Biblical Literacy in Schools Survey - Underground Story Background information THE BIBLE TODAY The Bible is the single most important influence on British culture. But public awareness of how the Bible shaped our art, architecture, history, language, literature, morality, music, religion, and politics is at an all-time low. This was clearly demonstrated in England by the National Biblical Literacy Survey (2009) conducted by Rev Brian D Brown, Visiting Fellow in Media and Communication, St John s College Durham University and Dr. Paul Brown, Visiting Research Fellow Dept Computer Science and Information Systems Birkbeck College London. In a series of face-to-face interviews with over 900 adults in nine locations throughout England and Wales researchers from Jumpdata Ltd exposed the reality of Biblical illiteracy across the UK. Similar studies in the USA have replicated these findings It may be too late to educate adults so it makes sense to target the young. But religious education too is in crisis. Agreed Syllabuses of Religious Education strongly suggest that children in schools should encounter the Bible. But teachers are failing to get kids excited in the stories of the Bible. Well-intentioned attempts to introduce Biblical literacy in schools have frequently backfired. When the government sent schools facsimiles of the original King James Bible, many teachers were concerned that the initiative was likely to put children off. The reason is obvious. The format, language and stories of the KJV may have seemed new and radical 400 years ago, but in the 21 st century they re outdated. The world has changed, awareness of the Bible has changed, and kids have changed.
THE SCHOOLS MONITORING EXERCISE The KJV had dozens of translators - experts in Hebrew and theology - to make the Bible accessible to people in 17 th C England. UNDERGROUND STORY will have its own experts in the language and media of today twelve thousand children and teachers from six hundred schools across the UK to make the Bible stories accessible to young people in 21 st Century Britain. Aim of the Underground Story Schools Monitoring project To involve schools and young people in UK in the creative process of making UNDERGROUND STORY. We aim to recruit thousands of children and their teachers between the ages of 9-13 from over 600 schools across the UK The schools will reflect the profile of all schools in the UK, including academies, community schools, independent and faith schools of all main denominations We will be contacting academy chains, local education authorities, RE advisors from all faiths and various independent schools to assist in recruitment We will ensure that the profile of schoolchildren recruited is indicative of the UK demographic, social and religious groupings for children of that age range
WHAT THE UNDERGROUND STORY PROJECT SEEKS TO DO To counter Biblical illiteracy by providing and testing a new version of the New Testament for young people reading ages 9-13 years To test the proposition that there is both a need and demand for a version of the Bible tailored to 21 st century young people in contemporary UK and Ireland to assist Biblical Literacy in schools. To test in particular whether there is such a need and demand in schools and in the RE curriculum of schools. To assess whether the demand is similar in all types of schools To test whether Underground Story fits both the perceived demands and needs, whether its language and lay out assist engagement and accessibility for young readers with reading ages 9-13 years. To encourage teachers to use a possible new resource in their classroom teaching and to learn from their experience of using it how the Bible can be effectively used in the RE curriculum To provide teachers with a new resource and to encourage them to find innovative ways of using the Bible in their RE curriculum To encourage teachers to discuss New Testament material with groups and to create innovative resources for use in the classroom To produce a report based upon the responses to the questions in the survey. Responses and suggestions from the survey will be carefully considered and if approved will be included in further drafts of Underground Story
Who s who on the project Rev Brian D Brown, Methodist minister, Visiting Fellow in Media and Communication St John s College Durham University has conceived the project, gathered the academic advisory team, authored Underground Story and the gospels which are to be sent out to schools.he has aroused interest and gathered support for the Underground project from leaders of the main Christian denominations including Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop Justin Welby, as well as Methodist leaders. He has received support in this from C of E and RC diocesan RE advisers and will continue to have an executive role in overseeing the conduct of the Underground Story Schools project including promotion and media work. Dr Paul A Brown, Visiting research fellow in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at Birkbeck College London University and founder of Jumpdata Ltd a London-based research analysis company formed from former members of Which? Group will with his colleagues at Jumpdata Ltd oversee all aspects of the schools project from survey creation and management to data analysis and the creation of the final report. They will also be responsible for liaising with Brian Brown and diocesan RE advisers, church education officers and the education department of the publishers to source and service the schools. He will be assisted by staff at wearecreative8.co.uk who will create the web-site; Mark Wilson (formerly of Which?) who will create and oversee the schools surveys and be responsible for schools liaison. Mark has had wide experience of survey design, building and operation, having led high profile public service projects for among others the EU, BBC Which? Home Office, DES, National Audit Office, Sure Start, the Children s Fund as well as for leading commercial organisations. Mark will design and manage the surveys and data collection from schools. He will supervise liaison with schools both during the promotion process and during the survey activities. Jumpdata personnel will host the website which will be designed by Wearecreative8.co.uk. They will also build a bespoke data base which will be used exclusively for the project.
