The present paper reports findings from interviews with thirty ex-choristers from cathedrals and collegiate chapels in England, aged from eighteen to eighty. These interviews explored choristers' religious commitments before entering choir school and factors for staying with, leaving, or later returning to religious practice. The findings suggest…

This article explores the implications of a proposed move towards a religion and worldviews curriculum in England for contact-based interfaith programmes in schools, through a case study of the Faith and Belief Forum's School Linking programme. Quantitative and qualitative data collected through 1,488 teacher and student surveys, teacher focus…

This article proposes a conceptualisation of dialogic spaciality, and advances our understandings of the dynamic interplay of dialogic space (where meaningful conversations take place) and place (a geographic location) and the influence these have on academic life. The conceptualisation is developed from a qualitative study which focused on the…

Inter-faith or inter-religious dialogue takes place for a range of reasons and comes in many guises, from the reconciliatory encounter to ease rivalry, to an engagement with the other in an exploration of the meaning and purpose of the human condition. This article examines the process of dialogue in a religious education context and proposes a…

The present study begins by distinguishing between three kinds of "faith schools" (known as schools with a religious character) within England and Wales: faith schools that operate within the state-maintained sector and had their origin in voluntary church-related initiatives prior to the Education Act 1870; "traditional"…

The quantitative strand of the Young People's Attitudes towards Religious Diversity Project, conducted by the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, set out to capture data from over 2000 students living in each of the four nations of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and from London as a special case.…

Albeit fragmented and largely uncoordinated, there is currently considerable debate regarding the nature and rationale of university chaplaincy provisions in England and Wales. Clearly chaplaincies have repositioned themselves from an exclusively Christian ethical and service-based provider to cater for the challenging demands of a multi-faith…

Faith schools and divisiveness is one of the key issues in the faith school debates in both England and Wales and Scotland. In Scotland the faith school debate is focused on Catholic schools. This paper, based on a review of relevant literature and the findings of a series of expert interviews, argues that the complexity of this issue of the…

The present article highlights one of the challenges faced by the Catholic Church in maintaining the Catholicity of Catholic schools in England, that is to say, the students' construction of a fragmented Catholic identity from elements of the Catholic faith tradition. The article explores Catholic students' perceptions of their Catholic identity.…

As countries' populations become more religiously diverse, a need to review the religious education syllabus that operates is often perceived. One such country is Zambia, which was not only traditionally religiously diverse but has become even more so with the advent of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism and other non-African faiths. This article…

Nietzsche accused Socrates of being degenerate. The question is posed whether practitioners of contemporary religious education may be suffering from this condition, in particular through the modern practice of associating religion with secular philosophies or "beliefs". Through the examination of tolerance and "respect for…

The campaign from 1996-2000 to include the religion question in the 2001 Census for England and Wales was a defining event for Muslim communities in Britain because it provided formal recognition of their collective identity as a faith group, rather than being subsumed in the "black", "Asian" or…