DCU Home | Our Courses | Loop | Registry | Library | Search DCU
<< Back to Module List

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title RE: Integration Seminars
Module Code EDS1037 (ITS: ED4301)
Faculty Human Development School DCU Institute of Education
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 5
Description

This module is designed to facilitate students’ engagement with a wide range of contemporary research in religious education. A combination of lectures, seminars and class presentations will support students in reflecting on and articulating a coherent vision of their professional identity and agency as teachers of religious education who are responsive to meeting the needs of a variety of intercultural contexts. Students will be able to engage in an open and inclusive dialogue with the critical issues of a rapidly changing multi-cultural and multi-faith society. To that end this module builds on ED1303, ED2303, ED3302 and engages with the content of EDRE401 to reflect on how RE responds to the particular needs of students in the diverse context of today’s classrooms.

Learning Outcomes

1. Read, present, interpret and discuss a wide range of contemporary national and international research in religious education.
2. Illustrate a critical awareness of how to engage with the variety of cultural contexts underlying these research informed texts and their implications for classroom practice
3. Respond creatively to the intellectual and personal challenges that emerge during lectures and the making of presentations in seminar groups.
4. Relate their experience of teaching religious education to the themes of these texts.
5. To express a coherent, person-centred philosophy of life in the classroom and beyond, reflecting a generous respect for young people from a variety of social, economic, cultural and religious backgrounds.


WorkloadFull time hours per semester
TypeHoursDescription
Seminars60Attendance at seminars. Preparatory reading.
Class Presentation10Preparation and Reflection
Lecture5Preparation for seminars
Assignment Completion251800 word critical response
Independent Study25No description
Total Workload: 125
Section Breakdown
CRN10485Part of TermSemester 1
Coursework0%Examination Weight0%
Grade Scale40PASSPass Both ElementsY
Resit CategoryRC1Best MarkN
Module Co-ordinatorSandra CullenModule Teacher
Assessment Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
Group assignmentAttendance and participation in seminars, engagement in Loop Discussion Fora25%Every Week
PresentationIn Class presentation and leading of seminar + 300 word critical reflection on their session - 25%25%Once per semester
Reflective journal1800 word critical response paper50%Sem 2 End
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories;
RC1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module.
RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element.

* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite None
Co-requisite None
Compatibles None
Incompatibles None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Responding to current issues in Religious Education
intercultural education, interreligious education, inclusion in the religious education classroom – social and economic issues, gender identity, religious identity, culture, religion, migration

purpose, scope and aims of religious education in the public sphere and in faith communities
analysing the debates about the place of religious education in the curriculum

Interrogating research in religious education
introducing significant research studies in religious education - national and international

Indicative Reading List

Books:
  • Gareth Byrne and Leslie Francis: 2019, Religion and Education: The Voices of Young People in Ireland, Veritas, Dublin,
  • Sandra Cullen: 2017, '‘Interpreting between Spheres: Religious Education as a Conversational Activity’' Cullen, Sandra (2017) '‘Interpreting between Spheres: Religious Education as a Conversational Activity’' In: Does Rel, Ashgate, London,
  • Sandra Cullen: 2019, 'Turn up the volume: Hearing what the voices of young people are saying to religious education'. In: Gareth Byrne and Leslie Francis (eds)., Veritas, Dublin,
  • Aiveen Mullally/JMB: 2019, ‘Guidelines on the Inclusion of Students of Different Beliefs in Catholic Secondary Schools’., JMB, https://www.jmb.ie/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=bvfg2Cvau3s%3d&portalid=0&resourceView=1,
  • Dermot Lane: 2008, Challenges facing Religious Education in Contemporary Ireland, Veritas, Dublin,
  • NCCA: 2017, Background Paper and Brief for the Review of Junior Cycle Religious Education, https://ncca.ie/media/2785/backgroundpaper_religiouseducation_en.pdf,


Articles:
  • Patricia Kieran & Aiveen Mullally: 2021, Beyond belief? Pre-service teachers’ perspectives on teaching RE in Ireland, Journal of Religious Education, 69, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40839-021-00153-7, 522120
  • 2011: Giving voice to ‘the silent minority’: the experience of religious students in secondary school religious education lessons, British Journal of Religious Education, Vol. 33:3, pp. 313-326, https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2011.595916, 522121, 1
  • No Muslim is just a Muslim: implications for education: Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 43:5, pp. 596-611, https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2017.1352354, 522122, 1, Alan Kearns
  • Religious Education The official journal of the Religious Education Association: Vol. 113:5, pp. 477-488, https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2017.1413966, 522123, 1, Amalee Meehan, 2019
  • https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2019.1656100: 522124, 1, Yvette Taylor & Karen Cuthbert, 2018, Queer religious youth in faith and community schools, Education Review,
  • 522125: 1, Parker Palmer, 0, The Heart of a Teacher Identity and Integrity in Teaching, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, Vol. 29:6 pp. 14-21,
  • 1: Karin K. Flensner & Marie Von der Lippe, 0, Being safe from what and safe for whom? A critical discussion of the conceptual metaphor of ‘safe space’, Intercultural Education, Vol. 30:3, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2019.1540102
Other Resources

None

<< Back to Module List View 2024/25 Module Record for ED4301