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Rewriting Oxfordshire's agreed syllabus post 1988 Introduction
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Rewriting Oxfordshire's agreed syllabus post 1988
Derek Gillard June1992 © copyright Derek Gillard 2001
Citations
Chapter 2 New syllabuses for old? As noted in the previous chapter, under the provisions of the 1944 Education Act local education authorities were permitted but not required to set up Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs). Oxfordshire did not do so until the 1988 Act made such a Council mandatory. The Oxfordshire SACRE was established and its membership approved at a meeting of the Education Committee on 14 March 1989. Its membership was as shown in Table 1. Nominations for membership were made in the following months and by June 1989 the SACRE was ready to perform its prescribed functions as described in Chapter 1.
The Statutory Conference The Statutory Conference to review the Religious Education Syllabus for Oxfordshire was set up a year later, in June 1990. The membership of the Conference was as shown in Table 2. The members appointed to the SACRE and the Statutory Conference were largely the same people, except that on the Conference there were additional members representing teachers. Each member was required to nominate a standing deputy and members and deputies were to hold office "until an Agreed Syllabus has been recommended to the County Council." The Conference was charged with recommending unanimously either:
Inaugural meeting of the Conference: July 1990 The Conference first met on 5 July 1990. The principal agenda item (after the business of electing a Chair and Vice-Chair and receiving apologies) was to review the agreed syllabus. "It shall be the duty of the Conference to seek unanimous agreement upon a syllabus of religious education to be recommended for adoption by the Local Education Authority. This will form part of the basic curriculum for use in County Schools, in Controlled Schools unless otherwise requested by parents of any pupils, and for pupils in Aided and Special Agreement Schools where requested by their parents." (Notice of Meeting: 5 July 1990) The first task of the Conference was to agree how the review would be conducted. Three possibilities were suggested for the initial stages:
It would be useful to know what other local authorities were doing, especially Hampshire, from whom Oxfordshire had adopted its existing syllabus. She referred to several publications including those from Westhill and Exeter. Some members felt that it was important that there should be an overview to ensure that the work of such groups was monitored and that there should be an initial report which considered the main issues that needed to be addressed before deciding the method to be adopted in undertaking the review of the syllabus. It was noted that substantial work was required on the 3-7 and 16-18 age ranges. Members also expressed the view that the local education authority would need to provide adequate resources in order for the review to be undertaken. After further discussion, it was resolved that "the religious education advisor produce an interim report, using whatever resources or expertise necessary, on the main issues to be addressed in the review of the agreed syllabus for consideration by the Conference at their next meeting. The Conference would then consider how the review would be undertaken." (Minutes of Meeting 5 July 1990) The Working Groups: Autumn 1990 Initially it was intended that there should be five groups, covering each of the five Key Stages of the National Curriculum:
Religious Education specialists were appointed to each group and other members of the Conference joined them. The first task of the groups was to critique the existing agreed syllabus, so members were asked to prepare for the initial meeting by reading the syllabus and the Westhill document 'Attainment in RE', especially the section dealing with attainment targets. The first meeting of the working groups was held on 18 October 1990 at the Jewish Centre in Jericho, Oxford. Opportunities were provided during the day for the groups to come together so that their deliberations were not too disparate. During this first day the groups looked at the existing syllabus and agreed that there were four possibilities:
Why did the working groups come so quickly to the conclusion that the existing syllabus was no longer adequate? Seven main issues were raised: Firstly, it was noted that the syllabus closely followed the thinking of Piaget and Goldman (as described in the previous chapter) and the supporting handbooks aimed to show how the objectives of the syllabus might be achieved. But the work of Piaget and Goldman, based as it was on developmental stage theories, was now being called into question. Would a syllabus based on these theories still command intellectual support? Secondly, there was no reference to attainment or assessment in the syllabus, yet these were now key features of other National Curriculum subjects. Was it appropriate to discuss these aspects of the curriculum in relation to religious education? If so, clearly the existing syllabus would be inadequate. Thirdly, the 1988 Act specified that religious teaching must be 'in the main Christian'. Would the Hampshire syllabus fulfil this requirement? Certainly, the syllabus had stated that the content