An integrated philosophy of knowledge in the school curriculum vision: how schools of a Christian character might respond

In the Science Religion Encounters (SRE) research project, we did not find much evidence that beginning teachers who had experience of a Christian character sensed a strong integrated philosophy of knowledge although the method and focus of enquiry did not seek to reveal this.

However, in presenting the findings of the project to senior school leaders from schools of a Christian the question of how science religion encounters were made sense of brought up Christian school ethos intentions of an integrated holistic or overarching philosophy of education or knowledge.
Ofsted, the English school inspectorate, require that schools express a curriculum intent and this is translated into different subjects (Ofsted September 2022). Schools may expect to be asked about their rationale for including knowledge they identify and also the sequencing of that within individual subjects. Strictly speaking, schools are not expected to articulate a bigger integrated picture of knowledge above that of subject level. (Young 2013, Billingsley 2013; Kötter and Hammann 2017; Billingsley and Nassaji 2020).

However, Government policies for schools do hope schools will draw on more than one subject in certain areas. For example, in the statutory guidance on Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (DfE 2021). Curriculum programmes addressing these ares may complement and be complemented by multiple national curriculum subjects including science and RE.

Billingsley, B. (2013). Students’ perceptions of apparent contradictions between science and religion: Creation is only the beginning. Science education for diversity: Theory and practice, 329-338. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4563-6_16

Billingsley, B., & Nassaji, M. (2020). Perceptions of the relationships between science and religion held by upper-secondary school students in Church of England schools. International Journal of Christianity & Education, 24(2), 153-178. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056997119895542

Kötter, M., & Hammann, M. (2017). Controversy as a blind spot in teaching nature of science: Why the range of different positions concerning nature of science should be an issue in the science classroom. Science & Education, 26(5), 451-482. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-017-9913-3

Young, M. (2013). Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: A knowledge-based approach. Journal of curriculum studies, 45(2), 101-118.