Example teacher training dissertation topic 6:

Time for a national Religious Education curriculum?

RE remains, under the terms of the 1944 Education Act, the only subject not to have a national curriculum. Instead, each local education authority is responsible for the construction of a curriculum that mirrors the need of their geographic area. Whilst an analysis of the different RE curriculums presently utilised within Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire and Cornwall, show clear areas of overlap this dissertation assess the reasons for and against the establishment of a single multi-faith RE curriculum for the whole of England. In so doing the views of established practitioners are gathered in addition to those presently undertaking RE teacher training within the School of Education at Liverpool.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Langdon, C. (2012). To analyse a sample of grave memorabilia in an attempt to demonstrate how they illustrate the religious beliefs of the memorializers and to expose deficiencies in the death related religious education curriculum for England. BA thesis: University of Brighton.
• Lewis, E. (2011). ‘When Gove became bigger than God: Using social bookmarking to track subject knowledge development and student priorities in Initial Teacher Training’, Research in Secondary Teacher Education, Vol. 1(2), pp. 3-8.
• White, J. (2004). ‘Should religious education be a compulsory school subject?’, British Journal of Religious Education, Vol. 26(2), pp. 151-164.