ABSTRACT
The author offers an account of the origins of his research on English secondary school pupils’ motivation in religious education. He suggests potential overlaps between research and schoolteaching. The story of using collaborative action research to boost and document pupil motivation is told, including the use of ethnography as a monitoring device. Pupil motivation is seen to rise when their own questions are taken seriously and they are involved in planning lessons and through active, creative learning styles. These factors, together with studies of religious and cultural plurality, build pupils’ citizenship competences and reduce prejudice. The research findings are integrated into discussions of religious education pedagogy and support an interpretive approach to teaching and learning.
