A Reconceptualist Approach
Overview
Since 2008, the classroom learning and teaching of religion in the Archdiocese of Brisbane has been characterised by a reconceptualist approach. In short, it operates from an educational framework rather than from a catechetical or ‘shared Christian praxis’ framework. The most prominent proponent of the reconceptualist approach has been Gabriel Moran upon whose work the Brisbane Catholic Education Model for Religious Education is based.
In a reconceptualist approach, the classroom religion program becomes a primary arena for dealing with the critical religious issues and concerns of life. There are three key considerations for teachers using this approach: the Avoidance of Presumptive Language, Teaching ‘about’ the Tradition and Powerful Pedagogies.
Avoidance of presumptive language
Religious Education curriculum documents have commonly used language that is presumptive of the students’ association with the Catholic tradition. Brennan and Ryan (2011) have observed that when presumptive language is used by teachers in classroom settings some students can experience that language as alienating and judgemental.
In a reconceptualist approach, teachers avoid using presumptive language and do not start with assumptions about students’ faith development based upon their particular religious affiliation. It is preferable that teachers use language that is invitational and educational to better engage students in the religion classroom. Students who can readily identify themselves as Catholics are affirmed by this approach. Further, when using non-presumptive language, teachers provide students with the freedom to respond in ways that do not assume a programmed response (Brennan and Ryan, 1996).
Teaching ‘about’ the Tradition
A reconceptualist approach to teaching religion entails “exploring the meaning of one’s own religious life in relation to both those who share that life and those who do not” (Scott, 1984, p.334). This educational focus requires a critical appreciation of one’s own religious tradition and an empathetic understanding of the religious beliefs and practices of others.
A reconceptualist classroom is not simply a place for transferring facts and knowledge. Nor is it merely a phenomenology or a values driven philosophy of religion. A reconceptualist approach to teaching religion promotes a post-critical belief attitude among our young people. This way of dealing with religious belief perceives truth as a search for value and meaning, rather than as
objective and certain fact. There is a dimension of mystery and uncovering new layers of meaning, a process in which critical reasoning plays an important role. It is a way of authentically engaging with the Catholic faith and learning to live intelligently and religiously in cultural and religious plurality.
To promote such a post-critical belief attitude among our young people, the explicit Religion curriculum and associated pedagogy must enable authentic dialogue - dialogue with God, with tradition and with others - allowing differences to play a role in the dialogue, while at the same time explicitly highlighting the particularity of the Catholic tradition in the conversation. Dialogue appreciates the value of other religions, philosophies and cultures, aiming to learn from and enrich one another. It challenges students to reflect upon their own inspiration and constantly renew it.
Dialogue is born from a respectful attitude toward the other person, from a conviction that the other person has something good to say. It supposes that we can make room in our heart for their point of view, their opinion and their proposals. Dialogue entails a warm reception and not a pre-emptive condemnation. To dialogue, one must know how to lower the defenses, to open the doors of one’s home and to offer warmth (Pope Francis, 2010).
A positive, open attitude towards other life options does not lay a claim of neutrality. Dialogue is not a casual exchange of equivalent perspectives. In the context of the Religion classroom in a Catholic or ecumenical school, a preference for the Christian message sets the tone for the dialogue. In teaching about the Catholic Christian tradition, teachers of religion give witness to the value they place on their personal religious beliefs as much by the authenticity of the teaching processes they employ, as by who they are as people of faith.
To enable authentic dialogue for the development of post-critical belief, the classroom learning and teaching of Religion should facilitate: the receptiveness of students to religious questions, an awareness and discernment of the plurality of voices within and beyond the school, the giving of powerful witness to and presentation of the richness of the Catholic tradition, and an invitation to spiritual awareness and faith. According to Rossiter (2018), this is an open and inquiring process, ‘concerned with exploring the content and issues – and not with the ‘getting of Catholicism’ (p.99); a process that “would be of value for … all students no matter what their religious affiliation (p. 103).
Powerful pedagogies
A reconceptualist approach requires powerful pedagogies that engage students with the richest resources of the tradition. As Brennan and Ryan (2011) remind us, the Catholic tradition is accessible through good teaching.
The pedagogical practices embedded in the Brisbane Catholic Education Model of Pedagogy (2012) are consistent with a reconceptualist approach to the teaching of religion. Five practices provide a common language for planning and reflecting on learning and teaching in the religion classroom: focusing on learners and their learning; establishing clear learning intentions and success criteria; activating multiple ways of knowing, interacting and opportunities to construct knowledge; responding with feedback to move learning forward; and evaluating learning with students as activators of their own learning and resources for others.
Focusing on learners and their learning
While some students come from families strongly connected to their local parish community and are literate in the Catholic Christian tradition, a growing number of students enter the religion classroom with low levels of religious affiliation and at best a tentative familiarity with public expressions of Catholic life.
