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Religious Education and Christian Values in the 1988 Education Reform Act

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

John M. Hull
John M. Hull
Affiliation:
School of Education University of Birmingham
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In his article ‘The Religious Dimension of the Education Reform Act 1988’ (Ecclesiastical Law Journal No. 5, July 1989, pp 32–52), J. D. C. Harte has provided a helpful summary of the new legal framework in the context of the legal history. His interpretation of the implications of the legislation for the theory and practice of religious education in the schools is less satisfactory, and the theological assumptions of his article are at least questionable. It is thus as a religious educator and (if you like) a theologian specialising in educational problems that I would like to respond. In order to appreciate the exposition of Mr Harte, it will be necessary first to have some insight into the history and recent developments of religious education.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 2 , Issue 7 , July 1990 , pp. 69 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 1990

References

1. Hull, John M. “Agreed Syllabuses, Past Present and Future” in Studies in Religion and Education, Lewes, Sussex, Falmer Press, 1984, pp. 73–92.Google Scholar

2. Quoted by Stopes-Roe, Harry V. “Education and the Law in Birmingham” Learning for Living 15, Summer 1976, p. 134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. City of Birmingham District Council Education Committee Agreed Syllabuses of Religious Instruction, Birmingham, 1975, p.10.Google Scholar

4. John M. Hull, op. cit. pp. 88ff.

5. British Humanist Association Objective, fair and balanced; A new Law for Religion in Education, 1975.Google Scholar

6. For criticism of the pre 1965 syllabuses see Institute of Christian Education, An Enquiry into the workings of the 1944 Education Act, 1954.Google Scholar

Cox, EdwinChanging Aims in Religious Education, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966.Google Scholar

Daines, J.W.Meaning or Muddle?, University of Nottingham, Institute of Education, 1966.Google Scholar

Loukes, H., New Ground in Christian Education, SCM, 1965.Google Scholar

7. For the experiential Christian education movement see the writings of Hubery, Douglas S., e.g. The Experiential Approach to Christian Education, The National Sunday School Union, 1960Google Scholar. Teaching the Christian Faith Today, NSSU, 1965Google Scholar. Christian Education and the Bible, R.E.P., 1967.Google Scholar

The most influential agreed syllabus of this type was County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire Education Department Suggestions for Religious Education. West Riding Agreed Syllabus, 1966.

8. The most influential single document was probably Schools Council Working Paper 36, Religious Education in Secondary Schools, Evans, Methuen, 1971.Google Scholar

9. One of the foundation works of the phenomenological movement in religious education was Smart, Ninian, Secular Education and the Logic of Religion, Faber, 1968.Google Scholar

See also Smart, Ninian and Horder, Donald (eds) New Movements in Religious Education, London, Temple Smith, 1975Google Scholar. Hull, John M. (ed) New Directions in Religious Education, Lewes, Sussex, Falmer Press, 1982Google Scholar and Jackson, Robert (ed) Approaching World Religions, John Murray, 1982.Google Scholar

10. Hull, John M.. The Act Unpacked: the meaning of the 1988 Education Reform Act for Religious Education (Birmingham papers in Religious Education No. 1), CEM, 1989Google Scholar. (Available from CEM Publications Department, Royal Buildings, Victoria Street, Derby, DEI 1GW.)

11. Religious Education Council of England and Wales Handbook of Agreed Syllabus Conference, SACREs and Schools, 1989Google Scholar. (Available from the RE/ME enquiry service, St. Martin's College, Lancaster, LAI 3JD.) See the appendices I and II.

12. London Borough of Ealing, Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 1989.Google Scholar

13. The Act Unpacked op. cit. pp. 15–24 and my editorial in the British Journal of Religious Education, Vol. II, no. 3, summer 1989.Google Scholar

14. Gent, BillSchool Assembly/Collective Worship. Some Perspectives London Borough of Redbridge, 1989.Google Scholar

15. The tension is discussed in Hull, John M.School Worship: an Obituary, SCM Press, 1975.Google Scholar