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This book covers the various approaches to religious education in public schools. The papers gathered in this publication cover the conceptual debate on the subject, ranging from a confessional approach to a sociological approach with an inclusive model as the middle-position.

The RE for REal project, led by Adam Dinham and Martha Shaw, has released a report on "The Future of Teaching and Learning about Religion and Belief" in England. The report provides a new evidence-base to support and facilitate continuing national discussions on religious education through in depth analysis of the views of students, teachers, parents and employers on the place of RE in England.  It provides context for the existing educational and social landscape, and evidence and recommendations from teachers, students, parents and employers on the importance of learning about religious diversity.

This publication from the The Council of Europe is meant to provide a context on issues of teaching about religions and non-religious world views in the context of prior COE recommendations and exchanges.

In many states the role of religion and religious communities is controversial. While this is particularly true of predominantly Muslim countries, it also holds for Europe. The controversy revolves not least around the issue of religious instruction. What is the legal basis of religious instruction, in which institutions does it take place, who draws up the curricula, who trains the teachers, and what is its impact? Do states seek to instrumentalise it to strengthen their legitimacy; do societal forces use it to influence government policies? Does it trigger, deepen or reduce conflict? These questions are examined in case studies of Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Macedonia, Tunisia, Turkey and the UK. A comparison of the case studies reveals commonalities in the pattern of problems and conflicts, but also gaps in the state of our knowledge, and, hence, the need for further research.

In the beginning of February (3.-5.) this year (2014)the Wilton Park conference took place. The theme was: Religion, foreign policy and development: making better policy to make a bigger difference. The conference brought together academics, policy makers, diplomats, development practitioners and religious actors to discuss challenges and opportunities for learning and closer collaboration in the integration of religious awareness and engagement in foreign policy and development – to make better policy and to make a bigger difference. This conference report provides a summary of the discussions and conclusions.

Relgious education at school teaches students to understand different viewpoints, says a student blogger who has submitted his entry to the Guardian's section 'Blogging students'. "RE taught me valuable skills, but it is still isn't taken seriously in schools", he writes asking "Why do schools sideline religious education".

This blog entry is submitted by the author of the book: "The Call to Teach: An introduction to teach." In the article Matthew Lynch discusses the importance of multiculturalism in the classroom. Important subjects to touch upon during education is mentioned and explained in the article.

What leads religious individuals to volunteer at a community food bank, or to care for the sick or to build houses and schools for neighbors in their community and across the world? The answer is complex, with personal faith, worship attendance and social networks all playing a role, according to new research. The latest edition of Ahead of the Trend (from the Association of Religion Data Archives) explores studies indicating religious belief and private prayer are among the influences associated with compassionate service to others. The quest to determine the motivations of religious volunteers has taken on added urgency in an era of increasingly bitter political battles over government funding of social services and a rise in the number of Americans reporting no religious affiliation.

Huffington post has published this Interfaith Calendar of the religious holidays of 2014. Click through it to see all the beautiful photographs of celebrations of the world's numerous beautiful and sacred holidays.

The editors of HuffPost Religion created this collection of 2013's most moving photographs.

This text is a report from A Season of International Interfaith Conferences, held in late November 2013. The observations summarizes the interesting discussions and issues raised amongst the leading experts on religion and education.

Balancing holiday inclusion in your classroom can be tough and time-consuming, but ensuring equity is worth it. Take the time to do it well in December and year round. Teaching Tolerance has published this blog entry with various suggestions as how to avoid these Holiday issues.

“One really important thing is how we imagine the world, how we create some of the reality that we live in by imagining it. The phenomenon of the social imaginary gives us not just some topics that we talk about, but the very way we talk, the way we think of the world. How do people from one part of the world conceptualize other parts of the world? Do we think of humanity as a whole lot of individual people, or do we think about the kind of connections that we make? In our countries or even in our families and our cities, the social imaginary is a force that shapes even before we have made conscious decisions about how to act.” How? During the ResetDOC Istanbul Seminars, Nina zu Fürstenberg interviewed professor Craig Calhoun, the current director of the London School of Economics