The right of parents to withdraw children from RE was conceived as a protection for the rights of religious minorities at a time when Religious Instruction in the community school was of a Christian confessional nature, this paper questions whether this provision is still coherent or necessary for contemporary multi-faith RE. Based on a survey of…

This paper reports the co-creation of knowledge through a Practitioner Action Research Community of Practice of teachers and mid-level policy enactors which sought to engage the question of how to enhance Religious Education in primary schools serving socially disadvantaged children. Co-authors' professional values and assumptions are explored,…

The 'Does RE Work?' project, part of the AHRC/ESRC Religion & Society Programme, ran from 2007 to 2011. Drawing on textual analysis, ethnographic case studies and practitioner enquiry, the study identified core confusions as to the purposes and entailments of Religious Education as practised across the jurisdictions of the UK. This paper…

Possibly the largest qualitative study in RE policy and practice in many years, the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society project "Does RE work? An analysis of the aims, practices and models of effectiveness in religious education in the UK", headed by the University of Glasgow, seeks to map the complex processes of curriculum formation as…