Can Religious Education in Catholic schools be objective, critical, and pluralistic? An investigation into the views of Catholic Religious Education advisers at the frontier of faith and culture.

This research explores the question of how, if at all, Religious Education in Catholic schools could pass the legal test set by the European Court of Human Rights (2007) to be objective, critical, and pluralistic. In addition, it sought to explore how well-equipped the Catholic Church in England and Wales is to practically respond to the requirement to provide Religious Education that meets all three components of that legal test. In my literature review I explore the purpose of Religious Education in different kinds of schools and the philosophical and empirical analyses of each of the components of the legal test: objectivity, criticality, and plurality. The research was carried out with 25 Catholic diocesan Religious Education advisers, both primary and secondary, who collectively belong to a professional and ecclesial association with a long history: the National Board of Religious Inspectors and Advisers (NBRIA). The research methodology employed was interpretive, and I collected the data using semi-structured interviews. In analysing the transcripts, I made use of a qualitative research tool called reflexive thematic analysis, a method identified and described by Braun and Clarke (2006, 2012, 2019, 2017). The research revealed that the advisers had different views on the purpose of Religious Education in Catholic schools and, consequently, different views on whether the subject could pass the objective, critical and pluralistic test. I also found that any successful defence of Religious Education in Catholic schools required a professional agility on behalf of the advisers to navigate the complexity of the landscape surrounding this contested curriculum space. Their ability to do this was constrained to some extent by the performativity pressures that accompany acting as a representative of the institutional Church and by the underinvestment in their role at both the regional and national levels. However, when the advisers had received good formation and had been allowed the space to respond creatively to the best thinking to be found in the wider community of Religious Education practice and research, as NBRIA had historically done, then they were able to respond to the challenge convincingly and with confidence.