The StoryKeepers man and his vision Known as the StoryKeepers man mission and outreach to those outside the church s structures has been the dominating feature of the ministry of Methodist Minister Rev Brian D Brown who is leading the Underground Story project. First aroused when he taught secondary modern school boys in Birmingham this concern became a life-long obsession when he was appointed to the Student Christian Movement in Schools to head up its work among 14-15 year olds in Secondary Modern Schools in the North West of England. It was these early experiences which brought him face to face with the Biblical illiteracy of whole generations he has sought to counter ever since. A turning point was his appointment as lecturer at Dudley College Education and his work alongside the legendary Biblical communicator and scholar, fellow Methodist minister, Alan T Dale as he produced New World, what he called The heart of the New Testament in Plain English. Alan Dale s concern to make the Bible understandable by young people with reading ages 9-13 years in language appropriate to their ages captured Brian Brown s imagination. Research into Christian mission to working class communities at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University and later, whilst he held his post as Head of Religious Studies at Lady Spencer Churchill College Oxford, with Methodist Minister William Gowland at Luton Industrial College where he was theological consultant, brought the reality of Biblical illiteracy among young people and their families into sharp focus and led him seek, as his mentor Alan Dale did, new ways of countering it. This led him to create two major widelyacclaimed series of Biblical animation series for world TV, StoryKeepers and Friends and Heroes, for both of which he selected, arranged and translated the Biblical passages. Broadcasting to a wide international audience, most of whom would have little or no previous experience of Biblical stories and teaching, led him to return to Alan Dale s work for inspiration. He developed what he now terms broadcast language for the Biblical sections, a language which makes no assumptions about the Biblical awareness of the audience. The success of his TV ventures led Brian to gather an informal group of scholars from the universities of Cambridge, Durham and Oxford to work with him to produce Underground Story, a version of the New Testament in language suited to reading ages 9-13 years. It aims to be accurate to the original text but in language today s young people understand. A publisher had been found ready to proceed, but Brian Brown asked that before proceeding to release the book we should ask: is the underlying assumption that there is this need justified? His answer was to do as he did when questioned about the validity of his arguments about Biblical illiteracy - set up a project to find out.
THE UNDERGROUND STORY SCHOOLS PROJECT This unique project would seek teachers and their students to help them get it right asking: Is the language age-appropriate? Is the lay out attractive enough and easy to follow? Are the notes helpful? Does it work in the classroom? How does it fit with the RE curriculum? To answer questions like these during autumn term 2018 we shall begin looking for teachers in 600 schools from all parts of the country and from every type of school willing to put Underground Story to the test during the Spring term 2019 when the project proper will get underway. Schools will be sent free of charge 20 specially printed copies of one of the four gospels taken from the latest draft of Underground Story and invited to use it with their classes and let the research team know how it went, how they feel and most of all how their students felt. They will be asked to send in any resource materials they have used or created to support their lessons using the Underground Story gospel they have used. These will be presented at an international symposium at St John s College Durham University from January 3-5 th 2020 alongside papers from members of the advisory team for Underground Story on the theme Young people and the Bible in the 21 st Century When the data are analysed not only will a report be prepared and issued but the suggested changes arising from the schools testing programmes will be incorporated in the final draft of the books which will be published in the months following the end of the Spring term 2019.
Underground Story is the first part of a wider set of Underground books in production including a set of Biblical graphic novels for young people around the same theme and using the Bible text as developed in Underground Story; a set of graphic illustrated slides for use in worship and in Junior churches using the text from Underground Story. The need for this project is demonstrated in the eager welcome it is receiving from teachers who are being gathered to take part in it from all over the country. Teachers of RE have long felt that their cries for more resources are not being heard and their attempts to promote an understanding of the Bible within their schools are being held back by lack of adequate materials with which they can teach. This project aims to meet that need and involve them and their students in providing the high quality resources they require effectively to carry on the task of communicating the stories of the new Testament to their classes Brian Brown says: Teachers have been demanding a resource like Underground Story for many years. This project seeks to respond to this demand and to give the teachers the tools they need, tested and honed in the hot furnace of classrooms in 600 schools up and down the country. It may only be a start and may only be one attempt to reach the Biblically illiterate but if only one student s life and one teacher s experience are changed by their participation in the project that in itself could be profound.
What they say about Underground Story Archbishop Justin Welby The Churches best wishes and blessing for this exciting project Mgr Kevin McGinnell VF Episcopal Vicar for Education and Formation I do wish you every success for your venture as anything that is supportive of our enterprise is so important. Archbishop Malcolm McMahon OP, Chair Department for Education and Formation, Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales the sort of publication that Catholic teachers and pupils would welcome. Any resource which increases the engagement of children and young people with scripture will be warmly received by Catholic educators. David Deeks, Chair Methodist Independent Schools Trust inventive, flexible (in terms of reading age), imaginative and accurate Jo Fageant, Independent SIAMS Adviser and former Principal RE Adviser to Diocese of Oxford, Many RE teachers struggle with the need to teach Bible stories, as they themselves are unfamiliar with its language, background and meaning. This new translation, using familiar language and setting the stories into context, exemplifying their meaning for Christians at the time of writing will hopefully meet some of their needs. It will also provide a format in which short passages can be studied by a class in a more accessible manner. The text also makes links between Attainment target 1 (Learning about Religion) and Attainment Target 2 (Learning from Religion) as the impact of the teaching on the lives of the characters will be immediately evident.
One of the main features of Attainment Target 1 at all levels is the need to interact with the religious texts from recalling (L1) and retelling (L2) stories in the early years of education to being able to interpret sources, explaining the reasons why they are used in different ways by different traditions (L6). This translation, with the accompanying resources, should make it easier for teachers to give their pupils opportunities to do this. Super-Head Julie Burnside, Executive Principal, Pendle Education Trust: Enthusiastic about its potential impact the monitoring project gives us an opportunity to encourage pupils to consider and evaluate a new resource. What will make the resource accessible to all is the style of presentation. Unlike the Secretary of State s gift of the 1611 text, largely unused and unusable in all schools I know, seems to be a presentation format that can be shared by all and prompt discussion and shared understanding. ENQUIRIES: Brian D Brown b.brown2@btinternet.com Tel: 01865 848109 brian.d.brown@durham.ac.uk