Changing Beliefs?

Religious education and the formation of identities

A new research opportunity

through the Keswick Hall Centre for Research and Development in RE

at the University of East Anglia,

in partnership with the Farmington Institute of Christian Studies,

Harris Manchester College, Oxford

RE-ADVERTISEMENT

We are looking for a teacher of RE (currently in full or part-time employment) who would be able to join us in the spring or summer term of the academic year 2004-05. Supply cover costs (to be negotiated) will be provided to the successful applicant’s school.

The Project and the Fellowship

This project has emerged in the context of discussions in School of Education and Lifelong Learning (EDU) at UEA on the theme of education and the formation of spiritual and religious identities. The RE Centre in EDU will host a Farmington Fellowship on the theme above, allowing a teacher of RE (any phase, school age range or sector) to carry out a critical and reflective philosophical enquiry into the aims of RE and its effects on the formation of identity and beliefs amongst pupils and teachers. The Fellow will have the time and resources to consider the questions above in the light of RE’s history and development. Although there might be some appropriate fieldwork in schools and in the University (such as through interviews and observation of teaching sessions), the main focus of the research project will be on the pedagogies described in published literature – official documentation, academic texts on the teaching of RE, and theoretical material.

For example, we know already from the official literature that RE is intended to be a transforming subject in which beliefs and values are explored and affected (see for example QCA, 1998, page 2, or DfE Circular 1/94 paragraph 9[1]). Is this intention being fulfilled? How? What kind of evidence might be presented to answer these questions? A national series of research seminars in RE (2004-05), supported by the Westhill Trustees and co-ordinated by the RE Today national research committee has also raised these topics as worthy of study and discussion. With the DfES engaged in a review of Circular 1/94 and in the preparation of a national framework for RE, the time is right for a focused study of this kind.

From this initial study, research questions and methods for other empirical studies will be developed, and publications, including a research report for the Institute and for UEA, will be prepared for national dissemination.

Outcomes

• A research report to be the property of both UEA and the Farmington Institute for circulation in print to appropriate networks and on websites
• Professional and academic development for the teacher Fellow
• The creation of a network of teachers working on the theme through a school based projects to be established in 2004-05
• Contributions to national and local research seminars and in-service training, and to the planning of a research Conference on the theme of Changing Beliefs to take place at UEA during 2005-06

Management and support for the Fellowship

The RE Centre at UEA has worked with the Farmington Institute and its award holders and Fellows since 1997-98. Their work is greatly appreciated and valued by staff at UEA, by local teachers, and by Norfolk and Suffolk LEAs and their Standing Advisory Councils for RE.

The RE Centre Director is responsible, through the Dean of the School, for the management and support of the Fellows’ work, carrying out this responsibility in partnership with the Farmington Institute. The Fellow appointed for this project will be based at UEA, with access to library facilities and relevant taught programmes in the School of Education and the RE Centre. In addition, they will have full status as a Farmington Fellow and join in with seminars and Conference in Oxford. Further details about Fellowships are available on www.farmington.ac.uk

To apply

This Fellowship opportunity is open to teachers of RE in primary, special or secondary education. In the first instance, please express your interest in this opportunity by e-mail to the Centre secretary, Gayle McAndie, khrec@uea.ac.uk or by phone on 01603 592632. Previous applicants are welcome to reapply.

Deadline for applications: 5pm on Monday11^th October 2004

Further details can also be obtained from:

Linda Rudge

Director

Keswick Hall Centre for Research and Development in Religious Education

University of East Anglia

Norwich

NR4 7TJ

Tel: 01603 592865

e-mail: l.rudge@uea.ac.uk

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[1] QUALIFICATIONS and CURRICULUM AUTHORITY (1998) Model syllabuses for religious education: Model 1 Living Faiths Today QCA, London, and DEPARTMENT for EDUCATION (DfE) (1994) Circular 1/94 ‘Religious Education and Collective Worship’ DfE Publications Centre, London