Steven Alan Davies

Postgraduate Researcher

Current Status

First year, part time 

Research Topic

Why are Sunni paradigms normative in Religious Education?

Research Summary

My research takes a multi-disciplinary approach to exploring how and why the paradigms associated with Sunni Islam are normative in Religious Education. I am particularly interested in why RE represents Shi'a Islam according to Sunni polemic rather than according to how Shi'a Islam understands itself.

This necessarily includes a critical analysis of, but not limited to: the concept of 'religion' used within RE, the impact of 'multi-culturalism' on RE, RE pedagogies as ideologies of recuperation, the relationship between RE and anti-Shi'a discourse, RE and global political agendas and the formation and consequences of RE epistemologies 

Research Interests

  • Critical Theory and RE
  • The impact of sectarianism on RE students
  • The representations of diversity within Islam

Research Supervison

Dr Geoff Teece and Dr Tonie Stolberg

Funding

Self funded