ISREV 2014 - SYMPOSIA ABSTRACTS
SYMPOSIA PAPER PRESENTERS Click on the symposia number to view the abstracts below.
Symposium 1:
BERTRAM-TROOST, GERDIEN, SCHIHALEJEV, OLGA, KALLIONIEMI, ARTO, KUUSISTO, ANNIKA, & SKEIE, GEIR:
Young people's views on religion, religious tolerance and religious education: Methodological clarifications and outcomes of the REDCo follow up study.
Symposium 2:
COOLING, TREVOR, GREEN, ELIZABETH & REVELL, LYNN:
The impact of Christian ethos on teaching and learning: investigating the implications of implementing a Christian-ethos approach to pedagogy in English church secondary schools
Symposium 3:
BOSCHKI, REINHOLD & GROSS, ZEHAVIT:
Anti-Racist Education and Religious Education: The Legacy of Elie Wiesel
Symposium 4:
HEIMBROCK, HANS-GÜNTER, & KERNTKE, FELIX:
What about Commitment in RE?
Symposium 5 (two time slots):
Symposium on the Young People’s Attitudes toward Religious Diversity:
The quantitative approach
Papers by:
Tania ap Sion, Univeristy of Warwick, UK.
Leslie J. Francis, University of Warwick, UK.
Ursula McKenna, University of Warwick, UK.
Peter Neil, Bishop Grosseteste University, UK.
Gemma Penny, University of Warwick, UK.
Mandy Robbins, Glyndŵr University, Wales, UK.
Symposium 6:
STREIB, HEINZ, ALTMEYER, STEFAN & KLEIN, CONSTANTIN:
The Semantics of “Spirituality” – Results from Cross-cultural Research in Germany and the United States.
SYMPOSIUM 1:
BERTRAM-TROOST, GERDIEN, SCHIHALEJEV, OLGA, KALLIONIEMI, ARTO, KUUSISTO, ANNIKA, & SKEIE, GEIR:
Young people's views on religion, religious tolerance and religious education: Methodological clarifications and outcomes of the REDCo follow up study.
Moderator: Wolfram Weisse
Respondent: Martin Ubani
The symposium is based on the research conducted by the REDCo network. The REDCo network includes a group of researchers who were either involved in the 2006-2009 European project ‘Religion in Education. A contribution to Dialogue or a factor of Conflict in transforming societies of European Countries’ (REDCo) or who were inspired by this research project and wished to join (e.g. Finland). The project's main aim was to establish and compare the potentials and limitations of religion in the educational systems of selected European countries. Approaches that can contribute to making religion in education into a factor promoting dialogue in the context of European development were addressed.
The contributions in the symposium focus on a 2012 follow up study to the REDCo quantitative study conducted in 2008. The central question was how European students (aged 14 – 16 year) see the (ir)relevance of religions for dialogue and conflict in their daily lives, in the school environment, and in society as a whole (see Valk et al., 2009). Comparison of the 2012 findings with those of the 2008 study, together with current developments in national contexts, other empirical research and/or theories, suggests some interesting trends.
The objective of the symposium is to contribute to the ongoing discussions and reflections on religious education in rapidly changing societies. The focus is on giving insight on pupils’ views on religion, religious diversity and religious education. The symposium will focus on the project as a whole and on findings in the Finland, Estonia and Norway.
Presenter 1:
Gerdien Bertram-Troost:
Researching young people's views on religion, religious tolerance and religious education: background and design of the REDCo follow up study
From 2006 to 2009 the European project ‘Religion in Education. A contribution to Dialogue or a factor of Conflict in transforming societies of European Countries’ (REDCo) has been conducted. This project was funded by the European Commission. The project's main aim was to establish and compare the potentials and limitations of religion in the educational systems of selected European countries. A quantitative questionnaire which was filled in by at least 400 pupils of each participating country was part of the project (2008). As the researchers wanted to find out to what degree the opinions of pupils changed in recent years, they decided to repeat their study (2012). However, due to several reasons a repetition of a quantitative study is not as easy as one might think. In the starting presentation of the symposium we will elaborate on methodological and theoretical choices which had to be made. Also the challenges of carrying out international research without formal structures and finances are discussed.
