Dr Patricia Hannam
Honorary Appointment
About me:
My main research interests are in relation to questions as to what education is and what it should seek to do at this point in history and what it is to be a teacher. I also have expertise in relation to curriculum making and public policy for education particularly as applied to religious education, history and philosophy.
After a long career teaching and leading religious education departments in several parts of the country as far apart as Cumbria and Kent, I took up the role of County Inspector Adviser for Religious Education, History and Philosophy in Hampshire in 2009 a role I held for almost 14 years. I hold a PhD in Education published as a research mongraph by Routledge as Religious Education in the Public Sphere. I was responsible for three revisions and redevelopments of the Hampshire, Portsmouth Isle of Wight and Southampton Locally Agreed Syllabus'. Living Difference IV was published in 2021 and also used across 4 London boroughs. This syllabus is innovative in a number of ways not least of which in opening space for children and young people to follow their own concerns through 'Pondering Time' that could comprise up to 20% of teaching time. Living Difference IV offers a way of teaching RE and making curriculum. It takes an educational position that understands all educational questions to be essentially existential, and where religion is understood as a way of humanity expressing existence in the world and not only as propositional statements about the world or as traditions or practices.
Published books, papers and book chapters
Books:
Biesta, G., & Hannam, P. (eds). (2021). Religion and Education: The forgotten dimensions of religious education. Leiden: Brill.
Hannam, P. (2018). Religious education and the Public Sphere. London: Routledge.
Hannam, P., & Echeverria. E. (2009). Philosophy with teenagers: Nurturing a moral imagination for the 21st Century. London: Continuum (Bloomsbury).
Papers:
Haynes, J., Georgeson, J., Wickett, K., Andrews, M., Landau, D., Paal, K., Bush, E., Costa Carvalho, M., Johansson, V., Almeida, T., Hannam, P. and Peach, L., (2024). waves of flickering murmurs in everyday life: playing between ages. Childhood and Philosophy.
Hannam, P. (2004). Religious education as a place of disruption. Journal of Religious Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-024-00246-z
Hannam, P. (2024). Teaching religious education as if the world mattered. British Journal of Religious Education, 46(3), 245–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2024.2333002
Hannam, P., & May, C. (2022). Religious education and social justice: reflections on an approach to teaching religious education. Journal of Religious Education 70, 249–260 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-022-00188-4
Hannam, P. (2022). Reflections on the place of spirituality in policy making for religious education, Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 12(1), 78-85, DOI: 10.1080/20440243.2022.2062823
Hannam, P. (2021). Religious education syllabus development and the need for education theory. Journal of Religious Education. 69(3). 341–351. DOI: 10.1007/s40839-21-00154-6
Hannam, P., & Panjwani, F. (2020). Religious education and the potential for mitigating xenophobia. Journal of Religious Education. 68(3). 385-396.
Hannam, P., Biesta,G., Whittle,S., Aldridge. D. (2020). Religious literacy: a way forward for religious education? Journal of Beliefs and Values 41(2). 214-226.
Hannam, P., & Biesta, G. (2019). Religious education, a matter of understanding? Reflections on the final report of the Commission on Religious education. Journal of Beliefs and Values. 40(1). 55-63.
Biesta, G. & Hannam, P. (2019). The uninterrupted life is not worth living: On religious education and the public sphere. Zeitschrift fur Padagogik und Theology. 71(2).173-185.
Hannam, P. (2017). Teachers as gardeners: thinking, attentiveness and the child in the community of philosophical enquiry. Childhood and philosophy. 13(28). 605-614.
Book Chapters
Biesta, G. & Hannam, P. (2022). The world is not enough: Religious education beyond worldview perspectivism. In L Philip Barnes (ed). Religion and Worldviews: The triumph of the secular in religious education. London: Routledge.
Hannam, P. (2020). What should religious education seek to achieve in the public sphere?. In G. Biesta & P. Hannam (eds). Religion and education, the forgotten dimensions of religious education. Leiden: Brill. pp. 124-136.
Hannam, P., & Echeverria, E. (2016). The community of philosophical inquiry (P4): a pedagogical proposal for advancing democracy. in M. Rollins-Gregory, J. Haynes & K. Murris (eds). The Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children. London: Routledge
Hannam, P. (2012). P4C in religious education. in L. Lewis & N. Chandley (eds). Philosophy for Children through the secondary curriculum. London: Bloomsbury.
Hannam, P. (2010). Philosophy with teenagers: nurturing a moral imagination for the 21st Century, or why we need an enquiry based pedagogy for religious education in the secondary school. In C. Cole, J. Schmack, M. Thompson, Torvelle, D. (eds). Engaging religious education. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Interests:
Education in the public sphere.
Teaching and the role of teachers in a time of climate and ecological crisis
History education.
Religious education.
Philosophy of Education
Qualifications:
PhD, MA, BPhil, PGCE, BAHons.