of the teaching would be "drawn largely from the study of Christianity in its many forms, this being the religious faith which has most influenced our culture." Was this the same as 'in the main, Christian'? And, even if the syllabus included this statement in its section on 'Aims and Approach', was there enough specificity in its content to justify its being described as 'in the main Christian'? The working groups decided that there was not. The 1988 Act also required that the other "principal religious traditions" of this country should be studied. Again, the working groups decided that the existing syllabus was far from specific about how many and which faiths should be studied. Fourthly, the Hampshire syllabus said nothing about religious education at sixth-form level: its provisions ceased at age sixteen, whereas the 1988 Act required religious education for all school pupils including those in the sixth-form. The handbook 'Following the Paths' did contain some objectives for sixth-form work, but as the handbook only supported the syllabus, it was not a legal document. Fifthly, the groups considered which skills, concepts and attitudes the syllabus was attempting to encourage or develop at each Key Stage. Again, it was felt that there was insufficient specificity here. Sixthly, concerns were expressed about the accessibility of the document to teachers, governors, parents and faith communities. Finally, the groups considered that there should be a recommended time allocation for religious education: it was agreed that this was another omission from the Hampshire syllabus. The consensus was that the Hampshire syllabus was no longer adequate and it will be noted that this was largely because it was felt not to fulfil the new legal requirements. The groups now had to decide what to put in its place: should Oxfordshire adopt a syllabus from another authority, or should it write its own? The working groups met again on 22 November 1990 to consider these options. About forty local authorities were reviewing their agreed syllabuses at this time, and many of these were considering attainment targets, programmes of study and other structural forms from the National Curriculum either as part of a new syllabus or as an addendum to an existing syllabus. Of those authorities which had adopted the Hampshire syllabus, about equal numbers had decided to keep it or revise it. Hampshire itself had a working party reviewing its position. Many of the local authorities which had decided to revise their syllabuses were using the Westhill document 'Attainment in RE'. As Oxfordshire had bought into this project, it was possible to adopt or adapt the scheme. The Westhill booklet 'Attainment in RE' was based on the principles:
A Knowledge and Understanding of ReligionThere were suggested programmes of study and attainment statements for each of these attainment targets at Key Stages 1 - 4: there was nothing for Key Stage 5. The working groups were also anxious to see the forthcoming Westhill document on 'Assessing, Recording and Reporting RE'. Although publication of this second stage of the Westhill project was said to be imminent, it was to be more than a year before its eventual publication. In the meantime, the groups discussed whether the Westhill attainment targets formed the basis of a suitable approach. Another project which the working groups looked at was the FARE project (Forms of Assessment in RE) based at Exeter. The interim report proposed attainment targets which "are not targets to be reached by working up through ten precisely defined levels. They are a way of plotting the map of religious education and indicating the areas which should be addressed." (FARE Interim report 1990) [2] The Report proposed six attainment targets: Awareness of Mystery; Questions of Meaning; Value and Commitments; Religious Belief; Religious Practices; Religious Language. Finally, the groups looked at a number of recently published agreed syllabuses, considering their format; content; approach; accessibility to teachers, governors and parents; and whether they included any recommendations regarding time allocation. Statutory Conference: January 1991 The Statutory Conference met again on 17 January 1991. Its main business was to receive a report from the working groups based on their deliberations thus far. The report's main conclusions and recommendations were as follows: 1: A Critique of the Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus A great deal of time had been spent discussing the requirements of the 1988 Act. It was felt that the Guidelines and Objectives of the agreed syllabus were rather general and could support the Act's requirements. However, closer analysis suggested that whilst the examples provided did not contradict the Act, they were not useful in illuminating the legal requirements. In fact, they could easily lead to misrepresentation. Since the agreed syllabus was not structured to match the key stages of the National Curriculum it was difficult to see from its present format just which religions should be taught at which particular age ranges. A list of the major traditions in Great Britain should be stated with the recommendation that more than two should be studied at all key stages. Such prescription would aid teachers with their planning and would enhance continuity and progression. No mention of skills was found and concepts and attitudes tended to be rather simplistic. It was felt that these should be made clear in an agreed syllabus because it would help teachers to be clear in their own minds and to communicate to others what they were trying to do and it would ensure that religious education could command equal status with other subjects based on its valuable and particular educational contribution to the curriculum. The current agreed syllabus was seen as being out of line with other curriculum documents and this was not helpful to teachers, many of whom were non-specialists. Furthermore, given the important links being built up with the various faith communities and the desire to share information, it was felt that a more user-friendly document was now essential. 