From syllabus development to classroom practice in study of Religion

Curriculum change is a complex and difficult process reqiiring careful planning, adequate time, funding, support and opportunities for teacher involvement. It involves more than simply issuing and mandating a syllabus. Curriculum change requires that teachers reconceptualise the way they conceive the subject, how they position themselves and how they are positioned in relation to the required change. The teaching of religion, like other subjects, has been influenced by social and political agendas, available resources and teacher expertise. All of these influence how the subject is shaped and the way it is taught. Curriculum change entails not just a re-formation of the subject, but also teachers' reconstruction of the subject and of themselves as teachers. Curriculum change succeeds or fails according to the ways in which it is taken up, enacted and owned by those who teach it.