I had reason today to look up this essay that I wrote for my CCRS which I completed last year. I thought it was worth sharing... There is a lot of debate about the place of RE, and particularly how RE should be taught in Catholic (and other faith schools). This is certainly not a comprehensive account of all the issues, but gives some insight into the RE teacher in a Catholic school:
“Teachers
should approach RE with the same professional skills which they bring to other
areas of the curriculum.” Write an essay with this as your first sentence.
Introduction
Teachers should approach RE with the same professional skills which they
bring to other areas of the curriculum in the modern Catholic secondary school.
Things have significantly changed since the 1870 Education Act which enshrined
in law the provision of ‘Religious Instruction’ or R.I., and even since the
1988 Education Act which preferred the term ‘Religious Education’. A currently
serving Section 5 and Section 48 inspector remarked in a recent Diocese training
session, “RE in a Catholic school has a
very real responsibility to be as rigorous and well-taught as any other subject
in the school.” He went on to explain his vision of a Section 48 Diocese
inspection being similar to a department Section 5 OFSTED inspection, to
comparable standards and assessment made linking achievement and progress with
English and other humanities subjects.
What
are the professional skills the RE teacher needs?
I believe the RE teacher needs the
same professional skills as any other teacher within the school. The number of
students completing full course GCSE RE is at its highest with 239,123 full course entries (2012, Culham St Gabriel’s). This is
despite its non-inclusion in the EBacc, and various reports of RE not being
taught in some community schools (2011, Guardian). However despite RE being
taught better than ever before, it is still sometimes perceived as ‘easy’ or
‘irrelevant’. As such, RE teachers need to be excellent practitioners,
delivering their subject in a way that demands respect and acknowledgement.
This is just as true for RE teachers
in a Catholic school. Despite having a distinct place within the curriculum, it
is difficult to find the required full 10% in the timetable and students,
parents and staff may not hold the subject in high regard despite making the
conscious decision to attend or work at a Catholic school. Catholic RE teachers
still need to be consistently good in their teaching and gain excellent results
in order to maintain a positive view of the subject. Equally when the subject
is rightly promoted as the ‘core of the core’, other staff will be looking to
the RE Department to lead them and they must be equipped and prepared to do
this.
In the modern RE Department, it would
be inconceivable to contemplate the subject being taught without assessment or
by not using up to date pedagogy and technology. Delivering RE in a didactic,
solely teacher-lead way is becoming increasingly rare. Methods of active
learning, independent study, and experiential activities are all a regular part
of RE lessons in the Catholic school. Section 48 inspections also expect to see
such classroom activities as part of their inspections, as noted in the
introduction.
Does
faith commitment lead to a lack of professional skills?
The shift from Religious Instruction
to Religious Education reflected the movement from ‘instruction in’
Christianity (community schools) or a particular denomination (faith schools),
to ‘education about’. In Roman Catholic schools, like in community schools,
this was evident in the way that the subject was approached and the methodology
used to teach it. The effects of prominent educational writers including
psychologists and sociologists were reflected in all classrooms, including RE
in the Catholic school.
However Catholic teachers have never
been expected to hold a position of neutrality unlike colleagues in community
schools. Whereas they would be expected to teach a balanced and objective view
of all religions, it was entirely legal, and indeed preferable, that a Catholic
teacher would express their faith commitment.
However for Catholic teachers it is
made clear that this does not involve aggressive indoctrination as stated in
The Religious Dimension of Education in the Catholic School:
“The religious freedom and the personal
conscience of individual students and their families must be respected, and
this freedom is explicitly recognized by the Church. On the other hand, a
Catholic school cannot relinquish its own freedom to proclaim the Gospel and to
offer a formation based on the values to be found in a Christian education;
this is its right and its duty. To proclaim or to offer is not to impose,
however; the latter suggests a moral violence which is strictly forbidden, both
by the Gospel and by Church law.” (1965; n. 6-7)
I believe that from this, it is clear
that faith commitment is not seen as a lack of professionalism within the
Catholic context. Yet colleagues, even within the Catholic school, may perceive
such bias as a lack of professional skills and that neutrality would be a more
desirable stance.