2: Agreed Syllabuses from a variety of local authorities The working groups had found it useful to examine a variety of syllabuses which had varied in their content, approach and format. The majority were generally felt to be userfriendly and therefore accessible to teachers, parents, governors and faith communities. Some syllabuses gave a recommended time allocation for religious education across all the key stages. 3: Documentation from national projects The Westhill document 'Attainment in RE' was highly praised by all members. Schools had already found it a most useful planning tool, especially supportive for non-specialists. 'Assessing, Recording and Reporting RE' promised to be most exciting and members felt that the whole area of assessment must be kept on the agenda. Further discussion should take place once the document was published. The FARE interim report was considered stimulating reading, but members were reluctant to wait until the final report was published in the summer of 1991. The Westhill document was generally felt to be more useful. 4: Key Stage 5 The Key Stage 5 working group felt that progression and continuity were important, so work in Key Stage 5 should build on the previous key stages. However, they also felt that core religious education in the sixth form must adopt a refreshingly new approach: it should be challenging, academic and enjoyable. The group recommended that core religious education could be delivered in a variety of ways - as part of a general studies programme; as a specific religious education module; in the form of day conferences, by cross-curricular seminars, or by distance learning. Having examined a number of syllabuses, the working group felt they were now in a position to formulate some clear guidelines for sixth form religious education. This was seen as a matter of some urgency. Finally, the working groups recommended a totally new agreed syllabus and offered a sample list of contents: 1 Foreword by Chief Education OfficerThe Statutory Conference considered the report and agreed that the present syllabus did not appear to meet the necessary legal requirements. A suggestion that subcommittees should be formed to take the work further was rejected when it was pointed out that each constituent committee which made up the membership of the Conference would have to be represented on each sub-committee. The religious education advisor, Isobel Vale, agreed to organise further meetings of the working groups "to prepare documentation for a new agreed syllabus" to be brought before the Statutory Conference in July 1991. It is worth making two points here. The first relates to my part in the process: as a member of the overall working group, and of the Key Stage 3 working group in particular, I was, of course, involved in the discussions which led to the creation of the new syllabus. However, for the purposes of this paper I have endeavoured to describe the process as objectively as I can. For this reason I have used the third person most of the time, though I have used 'we' on occasions when it seemed appropriate. The second - and more important - point is that the issues discussed in writing the new syllabus were to a large extent concerned with meeting the legal requirements. The religious education provisions of the 1988 Act thus dominated the debates of the Statutory Conference and, later, the deliberations of the working groups. This is not to say that educational considerations were ignored, but it is a clear indication that the agenda was being set by the legislation. I shall hope to demonstrate this in the following chapters, which review the process by which the working groups created the new syllabus. Issues which I consider of fundamental importance for any valid educational enterprise - the nature of the curriculum; models of curriculum design; the importance of children's needs and interests; the involvement of teachers in curriculum development - were virtually ignored. One could argue that this was because what we were writing was a syllabus and not a curriculum and that, assuming a syllabus is merely a framework within which a curriculum can be developed, then these issues were not relevant in this undertaking. I would argue, however, that without a sound educational/philosophical underpinning, we were likely to create a framework which would, at best, not facilitate the development of an appropriate curriculum and, at worst, would make it impossible. I shall endeavour to assess the extent to which my own curriculum concerns have been addressed in the final chapter.
References 1 Westhill College (1989) Attainment in RE p3
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