Professor Robert Jackson
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Professor Robert Jackson BA MA PhD DLitt PGCE AcSS Director, WRERU email: r.jackson@warwick.ac.uk Phone: 00 44 (0) 24 765 23190 Background Robert (Bob) Jackson is Director of WRERU, and is a leading figure in international debates about religions and education in Europe and beyond. He is Professor of Education at the University of Warwick and is also Professor of Religious Diversity and Education at the European Wergeland Centre, a Council of Europe related centre based in Oslo, specialising in intercultural, citizenship and human rights education. Robert Jackson was a member of the drafting team of the Council of Europe Ministerial policy recommendation on teaching about religions and beliefs (2008) and of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs (2007). He contributes to the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations programme on Education about Religions and Beliefs and spoke at the Alliance of Civilizations 2009 Istanbul Forum. He is currently contributing to various Council of Europe projects and to a range of research projects in Europe and the UK, including an EC Framework 6 project on religions, education, dialogue and conflict, involving 9 European Universities (REDCo). He spoke at the European Parliament on this project in December 2008. His current UK projects are for the main research councils (AHRC and ESRC), the UK Government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families and various charities and trusts, including the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Robert Jackson’s book Rethinking Religious Education and Plurality: Issues in Diversity and Pedagogy was selected by the American Academy of Religion for discussion at its conference in San Antonio, Texas. Robert Jackson was awarded a higher doctorate (DLitt) by the University of Wales for his contribution to international research in religions and education and in 2010 was elected as an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. Robert Jackson belongs to a number of research networks in Europe and beyond, including:
International Profile Robert Jackson speaks regularly at international conferences. During the past few years, he has spoken in Australia (Brisbane [ACU]); Austria (Vienna [OSCE]; Belgium (Brussels [European Parliament]); Canada (Montreal [McGill University]); Denmark (Odense); Estonia (Tartu [REDCo]); Finland [University of Helsinki]; France (Strasbourg, Paris [Council of Europe; IESR]); Germany (Berlin [CoGREE], Bremen [EASR]. Hamburg [REDCo]); Greece (Athens [Council of Europe]); Iceland (Reykjavik); Indonesia (Makassar [Oslo Coalition]); Italy (Perugia [OSCE]); Japan (Tokyo [Taisho & Aoyama Universities]); Republic of Korea (Seoul [Sogang University]); Morocco (Rabat); the Netherlands (Leeuwarden [IRE], Driebergen [ISREV], Utrecht [ENRECA]); Norway (Stavanger, Oslo, Kristiansand); Poland (Krakow [British Council]; the Russian Federation (Nizhniy Novgorod [Council of Europe]; St Petersburg [REDCo]); South Africa (Cape Town and Stellenbosch [IRE], Durban [IAHR]; Spain (Granada [REDCo], Toledo and Madrid [OSCE]); Sweden (Lund); Turkey (Istanbul [ISAV; United Nations AoC]); and the USA (San Antonio [AAR]). He is Editor of the British Journal of Religious Education, the main English Language international research journal in the field and is an Editor of the Waxmann book series Religious Diversity and Education in Europe (published in Germany). He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including:
Translations Some of his academic publications have been translated into Danish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian and Turkish, and the Warwick RE Project curriculum books have been translated into Japanese and published in DVD format. Council of Europe and the European Wergeland Centre Professor Jackson’s role in the Council of Europe includes contributions to the Council’s work on teaching about religions, intercultural education and citizenship. At the request of the Director of DGIV, he undertook a feasibility study for a European Centre for Human Rights Education, incorporating citizenship education and education about religious diversity. He presented the study to the Steering Committee for Education (ministerial representatives from the 47 states) in Strasbourg. The Centre proposal was taken up by the Norwegian authorities and the European Wergeland Centre was inaugurated in Oslo in May 2009. Robert Jackson was invited to become its first Professor. http://www.theewc.org/news/view/the.ewc.welcomes.professor.robert.jackson/ Organisation on Security and Co-operation in Europe: Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs During 2007, Professor Jackson worked with a team of international lawyers and social scientists in Toledo (May) and Vienna (July) on international guiding principles for teaching about religions and beliefs. The work was done