Partners in progress? An impact study of the 2016 Religious Education reforms in England

Recent educational reform in England has occasioned new interactions between the State, Universities, Faith Communities and Schools. Grounded in theories of ‘powerful knowledge’, the year 2016 saw the introduction of a suite of new public examinations designed to be a more rigorous test of the academic ability of English students matriculating at 16 and 18 years of age. In Religious Education, these state-driven changes deliberately involved religious stakeholders, universities and the ‘faith school’ sector. However, the curricula generated by this quad-fold interaction have had a mixed reception. Some welcome the renewed academic rigour, others regard the new curricula as overly academic, overtly confessional and ultimately off-putting. Themselves part of the agency for change, the authors outline the context of the reform and their empirical investigation into its actualities, particularly the impact upon the strategies of school leaders and heads of department. Though geographically and denominationally specific, the initial findings are quite striking and are relevant to any Religious Education initiatives where regional or national jurisdictions engage with Churches, Universities and Schools.