Research as pedagogy: building learning communities and religious understanding in RE

Debates on teacher accountability are informed by research generating, for example, evidence-based policy and practice. Debates on pedagogy, too, are informed by research, albeit with only a limited amount of empirical research being currently available on religious education (RE) pedagogy. In this article, research is conceived as not simply informing such debates, but as providing a framework for both accountability (through action research) and pedagogy (through enabling creative collaborative learning in classrooms). Empirical research is reported on patterns of classification and framing expected in RE by pupils, teachers and educationalists outside schools. Evidence is provided of possibilities for the collaborative involvement of teachers and pupils within RE, and for collaboration with teaching and learning in other school subjects. Research is itself put forward tentatively as the most appropriate pedagogy in RE. This is not conceived in terms of its 'effectiveness' as a pedagogy, but in terms of its ability to develop itself, critically, within the classroom and school as a learning community.