Reconstructing Religious Spiritual And Moral Education

Focuses on the importance of transforming religious education and using its potential to address the worldviews of children.

Religious Education is now identified as a shortage subject as a growing number of pupils in schools opt for it. The growing emphasis on children's moral and spiritual education, the DfEE's hunt for new teachers, OFSTED's calls for improvement and reinforced links with philosophy have pushed the subject into the spotlight. Based on research and partnership with schools this book examines and explains : * the role of Religious Education in the curriculum * the role of spirituality in children's lives * better teaching practice, giving practical examples.

This book discusses the possibility of a holistic approach to religious education, taking into account religious and cultural diversity, different aspects of secularisation and different academic disciplines that inform the subject. Issues discussed are the view of children as spiritual and religious subjects, identity formation, the concept of child theology, the relationship between faith and morality, the meaning of spirituality, the notion of wonder as an inroad to learning, religion as culture, and the meaning of holism. A point of departure is taken in a typology of attitudes to religion in public education, and the line of reason ends in a search for viable metaphors for holistic religious education. Sturla Sagberg (born 1951) is professor of religious education and ethics at Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education in Trondhem, Norway. He has a doctoral degree in theology, and has for many decades taught and done research related to teacher training as well as to church education. He has published several books in Norwegian, of which the latest translates into Religion, Values and Formation: Children and the big questions in life. Many of his articles in books and journals are written in English.

Reclaiming Goodness: Education and the Spiritual Quest begins with the premise that sound models for achieving both spiritual fulfillment and the good life are lacking in contemporary culture. Arguing that contemporary education is responsible for having abandoned spirituality and the cultivation of goodness in people, Hanan A. Alexander advances a definition of spirituality which acknowledges an integral connection to education. For Alexander, spirituality requires that we seek to discover our best selves in learning communities devoted to a higher good. He explores how spirituality provides an orientation toward a meaningful life and how, in our pursuit of that goal, it gives us a vision of the good life. For Alexander, this renewed vision of spirituality is necessary to provide the ethical framework so many of us seek; to achieve such a state of spiritual health, he proposes reenergizing liberal education. In their extreme responses to the spiritual crisis, both relativists and fundamentalists have misused education as a method for promoting narrow ideological goals and producing individuals ill-equipped to act autonomously. Taking a cue from the golden mean of Aristotle and

This book introduces the basic contours of current debate in a form accessible to both classroom teachers across the curriculum range, and to school managers.

This book, first published in 1978, introduces readers to the topic of the philosophy of religious education in a way which demands little philosophical expertise on their part. It puts forward a particular theory of religious education in such a way that most of the major questions are faced and sufficient answers given to enable readers to examine the theory critically, and so further the development of philosophy and education.

In much of the world, religious traditions are seriously valued but, in the context of religious plurality, this sets educationalists an enormous challenge. This book provides a way forward in exploring religious life whilst showing how bridges might be built between diverse religious traditions. Teaching Virtue puts engagement with religious life - and virtue ethics - at the heart of religious education, encouraging 'learning from' religion rather than 'learning about' religion. The authors focus on eight key virtues, examining these for what they can offer of religious value to pupils and teachers. Individual chapters put the discussion into context by offering a vision of what religious education in the future could look like; the need for responsible religious education; a historical review of moral education and an introduction to virtue ethics. Lesson plans and examples demonstrate how the virtues may be approached in the classroom, making it an invaluable guide for all involved in teaching religious education.