Religious education in Catholic Schools: A History

My last visit to placement was a very interesting one. Being a catholic school meant that RE was compulsory for students from years seven to ten. And from years eleven to twelve, students are required to take at least one unit of Studies of Religion. For some of the students who grew up within a catholic parish and attended its primary, this level of faith was a given but for the majority of the students, Catholicism was new and foreign practice. I eagerly accepted the opportunity to see RE teaching in action.

The class was of about twenty students in year nine. The lesson of the day was to read and interpret a short parable. The work was simple enough and the teacher had explained the story in her own words, relating to a modern example, to help the boys engage with the material. Unfortunately, the entire class seemed to be bored and disengaged at the lesson. Some students and walked around the room, others were playing on their laptops and only a mere few students were diligently completing their task. I was a little disappointed to see that all the teacher’s effort in preparing and executing a fairly well structured lesson, falling to pieces. One student got up and barked, “RE should be an elective, and we should be allowed to drop it at birth.”

Both the teacher and I were quite taken by his vehement argument. He expressed, in colourful terms, how pointless he found the work and how much he hated learning a subject in such a boring way. This got me thinking, what is the state of RE today? Was RE pedagogy always like this? So I went away and did a bit of research.

In Australia, there were many factors that influenced the different changes in pedagogy for RE. In total, over the years, there have been several major approaches in how religion has been taught in school. These were examined in detail in Buchanan’s Pedagogical Drift.

Firstly, the Doctrinal approach was introduced in the 1960s. The focus of student was placed in knowing doctrine of Church based on Catholic catechism. The material provided to the students to share between two was a Penny catechism, as explained by Ryan 1997. It consisted of a series of questions and answers, which were a “complete map of religious life”, that the students were forced to memorise.  The text was neither engaging nor presented in way that would appeal to students. 80 years later a new way of teaching RE emerged.

The Kerygmatic approach, was much different to its former method. The focus on this approach was the salvation message of Christianity. Joseph Jungmann (1957) said the use catechism to teach catechesis to children was ineffective. They instead used sacramental and liturgical catechesis instead. Kerygmatic approach maybe considered necessary to enrich students and create integral link to doctrine. Students did engage more with the material but lack of teacher knowledge on this learning techniques meant it was short-lived.

The next approach that followed was the life-centred approach.  A student’s life experiences were taken into account and measured against religion knowledge. This way of teaching was popular in the 1970s. Students and teachers shared life experiences in class and were prompted reflect on them. This led to a faith expression and consideration. This approach was also abolished due to the changing nature of students attending catholic schools. Immigration meant that the student body no longer had a homogenous expression of catholic faith. To cater for these students more forms of RE pedagogy approached.

Today, school in Australia follow the educational approach. A knowledge-centred educational approach to teaching religious education is most favoured. It is wrong to assume that students come from a background of Catholicism, considering the multicultural nature of Australia. There should be a clear distinction between teaching religion and how to be religious. I feel that a careful understanding of how RE has developed over the decades and catering it to suit the students can save any RE teacher much stress and disappointment.

         





         Buchanan, M. T. 2005. Pedagogical drift: The evolution of new approaches and paradigms in religious education. Religious Education, 100 (1), pp. 20--37.

Grajczonek, J. and Ryan, M. 2007. Religious education in early childhood. Hamilton, Qld.: Lumino Press.

O'callaghan, D. F. 1967. Book Review: THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN LITURGICAL PRAYER, by Joseph Jungmann, sJ; Geoffrey Champan, London; pp. xx+ 300. Price 42s. Irish Theological Quarterly, 34 (4), pp. 371--373.

Image from: http://www.serfvic.com/