Positive faith, worldview and spirituality (FWS) oracy: a pilot programme to support primary teachers to foster good pupil talk in RE
creating inclusive spaces where every child feels their voice matters
In today’s diverse classrooms, spiritual oracy is crucial for fostering empathy and understanding. Primary RE teachers face challenges in training and building confidence in leading reflective dialogue around Faith, Worldview, and Spiritual (FWS) oracy. Children need dialogue skills to listen attentively, express curiosity, and engage in convivial conversations on sensitive subjects.
This project aims to support teachers through close-to-practice research into FWS speaking and listening in RE. There’s a lot of discussion about oracy and good talk in education today, and we’re excited about the opportunities in the RE classroom for developing attentive listening and thoughtful self-expression. We wondered, can teachers find ways to encourage that kind of talk in RE?
We’re particularly interested in something we’re calling spiritual oracy, which means supporting the development of good talk that reaches the special parts of life that can be deeply meaningful to people. We understand that this is something that matters to everyone, and it’s about feeling conversation as well as thoughts, sensing as well as philosophical explanation.
RE can be really important for helping students acquire the language of debate and discussion, which is something that other subjects like History and English also hold dear. However, there’s a special dimension for religion and worldviews that can lead to the inner world of meaning and a certain kind of aesthetic to our connections with others, the world around us, nature, and maybe even something that transcends.
In this project, we’ve used three key words: faith, worldview, and spirituality. Faith is often associated with religious traditions, but it can also encompass the things we hold dear and the values that matter to us. Worldviews help us understand the diverse perspectives and experiences in the world, while spirituality explores the inner dimension of life, the connections we form with others, nature, and even something beyond ourselves.
Our new project aims to achieve the following objectives:
- Enhance teacher confidence and competence by improving primary teachers’ understanding and teaching practices related to Faith, Worldview, and Spirituality (FWS) oracy.
- Empower pupils to express themselves confidently and effectively through classroom activities that promote attentive listening and self-reflection, fostering a sense of self-awareness and personal worldview exploration.
- Promote inclusive expression of spirituality, enabling pupils to express their unique perspectives and spiritual literacy in a supportive and respectful environment.
Developing FWS oracy in primary RE classrooms is not just about improving communication skills; it’s about creating inclusive spaces where every child feels their voice matters. In our recent CPD sessions with primary teachers, we explored strategies for fostering meaningful dialogue that respects diversity and nurtures spiritual literacy.
We’ve worked with teachers from across a Primary School MAT in the southeast of England, who have been experimenting with various oracy-focused activities in their classrooms. We’ve recently begun visiting their schools to assess their progress and gather feedback. The initial school visits have been fascinating, and we’re eager to collect all the data and insights to draw up our report in the Spring.
Imagine if unlocking good listening and reflective speaking could lead to something personally important and collectively powerful in RE lessons? We believe it might.
This work connects two areas of our previous research. It builds on the attentive listening and pupil talk we used in our method for the Faith in the Nexus research, and it draws on the experience we observed through the animations produced about that research when children heard other children discussing faith and spirituality. It also focusses on a hermeneutic approach, taking the ‘reader’ seriously when it comes to meaning, as we explored in our Texts and Teachers project.
Impact Areas
Teacher development: Improved confidence and strategies for facilitating spiritual oracy.
Pupil experiences: experience of deeper listening, increased curiosity, and more meaningful dialogue.
School culture: Positive ripple effects beyond RE into the wider school curriculum and culture.
Many thanks to the All Saints Educational Trust for making this work possible