This month we are delighted to welcome David Lundie from the University of Glasgow. David has a long history of research in Religious Education and is Associate Editor of the British Journal of Religious Education. Thanks for these wonderful ideas David.
What is your favourite thing to teach?
Time for Reflection. It is even more marginalised than RME in Scottish schools, and it gets us into the tricky territory of what schools’ values and ethos really are. For most teachers, the school’s ethos, or even the ethos of the teaching profession, is just like the air we breathe, we barely give it a second thought. I recently completed a research project looking at the “Fundamental British Values” agenda in England, and in some ways it produces much more reflection from teachers because it comes wrapped in the Union Jack with this ‘muscular liberalism’ baggage. I think in Scotland we tend not to think too much about what values we have in non-denominational schools. It’s something Catholic schools do more consciously. Again, over the past 40 years, we have gone from non-denominational schools being non-denominationally Protestant, to non-denominationally non-specific, yet not secular either, and its a space that is really interesting to unpack with student teachers.
Why do you think RME is so important?
RME is one of the few places in the curriculum that provides young people with a space to reflect on all of the different influences on their values – parents, community, peers, social media, school, religion and belief.
What advice would you give to a prospective RME/RERC/RMPS teacher?
It’s a great job if you want to be able to stand out. Even within denominational schools, RE is sometimes quite a counter-cultural subject. It’s the area of the curriculum that gives you the most freedom, but sometimes that can be a curse as well as a blessing – you need to know what you want to do with it.
What is your biggest triumph?
Probably seeing my research start to make an impact on the way RE policy is made. I was part of the Westminster Faith Debates research team that published a report on the future of Religion, Beliefs and Values in England in 2017. With that report, and the Commission on RE, it looked as though there was real momentum for change, but sadly little has come of it so far.
If you could change anything about RME/RERC/ RMPS what would you change?
I’d want to get rid of the stigma the subject still seems to have. There is something really strange about RME/RMPS, where so many kids still assume it’s going to be about ‘Bible bashing’ and trying to preach to them. I honestly don’t know where this stereotype comes from, because it hasn’t been the case for at least 40 years. That wasn’t the RE anyone who is young enough to be a parent today grew up with, so I am really confused as to why this myth is so persistent. My only guess is that the parents’ generation didn’t listen in RE because their parents told them it would be preachy, and so some kids come to it with a view that is 2 or 3 generations out of date!
Where would your dream school trip be?
I once sat in a debate in a House of Lords Committee on combatting prejudice, and heard teachers from expensive independent schools talking about taking their pupils to Jerusalem, to visit the peace walls, and see both the Israeli and Palestinian perspective on the divided city. I couldn’t help thinking that their pupils might learn more from a trip to the local mosque in a converted bingo hall in the inner city. You don’t have to travel half way around the world to encounter difference and division!
If you were in charge of education what changes would you make and why?
RMPS is unique in the Secondary curriculum because it takes a multi-disciplinary approach to a topic of focus – applying sociological, philosophical, theological lenses to the study of religion. I would love to see other areas of the Secondary curriculum take that kind of approach to other key areas of contemporary life – digital citizenship, life in the natural world, etc. – all of which need multiple disciplinary perspectives to make sense of the complexity young people inhabit.
What advice would you give to colleagues unsure about tackling some of the more ‘controversial’ topics.
Tackling controversial topics is firstly about understanding why they are controversial. What is most important to believers, that means they don’t even want to consider alternative perspectives, and find it difficult to hear them? This goes for liberal pluralists too – what is it about our beliefs that makes it uncomfortable to entertain the less tolerant and more exclusivist claims of others? By taking that step back first, and understanding that the sources of the sacred, and the motives of credibility are different for different believers, and that we all probably have some foundational beliefs that we would be uncomfortable to see challenged, it is possible to create a safe space for unsafe ideas.
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