Introduction

The theme of this year's conference makes it possible for those of us who have been involved in educational research to reflect on and share the results of our work that appear to have made a difference to the worlds in which we find ourselves. Does educational research make a difference? For the particular piece of research that formed the basis for my doctoral thesis, the research has been a way of substantiating through collection and analysis of data, those ideas and assumptions held by religious schools that have been part of the implementation process for that subject. The research was the first study of its kind on the implementation of Studies of Religion, a Board developed course in New South Wales that commenced in schools in 1992. The course was one of the new subjects introduced into the curriculum for senior secondary students that came out of the review into education in New South Wales after the change of government in 1989.

The changing nature of Australia's population has led to this country becoming a multicultural nation. This fact means that Australia is a multifaith country. If students are to take their place in such a society, the need for a subject that develops knowledge and understanding of the many traditions that are expressed in Australia is great. Courses that aim to do this are categorised as Religious Studies, though each state names its own course differently.

In other states in Australia there has been a senior secondary course available for students in the field of Religion Studies since the 1970s. New South Wales was the last state to provide such a course. The political and educational situation in New South Wales was such that there had been no strong interest in introducing such a course. Those that were in favour of a course in Religion Studies had continued to lobby the government since the Rawlinson Report was released in 1980. Among the recommendations coming out of this report was the need for a General Religious Education course that would differ from the Special Religious Education course that would provide denominational instruction by churches and other religious bodies. General Religious Education, by Rawlinson's definition, is 'education in the major forms of religious thought and experience characteristic of our society and of other societies in the world'. His recommendations were ignored for some ten years.

Independent schools that were affiliated to a religious tradition provided religious education programs either as school or system based curriculum. The Board of Secondary School Studies, as the curriculum body for the Department of Education was then known, had introduced an Other Approved Course in Religion Studies that was a non examinable one unit syllabus. Most schools chose to continue with their own course that could also be given the same approval by the Board. Some schools did take modules from the OAS course and include them in their own school-based offering.

The change in government in New South Wales in 1989 gave rise to a review into education. One of the results of the review was the formation of a Board of Studies that looked after curriculum and assessment separated from the Department of Education that controlled and managed the government schools. Each would be answerable to the Minister of Education of the day. These and other changes became ratified in the Education Act of 1990.

Part of the restructure in curriculum was the banding of subjects into Key Learning Areas. The study of religion was put forward as one of the components of the Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE) Key Learning Area. In October 1990 the committee for the Studies of Religion met for the first time. The syllabus was offered to Year 11 students in 1992. Almost 3000 students sat for the Higher School Certificate examination in 1993. The number of students choosing the course for their final two years of study has risen steadily each year, with 8100 students sitting for the examination in November this year. The majority of these students come from the religiously affiliated schools, but there is a growing number each year that come from the public sector.

The course was subject to a wide consultation process in its development. Representatives from major traditions as well as a wide cross section of schools were able to respond to the course at first and final draft stages. The course was designed to be what the report, Religion in Education in NSW Government Schools (1980) described as General Religious Education, that is, 'education in the major forms of religious thought and experience characteristic of our society and of other societies in the world'. This course was not intended to provide the faith based religious education that was offered by religious schools until this time.

Studies of Religion is a unique course in that it is the only course to be offered at 1 or 2 unit level in New South Wales. The usual subject is a 2 unit one, but for two other courses there was a 1unit level only. The decision to offer the course this way was made deliberately to cater for the religious schools that had a religious education course of 1 unit already. Students would be able to take the subject at 1 or 2 level depending on their other subject choices. Studies of Religion could now add to the students' Tertiary Entrance Ranking score, which had not been possible with the school based courses. The latest review of secondary education in New South Wales, Shaping their Future recommended that this course continue in its present general structure. This decision has given the course, in the words of representatives of the Department of Education & Training, 'preferential treatment that has not been given to any other subject.' (Draft Writing Brief Consultation Response, 1998)

The research was carried out for a doctoral thesis. The researcher had been the Catholic Education Commission representative on the syllabus committee and had taught the subject for the first two years. She had been part of the writing team that developed the final draft of the syllabus. She had been a senior examiner for the Higher School Certificate and had presented professional development courses for teachers at University and Diocesan level. She had edited and contributed to a text published specifically for the course and in 1998, was contracted by the Board of Studies to research current approaches to Religious Studies courses in Australia and around the world.

