Using Schwab to reform the Religious Education curriculum in England

Abstract

Initiatives to reform Religious Education in England have been driven by novel theoretical approaches to the study of religion, most recently in calls to rebrand the subject ‘Religion and Worldviews Education’. Engaging with the current UK Government’s ongoing Curriculum and Assessment Review, this article considers how a Religious Education curriculum ‘revolution’ based on such theoretical principles may inhibit young people’s freedom of belief, and limit pedagogical innovation. By applying Joseph J. Schwab’s ideas of ‘the practical’ and ‘the eclectic’ to Religious Education, it is argued that theory-based curriculum revolution is likely to be doctrinaire and partial in its framing of religious knowledge and non-religious perspectives. As Religious Education is a subject area in which impartiality and freedom of belief are of paramount importance, and upheld by law, it is argued that a practical and eclectic approach inspired by Schwab’s view of the curriculum is a better way to conceptualise the authentic pluralism necessary for reforming Religious Education in a secular and diverse society.