However upon speaking with a colleague
that teaches history, such bias can be evident in other subjects. She gave examples
such as whether or not Richard III murdered his nephews or whether Anne Boleyn
‘got what she deserved’; history teachers will naturally have an opinion on
such topics that they would share with the class. This would obviously be
justified and the other side investigated, but they would have set out clearly,
their view on a contentious and controversial topic. Another colleague who
teachers biology highlighted the issues of teaching about Rosalind Franklin’s
contribution to the discovery of DNA; some teachers play up, and some play down,
her role depending on their personal view.
Can
the conscience of the RE teacher lead to a lack of professional skills?
The importance of personal conscience
and freedom of belief are clearly stated in The Religious Dimension of
Education in the Catholic School (Ibid.).
However to what extent is this true for the RE teacher who has freely accepted
the vocation of teaching the Catholic faith to students? It could be argued
that it is a lack of professional skills to not promote the teaching of the
Catholic Church within Catholic RE lessons.
For example, the issue of same-sex
marriage has challenged some Catholics. Some see it as a simple equality issue,
while others think it is purely political debate. However the Church has
aggressively pursued the issue asking the Catholic community to get actively
involved. This creates a difficult issue for the RE teacher, or indeed any
teacher in a Catholic school, who does not fully agree with the Churches view.
This is an issue that was played out in the media and students often arrived at
RE lessons with questions. There is a real responsibility to communicate the
Church’s teaching, as with issues like contraception and sex before marriage.
It is commonly claimed, it is easier
to teach RE in a Catholic school as you are helping students learn about a
faith within the setting of that faith-community. It is natural to talk about
personal faith, and indeed one’s own personal faith. Indeed in The Religious
Dimension of Education in the Catholic School makes it a clear concern when
faith commitment is not present in the teaching of RE:
“Religious instruction can become empty words
falling on deaf ears, because the authentically Christian witness that
reinforces it is absent from the school climate.” (n.104)
As such, I believe to be professional
is to promote the Church’s teaching. If there is an issue with personal
conscience, the member of staff needs to have considered their own view
sufficiently to avoid confusing students and giving a distorted view of Church
teaching. In Pope Francis’ first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, he points out the
danger of what has been termed as ‘A La
Carte Catholicism’ whereby people choose what they want to believe and
follow:
“Precisely because all the articles of faith
are interconnected, to deny one of them, even of those that seem least important,
is tantamount to distorting the whole. Each period of history can find this or
that point of faith easier or harder to accept: hence the need for vigilance in
ensuring that the deposit of faith is passed on in its entirety (cf. 1 Tim 6:20) and that all aspects of
the profession of faith are duly emphasized. Indeed, inasmuch as the unity of
faith is the unity of the Church, to subtract something from the faith is to
subtract something from the veracity of communion.” (n. 48)
Conclusions
I firmly believe that RE teachers need
to be as good as any others in the school. It is not acceptable for other
departments to be working towards excellence and an OFSTED Outstanding rating
while the RE department simply claim they are distinct, separate and
essentially different to everyone else. There is a great responsibly to be the
primary educators, and as discussed in a previous CCRS essay, the school is now
very much the option for the spiritually poor. The education of the faith often
does come primarily from the school rather than the home or parish; therefore
it needs to be done well.
Students and parents also have a right
to demand a high quality of teaching and effective learning in the Catholic RE
classroom. There are great opportunities for Catholic RE teachers to deliver
the Curriculum Directory in a way that reflects the most up to date pedagogy
and educational thinking. In the best Catholic RE departments, they lead the
school in teaching and learning, as they realise the great importance in
communicating their subject. To be failing to deliver RE in this way is to do a
disservice. RE teachers professional skills and faith commitment should be both
implicit and explicit in all they do.
Bibliography
Life-Light
(2012) “Life-Light Home Study Courses”
Congregation for Catholic
Education (1965) “The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School:
Guidelines for Reflection and Renewal”
Pope Francis (2013) “Lumen
Fidei”
Websites:
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