This research was to look at the implementation process of the religious schools that had introduced the Studies of Religion course in the first two years of its offering. These particular schools were chosen because they had had no outside influences when deciding to offer the course. There had not been any Higher School Certificate examination to this time and the models that these schools chose in implementing the course came out of their own understanding of the place of religious education in the overall religious goals of their schools.

The research was carried out in two stages. The first was a questionnaire sent to the 62 schools that had had students is the first Higher School Certificate examination. Of these, 45 schools (72.58%) replied. The questionnaire was made up of questions based on the stages of implementation process of Fullan (1987) and also used open ended questions to find out how the schools saw Studies of Religion as fitting in with other school curriculum and activities to meet the religious goals of their schools.

The second part of the research came from the analysis of the questionnaire. Interviews were set up across a cross section of schools. The initial criteria for interview was that the Religious Studies coordinator was the same person as had responded to the questionnaire. The choice was then made to include a cross section of different denominational schools as well as city/rural, single gender/co-educational, Year 7-12/senior schools. Finally, using Fullan's indicators of successful implementation process, schools with a low/medium/high level of implementation of the subject were asked for an interview. Five schools from the seven asked agreed to be interviewed.

The interview questions were tested and refined by interviewing a Religious Studies coordinator from a school that had not been part of the questionnaire process. The interviews in each school were conducted with the Religious Studies coordinator and one other teacher who was involved with teaching the subject. This was done to ensure that the opinions of the Religious Studies coordinator were reinforced by the second interview. In addition, each school was asked to provide a copy of the Religious Education documentation to be analysed to determine how each school articulated and met its religious goals. This was done using the NUDIST (Non -numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorising) program.

The results of the research showed that there had been little or no situation analysis of the school's religious education program before the Studies of Religion course was implemented. Schools often replaced the existing course with the Board developed course to give their students the opportunity to gain Tertiary Entrance Ranking (TER) scores and to improve the academic standing of religious education in their schools. There was very little change made to the existing school religious education program. In fact, one school thought that any change was unnecessary - the Studies of Religion course and the existing course were interchangeable, according the response. There was no need for any additional activities to provide students with that religious education that would usually come under the heading of 'special religious education'.

Although the Studies of Religion course was intended to be an elective course within the HSIE Key Learning Area, some schools chose to make it a compulsory course to make programming and timetabling easier. Over time all but three schools have changed their original decision, because the results of the Higher School Certificate indicated that some students were struggling academically to complete the content. Also, these schools acknowledged that students resented being forced to take a course that should have been elective. The three schools that have continued to keep Studies of Religion as a compulsory course had had an academically challenging religious education course already, so students did not find the introduction of a new course threatening.

Some schools indicated in their questionnaire response that there was no need to change the way the school achieved its religious goals because the Studies of Religion course was being introduced. Some of these schools believed that the religious goals would be achieved through other activities offered by the school. Other schools did not see that there was any difference between a course offered as a general religious education (or as Moore (1992) aptly names such courses, 'Religion Education') and the more faith specific religious education courses used in religious schools. The use of documentation including programs and policy documents that had been written by the schools regarding their religious goals had little connection with the practice of the schools in planning for religious education.

The research has made a difference - at least to those who are interested in finding the best model of implementation for this subject. The model suggested as a result of the findings gives religious schools a structure that can be followed when implementing this subject or any other new subject. It enables religious schools to look at curriculum in terms of how it is possible to assist in achieving the religious goals of those schools. The model is a list of questions that undertake a situation analysis and through the use of a flow chart, can give schools a direction that will ensure successful implementation as well as give opportunities for reflecting on the religious life of the school.