Call for abstracts and contributions

Call for abstracts and contributions to book:

Ways of teaching with the RE-searchers approach across contexts

Suggestion by a consortium consisting of Jonathan Doney, University of Exeter, Inge Andersland, Linda Eide Onarheim, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Oddrun Marie Hovde Bråten, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Øyvind S. Andreassen (NTNU) will be part of the group in its further work.

Description of book

The RE-searchers approach has travelled from England and Exeter to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Germany, and have been used in schools as well as in higher education. The free sharing of the approach has been an inspiration for developments in several places. In this new book we present examples of how it has been used in different contexts.

Contributions may include examples of teaching units and lesson plans, describing what happened when the RE-searchers approach was tried out. As when driving a car, you need local knowledge to know which side of the road you should be driving on, so also in teaching. It is part of a teacher’s skills to recontextualize approaches and teaching materials to the local situation, reflecting on context sensitive issues along the way. Contributions should therefore also include reflections on context, addressing issues such as how it was adjusted to the students in question and the national/local context of the school or teacher education institution. We also welcome contextualised theoretical and philosophical reflections.

The book will be framed by introductory texts by scholars who were involved in the development of the approach in England/ Exeter, and others who have since worked with, studied and researched it. It will also include comments on individual contributions by colleagues who have used it in other contexts to add more levels of reflexivity. This publication will be unique in its attention to classroom practice, focusing on how the international transfer of knowledge of a specific approach to teaching religion is recontextualized across time and educational space.

It will be an online publication in the same spirit as the original publication.

Freathy R., Freathy, G. Doney, J. Walshe, K. and Teece, G. (2015). The RE-Searchers: A New Approach to Religious Education in Primary Schools. Exeter: University of Exeter.

This book will primarily be aimed at teachers and teacher students, and downloadable free of charge, like its predecessor.

We welcome all users of the approach, teachers and academics alike, or in cooperation, to submit their proposals for contributing to the book. We would like suggestions in the form of a title and an abstract of up to 300 words. It should describe an example of teaching and learning using the RE-searchers approach which could fit in the planned book. We welcome abstracts in Scandinavian or English language.

You may send your abstract Oddrun Braten: oddrun.m.braten@ntnu.no

On behalf of Jonathan Doney, University of Exeter, Inge Andersland, Linda Eide Onarheim, Øyvind S. Andreassen.

Deadline for abstract: 01.01.2025

Deadline for first draft: April 2025

Proposals for contributions should include Lesson plans + aims + experience of use + reflections. We also welcome proposals that include more theoretical and philosophical reflections together with contextualization of the approach.