Shap a brief history: Mary
Hayward
‘One of the excellences of the
world of religious education and more broadly of the study of
religion is the way we are in constant movement and debate.’
(1) These words of Ninian Smart, one of the founding
members of Shap, may be seen to epitomise the ethos of the working
party for much of its history. In particular, among organisations
having a concern for RE, Shap has probably done most to ensure
an ongoing dialogue between RE and the study of religion, a dialogue
invariably invigorated by debate and questioning. Accepting the
status quo has rarely been the hallmark of Shap and – arguably
– the need for questioning voices in education in an age
of conformity and commodification remains.
SHAP or Shap?
Discerning
readers will already have noted the use of the lower case for
‘Shap’. Professors Smart, Hilliard and Parrinder may
have been the founders of the working party, but its name derives
from the small village of Shap in Cumbria. Travellers north now
speed past the village on the M6, but in 1969 the village was
the summit reached after the long haul up Shap Fell on the A6.
Just off this road lies the Shap Wells Hotel; here in spring 1969
the Department of Adult Education of the University of Newcastle
upon Tyne (where John Hinnells was a young lecturer) held a conference,
‘Comparative Religion in Education’. Today the published
conference papers (Hinnells ed. 1970) provide an interesting window
into RE and the study of religion as it was taking shape at that
time. Hinnells’ report of a survey of the ‘Comparative
Study of Religion’ in West Riding schools (note the subtle
shift away from ‘Comparative Religion’) indicated
that schools were not unsympathetic towards the study of religions
– although head teachers tended to be more favourably disposed
than teachers of RE. Smart’s own paper, ‘The Structure
of CSR’ – despite the passage of time – demonstrates
a breadth of thinking about the subject which is not always recognised
by his commentators today, and an inclusivity which would be characteristic
of Shap’s work. This inclusivity was demonstrated in the
conference and book, which included a paper from H. J. Blackham,
the first director of the British Humanist Association. But the
papers also pointed to the difficulties which confronted those
who wished to approach religions other than Christianity: a lack
of appropriate resources and at all levels of education a lack
of teachers who had an understanding of religions.
A working party
It was from the above conference and needs
that a ‘working party’ emerged - the Shap Working
Party on World Religions in Education. In its beginnings the working
party consisted of 3 university teachers in comparative religion,
7 lecturers in education and 9 teachers. Its stated aims were:
(1) To identify the practical problems
at various educational levels involved in teaching about world
religions.
(2) To study and provide relevant syllabus material.
(3) To generate new ideas, to explore the possibilities of future
conferences and in-service courses for teachers.
(4) To act as a clearing house for information on visual aids,
books, conferences or working parties on related topics.
In its membership and aims the nature of
the working party became clear. First, its membership ensured
dialogue among all educational sectors; it was concerned with
all age phases. When I first encountered Shap, I recall being
particularly impressed by its bringing together of these phases
– nursery school to university were represented. Second,
Shap was to be a working party – and this it remains to
the present. Membership has always related to this focus; invitation
to membership is to active participation – to do something,
to contribute. For an organisation which meets for only a day
and a half each year this is vital. That members during the first
20 years or so of the working party’s life willingly paid
their own way to come to meetings is perhaps indicative of the
passion felt for its concerns and of their commitment to the realisation
of its aims. Whilst Shap benefited from funding from the Spalding
Trust in its early years, today it has charitable status and a
modest income from its publications – this facilitates some
administrative support, but the working party has no paid members.
It remains a smallish group of around 30 people, thus enabling
the kind of exchange I noted above.(2)
The third part of Shap’s rather long
title – world religions in education – expresses the
spirit and time of its foundation. We continue to debate this
particular wording in the present – but more of this later.
For the moment let it represent Shap’s focus and concerns
for over a quarter century, set in the context of debate, questioning
and activity.
Early activities
Given the aims it had identified, the working
party set out to meet them in a number of ways. Conferences continued
for several years at Shap Wells Hotel. For many participants these
provided their first encounter with ‘world religions’,
and in some cases with members of different traditions. For example,
Swami Yogeshananda, author of one of the first school texts on
Hindu tradition, participated in the conference on Hinduism in
1970. Whilst northern in its origins, Shap spread south and Brian
Gates launched ‘Southern Shap’ events at Goldsmith’s
College in London. Anticipating RE’s later interest in artefacts,
conference participants were able to explore a Hindu shrine set
up during the 1972 conference on Hindu tradition held there. Late
1972 also saw a conference on Zoroastrianism in Manchester, and
in early 1973 the University of Stirling hosted a conference on
Islam and Hinduism. These were exciting times, offering new visions
of what RE in school might be and forging fresh thinking about
its raison d’être in the curriculum and its contribution
to society. Some of this vision was shared through the pages of
Learning for Living (now the British Journal of Religious Education),
which for a period in the 1970s carried occasional reports of
the working party (3) and a regular ’World Religions Notebook’
with a pedagogical emphasis. On several occasions CEM gave over
an issue of Learning for Living mainly to the papers of a Shap
conference. (4)
Much
early activity focused on Borough Road College Isleworth (now
incorporated into Brunel University) where parallel to Shap’s
emergence the divinity department had been preparing to act as
a clearing house for information about the teaching of world religions;
the two movements fruitfully coalesced. Here beginning with ‘Shap
News’, the idea of a ‘Mailing’ took shape, nurtured
by Peter Woodward (later RE adviser for Birmingham). Building
on foundations laid by Borough Road, the Mailing listed key calendar
dates of faiths in the UK, and briefly indicated their significance;
sometimes notes relevant to classroom practice were included and
attention was drawn to new publications and audio-visual aids
– at that time filmstrips, slides and audiotapes. Among
the early contacts of Shap was Bury Peerless, a professional photographer
who had travelled widely in India and had also photographed manuscripts
in the British Museum and the V&A relating to religious traditions.
His slides were an excellent resource which became widely known
in education through Bury’s membership of the working party.
The production of authoritative bibliographies
on world religions and on approaches to the study of religions
– many of which came to light when we recently gathered
materials for the Shap Archive – was also a feature of this
early period; taking forward work started at Borough Road, Shap
had by the Autumn of 1970 produced twelve bibliographies –
which would extend to over twenty in World Religions – Aids
for Teachers (see below).
These activities ultimately led in three
directions: to a Calendar,
a Journal
and Handbooks; but, before turning to these, one further venture
from the early 1970s may be noted. This focused on the then new
CSE examination, prompted by the raising of the school leaving
age to 16 and need to provide opportunities for those who would
not be entered for ‘O’ level GCE exams. This new exam
offered opportunity for new thinking. Shap convened a working
group of 16 people – 10 from secondary schools and 6 from
colleges of education to prepare a syllabus on world religions.
Syllabuses for Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and (interestingly) ‘Christianity
as a world religion’ were proposed.(5) Owen Cole’s
introduction indicated the tone of the syllabus: In our planning
we have, in every case, attempted to present the faith as a living
reality so that, for example, the pupil may understand what it
means to be a Jew in terms of practice and belief. We have begun
with the concrete, the tangible and visible, and probed
towards the abstract and conceptual’. [My
highlighting] Clearly Shap was from its beginnings concerned with
more than an attenuated phenomenology.
The syllabus provides a good example of
Shap’s collaborative working – here with schools and
colleges and in service to exam boards. Other joint ventures involved
SOAS, the World Congress of Faiths and SCIFDE (the Standing Conference
on Interfaith Dialogue in Education) – yes, interfaith dialogue
in education was on the agenda for some over 30 years ago.
Handbooks on World Religions
World
Religions - Aids for Teachers and the first Handbooks offer
a further example of a collaborative venture. Shap gathered and
invited material for these, but was greatly helped by their publication
by CRC (the Community Relations Commission, later CRE). World
Religions: Aids for Teachers edited by Peter Woodward was
published in 1972; this included a calendar of religious festivals;
lists of AVA, and ‘Tools for the Classroom’; its bibliographies
were central and inclusive – here already was guidance,
for example, for those who wished to know about Jainism, Chinese
and Japanese religions, Zoroastrianism and Humanism; about Christian
attitudes to non-Christian religions and books for the classroom.
‘Tools for the Classroom’ included suggestions for
‘a Jewish Box’ and guidance on visiting a synagogue
with lower secondary pupils. ‘World religions in the infant
school’ was also addressed. All these subjects – normative
now? – pointed towards the radical then. A successor to
this publication came in 1976, World Religions: a Handbook
for Teachers, edited by Owen Cole and was followed by a 1982
supplement. A new version edited by Alan Brown appeared in 1987;
a whole section of this publication was given to ‘New Religious
Movements’, a category broadly conceived, but remarkably
prescient in its chosen subjects - Hindu-related New Religious
Movements; Militant Islam – strengths and prospects in the
1980s; the state of Buddhism in Tibet and Exile; Sri Lanka –
Buddhism and the Tamil Minority. Such matters are still with us
as we reflect on our area of study. But time moves on and the
function of the handbooks in terms of providing basic information
had been met. It was time for a new kind of handbook. Clive Erricker
headed a team which produced Teaching World Religions
(Heinemann, 1993); a central feature of this was its attention
to pedagogy in relation to some of the central concepts of religions
– a perennial concern for RE.
The Shap Calendar of Religious
Festivals
It
is probably true to say that Shap was first in the field here;
from a mailing of dates emerged a fully fledged calendar
offering notes on the key festivals of (in 2006-07) twelve traditions;
many readers will know Clive Lawton who over a period of ten years
saw the calendar through its ‘late childhood’ and
‘adolescence’ (6). Editing the calendar is no mean
task! A strength of Shap’s calendar is that dates are checked
with authoritative sources each year; but each year also brings
new questions, challenges and decisions – so much so that
in recent years the editors have offered a commentary on these
in their editorial notes. It is this attention to detail which
contributes to the authenticity and – we hope - reliability
of the calendar. It still remains first port of call for some
15,000 subscribers from the educational world and beyond –
and (I suspect) a source of inspiration to other calendar compilers.
The success of the calendar led Shap to produce a major book,
Festivals in World Religions (Brown ed.1986; Woodward
et al eds.1998); calendar notes are cross referenced to this.
Additionally, 2008 will see our fifth pictorial calendar –
a popular innovation offering 12 full colour pictures, designed
to be a resource for RE beyond the lifespan of the calendar itself.
From ‘Mailing’ to ‘World
Religions in Education’
Shap
Mailing’ was for many years the name ascribed to the journal
(though actually ‘the Mailing’ was the calendar and
journal); by 1986 it seemed appropriate
(then) to re-name the journal World Religions in Education.
The journal had emerged in its own right in 1976 under Owen Cole’s
editorship. His last - and my first - edited journal adopted a
central theme as its focus – Death. Since that time each
journal has been organised around a theme, and the editor(s) supported
by an editorial committee; the table sets out the themes covered
over the years. The tendency of the journal has been to include
‘academic’ thinking, voices from different traditions,
and whenever possible classroom approaches. This last aspect has
probably been ‘thinnest’ and we would welcome contributions
from teachers willing to share good practice. The 2007-08 journal
takes ‘Diversity and Distinctiveness ‘ as its theme,
again demonstrating inclusiveness – we move well beyond
the six ‘principal’ religions, and in focusing on
diversity within traditions reflect current trends in the study
of religion, as well as a growing awareness of this in RE (Ofsted
2007:para.138). In 2008-09 we shall return to the theme of the
environment, with Marilyn Mason and Angela Gluck Wood taking on
editorial responsibility; Lesley Prior continues to ensure there
is primary provision related to journal themes in the
Primary Supplement
insert.
