What is the purpose of Religious Education?

I recently came across this blog post written by a colleague in the UK. It made me think about what the purpose of Religious Education is within our Catholic schools. Is it a time for spiritual formation? Is it a time for analysing theology? I am sure all Catholic schools would agree that they want their students to leave with an understanding of faith and how to live out their faith through their daily lives. I have compiled some ideas and changes that we need to make in our teaching of Religious Education in New Zealand. I hope to open up dialogue amongst those who are currently teaching Religious Education and what your thoughts are to the ideas I have put forward.

1. Do we have a clear understanding of what Religious Education is?

Many schools in New Zealand have a different understanding of what Religious Education should be. Is it an academic study of religion or is it time for pupils to explore their personal faith? The difficulty of this is present in NCEA Levels 1-3. Some schools offer no NCEA credits and focus on faith/ spiritual formation. Others offer 18 credits (note at NCEA Level 3 this is a University Entrance subject). With such a wide range of systems operating would a student have the same experience of Religious Education as other pupils around New Zealand? I believe that we need to have a clear understanding of RE at the senior level. We all agree that we do not want to create a population of ‘Cultural Catholics’ who have not practically explored their spirituality. However it needs to be made clear – Religious Education is for spiritual development or Religious Education is for academic study. I once discussed operating a spiritual and academic Religious Education class with an overseas colleague. They stated that you cannot operate both. I at the time disagreed but have changed my mind. In order to truly give justice to academic or spiritual RE the teacher needs to focus on one and do this well.

2. Should spiritual development be an extra curricular activity?

Many schools offer a sacramental programme or a youth group system. I think that these are fantastic initiatives and should operate within every school. Based on the point above if you already have Religious Education classes shouldn’t schools also offer an extra curricular club for spiritual development? I have coached an array of sports teams and think Principals should explore the idea of giving teachers time to also develop spiritual development groups. This should not add to their workload but be an alternative to coaching a sports team or looking after an after school activity.

3. Catholic schools should offer Religious Education to state schools. 

Offering Religious Education to all students within New Zealand is one of my ultimate goals. Living in such a culturally diverse nation studying Religious Education provides  students with an appreciation for the different traditions/ beliefs that humanity has. One state school in Wellington offers a Religious Education programme to their Year 13 students. The students themselves voted to study Religious Education instead of receiving study periods. Coming from Christchurch we have developed school clusters. I believe Christchurch could be used as a case study where students from state schools could opt in to study world religion. Creating this type of system would enable young people to complete deeper learning of religion and the impact that religion currently has on our society.

4. There needs to be greater collaboration amongst Religious Education teachers. 

When we as teachers are able to discuss teaching and what is happening within our classrooms we improve! This can also be said when you visit a colleagues classroom and look at the way that they teach. I believe that collaboration within religious schools in New Zealand needs to improve. This can be achieved locally within your region and then on a national scale. Simply start  by holding meetings were all staff are included to discuss the development of RE within New Zealand. Developing a network with other teachers could create opportunities to design learning programmes and assessment materials focusing on what is good teaching for your students. By doing this we are all sharing our successes and what could work within a range of diverse classrooms.

Currently within New Zealand there are limited ‘Teachmeets’ for RE teachers (see here for an operating Teachmeet for RE teachers in London) or professional development that teachers can easily access.  There is currently a Twitter group #rechatnz where a range of practitioners from around New Zealand and Australia contribute to monthly forums.  I always come away with a new idea or how to view a particular topic. RE teachers should have a platform with which to share their ideas and best practice. This could be through a shared website where teachers share their professional reflections through blogging or discussion panels. Finally,  Google Hangouts provide teachers with the opportunity to meet and discuss their ideas on best practice. Technology only increases opportunities for communication with others and as teachers we need to harness this power!

Education and Steam Engines

Currently we are in a period of extreme change and the main driver of this is technology. Technology improves economic efficiency, human communication and the speed at which society operates. Compared to the 1950 forty hour working week we can complete the same amount of work in roughly eleven hours (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014, p.32). The sources of information are not limited to an encyclopaedia or an expert but through crowd sourcing information where individuals add their ideas/ research to an editable page of information. In economics they explain technology’s impact on society as a multiplier of everything else – increasing it at an even level for everyone. Using technology as a multiplier the economy is able to produce more each year with the same amount of inputs – meaning that every hour of human labour produces more than it previously did. However, with changes in technology it has shown that it favours creative and skilled labour rather than less skilled labour which can be easily automated. The effect of technology sees an increasing demand for skilled labour which is able to work alongside technology. Economists Lawrence Katz, Frank Levy and many others have called this “Skills based technical change”. Due to this change in technology and the demand for certain types of human labour we must look at how we change the way in which we educate.

An example that I would like to demonstrate the change required in education is to relate education to steam engines in factories. In a steam engine driven factory power was transmitted via a large central axle. This ‘required  machines to be around the power source with those requiring the most power closest to it. As time progressed engineers placed equipment on floors above and below the main power source to improve productivity.  When the steam engine was replaced by electric motors factory managers placed them where the steam engines used to be. Even with brand new factories being built factories followed the same design and productivity didn’t improve. Only after the original managers left to retire and were replaced by a new generation of factor managers did the layout of factories change. This new generation of factory managers realised that instead of using a single engine each piece of equipment had its own small electric motor. Instead of placing machines that needed the most power closest to the power source, the new layout of a factory was based on the workflow of materials’ (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014, pp. 102- 103).  The idea of the product being the purpose of the work rather than the materials required influenced change in the production process. This example highlights the current situation in education – We have replaced the steam engine within an electrical engine. However, we have not yet changed the layout (teaching practice and methodology) of our factory and focus on the outcomes of pupils (product)  rather than the manner in which we teach (placement of the engine).

Sugata Mitra presented a speech at the 2013 TED conference where he discusses how well the education system of Victorian England was designed. As he continues the time and place for this education system no longer exists. Mitra showed how much poor children in developing countries (Here) can learn on their own provided with technology and away from rote learning. The children in his study research relevant information, discuss their learning with others and come up with new ideas. They are able to demonstrate the skills of ideation, broad frame pattern recognition and complex communication – skills that Mitra observe as teaching skills that “will give them advantages over digital labour”.

These three skills (ideation, broad frame pattern recognition and complex communication) have been in education since 1907. The researcher Maria Montessori developed a education based on self directed learning, hands on engagement and a largely unstructured school day. This education system has produced a disproportionate amount of innovators such as the founder of Wikipedia (Jimmy Wales) and the founders of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin). Students at these schools are encourage to follow their curiosity.

As we can see technology is having never before seen impact on education. Many within the education sector today state we are teaching children for jobs that are yet to be created or we are not preparing them for the future. I disagree with this view and would instead say we need to recombine current features of our education system that will prepare them alongside digital models of teaching and learning that are not old things in new ways. It is no accident that the most educated nations have low unemployment rates and a higher standard of living. In the next blogpost I will discuss a range of technological tools already available in education and how through technology we can broaden education’s impact to reduce inequality in the world.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the reply section of this blog or follow me on Twitter @JeremyREteacher .