A proposed Online professional Development Program for teachers of Religious Education |
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It is timely to try some online professional development programs for educators in Catholic schools related to the issues discussed earlier on this website. This program, proposed by Professor Graham Rossiter, can be offered in conjunction with any interested Catholic Schools Offices. It could be taken up by individual teachers in their own time earning appropriate accreditation hours for each section covered. And/or it could be presented in face-to-face or combined formats. It should be helpful not only for current religion teachers but also for those who are new to this learning area. |
What is the proposed program about?
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The focus of the program The program is intended to help revitalise Religious Education as a core spiritual/moral subject in the Catholic school curriculum. Arguably, Religious Education should be the most distinctively Catholic, religious aspect of Catholic schooling. The program addresses the need for a contemporary, relevant narrative for RE across years K-12. It needs to show teachers, students and parents how valuable a 21 st century Religious Education can be for resourcing young people's spirituality no matter what their levels of religious affiliation and practice. The context of contemporary Catholic school Religious Education There has been some discernible loss of focus for Religious Education in Australian Catholic schools, especially in the language used for articulating its purposes. Perhaps an unintended consequence of the special attention given to Catholic identity, faith formation, new evangelisation and the church's mission, has been some growing ambiguity about just what is the nature and role of religious education in the Catholic school. In a sense, RE seems to be slipping off the Catholic school map; and this affects the morale of religion teachers. Of course the religious ‘life' of the school is important; but it has never been a substitute for religious ‘education' – the two are complementary. |
This program will try to address the need for re-stating Catholic RE in a way that is meaningful and realistic – essential for securing the professional support of all teachers in the schools, and crucial for making it a valuable part of young people's education. It responds to the call in of the National Catholic Education commission's (2018) Framing paper: Religious Education in Australian Catholic schools to re-articulate RE to address more effectively the contemporary socio-religious situation of the young people in Catholic schools.
What the program will address
How Catholic schools talk about Religious Education (the discourse of RE) is an important starting point for informing classroom practice. And in times of unprecedented social change and uncertainty, amplified by the current pandemic, it is more important than ever to show how RE can make a valuable contribution to young people's education and their personal/spiritual/religious development.
As part of a comprehensive treatment of RE purposes, pedagogy and particular areas of content, the professional development program will initially propose for discussion a formulation of RE that is considered to be derived from best practice. It strives to be realistic about contemporary youth spirituality, and about what can reasonably be expected of the classroom in terms of promoting pupils' personal development. And it needs to be expressed in language that is meaningful for all concerned – students, teachers and parents. This may help diminish the noticeable and growing divide between the discourse of Catholic RE and the realities of the classroom and young people's spirituality; and it may also help address a decline in its perceived relevance to young people's lives.
The Catholic education tradition in this country and elsewhere has always been based on the principle that any school education is deficient if it does not include a learning area that deals specifically with the spiritual/moral/religious dimension. RE is that subject. A good Religious Education gives young people access to their own religious heritage. In addition, it should help inform them about other religious traditions and their complex interactions with society; and, it should help them acquire knowledge and skills for critical interpretation of how culture can have a shaping influence on people's beliefs, values and lifestyle. This last aspect needs to have more prominence in the senior classes.
A good student-centred Religious Education always includes the following pedagogical elements in an age-appropriate fashion:- information rich study; knowledge of traditions; critical interpretation; informed debate; the experiential dimension; student research.
In short, this program is not proposing any new approach to RE. Rather it tries to put the spotlight on what is considered to be current best thinking and practice, and formulate this in language that unambiguously shows the distinctively valuable educational contribution that RE can make to 21 st century Catholic schooling. Hopefully, this will give RE a more prominent and important place in the discourse of Catholic schooling; and this may help put Religious Education ‘ back on the Australian Catholic school map ' – front and centre.
Accreditation hours for teacher professional development and processes for professional learning
This program is flexible both in terms of length and content areas – and there is also flexibility as regards timing. All sections in the program could count as 3 or more hours professional development accreditation, as determined by Diocesan personnel. The initial proposal is that participants would cover two core sections and would then have choice about which other sections they would like to study. They would work through the materials at their own pace and in their own time.
