This article seeks to engage with the contention that, given the dilemmas of the self purportedly raised by these aspects of modernity, teachers of religious education need, ethically as well as professionally, to urgently revise their often traditionalist view of society, of children and of appropriate pedagogy for their subject. The aim of such…

The study explores the professional learning of novice teachers of Religious Education (RE) in secondary schools in England. The focus is on the impact of an enquiry-based approach to Initial Teacher Education on the development of two cohorts (n = 35) of Post Graduate Certificate of Education Secondary RE students during a one-year course as they…

This article examines the notion of spiritual development as it was conceptualised for state schools in Britain through the Conservative Government's education reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, reforms which also introduced the National Curriculum. The article puts forward the argument that spiritual development was conceptualised in such a way as…

The purpose of this article is to challenge the assumption that a wholly secular spirituality offers an appropriate basis for encouraging spirituality in state schools. It does this by, firstly, drawing attention to the reality of secularist indoctrination in our society and in our schools. This makes the anxiety about religious indoctrination, so…

There are today a variety of patterns in the different cantons of Switzerland for regulating the teaching of RE. The Swiss system is based on a cooperation between Church and state which varies in relation to the history and character of the differing cantons. This allows for diversity in modes of delivering RE. In two cantons there is complete…