Doing God in Education

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Trevor Cooling’s high-profile Theos report Doing God in Education (Cooling, 2010) advances the thesis that a secular worldview should not be privileged when it comes to shaping public education. Rather, fairness demands an approach to educational policy and practice that draws equitably on the resources of the various religious and non-religious worldviews to which members of the polity subscribe. In this symposium Cooling’s arguments are subjected to philosophical scrutiny by three critics of his position and Cooling attempts to answer their objections.

Sub Unit

• British Educational Research Association - BERA / British Educational Research Association

Chair

• Michael Hand, Institute of Education - London

Papers

• Introduction to the Report - Trevor Cooling, Canterbury Christ Church University

• Worldviews, Humanism, and the (Im)possibility of Neutrality - Richard Norman, University of Kent

• What’s in a Worldview? A Response to Trevor Cooling’s Doing God in Education - Michael Hand, Institute of Education - London

• Thinking About How to "Do God" in the Context of Diversity - Daniel Peter Moulin, Oxford University Department of Education

• The Centrality of Belief in Education - Trevor Cooling, Canterbury Christ Church University