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Including pupils' faith background in primary religious education
Author(s) -
Ipgrave Julia
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
support for learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1467-9604
pISSN - 0268-2141
DOI - 10.1111/j.0268-2141.2004.00332.x
Subject(s) - faith , openness to experience , feeling , inclusion (mineral) , religious education , value (mathematics) , pedagogy , class (philosophy) , field (mathematics) , psychology , sociology , primary education , social psychology , epistemology , philosophy , mathematics , machine learning , computer science , pure mathematics
In this article, Julia Ipgrave takes the idea of inclusion beyond the field of special educational needs to incorporate the needs of children with different faith backgrounds in the religious education (RE) class. She recommends that teachers respect the integrity of their pupils' faith backgrounds by making room for the children's own experiences and perspectives on the traditions to which they belong. Suggestions are made as to how to give equal value to the different faith and non‐faith backgrounds of children in Religious Education lessons. As well as feeling valued, pupils also need to feel safe. The article argues that the children's interests are best served, not by avoiding sensitive and controversial areas of religion, but by establishing a framework of openness and respect within which children can express their views with confidence, differences can meet and pupils and teachers listen to and learn from each other.