The religious–secular interface and representations of Islam in phenomenological religious education

Worldview literacy as intercultural citizenship education: A framework for critical, reflexive engagement in plural democracy

“…Despite anti-essentialism being long established within identity studies (Modood, 1998), many issues persist in curricula, particularly in relation to religion. Many scholars have noted the essentialist and reductionist ways in which religion and particularly minority religions are represented within RE (Revell, 2012;Smith et al, 2018;Thobani, 2017;XX, 2018). Critique focuses on the Western, secular framing of the 'world religions' paradigm, that has dominated school RE and that in practice often ignores non-religious worldviews and minority religions (Thobani, 2017).…”

New Representations of Religion and Belief in Schools

“…Despite the increased religion and belief pluralism in the UK, much RE and many RE text books still refer to the 'big six', an idea that is largely unquestioned (Revell 2012). That RE needs to get to grips with the diversity of religion and belief has been a longstanding criticism of the UK's Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted 2010(Ofsted , 2013 and one recognised by many in the RE community (see REC Religious Education Council of England and Wales; Barnes 2012;Jackson 2004b;Revell 2012;Thobani 2017).…”

“…The phenomenological approach emerged from a context of 'secular education' (Thobani 2017) within which the secular was considered the neutral, logical position from which religions could most effectively be studied. In a rejection of the confessional approach that had dominated RE up until the 1960s, the world religions approach encouraged an impartial, secular, objective study of religions.…”

“…When non-religious worldviews are included in curricula, these are most often limited to recognised belief systems such as Humanism or Atheism, which fit more easily into a systematic, dimensional, phenomenological approach (Thobani 2017). These are often presented as in opposition to the religious.…”

“…In suggesting that all religions are equally worthy of respect and tolerance, curricula often emphasize the common ground between religious faiths, drawing out points of similarity, or reducing them to a universalised essence. The effect is to side-step difference and risk avoiding the controversial aspects of religion, paradoxically perpetuating essentialised and stereotypical representations of religion (Moulin 2011;Revell 2012;Thobani 2017). Many are critical of this instrumentalisation of RE as a vehicle for the promotion of Western liberal values (Chater and Erricker 2013;Barnes 2006Barnes , 2014Thompson 2010) resulting in the misrepresentation of religion as liberal and benign, which is "at best partial and at worst misleading" (Chater and Erricker 2013).…”