John-paul Sheridan

I Believe in the God That I Believe In: the Religious Identity of Primary School Student Teachers John-paul Sheridan

In Irish society today, faith and a religious identity can no longer be taken for granted. It is a challenge for teachers today, as they seek to both discover and understand this identity for themselves and as they seek to bring that faith, that religious identity to the teaching of religious education. In a country with a predominantly denominational education system, I am interested in how the internal religious identity of student teachers might have an external outcome. The questions at the heart of this research are not confined to any particular faith affiliation, but are questions that could be asked by all who are training to be primary teachers. Training teachers in the area of religious education is a challenge. It must firstly be a challenge for those in Colleges of Education; a challenge to create an environment where opinions, attitudes and convictions are respected and the student teachers are helped to grow in the context of their beliefs. It is a challenge which may impact on student teachers who may have little or no faith experience, or one that they have no wish to practise or even explore.