Professor Bob Bowie explains how recent research by NICER shows pupils will raise their own questions about gender identity.

The government has published new guidance for schools restricting the teaching of gender identity (16 May 2024), stating that gender identity is a contested theory and will not be taught.

According to research undertaken by the National Institute for Christian Education Research (NICER) at Canterbury Christ Church University, teachers report gender identity as an overlapping domain between science and religious/ethics education; and it arises as much from spontaneous questions of children as from deliberate planned lessons.

Our research found out what *beginning Science and RE teachers report about gender identity. Our survey, which was not explicitly about sex education, found 48.8% of beginning secondary RE teachers and 27.6% of beginning secondary Science teachers plan lessons that include gender identity.

However just as important was what they reported about pupils’ questions, with 36% of RE teachers and 39.5% of Science teachers reporting pupils raising questions about gender identity.

Teachers reported that gender identity is an overlapping domain between science and religious/ethics education, and that it arises in both science and religion, as much from the spontaneous questions of children as from the deliberate planned lesson content of teachers. Pupils have questions about gender identity that they ask teachers to help them with.

The empirical data in this research comes from the publication, The beginning teacher in the science religion encounter: Building confidence for an integrated vision of knowledge (SRE), led by NICER,

This project sought to “understand the extent and nature of the experience of beginning teachers as to how knowledge works in science/religion encounters in the classroom and how this impacts their confidence and competence”.

The research found that there are many topics that draw on different kinds of knowledge that teachers report teaching about in Science and RE, including gender identity and that schools could benefit from better dialogue across subjects and departments.

Sex and relationships education is a subject identified as one which benefits from multi-subject cooperation, but our research also reports that most teachers see the subjects of Science and RE as independent, rather than collaborative or integrated.

This was not a piece of research about sex education or gender identity. The survey was accessed by a total of 949 participants over a period of 13 weeks, from 12 March 2021 to 14 June 2021. The survey was aimed at early career teachers of Science and RE, defined as either in pre-service training or in their first two years post-qualification.

Find out more about the research and read the associated professional development resources, the animation on science religion encounters and more about the project here.

*Beginning teachers include teachers in their training year or first two years of teaching.

Bob Bowie is Professor of Religion and Worldviews Education and Director of NICER.