Disagreements about how Christianity should be taught in state-funded school RE have a long history. In this article we take England as a case study and examine the debates that have arisen about the legitimacy of a theologically based pedagogy following the publication of "Understanding Christianity," a resource inspired by recent…

Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales functions within a post-secular culture. In the last fifty years, approaches characterised by academic rigour, impartiality, and professionalism have been prioritised. In this post-secular culture, the notion of bricolage aptly describes how some young people seek meaning, explore the spiritual…

"What If Learning" is a pedagogical approach that allows teachers to deliver traditional content, as prescribed by national curricula, while at the same time promoting character virtues fundamental to Christian ethos. It encourages teachers to present topics from a different perspective, which shapes understanding through the lenses of…

In this rebuttal to Sean Whittle), Cooling and Smith opine that: 1) Whittle's key concern is with discerning the appropriate relationship between theology and education in the context of a Christian school, 2) Whittle's criticism of our work, is that it fails to achieve a proper relationship between theology and education, and 3) Whittle…

This article is a response to Elmer Thiessen's article on evangelism in this journal. Although I agree with his general position that evangelism is an educationally justifiable activity, Thiessen criticizes comments I have made in my writings and charges me with being ambiguous. I respond to these remarks by defending the distinction that I…

"What If Learning" is an approach to help teachers re-frame teaching and learning to support the Christian ethos of a school. This article presents the findings of research carried out with 14 teachers, in three state-funded church secondary schools in England. The findings provide an important insight into teachers' pedagogic practice.…

This article advocates the thesis that Christian teachers can and should draw on the resources of their faith in their work of leading teaching and learning. The secular approach where faith is treated as a private matter and the "market share" approach where the dominance of Christian faith is sought, are both rejected. A third way which aspires…

Passionate religious commitment is often viewed as a problem in education because believers are thought to impose their views on others in the belief that they are public truth. This article examines two case studies and concludes that this concern is real. An influential response is to argue that religious commitment should therefore be a private…