Anglican Church School Education: moving beyond the first two hundred years

I’ve recently reviewed a book published to commemorate two hundred years of the National Society, the leading body supporting church schools and religious education in the CoE. See the review itself, currently here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2013.872877?journalCode=cbre20#.UtcE8tJ_uyY

Schools of religious character continue to proliferate, and this book puts some of the challenges for schools, and those supporting and working in them, into context. The volume leans more towards the contemporary setting, rather than being an historical study, a little odd given that the book is a reflective retrospect. And if I were to offer another critique it is one that befalls a number of edited volumes, that of content with a very loose narrative to link it. Even so there are gems to be found in those chapters grounded in research and wise reflection, and which evidence that Anglican church schools are distinctive philosophically from other types of maintained school and indeed ‘faith school’ (lumping all ‘faith schools’ together is meaningless). Neither are Anglican church schools themselves homogeneous in character, as they exist in different regional and social settings and respond to this contextually. Likewise these schools exist in a climate sometimes hostile to religious perspectives on life and with varying levels of connection to the local and national church: they and the church have to work hard for them to be ‘church schools’.

Are church schools reflective of society or shaping society? Can they be ‘prophetic’ or politically critical? The original vision of the founders of the National Society was an Erastian one, and church schools have survived by some equally clever politicking on the part of church leaders and successive governments over time. As Marjorie Cruikshank has shown, the relationship between church and state can informed by the history of education and religion, but there’s clearly more to be said on this in relation to church schooling and ‘faith schooling’ more widely.