Faith and Civil Society Unit

Grants Awarded: 2013-14 £35,752, 2018-19 £15,660

Culham St Gabriel’s funded two projects. The first entitled RE for Real, analysed the views of pupils, parents and teachers in secondary education and of employers, on what school leavers need to know about religion and belief in relation to the current religion and belief landscape, as evidenced in research and current educational policy. https://www.gold.ac.uk/faithsunit/current-projects/reforreal/

The second project, Innovative Teaching and Learning of Religion & Worldviews in schools: Examples to inspire the future presents 5 case studies exploring how RE is being re-imagined in schools. It is a showcase of classroom practice which goes some way towards meeting the learning proposed in the Commission on Religious Education’s National Entitlement for Religion & Worldviews.

The project builds on the recommendations of the Faiths Unit’s 2015 report RE for Real – The Future of Teaching and Learning about Religion & Belief by providing examples of an emerging shift in RE towards understanding religion and worldviews as dynamic, lived, and interpretable phenomena and concepts.

These case studies are intended to complement debates about change in policy and practice, with evidence of existing new practices from which others can learn.

This project is a collaboration between the Faiths & Civil Society Unit, Goldsmiths, University of London and London South Bank University’s Education for Social Justice research group. For further information, please contact Dr Martha Shaw: shawm7@lsbu.ac.uk