Excellent feedback for Muslims in Britain course demonstrates positive impact on RE teaching
12 June 2023
An online CPD course exploring the lived-in experience of Muslims in Britain is gaining fantastic feedback from RE teachers from across the UK.
The Islam-UK Centre (part of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion) has developed an online CPD course to help RE teachers explore Islam from a sociological perspective in the classroom. The course is designed by specialists in sociological research exploring Muslims in Britain, alongside experts in other fields of Islamic Studies, and is endorsed by the Muslim Council of Britain, the Muslim Council of Wales and RE Today.
The course has so far run with two cohorts of RE teachers working at various key stages, and is generating positive feedback from participants, who praise the practical impact on their classroom practice.
A participant on the 2023 course said:
I am currently teaching a Y8 unit on Islam and feel so much more confident in delivering the content. I have a very eager pupil who I am asking to correct my pronunciations of Arabic terms and to add any other information during whole class discussions. She has been very excited to have an opportunity to share her faith in a 'safe classroom environment' and says it has allowed her to speak to her Imam about her school work and who in turn she says is happy with the way we are covering the content of our unit. If it was not for my participation in the course I would have tried to avoid the Arabic terms myself but now I feel confident to have a go even if I am not 100% right in doing so. Thank you again for running such a worthwhile course and CPD for RE teachers that really is beneficial for our subject.
Another participant on the course told us about the positive impact the course has had on her teaching:
..We were learning about what it means to be Muslim so I used the carousel and the class loved it. I did tell them it was a privilege to learn about Islam from Muslims and I do intend on embedding the carousels, and other ideas, into my lessons. I made a sticker of the carousel for the students, so they get to know our Muslim participants' faces. They loved Faraz particularly for his input about cleaning his teeth! And Laiqah for trying to swear less. As a non-Muslim teacher there are many things on this carousel that I would not have thought to tell them. It has helped to de-mystify Muslims in a very non-Muslim area.
The latest course has now concluded, with the next intake planned for late 2023. Teachers can still access a free set of resources designed to complement the programme. These resources are free to download, edit and share, and consist of nine lessons and an assessment, centred around the key question, ‘What does it mean to be a Muslim in Britain today?’. To access the resources, simply complete this short survey.
If you would like more information about how we could arrange CPD for your organisation or sector, please contact our friendly team for an initial chat:
