The Deliberative Classroom project – Religious Freedom
Key stage 3 • Rights and equality
The Deliberative Classroom project – Religious Freedom
This debate pack includes a briefing, lesson plans and student resources. It helps teachers develop the conceptual knowledge that students need to learn about freedom and religious freedom in the context of a democracy.
Each lesson is designed to be taught in about 60 minutes and can be adapted to suit different teaching approaches.
Lesson 1 – Free to believe?
Lesson 1 includes activities exploring the nature and limits of religious freedom in a historical context and over time. Students use case studies to explore issues such as ‘What happens if beliefs are dangerous, or lead to harm?’.
Lesson 2 – Religious freedom in school
Lesson 2 includes an activity to help students develop proposals for interpreting religious freedom in school as part of developing a school resolution. This includes debating proposals, tabling amendments, and working towards consensus or majority support for the resolution.
Lesson 3 – Free to ban?
In this final activity, students draw on their previous discussions to debate whether religious freedom can be used to justify discrimination and banning others’ activities. The activity uses a competitive debate to help students build and critique arguments about freedom.
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Short video of secondary teachers modelling classroom practice:
