Hancock, Rae; (2023) Comics and the making of meaning in Religious Education. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Research within comics studies has done much to elevate the understanding of comics as complex, multimodal, polysemic texts, however this has yet to significantly alter the view of comics as simplistic gateway texts held by educational researchers in the UK. This thesis contributes to this much under-researched area by considering the catalytic potential of comics of a religious character for teaching about religion through the curriculum subject of Religious Education (RE) within compulsory-age secondary education in England. Using carefully chosen comics in RE facilitates meaning-making because of the polysemy provoked by the multimodal affordances of the medium. The meanings made contribute toward RE by illuminating constituent, productive concepts such as matter-in-or-out-of-place, authority, and authenticity. Paying attention to these concepts help us better understand the valuable intellectual work students do in RE and suggest further efforts by educators to support and develop this work. This research uses broadly ethnographic tools to construct a qualitative case study taking place in the social life of various RE lessons across four years in a secondary co-educational academy school in England. As ethics are embedded within the work of teaching as well as research, I have chosen to foreground notable ethical considerations throughout the methodological process. To better understand student meaning-making from the comics of a religious character and the resources available to them, I draw on the theoretical positions offered by Goffman’s (1986[1976]) frame and Vygotsky’s (1994a[1935]) perezhivanie, synthesising them in my own formulation to better explain the meanings emergent from the institutional environment (frame) and those from a continuous learning process of forming and reforming meaning (perezhivanie or prism). My analysis of student meaning-making is grouped around three threads, each provoked by the disruptive qualities of comics and contributing to our understanding of RE. Matter-out-of-place points us to the conceptual moves students make to assimilate or reject new information into their understanding of RE and religion. Considering authority as an aspect of meaning-making in RE shows it to be relational and embodied. As with authority, the attention to authenticity that is stimulated by using comics of a religious character, renders explicit and problematises the boundaries and content of RE. Using comics of a religious character requires and champions a view of education that accepts individual meaning-making as inevitable, unpredictable, and desirable. Such meaning-making resists easy answers and in turn challenges all those involved in RE to engage with the contested boundaries of a rich, rigorous, and de-essentialised subject.

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