Religious Education can have differing evangelising consequences for learners who are at various stages of Christian development, are of different religions or have no religious affiliation. There are Catholic and other Christian learners for whom Religious Education in the classroom can be catechesis complementing their experiences of Christianity through their family and parish. There are Catholic and other Christian learners for whom Religious Education can be a new evangelisation since the school is their only regular connection with the Christian faith community. For those learners from other religious traditions, it can deepen their knowledge of and faith in their own tradition. For those learners with no religious affiliation, it can be primary or first proclamation. (National Catholic Education Commission, Framing Paper: Religious Education in Australian Catholic Schools, 2018, p.12).
There has frequently been a patterned approach to the teaching of religion based on what Harpaz and Lefstein (2009) refer to as an “answering pedagogy”:
In an answering pedagogy, answers largely eclipse the questions. In this context, teachers often use questions that are predictable and rarely relate to deliberation or deep thinking, except in the narrow sense of recall. Questions of this nature are distortions of authentic questioning that occurs outside of school (p.37).
In a reconceptualist approach, the religion teacher acknowledges the reality of students’ lives, identifies learners’ levels of thinking and builds on the attributes each student brings to the religion classroom. It incorporates a powerful questioning pedagogy, within the context of a community of thinking, that stimulates and supports Genuine, active and authentic student engagement.
Different interpretations of issues or problems are not avoided, but rather they are allowed to emerge and be interrupted by confrontation with a range of voices, such as personal stories, other religious and philosophical viewpoints, and the dominant culture, with a privileged reference to the Catholic tradition. Pollefeyt (2007) refers to this as a ‘pedagogical dynamic’ which aims to “identify hermeneutical and interpretative intersections on particular issues in the classroom, expose these intersections and then to turn them in to ‘engines’ driving the lessons towards religious and Catholic growth. Hermeneutical intersections are locations of tension and conflicting interpretations that refer back to various presuppositions of different life stances.” Pollefeyt, 2007, p.2)
Establishing clear learning intentions and success criteria
The starting place for the classroom religion program is the Religion Curriculum P-12. Religion teachers use the curriculum to create and make clear and visible the learning intentions and success criteria for all students.
Brennan and Ryan (2011) forward the claim that often students are not challenged or extended in religion classes to the same extent as other learning areas:
We may be orientating our efforts to the lowest common denominator. We may lack specificity about what we are trying to achieve in our teaching outcomes, or do not examine seriously enough the range of abilities in the religion class (p.22).
A reconceptualist approach to learning and teaching in the religion classroom takes account of the capabilities and readiness of students, while at the same time ensuring a classroom that engages and challenges students.
Activating multiple ways of knowing, interacting and opportunities to construct knowledge
In 1996, and again in 2011, Brennan and Ryan advanced an important paradox in the classroom learning and teaching of religion; that students in religion classes are capable of a lot more and a lot less:
Students are capable of a lot less because the territory of religion, and religious education itself, are unfamiliar to most of them. Students are capable of much more in terms of content and learning processes. Often, students are not extended or challenged in religion to the extent that they are in other learning areas (2011, p.3).
A reconceptualist religion classroom places particular emphasis on evaluating and activating student involvement in ongoing responsive cycles of learning and teaching.
Learning is more than listening. Teaching is more than telling. Historically, a feature of many religion classrooms has been a “one size fits all approach” to planning and pedagogy. Such an approach fails to acknowledge the integrity of religion as a discipline and a learning area that requires all the rigour and challenge of other learning areas. Australian religious educators, Crawford and Rossiter (1988), have consistently emphasised the importance of creating ‘zones of freedom’ in the religion classroom that allow for an authentic educational process and genuine student engagement.
Responding with feedback to move learning forward
Effective learning in the religion classroom is advanced by informative feedback. Learning is facilitated when learners are given timely and rich information regarding their performances and achievements and how to improve.
Feedback connects information about a student’s prior or current achievement and the criteria for success associated with a learning intention. The sequence of achievement standards in the Religious Education Curriculum P-12 provides a map of learning progress to inform teacher understanding of how all students are progressing.
Evaluating learning with students as activators of their own learning and resources for others
In evaluating the effect of teaching on student achievement and success in the religion classroom, effect size becomes an important consideration. Hattie (2009) says effect sizes are the best way of answering the question, ‘What has the greatest influence on student learning?’ When using effect size the religious educator is invited to consider:
“How well is what I am doing working for different groups of students each year and why?”
“What possible reasons could there be for some student or groups of students progressing more or less?”
“How does student progress compare with their achievement levels”?
These questions lead to more focused investigation about the effectiveness of what teachers do in the religion classroom. This provides a basis for teaching and learning interventions teachers should stop, start or continue as part of effective educational practice.