Religious Reading in a Secular Society: Learning for Life in a Liberal Democracy?

《泰晤士报教育副刊》最近刊登了一篇题为《基督教学校宽容失败测试》的文章，声称在Ofsted检查的福音派基督教学校接受教育的儿童，在获得对自己和其他文化的欣赏方面没有得到帮助。学校是否培养孩子成为好公民和宽容他人是一个重要的问题，而这种学习的一些最重要的背景是艺术和人文课程。随着孩子们在阅读和回应课文的过程中形成价值观和世界观，这项研究建议调查艺术和人文课程中的这种阅读，以找出教师和学校如何寻求塑造年轻读者的反应和价值观。数据将在一些不同的学校收集，该项目将试图确定神学和教育对福音派基督教学校的学校教师和领导人的影响。首席调查员在学校的大部分时间将用于在唐卡斯特三一学院进行人文和艺术课程阅读的个案研究。每学期在这所学校花两天时间观察九年级14岁学生的课程。每所学校的既定目标将与课堂上发生的情况进行比较。DVD和数字音频记录、转录和分析情境课堂话语将提供一个很好的证据基础，以回答关于宗教价值观在多大程度上影响阅读的研究问题。将对(对青少年、教师、高级管理人员和赞助者的访谈)进行分析，以确定在艺术和人文课程的教与学中如何明显地体现宗教观点。将对文件、库存清单和工作计划进行分析和比较，以便在面谈期间以及通过观察和问卷分析探讨文本选择、审查和作出这些决定的理由。访谈的分析将是定性的和主题性的。为了便于比较，将收集其他9所基督教学校的数据，特别是：另外2所同样由彼得·瓦尔迪爵士赞助的ESF学校，以及4所最大的CST(基督教学校信托基金)学校和3所与这些基督教学校有联系的欧洲学校。观察到的课程不会随机选择，但会选择教师认为最有特色的课程进行观察，并在课堂上展示学校的价值观、目标和使命。换句话说，课程将被选择用于观察和收集数据，这些课程被认为与非宗教学校的课程尽可能不同。如果一位老师认为某一节课文或一系列课文提供了他或她认为是“信仰-学习整合”的范例，就会被遵守。在访问的每一所学校，首席调查员将作为客座教师兼研究员，教授相同的以文本为基础的“便携”艺术/人文课程，以便比较不同学校青少年的反应。这10节课的记录和转录将提供独特的比较数据。这些学校的教师还将保留“信仰和价值观”日记，记录他们在课堂上感受到的信仰和学习的融合，这些日记将为访谈和观察提供信息。当一所信仰学校的教师被采访时，他们将被要求对从其他信仰学校收集的数据(DVD录音)发表评论。这10所学校的精选课程录音将展示给县和教会学校的教师，以便于分析异同。通过这种方式，可以确定阅读在不同背景下对公民身份的贡献。

The Times Educational Supplement recently carried the headline 'Christian Schools Fail Test of Tolerance' claiming that children educated in evangelical Christian schools inspected by Ofsted were not helped to acquire an appreciation of their own and other cultures. Whether schools prepare children to be good citizens and to be tolerant of others is an important issue and some of the most significant contexts for such learning are arts and humanities lessons. As children develop values and worldviews while they are reading and responding to texts this research proposes to investigate such reading in arts and humanities lessons to find out how teachers and schools seek to the shape the responses and values of young readers.Data is to be collected in a number of different schools and the project will seek to ascertain the theological and educational influences upon schoolteachers and leaders in evangelical Christian schools. The bulk of the Principal Investigator's time in schools will be devoted to undertaking a case study of reading in humanities and arts lessons at Trinity Academy, Doncaster. Two days will be spent in this school each half term observing the lessons of fourteen year old pupils in Year 9. Each school's stated aims will be compared with what happens in lessons. DVD and digital audio recording, transcription and analysis of situated classroom discourse will provide a good evidence base from which to answer research questions about the degree to which religious values inform reading. Interviews (with adolescents, teachers, senior managers and sponsors) will be analysed to establish the ways in which religious perspectives are evident in teaching and learning in the arts and humanities lessons. Documentation, stock lists and schemes of work will be analysed and compared so that text choice, censorship and the rationale for such decisions can be explored during interviews and through observations and questionnaire analysis. Analysis of interviews will be qualitative and thematic. For comparative purposes, data will be collected in 9 other Christian schools, specifically: 2 further ESF schools also sponsored by Sir Peter Vardy as well as 4 of the largest CST (Christian Schools Trust) schools and 3 schools in Europe that have links to these Christian schools. Lessons observed will not be selected randomly but those lessons will be chosen for observation that teachers consider to be most distinctive and to demonstrate the values, aims and mission of their school in the classroom. In other words, lessons will be selected for observation and data collection that are perceived to be as different as possible to those occurring in non-faith schools. If a teacher believes a particular text-based lesson or sequence of lessons offers what he or she considers to be an example of 'faith-learning integration' these will be observed. In each school visited the Principal Investigator will, as a visiting teacher-researcher, teach the same 'portable' text-based arts/humanities lesson so that the responses of adolescents in different schools can be compared. Recording and transcription of these 10 lessons will provide unique comparative data. Teachers in the schools will also keep 'faith and values' journals, recording any perceived integration of faith and learning in their lessons and these journals will inform interviews and observation. When teachers in one faith school are interviewed they will be asked to comment on data (DVD recordings) collected in other faith schools. Selected recordings of lessons in these 10 schools will be shown to teachers from county and church schools to facilitate analysis of similarities and differences. In this way the contribution of reading to citizenship in different contexts can be established.