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Church schools are booming, becoming increasingly popular with parents across the world. However, research shows that teachers face considerable challenges as they try to offer a distinctively Christian education within a church school context. This book is the account of a qualitative research project investigating the joys and difficulties experienced in English church school classrooms. The research team spent a year working alongside fourteen teachers from Catholic and Church of England secondary schools, introducing them to What If Learning, a pedagogical initiative designed by an international team of educationalists to support teachers in developing Christian approaches to teaching and learning. The highs and lows of the teachers' experience are documented in this book and the lessons that emerge are explored in detail. The findings of the project are highly significant for all those involved with church school education and point towards valuable new ways of thinking about Christian faith and learning.
List of contents
Contents: Do Church Schools in England Work? - What If Learning and Church School Education - The Research Methodology - When What If Learning «Works»: Teachers' Stories - The Challenges that Emerged - Issues for Teacher Education - The Journey from Positivism - Theological Issues for the Churches - Pedagogical Issues for School Leaders and Teacher Educators.
About the author
Trevor Cooling is Professor of Christian Education and Director of the National Institute for Christian Education Research at Canterbury Christ Church University. He speaks regularly on matters relating to church schools and religious education and his publications include the much-debated Doing God in Education (2010). He is currently Chair of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales.
Report
«[...] for all those with any responsibility for the Church's role in education, whether as teachers, school leaders, university staff, governors or diocesan boards of education, this book is a must.»
(John Gay, Journal of Beliefs & Values 38/2017)
«As I journeyed through this very readable book, I could not help but applaud the approach. [...] The result is a volume that is very helpful to those of us who continually attempt to refine our vision as we work as Christians in Church schools.»
(Richard Coles, British Journal of Religious Education 1/2017)
«Christian Faith in English Church Schools, by Trevor Cooling [...] is a particularly timely contribution to a debate that will run and run.»
(Church Times, 10. February 2017)
