Last year I had the pleasure of participating in a Canterbury Christ Church/UCL joint project on bringing hermeneutics in the classroom. Here were some thoughts I typed up at the time before the reports' publication, with examples of activities I delivered.
There is a tension within religious education between those who see it from an outsider/objective perspective as Religious Studies (‘learning about’) and its origins as an insider confessional subject (‘learning from’). That tension can most clearly be seen in the current debates surrounding the naming of the subject, the 2018 Commission on RE advocating that the subject be renamed 'Religion and Worldviews', a change rejected strongly by faith schools.
The hermeneutical model helps to bridge this divide, asking pupils to treat religious texts seriously, deconstructing the socio-historical context in which they were written and asking pupils to imagine how its meaning can change across different times and to different audiences.
Religious education can sometimes be dismissed by students (and critics) as a subject based solely on faith and about faith – what is the value of studying it if without? However, faith and reasoning work together – and the hermeneutical approach recognises the rational basis of working with texts.
The hermeneutical approach can also help add rigour to our subject, another criticism sometimes levelled at our subject. The GCSE syllabus places evaluation as the hardest challenge for our pupils, but this is sometimes clumsy. Is synthesis – creating new and original interpretations – a truer expression of critical thinking?
Read the full Teacher and Text report here.
Resources
Archdiocese of Brisbane Education Service - Margaret Carswell has conducted a lot of pioneering work on hermeneutics in Australian Catholic schools.
Natre Resources - Stephen Pett has designed lots of amazing activities, many of which involve textual interpretation, which are easy to embed into lessons.
The Bible Project - An excellent collection of videos that traces context behind the bible, trace themes and etymology of words.
Lessons
Year 10: Parables
Lesson: Year 10 (2nd Set) work on Parable of Sheep and the Goats and Year 10 (6th Set) work on Miracle of Jesus healing the leper
· Starter: Pupils begin by getting some contextual information on author, his audience and purpose of text by watching Bible Project video
· Pupils complete diagram of World Behind/Within/In front of text, with some prompt words within each circle.
· Pupils then discuss in pairs and answer questions on each layer, before sharing responses to class.
Outcome
· Group 1: In discussion of miracle of leper, pupils made connection between Luke being a Gentile and the impact it would have on its audience. When considering its significance today, some pupils highlighted how Christians may follow the example of the leper and seek out Christ, seeing his physical ailment as a metaphor for sin, while other focussed on the example of Jesus, and how we should seek to help others.
· Group 2: In discussion of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, pupils made sophisticated observations about eschatological anxiety following the destruction of the Temple, how the story may give them hope, others observed that in the context of what happened previously, that Jesus is condemning the Pharisees and those who prioritise following right belief/mitzvot over right action and the spirit of the Law.
B. Year 8: Judaism
Activity 1: Spiral text activity – pupils read an abbreviated version of Moses Maimonides’ 13 Principles of Faith. They completed one-two activities on a sheet before passing it onto the next group. At the end of the activity, pupils were asked what were the advantages and disadvantages of discussing a text in this way. They were also asked what happened to the stimulus text that was passed around. One pupil said it allowed them to ‘evaluate different interpretation deeper’.
Activity 2: Pardes – Pupils read Genesis 3 together as a class. They were then asked to complete a ‘pardes’ sheet. Given 2-3 minutes to complete each section.
· P’shat – what is being said – summarise story in 2 minutes.
· Remez – what does this story remind you of? – pupils were prompted to think of time they were caught doing something wrong.
· D’rash – how would you tell someone else what you have found out – pupils were asked whether the message of the story is found in any other stories in the Old Testament that we have studied this term – many make links to Noah, others noticed that God wanted Adam to admit to his mistakes.
· S’ad – what isn’t said – a quote was read from Midrash to prompt them to think what wasn’t said.
C. Year 7 and 8 – Parable of the Prodigal Son (LASMO activity)
· Activity 1: Sheet adapted from LAaSMO. Pupils read the text and summarised it with 5 quotes in middle. They then considered what the passage teaches us about God/humanity/the world/us today.
· Activity 2 – adapted from Stephen Pett – pupils read the parable and then decide what title best captures meaning of text. Some very interpreting interpretations, one pupil said the Parable was a condemnation of society that corrupted the prodigal son (pseudo-Marxist reading!)
D. Year 9 – Jesus of the Gospel
· Pupils compared Old Testament and New Testament texts and considered whether it supported a view of Jesus as Davidic Messiah, warrior who would liberate Israelites from Roman occupation, or as a suffering Servant Messiah, who would be pierced for our transgressions.
· Pupils gained a deeper understanding of conflict between Jesus and Pharisees by understanding different historical Messianic expectations.
Final Thoughts
· New Ofsted framework – underlining it seems to be more scholarly view of teacher – the need for teacher to make pupils aware that knowledge is in a constant state of academic debate – hermeneutics a way to satisfy this.
· Assessment – how do we assess output? What distinguishes a good and a limited interpretation of a text?
· Talk of not essentialising a religion – but danger by sidelining authoritative readings of texts that we undermine religion.
· Teacher knowledge and enthusiasm – RE teachers come from diverse backgrounds (theology, religious studies, sociology, humanities etc.) – need for training and resources.
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