Spirituality, Religion and Education
Co-ordinators: Dr Cheryl Hunt and Mrs Karen Aylward
This group brings together researchers with an interest in the areas of spirituality, religion and education and provides a space to explore and develop themes across these areas.
The aim of the Spirituality¹, Religion and Education Research Group is to bring together researchers, professionals and postgraduate students with interests in research, teaching and practices in the field. The group provides a lively and supportive space in which to share ideas and beliefs and to compare them with those from other disciplines and cultural backgrounds; and to explore new syntheses and emerging understandings within the group and the wider society.
Besides enriching on-going research and practice through, for example, presentations of work-in-progress and consideration of papers from different fields and genres, the group is designed to foster links leading to collaborative activity between members, and to support the preparation of bids for research funding.
Members’ interests to date encompass: spirituality as a dimension of lifelong learning and professional practice; the history of religious education; the relationship between spirituality, religion and citizenship; children’s understandings of religion; the spiritual development of young people; the relationship between religion and science education; spiritual development in the nomadic culture of Mongolia; intersections between ‘equalities’ such as race, gender, sexuality and religion; and theoretical, methodological and practical approaches to the study of spirituality and religious education. These include complexity and ecological theories; autoethnographic, auto/biographical and narrative methods; historical analyses; and long-term collaborative work, such as the ten-year partnership with the Bible Society in the BIBLOS project which has produced a variety of materials for use in schools and elsewhere.
Group members have published widely and regularly contribute to national and international conferences and seminars. Recently, these have included the American Adult Education Research Conference (AERC); British Educational Research Association Conference (BERA); British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT); History of Education Society Annual Conference; International Seminar for Religious Education and Values; Inter-University (Ireland and England) Research Colloquium for Research Students in Religion and Education; Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (SCUTREA).
Members of the Spirituality, Religion and Education Research Group also have strong and active links with professional and research organizations in the field such as the Association of Lecturers in Religious Education; Devon Standing Advisory Council for RE (SACRE); The International Journal of Children’s Spirituality; The Scientific and Medical Network and The Wrekin Trust. They are currently directly involved in the formation of a new inter-professional and interdisciplinary Association for the Study of Spirituality which will launch publicly with an international conference in London in July 2010.
The Association of Lecturers in Religious Education ( AULRE) conference will be hosted by the University of Exeter in July 2009.
¹ We are aware that ‘spirituality’ is a highly contested notion. Exploration of understandings and terms forms part of the work of the group. Some discussion is included in papers which can be found at: http://education.exeter.ac.uk/staff_details.php?user=cmh201
Dr Karen Aylward
Dr Phil Bayliss
Professor Patrick Dillon
Dr Rob Freathy
Dr Cheryl Hunt
Dr Susan Jones
Dr Nasser Mansour
Dr Deborah Osberg
Dr Jack Priestley
Professor Rupert Wegerif