Shap Journals 1980 -2007 |
1980 |
No specific theme |
1981 |
Rites of Passage [in part] |
1982 |
Death |
1983 |
Pilgrimage |
1984 |
Sacred Writings |
1985 |
Worship in World Faiths |
1986 |
Religions in Britain |
1987 |
Festivals |
1988 |
Women in Religion |
1989 |
Humankind and the Environment |
1990/91 |
Religion and Story Diversity and distinctiveness |
1991/92 |
Religion and Creative Expression |
1992/93 |
Religion and Truth |
1993/94 |
Exploring Journeys |
1994/95 |
Exploring Loss, Grief and Change |
1995/96 |
From Syllabuses to Schemes – Planning and Teaching
Religious Education |
1996/97 |
Exploring Conflict & Reconciliation: Issues for RE |
1997/98 |
Who Am I? The Search for Individual and Group Identity |
1998/99 |
Faith & Values in RE |
1999/00 |
Can I Teach Your Religion? |
2000/01 |
Time |
2001/02 |
Living Community |
2002/03 |
Religion: the Problem or the Answer? |
2003/04 |
Wealth and Poverty |
2004/05 |
Shaping the Future |
2005/06 |
Reflecting on learning and teaching |
2006/07 |
Human rights and responsibilities [to mark the bicentenary
of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act] |
2007/08 |
Diversity and distinctiveness |
In writing of the Calendar and the Journal
I have probably touched on the two key aspects of Shap activity
which are most familiar to readers – they also bridge past
and present. But there have been other ventures and publications.
A golden age of in-service courses
This heading applies not only to Shap -
but probably also to other organisations which from around the
mid 1970s through to the early 1990s were able to offer a wide
range of courses and conferences which provided teachers with
the opportunity to follow interests in the field of religion at
their own level, as well as considering the implications of their
study for the classroom. Put another way, there was a freedom
to choose and to attend courses which enlarged understanding of
religions and thereby the possibilities and potential of religious
education. Shap developed a very full conference and courses programme
during these years. South Coast Shap flourished in Chichester
(with an occasional year in Winchester); in the north Lancaster
and York provided venues for residential conferences. These were
often oversubscribed and saw teachers travelling long distances
to participate in an intensive weekend programme. To list just
a few conference titles gives a glimpse of the range of subjects
addressed:
London:
- Afro-Caribbean Religion [1974]
- Violence and Non-violence in Religions
[1975]
Shap Wells:
- An Introduction to Myth [1974]
- Prejudice and Tolerance in Religion
[1979]
Lancaster:
- Christ and Buddha in History, Art &
Ethics [1978]
- Jesus, Muhammad & Marx in Conflict
and Congruence [1979]
Chichester:
- Shabbat Shalom [1981]
- Transforming the World: Christian and
Buddhist Approaches [1990]
- Half the World: Women & Religion
across the curriculum [1991]
York:
- Dar -al -Islam [1983]
- Christianity in World Perspective [1990]
- Learning to See [1991]
These were collaborative ventures –
for example South Coast Shap ran mainly at Bishop Otter College/West
Sussex Institute of Education from around 1980 to 1993, ‘York
Shap’ from 1983 through to 1991 - a joint venture with York
RE Centre. Substantial reports emerged from conferences, usually
in York’s case comprising all the conference papers. From
time to time I still run into people who speak of their recollections
of Shap conferences – not least for the range of ‘experts’
they brought together and for their experiential and personally
enriching elements – participation in keeping Shabbat; providing
for the dietary needs of Buddhist monks over a weekend; meeting
a sofer and watching him work; preparing for a local Sikh community
to install the Guru Granth Sahib at a conference; participating
in/participant observation of a Taizé liturgy; getting
up at 6am to join a Buddhist meditation – to mention just
a little of what was offered.
Study days on ‘Living as a Buddhist’
took place under Peggy Morgan’s guidance in Oxford, and
in the North West (Liverpool and Manchester) ‘Primary Shap’
was coordinated by Vida Barnett, producing a number of festival
packs for primary schools. It was also Vida Barnett, with Peter
Woodward, who led study tours which visited Israel, Egypt, Yugoslavia
and Morocco in the late 1970s and early 1980s – providing
vital input into an initiative coming from Birmingham LEA. An
international dimension also developed in this period with the
establishing of EAWRE (The European Association for World Religions
in Education); EAWRE has held many conferences and seminars and
published a trilingual calendar for some years. Closer to home,
a Scottish Working Party also flourished for many years.