Aim of this introductory presentation is to give background information on the REDCo studies as a whole and the 2008 and 2012 questionnaires in particular. Among the issues discussed will be the decision to shorten the 2008 questionnaire, the selection of the participating schools and the question to what degree findings of 2012 are comparable with those of 2008. This introductory presentation offers the necessary background information for the three presentations in which outcomes will be presented on a national level (Estonia, Finland and Norway).
Presenter 2:
Olga Schihalejev:
Who benefits from Religious Education in Estonia?
The paper uses the tools of sociology of religion and relates its findings to pedagogy. Estonia may be called a natural laboratory of RE in a secular context. Here one can find a lot of schools without a distinctive subject for learning religion. The other schools have an optional RE in primary schools, learning stories from different religious traditions, predominantly Christian ones. There are also schools where students in upper grades learn about different world religions. Several religious schools offer Christian religious education for pupils of different religious and non-religious backgrounds. This makes it possible to compare the attitudes of young people with different experiences of RE.
The paper focuses on the Estonian REDCo data (n=573) pupils (age group 14-17) but compares the results to those from the REDCo quantitative study in 2008 (n=1208) (REDCo I). The questions, both from the Estonian REDCo II sample and REDCo I sample, of what make up the biggest distinctions between these different groups will be examined in the paper regarding e.g. how pupils assess their experience of education about religion and how they deal with religious diversity. The findings will be related to other relevant research done in Estonia and analysed using the Communities of Learning model, in which a classroom is understood as a set of cultural contexts where dialogues permit the analysis of context and also shape it. The findings are discussed also in relation to recent policies of RE in Estonia.
Presenter 3:
Arniika Kuusisto & Arto Kallioniemi
Finnish pupils’ experiences of religious education in school
This presentation focuses on the Finnish 9th grade pupils’ (age group 15-16) experiences of religious education and diversity in school. The Finnish REDCo data (n=406) was gathered through an online survey during the autumn 2012 in Helsinki Capital Area. At the final grade of the lower secondary school, the ninth grades have studied religion throughout their comprehensive school years. In terms of diversity and tolerance, Finland is an interesting example of a country which has traditionally been very homogenous in its religious landscape—the majority of Finns still belong to the Lutheran Church. Recently,Finnish society has changed rapidly into a more secularised and pluralistic society. This change is due to increased immigration, and secularisation on the one hand and a growing interest in new religious movements on the other. Still, the majority of pupils take part in the Lutheran church’s confirmation classes and study RE in the school. However, as the Lutheranism – however secularized – is still closely connected with the construction of “Finnishness” in contrast to “the Other”, there is a lot to develop also in the educational arenas.
From these perspectives, it is interesting to examine, how the young people are dealing with the changing societal situation and how they see the position of Religious Education within that. The findings will be reflected on in the light of previous literature on youth’s religiosity, pluralism in educational contexts, religious orientation and tolerance.
Key words: religious education, diversity, youth, Finland
Presenter 4:
Geir Skeie
Norwegian young students’ attitudes towards religious diversity in school and everyday life
Today’s Norwegian society does generally appear as relatively positive towards a growing cultural diversity, including religion and worldview. This was confirmed by strong collective manifestations after the terrorist attacks in July 22. 2011. Still, there are debates about religious diversity in general and particularly Islam as part of this where conflict-oriented perspectives and sometimes negative attitudes towards diversity are raised. We do not know much about the attitudes of young people to this. In this presentation I will discuss data from 2012 concerning young peoples` perceptions of and experiences with religious diversity in the post-July context based on the quantitative REDCo follow up survey among students in Norwegian secondary schools aged 14-16 from 2012. Some of the results are compared to findings from a similar survey that was conducted in 2008 and I will compare and contrast some issues with a similar data-set from Sweden (2012). The analysis and discussion asks how students from both majority and minority background see the importance of religion in their everyday life. A particular focus is on how this is related to their attitudes towards others’ religion and religious diversity in general and to how they see the role of education about religion in a plural society.
