Strhan, Anna Harriet Block orcid.org/0000-0002-0875-1197 and Shillitoe, Rachael (2022) The Experiences of Non-religious Children in Religious Education. Journal of Religious Education. ISSN 2199-4625
Abstract
There is growing recognition of the need for pupils to have the opportunity to engage with both religious and non-religious worldviews in religious education. This recognition is bound up with issues of social justice and equality, underpinned by a desire to ensure that all young people should have the opportunity ‘to understand the worldviews of others and reflect on their own’ (Commission on Religious Education 2018: 26). In thinking about how best to provide non-religious pupils with opportunities to reflect on their own worldviews, beliefs, and moral commitments, we should take into account their current experiences in RE. This article therefore offers original insight into the experiences and perspectives of non-religious primary school children in relation to RE. We draw on data from a qualitative study exploring what it means to be ‘non-religious’ for primary school children in three different areas of England. Through presenting how these children reflect on RE, we see that they care about social justice but also that their own experiences of RE can be seen as perpetuating a ‘hermeneutic injustice’ (Fricker 2007) as they are not being given interpretive resources to make sense of their own experiences and worldviews. We argue that giving children the opportunity to explore the kind of ‘emerging worldview’ (Beaman 2017) that they themselves express might be one way to overcome this inequality and provide them with a language to reflect on their beliefs and values and enter into meaningful conversation with others.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Sociology (York) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number JOHN TEMPLETON FOUNDATION UNSPECIFIED |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 06 Oct 2022 14:10 |
Last Modified: | 02 Apr 2025 23:25 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-022-00180-y |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s40839-022-00180-y |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:191767 |
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Description: Experiences of Non-religious children in RE_JRE Special Issue
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