RT Article
T1 Knowledge exchange, intergroup relations and ‘sharing space’: a community of enquiry for the professional development of teachers of religion and worldviews
JF British Journal of religious education
VO 43
IS 3
SP 265
OP 277
A1 Orchard, Janet 1966-
A1 Williams, Amanda 1987-
A1 Christopher, Kate
A1 McKeown, Shelley
A1 Jackson-Royal, Rachael
A1 Wright, Kathryn
A1 Wan, Sally Wai-Yan
A1 Davids, Nuraan 1970-
LA English
PB [publisher not identified]
YR 2021
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1759592137
AB We present a distinctive approach to knowledge exchange used in the ‘Shared Space’ project; an inter-disciplinary researcher–teacher partnership using Allport’s contact theory contact theory as a lens to interpret teachers’ self-reported practice in the subject Religion and Worldviews (RWE). By so doing, we created new professional knowledge and understanding of how RWE could be used as a vehicle for promoting community relations. At the project’s heart was a team of six whose collaboration across the theory-practice divide has proved unusually close and successful. Here we reflect as a team on our relationships, with each other and the project, through a ‘Collective Writing’ approach, identifying positive experiences, tensions and disagreements, and strategies used to (partially) resolve these. Issues we faced included potentially irreconcilable differences within and across disciplines related to ontology and epistemology. We identify three particular strategies we have used to address them: reciprocal hospitality and embodying Allport’s contact principles within a ‘community of enquiry’. We conclude that, despite the challenges, we have remained a strong and productive team, literally ‘sharing space’, by affording each team member equal status; collaborating towards common goals and in ways that have been supported by our respective institutions. 193/200
K1 Intergroup relations
K1 community of enquiry
K1 knowledge exchange
K1 Religion and worldviews education
DO 10.1080/01416200.2021.1898933