Key words: religious diversity, religious education, youth, Norway, Sweden Top
SYMPOSIUM 2:
COOLING, TREVOR, GREEN, ELIZABETH & REVELL, LYNN:
The impact of Christian ethos on teaching and learning: investigating the implications of implementing a Christian-ethos approach to pedagogy in English church secondary schools
Moderator: Mark Hillis
Respondent: Hans-Günter Heimbrock
This symposium consists of three papers that chart the stages of work in and report the early conclusions of a research project undertaken in partnership by Canterbury Christ Church University and Liverpool Hope University in the UK between September 2012 and August 2014. The research investigates the way in which teachers interpret and implement a website tool called What If Learning, which was developed by an international partnership of teachers from Australia, the UK and the USA, and the implications of the findings for teacher educators. It was undertaken in three church secondary schools (for 11-18 year olds): one sponsored by the Church of England, one sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church and one sponsored as a joint school by these two churches and in the education faculties of three universities with a Church foundation. The What If Learning tool is designed to support teachers in developing a distinctively Christian approach to pedagogy. The research question was: “Can What If Learning be seen to lead to a more distinctively Christian pedagogic approach and the distinctive Christian formation of students in a church school?” This research is important because both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England aspire to offer a distinctively Christian educational experience in their state-funded schools in England, but there is currently little understanding of the implications of this for pedagogy or for teacher education.
Presenter 1:
Green, Elizabeth
Developing a methodology for researching distinctively Christian approaches to classrom pedagogy in church schools in England
The ‘impact of Christian ethos on teaching and learning research project’ required a sociological research design congruent with the philosophical and theological assumptions underpinning the tool but also faithful in its rendering of the experience of teachers working with the tool in their own contexts. This paper presents the multiple case study research reporting on the design issues and offering insights into the process of researching ethos and pedagogy with 18 teachers in three church secondary (11-18 years) schools. Data collection was carried out by a team of three researchers between September 2012 and June 2013. Teachers involved in the project worked with the research team to design and deliver a series of bespoke lessons. Teachers kept reflective logs, lessons were observed and focus groups were carried out with students. This paper will critically review the design, implementation and analysis phases of the research and report some initial findings. The paper will argue that prior assumptions about the nature of knowledge and modes of pedagogy both for the research team and participants have proved to be significant throughout all phases of the research project. Designing methodology and analytical frameworks which appropriately capture, theorise and translate is important for robust empirical reasearch into the relationship between Christian ethos and teaching and learning.
Presenter 2:
Cooling, Trevor James
The impact of Christian ethos on teaching and learning: Pedagogy and theology seeking to communicate
This paper outlines the pedagogical and theological theories which underpin What If Learning, particularly those that arise from its implementation in the particular context of English, state-funded, church secondary schools. The paper is divided into four parts. The first part introduces the research and debates surrounding the aspiration that English church secondary schools should be distinctively Christian and the challenges of achieving that in a context where approaches to learning are generally secularized. The second part explores the alternative conception of pedagogy underpinning What If Learning, which is inspired by the approach to learning developed by Etienne Wenger. Here three questions are highlighted for consideration by teachers: (i) “what do your students imagine they are doing in your class?” (ii) “what vision of who your pupils might become inspires your teaching?” and (iii) “what contribution are the practices that you use in your classroom making to achieving a distinctively Christian pedagogy?” Then the three steps of the approach are introduced. The third part discusses the theological underpinning and explores how the work of the British theologian N.T. Wright provides a resource for teachers wishing to implement Christian pedagogy. The contextual theological challenges raised by the state-funding of English church schools are briefly considered. Finally, the empirical research project investigating the use of What If Learning by teachers, which is the subject of the other two papers in the symposium, is introduced.
Presenter 3:
Revell, Lynn:
Christian approaches to pedagogy and their implications for teacher education: reflections and questions
This element of the “the impact of Christian ethos on teaching and learning research project” focuses on the implications of the findings for teacher education. It investigates the influence of the understanding of faith and values held by individual tutors on their work with teachers wishing to develop Christian pedagogy and analyses tutors’ perceptions of the way values and faith, pedagogy and professional identity intersect.