Reimagining the accidentally local in English RE

This paper will critically analyse the assertion that “The local argument for the Locally Agreed Syllabus has been lost” (Smalley 2020a, 57). It will begin by briefly sketching the historical background to the unique way that Religious Education is structured in England, with each local area having its own syllabus. It will then outline some of the main points of the local/national debate which has been debated for over 50 years. It will then critically analyse what is meant by local, drawing on debates in History education, before turning to consider what content means in Religious Education syllabi, drawing on the work of the Religious Education Council’s Religion and Worldviews Project. It will conclude by suggesting that the initial assertion is accurate, and that the concept of local content should be reimagined as a hermeneutic encounter between pupil and the subject matter, recognising that each encounter will be unique because of the perspectives of the individuals involved in that encounter. Practically, schools should be free to determine their own curricula for RE in line with national benchmarks, as with any other subject.