The purpose of this article is to review the place of Humanism in religious education in England and Wales and to initiate a debate on the importance currently accorded to it. Our discussion begins with a short account of historical efforts to include the study of Humanism in religious education, followed by an equally short account of more recent…

This paper, which was originally a keynote address, offers an analysis of the crisis in retention, and recruitment of teachers of Religious Education (RE). A reflexive assessment is offered to the political lament 'where have all the RE teachers gone?' The author, drawing on over three decades of experience and involvement with religious education…

In England and Wales, diocesan inspectors are charged with assessing the overall quality of Catholic education provided by Catholic schools. As part of this assessment, inspectors are required to give an account of the liturgical life of the school. Often the reports which result from these inspections refer to the degree of students' "active…

This article examines the representation of Islam in four of the most popular and current Religious Education textbooks in England. The aim is to identify the extent to which the curriculum content is aligned with the aims of Religious Education in England. The textbooks content is reviewed using three frameworks available in literature, two of…

This is an initial appraisal of the Religious Education Directory (RED) which will stipulate the content of Religious Education (RE) in all English Catholic schools from 2025. It will be explained that there is much to commend in the RED. It will certainly be welcomed by many RE teachers and advocates of Catholic education. This is because the RED…

This paper will examine four potential areas of pressure to RE in England in the 2020s: Academisation--and the structural issues arising from ever greater numbers of schools being outside local authority control; the alleged secularisation of the curriculum through the Worldviews Paradigm; the financial situation of Standard Advisory Councils on…

Paradoxes of inclusivity occur when attempts at inclusivity clash with the exclusive claims of some of the positions they seek to accommodate. In this article I identify and consider how such a paradox manifests in multi-faith religious education pedagogies--what I call the 'paradox of interreligious inclusivity' or 'PIRI', for short. After…

The protection and regulation of religious expression present complex challenges. Blasphemy laws, which criminalize acts deemed disrespectful to religious beliefs, have been abolished in England, allowing for broader freedom of expression. However, concerns and discussions about blasphemy persist. The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman (2023), has…

Calls for reframing the subject matter of Religious Education in schools include the tricky question of how to select from a world of potentially interesting and relevant material. Pedagogues have long questioned the educational logic that takes so-called substantive knowledge as its starting point and imagines education to follow a linear path…

Metaphors were introduced to the science of cathedral studies by Muskett in her book, "Shop window, flagship, common ground." Such metaphors have the power to inform and shape the perception of cathedrals, but lack theological or ecclesial authority. Gary Hall's analysis of "The purpose of cathedrals" offers a different…

The following paper gives an abbreviated account of the argument in the recent book 'Challenges for Religious Education: is there a disconnection between faith and reason?' In paying particular attention to the perceived opposition between the systematic development of religious faith, on the one hand, and, on the other, the central educational…

Contemporary discourse on Muslims and Islam has included a reassessment of traditional educational institutions; "makatib" and "madaris." Hitherto, understanding insider aspirations and anxieties appear to be rare. To this end, the perspectives of Muslim female teachers in "makatib" (supplementary schools for Muslims,…

Based on autoethnographic descriptions of recent climate events in Germany, Greece, and England, three colleagues describe these events' impact on daily life and their implications for religious education in European schools. The argument oscillates between struggling for climate justice and enduring its aporias. In the aporetic (learning) space,…

Though the promotion of spiritual 'development' is statutory in state-maintained schools in England and Wales, it is neither clear what spirituality is nor how schools might educate in this area. In the literature, one finds an array of divergent conceptions of spirituality and spiritual education. There is, indeed, lack of agreement regarding…

This article presents an initial analysis of the "Prayer and Liturgy Directory," which was published by the "Catholic Education Service" of England and Wales in 2023. It is argued that this document has many positive features, and provides a helpful guidance document for those involved with planning liturgies in a Catholic…