Religious Education in Australia: The Voices of Practitioners and Scholars

Abstract

Religious education (RE) in Australia is challenged to support the religious and spiritual needs of Australia’s religiously plural student population. Within a national colloquium, practitioners and scholars (N = 57) gathered to discern ways forward in RE. Data were collected from small and whole group discussions reported across three days of integrated reflection on themes of Awaken, Celebrate, and Imagine. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and Leximancer were used to analyse the respective data which confirmed domains of focus on Day 1 of Formation, Curriculum, Pedagogy, Partnerships, and Research. Day 2 (Celebrate) explored these domains and identified Themes and Theoretical Propositions that advanced each domain. Day 3 (Imagine) underlined foundations in faith for each domain and detailed generic propositions and themes. Propositions included advancing RE through Formation (being attentive to personal readiness, curriculum intention, and school identity), Pedagogy (engaging practices of inquiry, experiential learning, and encounter-based opportunities), Curriculum (characterised as inclusive, relevant, and life-giving), Partnerships (strengthening inclusion and engagement with family, parish, and community), and Research (integrating evidence-based practice).

Keywords

• Australia
• Catholic
• religious education
• plurality
• theoretical propositions
• practitioners and scholars