English RE: under pressure?

Abstract

This paper will examine four potential areas of pressure to RE in England in the 2020s: Academisation—and the structural issues arising from ever greater numbers of schools being outside local authority control; the alleged secularisation of the curriculum through the Worldviews Paradigm; the financial situation of Standard Advisory Councils on Religious Education in England; and the teacher recruitment crisis. Taking a historical turn, it will then consider whether these are uniquely challenging to the subject, or whether the RE community might gain solace from a realisation that these challenges have been overcome at other points in history.