ABSTRACT
The author reports a fifteen-month action research study of English religious education pupils’ motivation to learn in the subject. The pupils, 12–14 years old at the time of the study, collaborated with the author as researchers, and the methodology included participant observation, questionnaires and group interviews in a series of four iterative action research cycles. The key findings were that a differentiated set of factors boosted pupil motivation in religious education: pupils valued opportunities for dialogues with different religious traditions and with one another, in so far as these dialogues built existential or ethical interest or were personally significant. In summary, religious education should be a dialogue with difference.
