Dr Patricia Hannam

About me:

My research interests are in relation to questions as to what education is, what it should to do in this time of multiple crises, and thus the responsibilities of teachers and their teaching. My work is particularly informed by Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt as we navigate the change required in education.  I have published widely in this regard including a research mongraph in 2018 (Religious Education in the Public Sphere - Routledge). I have expertise in relation to teacher education, curriculum making and public policy for education particularly as applied to religious education, history and philosophy. After leading religious education departments in several parts of the country, I became County Inspector Adviser for Religious Education, History and Philosophy in Hampshire in 2009 a role held for almost 14 years. I was responsible for three revisions and redevelopments of the Hampshire, Portsmouth Isle of Wight and Southampton Locally Agreed RE Syllabus'. Living Difference IV was published in 2021 and is also used across a number of 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 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.

Also:

* Education lead for a Devon project on The River Erme: https://ermeriver.org/ 

* Chair of the Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education (AULRE) 

* Board Member of the European Federation of Teachers of Religious Education (EFTRE).

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. (2024). 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

Hannam, P. (in press). Regenerative Religious Education for the World in a Time of Crisis. In (eds) Martin Ubani, Stéphanie Tremblay, Alexander Unser, Susanne Garvis. The Palgrave Handbook of Religion in Public Education . Palgrave. 

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.