This article is a response to Michael Hand's critique in this issue of my response to his use of the epistemic criterion as the sole means for identifying whether or not an issue should be identified as controversial. I argue that he has misunderstood my intention in suggesting that I was seeking to replace the epistemic criterion. Rather my…

In other work I have argued that decisions about what to teach directively and what non-directively should be governed by an epistemic criterion. Trevor Cooling has recently advanced some objections to my defence and application of the epistemic criterion and proposed an alternative to it. Here I reply to his objections and comment on his proposed…

In this opinion piece, the author writes that England is now well on the way to having the most totalitarian as well as one of the most inefficiently managed schools system in Europe. He states that in the much maligned 1960s, people came from all over the world to learn from what was being achieved in the best of England's publicly-funded,…

In a recent book chapter, Matthew Thompson makes some criticisms of my work, including the interpretive approach to religious education and the research and activity of Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit. Against the background of a discussion of religious education in the public sphere, my response challenges Thompson's account,…

An important debate in the literature on controversial issues concerns how to identify them. This matters for teachers because settled issues should be taught directively and controversial issues should be taught nondirectively. Teachers are professionally accountable for this decision. This article examines the contribution of Michael Hand to the…

This is a response to Julia Ipgrave's contribution on the contextuality of young people's views on religion and religious diversity in this collection of essays on "Religion in Education". First I will highlight and reflect on methodological issues raised by Ipgrave's observations in the light of my own research. The first problem highlighted is…

This essay explores the purposes of Christian youth work. It responds to Collins-Mayo et al.'s contention that youth work is an ineffective medium for faith transmission and building faith communities and to their affirmation of the church's role in this. The analysis is based on research with young people aged between early teens and early 20s,…

The educational aims of religious education (RE) in the UK as evinced, for example, by Ofsted have been couched in the language of meaning making. Based on an ESRC funded three-year ethnographic study of 24 schools across the UK, this essay represents one attempt to interrogate how such meanings are shaped, or indeed fail to be shaped, in the…

In their essay "Failures of meaning in religious education", James Conroy, David Lundie, and Vivienne Baumfield report findings from their recent project "Does Religious Education Work?", during which ethnographic studies in 24 British schools were conducted. In this response I first highlight the importance of the character of RE for considering…

Although young Sikhs are regularly accused of not attending "gurdwara" and not being interested in Sikhism, many young Sikhs are now learning about Sikhism outside traditional religious institutions. Using data gathered as part of a research project studying the transmission of Sikhism among 18- to 30-year-old British Sikhs, this essay explores…

Schooling can be a pivotal time in young people's formative experience when identities are negotiated and forged. However, contradictory dominant cultures can operate within the school context, making it very challenging for individuals to negotiate their religious and sexual identities within a sexualised and heteronormative space. This essay…

In the course of reviewing a recent quantitative survey of approximately 1300 Swedish youths on subjects like religion and leisure activities, I came across a finding which seemed intriguing to me: some 50% of those identifying themselves as Muslims reported that they confided in their teachers (compared to only 5% of non-Muslims) for help with…

This essay discusses the design of the quantitative component of the "Young People's Attitudes to Religious Diversity" project, conceived by Professor Robert Jackson within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and presents some preliminary findings from the data. The quantitative component followed and built on the qualitative…

This contribution reports research into young people's attitudes to religion and religious diversity in secondary schools across the UK. The data indicate that students' respect for the religiosity of their peers, or their lack of it, is due less to the influence of classroom RE (multi-faith or otherwise) than to the experience of religion in the…

Is theology dead or dying? Or can we confidently do theology? Since the 1990s Ulrich Beck, one of the best known living sociologists both in Europe and beyond, has promoted the critical reading of the contemporary discourse as "reflexive modernization". He has recently looked into the "fascinating byways" of religion. Based on Beck's re-assessment…