Reforming RE: But it's Contested! with Kate Christopher

Originally featured in the Reforming RE blog, this is a bonus feature to Season 2 Episode 1 of More Teacher Talk - Powerful Knowledge: Reforming RE, with Kate Christopher.

"Do you have a Masters degree? Or a Doctorate perhaps? If so, try to forget that you ever studied for them. Your first degree – visualise letting it go. Now A levels, GCSE – say goodbye to them, for a while. Imagine stripping yourself of all the accumulated knowledge and cultural capital that makes you a good teacher, reducing yourself to a state where everything you know now, all your confidence in the subject, and all the complex critical perspectives you can afford to have, are closed to you. That’s where your pupils are. Stay there for a moment.

Somewhere, a teacher is writing a scheme of work on religion and worldviews. They have to write down something that they want the pupils to know. Let’s take a few examples …"

Written by Mark Chater (@MarkChater1) - author of 'Jesus Christ, Learning Teacher'

Original blog at https://reformingre.wordpress.com/2020/10/27/but-its-contested-so-what/
[1] Barbara Wintersgill, 2018, Big Ideas for Religious Education.  https://www.reonline.org.uk/news/big-ideas-for-religious-education/#:~:text=In%20November%202017%20the%20University%20of%20Exeter%20published,the%20RE%20curriculum%20and%20to%20assessment%20without%20levels.   Accessed 5 October 2020.

[2] DfE, 2013, Science National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2.https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/425618/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Science.pdf    Accessed 5 October 2020, pp 12, 18, and 29.

[3] DfE, 2013, Science National Curriculum for Key Stage 3. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335174/SECONDARY_national_curriculum_-_Science_220714.pdf    Accessed 5 October 2020, pp 8 and 12.