chapter 6 V. Nationalization 1920-1952 Chapter 7 VI. A Revolution that Socialized Education 1952-1970 Chapter 8 VII. The Open Door Educational Policy 1970-1983 Chapter 9 VIII. Reorganization of Public Education from 1975 to Present Chapter 10 IX. Educational Reform: United States of America and World Bank Funding 1974-2010 Chapter 11 X. Women, Education, and Politics Chapter 12 XI. Adult and Alternative Education Reforms 1920's to Present Chapter 13 XII. Tutoring in the 21st Century Chapter 14 XIII. Crisis in Educational Administration: Examples Taken from Pre-School and University Management Chapter 15 XIV. Results of Elementary and Secondary School Reorganizing 1980 to Present Chapter 16 XV. Conclusion: Crisis in Education in Contemporary Egypt

Part One: the hermeneutics of modern religious education

Abstract: Hermeneutical reflection on the nature, process, and scope of understanding tends to flourish whenever standard procedures of interpretation begin to falter. The contemporary study of religion is a case in point: conflicting results reflect a lack of consensus regarding appropriate methods of investigation. As a result, hermeneutics enjoys an increasingly significant role in religious and theological exploration. The discipline of religious education, despite constant wrestling with the ambiguity of religion, has not followed suit: it possesses no developed and sustained tradition of hermeneutical deliberation. This attempt to open up hermeneutical debate within the field of religious education begins by identifying romanticism, post‐modernism and critical realism as three key perspectives within contemporary hermeneutical theory (Bleicher, 1982; Jeanrond, 1994; Mueller‐Vollmer, 1986; Palmer, 1969; Thiselton, 1980, 1992). This article offers an account of the hermeneutics implicit in religious ed...

Confusion in the Field! Providing Clarity on Constructivism and Constructionism in Religious Education

Abstract: Constructivism and constructionism are two distinct epistemologies. Yet, within religious education many have tended to use these terms interchangeably or as being complementary to one another. This article provides conceptual clarity in relation to both epistemologies by comparing each in terms of their origins and epistemological premises, their ontologies, and their respective purposes. It concludes by articulating some implications concerning the use of each to contribute to research in the field of religious education.