for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation on Security and Co-operation in Europe [OSCE] (56 participant countries including most European states plus the USA and Canada). Professor Jackson spoke at the launch Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief The Oslo Coalition’s ‘Teaching for Tolerance’ project was set up following a UN conference in Madrid on freedom of religion or belief and education. The project’s focus during 2007 has been on handling religion in the schools of Indonesia, following a period of inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflict in parts of the country. In January 2007 Professor Jackson worked in Makassar, Sulawesi, with Muslim and Christian scholars from different parts of Indonesia on issues in teaching about religious diversity. Further details of papers from the conference are available on the Oslo Coalition website http://www.oslocoalition.org/html/project_school_education/Makassar.htm Professor Robert Jackson is a member of the comité d’orientation scientifique of the Institut Europėen en Sciences des Religions (IESR), at the Ėcole Pratique des Hautes Ėtudes, Sorbonne, Paris. Directed by Professor Jean-Paul Willaime, the IESR conducts research and policy studies on teaching about religions within the French educational system, and on wider issues of religion and education in Europe. Professor Robert Jackson serves on the Steering Committee of the AHRC and ESRC research programme on Religion and Society. Research Projects Robert Jackson has directed research projects funded by the European Commission, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy and various charities including the Leverhulme Trust, the All Saints Educational Trust and the Westhill Endowment Trust. Funded research has included projects on the religious upbringing of children in Britain from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, on new religious movements and values education and on various aspects of teaching and learning in religious education, intercultural education and citizenship education, plus research on , children’s dialogue, young people’s attitudes to religious diversity and collaborative action research by a community of practice. Recent research projects include:
Publications Professor Jackson writes on religious education theory, religions, pluralism and education, the politics of religious education in plural societies, research in religious education, curriculum development and ethnography, faith-based education and the relationship between religious education other fields concerned with values, such as intercultural and citizenship education. His books include: Jackson, R. and Nesbitt, E. (1993) Hindu Children in Britain, Stoke on Trent, Trentham. Jackson, R. (1997) Religious Education: an Interpretive Approach, London, Hodder and Stoughton. Jackson, R. (Ed) (2003) International Perspectives on Citizenship, Education and Religious Diversity, London, RoutledgeFalmer. Jackson, R. (2004) Rethinking Religious Education and Plurality: Issues in Diversity and Pedagogy, London, RoutledgeFalmer. Jackson, R. and McKenna, U. (eds) (2005) Intercultural Education and Religious Plurality, University of Oslo, Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief. de Souza, M., Engebretson, K., Durka, G., Jackson, R. and McGrady, A. (Eds.) (2006) International Handbook of the Religious, Moral and Spiritual Dimensions of Education (2 Vols) (Dordrecht, the Netherlands, Springer Academic Publishers). Jackson, R. Miedema, S. Weisse, W. & Willaime, J.-P. (eds.) (2007) Religion and Education in Europe: Developments, Contexts and Debates, Münster, Waxmann. McKenna, U., Ipgrave, J. and Jackson, R. (2008) Interfaith Dialogue by Email in Primary Schools: An Evaluation of the Building E-Bridges Project, Münster, Waxmann. Jackson, R. and Fujiwara, S. (Eds.) (2008), Peace Education and Religious Plurality: International Perspectives, London, Routledge. Ipgrave, J., Jackson, R. & O’Grady, K. (Eds) (2009) Religious Education Research through a Community of Practice: Action Research and the Interpretive Approach, Münster, Waxmann. Jackson, R., Ipgrave, J., Hayward, M., Hopkins, P., Fancourt, N., Robbins, M., Francis, L. J. and McKenna, U. (2010) Materials used to Teach about World Religions in Schools in England, London: Department for Children, Families and Schools. Research Report DCSF-RR197ISBN 978 1 84775 634 3 Available at: http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF-RR197& (accessed 28 January, 2010)
Teaching Bob Jackson is currently involved in teaching:
Curriculum Development Project Professor Jackson was co-director (with Judith Everington) of the Warwick RE Project which produced the 'Bridges to Religions' curriculum series. Music Bob Jackson is also a jazz musician and he plays trombone and sings with Spicy Jazz
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of the ‘Toledo Guiding Principles’ in Madrid on November 28, 2007. 