The Chichester project
The
period referred to above also saw the emergence of the Chichester
research project supported by both Shap and the (then) West Sussex
Institute of Education. This project’s concern was to produce
materials for teaching Christianity in secondary schools; it drew
on the expertise of many RE professionals as well as that of the
working party. Led by John Rankin, the project critically appraised
existing materials for teaching Christianity and then moved on
to produce 9 books for the secondary age phase on different aspects
of Christianity; each book carried its author’s own style,
but had also been through the rigours of project discussion and
debate. The series was unusual at the time in including for example
books on The Eucharist and Christian Experience; Teaching Christianity,
addressed to teachers, followed (Erricker ed. 1987;1996). At a
later stage the project turned to meeting the needs of teachers
in primary schools, and extending beyond Christianity (Rankin,
Brown & Hayward, 1989; 1991).
A changing educational world
2008 will mark 20 years since the introduction
of the National Curriculum; national initiatives have their own
momentum and it is easy to be swept along with them and not to
raise the questions one considers important; invariably such initiatives
have prompted debate in the meetings of the working party –
from the time of the consultation on the National Curriculum through
to current discussion of the revised secondary curriculum. The
non-statutory national framework for RE. QCA schemes of work and
the proposed national strategy have similarly been the focus of
discussion and response. Indeed the many initiatives of the last
20 years have meant that Shap‘s officers have given much
time to meeting the latest response dates – perhaps none
more so than the current Chair, Roger Butler, who has been assiduous
in responding to central initiatives and raising concerns. This
brings a different dimension to ‘working’ from that
previously enjoyed by Shap in its advocacy and passion for engagement
with religious traditions in education.
As Shap welcomed links with other organisations
in the past, so in the present; it is for example a longstanding
member of the RE Council of England Wales, and has always welcomed
its association with the Interfaith Network. We also recognise
that members of the working party are often key figures in other
organisations and hope that this contributes to mutual understanding
among those concerned with RE.
Pragmatically, Shap like other organisations
is developing its website. Look out especially for the forthcoming
audio guidance on the pronunciation of the religious terms in
the glossary which is already available on the website. A further
dimension of the website is its advisory service – if you
can’t find a response to your question among answers already
there, then contact us for help [www.shap.org.uk]. Past publications
are increasingly available on the website, and details of how
to order new items are there too.
Interest
in quality resources for teaching religions has been a lifelong
concern of Shap’s – and many of its members have been
and are leading authors in the field. This long held concern is
reflected in the Shap
Award, launched in 1998 and usually given annually
for ‘a piece of work which has been judged to make a marked
contribution to the teaching of world religions’. True to
Shap’s ‘scope’, this award has been made at
both university and nursery ends of education and to work developed
outside the education sector, but pertinent to it.
Of anniversaries and archives ….and
the future
Shap marked its twentieth anniversary in
1989 with a publication of papers from its first twenty years
(see note 1) and a national conference on ‘Freedom and Authority
in Religions and Religious Education’ at St. Martin’s
College, Lancaster (with a dinner for participants at the Shap
Wells Hotel). The theme again seems prescient – not least
in John Bowker’s keynote exploration of ’boundaries
where religions (or subsystems within religions) meet’ on
a world map – and his affirmation of RE’s mediating
role. Bob Jackson (then Chair of Shap) in prophetic vein urged
us to think of a future in which interfaith, international concerns
and pedagogy were to the fore. His words too have currency in
the present.
As Shap approaches 40, it has established
an archive which documents most of these years. We are delighted
that this was accepted for deposit in the Bodleian Library in
Oxford and is thus preserved for future researchers who may wish
to explore the development of the teaching of ‘world religions’
in the UK. Certainly the working party has more than achieved
the simple aims with which it started. But the urgency of understanding
the complexity of religion and religions in the contemporary world
is no less than in 1969, and more hopes are placed on RE now than
then. Approaching 40 is a time for reflection and re-visioning
the future; and if, as they say, 60 is today’s 40, then
Shap is still rather young and will have new paths to tread. Is
it time for a change of name – is world religions still
appropriate? And should we signal new directions in a changing
world by speaking of ‘education in…’ rather
than ‘…in education’? Back then to debate and
discussion – but watch out for 2009!
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