Connecting cultures
Issued: Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:20:00 GMT
At a time when the complex relationships between creativity, culture, faith and education are at the heart of international politics, the School of Education's Research & Knowledge Transfer Group offers a unique hub for research which looks at these relationships to enable a better understanding of cultural identity and its role in the experience of education.
The group, led by James Conroy, Professor of Religious & Philosophical Education, has recently completed the first in-depth study into the aims, practices and effects of religious education in schools.
The project, jointly funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), is the single most comprehensive study of the state of religious education across the UK to date.
Professor James Conroy, said: 'This three-year AHRC/ESRC study has thrown up a substantial range of questions about the provision of religious education across the UK. Even in schools where it is valued, too often it is under-resourced and required to do too much with too little. As a result, it often loses focus. At its best, it is academically rigorous and intellectually stimulating and can hold its own against the arts and humanities in the newly re-discovered 'traditional' curriculum'.
The study examined religious education in the very different contexts of England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and carried out a detailed analysis of students' lived experience of religious education as a shaping influence in 24 secondary schools across the UK.