Thursday 23 July 2015

Encountering Faiths and Beliefs: Thinking about Truth

Swiftly following on from the Clark-Woodhead report, A New Settlement: Religion and Belief in Schools, is a report published by the Three Faiths Forum (3FF, @threefaiths) on their work and its relationship to what they call 'Intercultural Education' (IE) in schools. Encountering Faiths and Beliefs:The Role of Intercultural Education in Schools and Communities focuses on the broader issue of the ways in which young people - and others - are enabled to encounter a range of different faiths and beliefs. This relates to their earlier publication, Beyond RE: Engaging with Lived Diversity, which considers, in part, the purpose of RE and its current use in schools as one safe space in which young people can encounter different faiths, beliefs and cultures. Both reports add to the already extremely diverse conversation around the purpose of RE and the future shape of this subject in the British (English?) education system. 



 Intercultural Education

Both reports quite clearly advocate a form of Intercultural Education, which is defined as a form of education that provides “the skills and attitudes needed to live peacefully and happily together in a diverse society” (Beyond RE, 1). This is to understand religion, faith and belief in their social and cultural contexts; the authors acknowledge that this does not reflect everything of what they are about. Encountering Faiths and Beliefs helpfully provides a practical and successful structure for providing this form of education in schools (Encountering Faiths and Beliefs, 9):

1.      Teach the tools (create a 'Safe Space' agreement, develop necessary skills, e.g. 'the art of asking', 'the art of empathising');
2.      Focus on the personal experience of the individual ("Speakers... create [their] stories in a way that is both pedagogical and personal but which shows diversity within their own faith." Encountering Faiths and Beliefs, 10);
3.      Foster dialogue, not debate ("Focusing on the personal distinguishes discussing controversial issues from debating them…" which opens up a "space for curiosity" Encountering Faiths and Beliefs, 10);
4.      Tailor the approach to the context and the challenges the community is overcoming;
5.      Support the participants to reflect on learning and take it into the wider world.

Interestingly, 3FF clearly link the outcomes of IE to better cultural literacy (“The promise of effective Intercultural Education is of a more literate public where people have strong, productive, and positive relations and are better positioned to counter ignorance and hate." Encountering Faiths and Beliefs, 15), which is not a million miles from the current discussions around RE and religious literacy.

Encountering Faiths and Beliefs

Encountering Faiths and Beliefs opens by stating that the founding principle of 3FF is that "belief is something that is 'lived'" - that is, "how individuals express their personal belief"(4). I have been attending a residential for the South Eastern-Eastern Region RE Advisers (I get in by the skin of my teeth!) and we have spent some time discussing the relationship between belief and truth. We considered the idea of religions as containing sets of truth-claims about God, the way the world is and the nature of humanity. In discussion, we realised that many of the RE teachers and subject leaders we support feel very uncomfortable with the language of truth and far happier with the language of belief; truth is, they feel, somehow a closed-down thing, whereas belief is (or can be) open and outward-looking. It felt particularly pertinent, then, that this 3FF report focuses on 'belief' and, in particular, the ways in which individuals express their personal beliefs. The methodology of the 3FF schools' programme - that is, enabling children to encounter individual stories, rather than generalised versions of religions - fits neatly with this approach to belief as individualised, personal, dialogic. However, I’m not convinced that quite covers the fullest implications of belief, which includes taking a view on truth – and potentially making a commitment to this view. This is one of the places where belief and faith becomes religion, and it is Religious Education that we are delivering in schools.

Considering Truth

CharlotteVardy's recent blog considered different ways of looking at truth, focusing particularly on the ways in which a Jewish understanding of truth differs from other religious (and non-religious) approaches. I found this a really helpful piece of writing. Vardy posits that ‘truth’ in the 21st century western context has derived from two places: firstly, the 18th century Enlightenment approach to knowledge that states that humans are able to observe, experience and draw conclusions about what is and what is not and secondly, the postmodern relativistic approach, in which something can be true for me, but not true for you. In both these instances, she points out, truth is human-centred, human-oriented. The Jewish understanding of truth, however, begins with God and the story of his chosen people. What is true in this context is the story that endures. In other words, you and I may not ever know if it is true or not because its truth is dependent on it enduring far beyond our lifespans. In this sense, what is true is what we share as a community, not what is true for me, or what is ‘objectively’ true.



Communities of Truth and Belief

If we are to enable our pupils/students to fully encounter religion, belief and faith, I think we have to consider communal belief, which is to say, at least in part, communal truth-claims and the communal living out of these truth-claims. (I’m starting to wonder if I’m using ‘truth-claim’ as a synonym for ‘belief’… and if that’s ok!) This fits around some of John Westerhoff’s more recent thinking around what constitutes Christian community (common story, common authority, common ritual, common life together) and it raises some seriously interesting questions around what ‘counts’ as belonging to a religion – is it intellectual, emotional, spiritual assent to key beliefs, or is it about belonging to a community of assent, living out in that community? What implications does this have for understanding religions and, more importantly, teaching about religions? What happens when you don’t feel like you belong? Does that affect your self-confidence in understanding what it is you are supposed to be teaching? Can you only 'do' Religious Education from within? If you don't, are your students not quite getting it? Do they have to be within to get it? 

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