Implementing a multi-faith Religious Education curriculum in Botswana junior secondary schools

Abstract

I explore the ways in which RE teachers understand and implement a multi-faith Religious Education curriculum in Botswana junior secondary schools. The multi-faith RE curriculum came about as a result of an educational policy change in 1994. The study is based on case studies and draws its data from classroom observations, interviews and documents such as the RE teaching syllabus, and the schemes of work. In highlighting the teachers’ understanding and classroom practices, I adopted the concept of the teachers’ professional knowledge landscape. When the multi-faith RE curriculum was introduced in Botswana, there were two groups of teachers, those who taught the multi-faith curriculum and those who taught both the single faith and the multi-faith Religious Education. Five themes emerged from the data, namely: pedagogical and content knowledge, assessment, mentoring, and collaboration. I conclude that there are no marked differences between these two groups of teachers in terms of their understanding of the curriculum and their classroom practices.