What is the point of religious education?

Clayton, Matthew; Stevens, David

Abstract

Some liberal societies continue to require their schools to offer non-directive, but specifically religious education as part of the curriculum. This paper challenges that practice. It does so by articulating and defending a moral principle, which asserts that education policy must be regulated by principles that are acceptable to reasonable people. Thereafter, we argue that the leading arguments for prioritizing the study of religion in schools—arguments that claim that religion is special or that assert that the majority or parents are morally permitted to prioritise religion in schooling—are incompatible with the acceptability requirement.

Citation

Clayton, M., & Stevens, D. (2018). What is the point of religious education?. Theory and Research in Education, 16(1), 65-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878518762217

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 18, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 20, 2018
• Publication Date: Mar 20, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 21, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 20, 2018
• Journal: Theory and Research in Education
• Print ISSN: 1477-8785
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-3192
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 65-81
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878518762217
• Keywords: Religious education, pluralism, political liberalism, Rawls
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/920599
• Publisher URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477878518762217
• Additional Information: Matthew Clayton, David Stevens. What is the point of religious education? Theory and Research in Education, 2018, Vol. 16(1) 65–81. © The Author(s) 2018. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
• Contract Date: Sep 21, 2017