This book explores how and if the mandate for children to worship in schools can be justified within the context of declining church attendance and increasing nonreligious identification in British society. Shillitoe asks what place compulsory worship has in an increasingly diverse and plural society, and what the answer means for the relationship between religion, the secular, and education more broadly. Through in-depth ethnographic fieldwork from across three schools in southwest England, the book reveals how examining the significance of children’s experiences expands our understanding of both collective worship in schooling and religion in social life more broadly and demonstrates that adult-centric anxieties and assumptions in this area do not always reflect the experiences of children.

This book presents the theoretical basis and practical steps involved in using Statement Archaeology, an innovative method that enhances understandings of policy development, exemplifying its use in relation to one curriculum subject, Religious Education. The book is the first of its kind to fully describe the theoretical foundations of Statement Archaeology and the practical steps in its deployment, acting as a methodological handbook that will enable readers to use the method subsequently in their own research. Further, the book offers an unparalleled contribution to the historical account of the development and maintenance of compulsory RE in English state-maintained schools and uses this to engage with key current debates in Religious Education policy. It unearths important insights into how the present is built, informs future policy direction and potential implementation strategies, and helps prevent the repetition of unsuccessful past endeavours. This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of religious education, educational policy and politics, and research methods in education.

Diversities in Education is a challenging text that will help educators, teacher educators and trainee teachers to be more effective in teaching a range of diverse learners. It covers five major categories of difference: sex and gender; social class and socio-economic status; race, ethnicity and culture; beliefs and religion; and different abilities and asks the urgent questions all policy-makers, educators and students should consider: Why should we value diversity and human rights? How can inclusive education accommodate diversity? How do society’s aspirations for cohesion and harmony impact on people who are different? What meanings are given to differences, culturally and historically? Should educators seek to accentuate, eliminate, reduce or ignore differences? By drawing attention to the latest research into the most effective educational policies and practices, this insightful book suggests strategies for meeting the challenges being posed in an era of superdiversity. It’s a crucial read for any training or practising educator who wants to address the issue of diversity, learn effective ways to reach all learners and create more inclusive and harmonious societies.

Education Law, Policy, and Practice: Cases and Materials, Fifth Edition

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A practical and empowering resource, this book provides ideas and strategies for expressing a clear, forceful and progressive religious point of view that is all too often overlooked and under-represented in public discourse.

The creation of a secular education system was one of the great social experiments designed to break down religious intolerance within society. One element of this design was administrative, involving the creation of non-denominational schools, and another element involved a centralised curriculum. In this collection of essays, political philosophers, lawyers, sociologists, theologians and educators explore the role of state schools in promoting tolerance within 21st century multicultural, religiously pluralistic societies. How may different models of liberalism in the secular state have different outcomes in relation to religious tolerance in the education system? Does a state education system have a role in teaching values such as tolerance, and if so, how is this best achieved? How are epistemology and truth connected with tolerance? How does the ideal of a ‘value free’ secular education mask the values that the secular state teaches? The essays are written from both theoretical and practical perspectives and engage with each other directly to address one of the significant issues of our day. This is the fourth volume arising from a series of conferences on the theme of ‘Negotiating the Sacred’. Previous volumes have included /Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society; Blasphemy and Sacrilege in the Arts; and Medicine, Religion and the Body.

This volume examines the legal status of religion in education, both public and non-public, in the United States and seven other nations. It will stimulate further interest, research, and debate on comparative analyses on the role of religion in schools at a time when the place of religion is of vital interest in most parts of the world. This interdisciplinary volume includes chapters by leading academicians and is designed to serve as a resource for researchers and educational practitioners, providing readers with an enhanced awareness of strategies for addressing the role of religion in rapidly diversifying educational settings. There is currently a paucity of books devoted solely to the topic written for interdisciplinary and international audiences involving educators and lawyers, and this book will clarify the legal complexities and technical language among the law, education, and religion.

Religious Education in schools in Europe is facing societal and cultural diversity. It has become a key issue how to handle diversity adequately in the classroom. Religious Education and diversity are also the background of an Erasmus+ project of teacher training institutions (READY) in five European countries: Austria, Germany, England, Scotland, and Sweden (2016-2018). The book contains contributions from READY, a European project on teacher training in Religious Education. Experts and student teachers worked together on issues of diversity in classrooms of different European countries. Outcomes of the project include guidelines for study visits and online communication, case studies on Religions Education in the participating countries, contributions from national and international multiplier events and academic insights into the project. Statements and voices of student teachers enrich the publication. Dr Peter Schreiner is director of the Comenius-Institut, a Protestant Centre for Research and Development in Education in Münster/Germany. He edited the book on behalf of the READY Consortium. Contributions from Kerstin von Brömssen, Martin Fischer, Heinz Ivkovits, Peter Kliemann, Heid Leganger-Krogstad, Siebren Miedema, Kristian Niemi, Graeme Nixon, Janika Olschewski, Farid Panjwani, Jo Pearce, Jane Savill, Christof Schilling, Peter Schreiner, David Smith, Alexis Stones.