Towards international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education

Abstract

This article calls for international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education (RE). To this end, it provides a rationale for focusing upon the concept of professionalisation and a theoretical justification for international comparative research, particularly identifying its significance in terms of the development of RE in England and Germany. The article outlines a methodology for exploring the concepts of professional knowledge, professional self-organisation and politics and professional development. The proposed methodology involves a systematic analysis of primary documentary sources including: (1) academic and professional journal articles and textbooks; (2) the archives of relevant institutions and organisations; and (3) external evidence, such as inspection and research reports. An analytical case study of two leading journals in each national context, Religion in Education in England and Der Evangelische Erzieher in Germany, in the immediate post-war era is appended to illustrate the benefits of implementing such a methodology across national boundaries.

The professionalisation of non-denominational religious education in England: politics, organisation and knowledge

“…In current UK research on Religious Education (RE), there are no published studies, other than our own (Freathy et al 2014;Freathy et al 2016), focusing specifically upon 'professionalisation' as defined as the historical and institutional processes by which teachers of RE, as a collective occupational body, assumed their specific professional shape and characteristics over time (Horn 2016). Professionalisation differs from three other related concepts.…”

“…Dominant in the minds of many contributors to the early issues were the matters of secular influences at home and 'paganism' abroad, in opposition to which religious education in schools was seen to be a potent force (Freathy 2007;Parker 2012). They were keen to define and orient religious education in specific and clear ways (Freathy et al 2014). For instance, an article in the first issue by the High Church Anglican, Lord Irwin (later to become President of the government's Board of Education), signalled the extent of growing establishment and government approval for religious education, but also the degree to which this endorsement was caused by the many powerful, disintegrating and hostile ideological forces that were at work (Irwin 1934).…”

Religion and Education: Framing and Mapping a Field

“…One might date the beginning of R&E as a distinct field of inquiry to the point from which the systematic study of it began, that is to the history of knowledge of its various constituent disciplinary elements in the academy. One way of mapping the recent history of R&E as a field is by an examination of the published literature encompassing it, the study of which could be very fruitful in identifying a range of things, including the scholarly priorities at any given point in time (Freathy et al, 2014). An early, if not the earliest, R&E journal, was that of the Religious Education Association of the United States (founded in 1903), namely Religious Education (Kathan, 2013).…”

Research in religion and education and the practitioner

“…Religious and theological education are in this sense very much interdisciplinary. Research knowledge informs the professionality of religious and theological educators and is subject to changing historical understandings and priorities (Freathy et al 2014(Freathy et al , 2016.…”