This book presents the theoretical basis and practical steps involved in using Statement Archaeology, an innovative method that enhances understandings of policy development, exemplifying its use in relation to one curriculum subject, Religious Education. The book is the first of its kind to fully describe the theoretical foundations of Statement Archaeology and the practical steps in its deployment, acting as a methodological handbook that will enable readers to use the method subsequently in their own research. Further, the book offers an unparalleled contribution to the historical account of the development and maintenance of compulsory RE in English state-maintained schools and uses this to engage with key current debates in Religious Education policy. It unearths important insights into how the present is built, informs future policy direction and potential implementation strategies, and helps prevent the repetition of unsuccessful past endeavours. This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of religious education, educational policy and politics, and research methods in education.

This book brings together two topics which have both been of increasing interest in different countries. The first refers to the quality of Religious Education as a school subject (RE) in general, the second is about the education of teachers of RE and its possible contribution to better quality RE. There have been many public, and often controversial, debates concerning both of these topics. The chapters contained in this volume, however, are not meant to continue such debates (even if it is inevitable that they will contribute to these debates as well), but to make use of research, especially research on teacher education in the field of RE, in order to provide insights based not just on political or personal opinions, but on rigorous academic scholarship.