Accredited PD hours would then accumulate, depending on how many sections participants studied. Accreditation for each section requires from participants a written (or audio file) response/assessment to demonstrate coverage of, and engagement with, the content. This will be submission of a reflective commentary on the material studied in the section. Putting together the relatively brief, but focused, reflective commentary is intended to serve as a crucial part of the professional learning for each section. Each submission will then receive an individual reply, steering the assessment process in the direction of a professional conversation about issues raised in the content. There could also be opportunities for Zoom feedback sessions for discussion of issues, and questions etc. It is anticipated that where teachers wish to study say 8 sections, this could be used for gaining credit in Masters or Graduate Certificate university programs in Religious Education. This would need an additional academic essay for assessment.
Areas of content covered in the program
A. Core units: 1 Perspective on classroom Religious Education. 2. The need for a critical, inquiring pedagogy.
A wide range of sections are available for study. It is proposed that all participants do at least one unit from the sections in B. Example Theological topics.
Other groups of sections are organised under the following headings:
C. Faith, contemporary spirituality and its socio-cultural context, and a section on children's spirituality and RE.
D. Young people's search for personal identity and meaning; education in personal identity.
E. The shaping influence of culture on people's beliefs, values and behaviour.
F. Key issues/topics for contemporary Religious Education, and the history and development of Australian Catholic school Religious Education
The online Professional Development Program
The program is fully online. It has both video and audio lectures. There is a full complementary text for each section that can followed in conjunction with the lectures. Also there are separate videos and powerpoint presentations that are interspersed through the material for viewing while pausing the audio lecture.
For optional further reading/study, participants would get a digital copy of the book Life to the full: The changing landscape of contemporary spirituality – Implications for Catholic school Religious Education , as well as access to other resources.
Presenter
The course materials have been prepared by Professor Graham Rossiter. He has conducted professional development programs for teachers of religion, especially in Catholic schools, since 1983. This has included work throughout Australian and New Zealand, as well as in Europe, UK, Ireland, Canada, USA, Hong Kong and Pacific island countries. He has taught, researched and supervised doctoral research students at Australian Catholic University for over 25 years, and has recently taught some courses for the Australian Institute of Theological Education. He has written widely on Religious and Moral Education. Two relatively recent books that can serve as background to this PD program are available on this site. (With Marisa Crawford) Reasons for living: Education and young people's search for meaning, identity and spirituality. And Life to the Full: The changing landscape of contemporary spirituality -- Implications for Catholic school Religious Education.
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Below are brief introductions to the various sections with direct link to the Study Materials.
Click here for an introductory video explaining how the program works
GROUP A |
Core Units |
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A1. Perspective on classroom Religious Education -- A preferred account of the nature, purposes and context of Catholic school religious education. Towards a 'narrative' for Religious Education that is meaningful and relevant for students and teachers. |
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A2. The need for a critical, inquiring, research-oriented pedagogy in school religious education -- especially for the older secondary students Click the icon or here for professional development study material on critical pedagogy for religious educators This complements the text in chapter 10 of Life to the full. Click here for examples of how religion teachers have modelled critical pedagogy in mini-research projects during postgraduate studies in religious education. Click here for the example report on How social media can have a conditioning effect on people's identity. |
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The following are examples of how an inquiring, impartial pedagogy might be applied to core religious topics like Jesus, Scripture, Prayer, Morality and Church history. The material shows how teachers might study these topics, in turn helping them to how they could apply similar pedagogy with their own classes. Some of the materials used here could also be used in the classroom. How a critical pedagogy is used will depend on the age and relative maturity of the students. |
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B1. Across the curriculum perspective on prayer and teaching pupils about prayer in religious education Part 1: The experiential dimension to teaching prayer |
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B2. The prominence of ‘story' and ‘story-telling' related to the interpretation of Scripture: Issues for religious education Click here or the icon for study material on the story telling and interpretation of Scripture |
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B3. Key issues for teaching about Jesus across the K – 12 religion curriculum |
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B4. Issues for the teaching of Church history, and pupils' historical perspective on the development of the Christian church Click here or the icon for study material on teaching church history |
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B5. Teaching morality in religious education and some ideas about moral/values education Click here or the icon for study material on teaching morality and moral/values education in RE |
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C1. A preliminary discussion of religious faith and spirituality, together with reflections on what it means to educate young people in their religious faith tradition Click the icon or here for professional development study material on religious faith and education in one's faith tradition This material complements chapter 2 of Life to the full |
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C2. Exploring the changing landscape of spirituality: Part A: An essential preliminary for contemporary religious education This material complements the text in chapter 3 of Life to the full |
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C3. The changing landscape of spirituality: Part B: Contrasting traditional religious spirituality with the relatively non-religious secular spirituality that is widespread in Westernised countries This material complements the text in chapters 4 of Life to the full |
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C4. Some reflections on children's spirituality together with implications for primary school religious education Click here or the icon for the section on children's spirituality This material covers chapter 8 in Life to the full |
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The psychology of identity development and what it means to 'educate' |
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Section D1. (Part 1) The 'elusive self' - Psychological and social functions of personal identity, and personal identity development |
Section D2. (Part 2 ) Further research perspectives on the nature and psychological development of personal identity |
Section D3. (Part 3) Young people's personal identity development: Finding a healthy path through the cultural maze Educating young people in personal identity development |
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The nature and construction of meaning in life. |
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Section D4. (Part 1) Personal meaning in life: A study of the nature, psychological function and the construction of personal meaning. |
Section D5. (Part 2 ) |
Section D6.(Part 3) Young people's search for meaning in a complex and confusing culture. And 'educating' the search for meaning. |
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How contemporary consumerist culture functions like a religion: Its influence on meaning, identity and spirituality |
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Section E1. |
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Section E2. |
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Studying the potential influence of film, television and social media on people's thinking, values and behaviour |
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E3. Religious education in a media-saturated world: Studying the potential spiritual/moral influence of film/TV/Advertising/Social Media Part 1 Click here or the icon for study material on Propaganda and documentary film |
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E4. Religious education in a media-saturated world: Studying the potential spiritual/moral influence of film/TV/Advertising/Social Media Part 2 |
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F1. How the professional commitments of the religion teacher have a bearing on classroom religious education |
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F2. Perspective on the Catholic identity of Catholic schools and on the task of educating young people about personal identity development This material relates to chapter 11 of Life to the full. |
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F3. A 'big picture' perspective on the historical development of Catholic school religious education in Australia |
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F4. Issues with the language in the discourse of Australian Catholic school religious education This material goes into more detail than chapter 9 of Life to the full, together with some illustrative cartoons. It shows how there have been problems with the language of Catholic religious education going back to the 1970s |
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F5. An international perspective on religious education -- from an Australian viewpoint This sets out to signpost developments and trends internationally. It also looks at a sample of scholarly writings from other countries as well as from Australia and New Zealand. The 'big picture' here is introductory; it was not intended to be comprehensive, and only a limited selection of works from scholars internationally have been included. |
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| Part 1 UK state schools and Europe including development of state religion studies | Part 2 USA and other internationals | Part 3 Australia and New Zealand | |||
Books for additional reading |
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For free download of the new book on Religious Education -- Life to the full: The changing landscape of contemporary spirituality - Implications for Catholic Religious Education. 2018 Click here or the icon for free download of Life to the Full Also linked to this page are the lectures and presentations from the professional development program at which the book was launched, together with audio-visual study materials that complement various chapters of the book |
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For download of the 22 chapters in the book Reasons for living: Education and young people's search for meaning, identity and spirituality by Marisa Crawford and Graham Rossiter Click here or the icon for 22 chapters of Reasons for living, together with bibliography
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If you find that any of the above links, and or files do not work, please advise Graham Rossiter by email so that the problems can be rectified. For any questions/inquiries/comments about the above, contact Professor Graham Rossiter. |
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