The student learning experience in religious studies field visits and study tours: managing expectations and outcomes

Author: Stephen E. Gregg and Lynne Scholefield

Journal Title: Discourse

ISSN: 2040-3674

ISSN-L: 1741-4164

Volume: 10

Number: 3

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Our research project, called 'Developing Fieldwork in Religious Studies: Possibilities and Practicalities', is funded by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies and is designed to explore, highlight and share good practice in the use of tutor led field visits and study tours. Running from April 2011 until March 2012, the project consists of three stages - (1) Questionnaires (2) Interviews and (3) A one-day conference in London in March 2012. As a further part of this project, the authors presented at the recent Foundations for the Future conference at the University of Greenwich, organised by the Subject Centre. It is hoped that this article will, as well as sharing some initial views and findings of the authors, act as an invitation for colleagues from diverse institutions to contribute to the growing interest in ensuring that undergraduate students effectively engage with religion 'outside the lecture-theatre'.

We argue that studying contemporary religion at university should enable students to develop the skills to engage with what could be called both 'lived' religion and 'represented' religion within diverse environments and groups. An experience of 'lived' religion is attendance at an act of worship as a participant observer, or speaking with a religious adherent from within a particular tradition, while encountering 'represented' religion happens, for example, when students visit places of worship and listen to a guide explaining their tradition and practices, which creates a specifically nuanced or interpreted 'representation' of the tradition or community in question. One of the interesting issues which arises in taking students into the field is that such activities are often quite passive experiences, even though students are out of the classroom. One of the things we are hoping to explore in this project are ways in which students are enabled by their tutors and lecturers to reflect critically on their expectations of being told by some sort of 'authority' figure the significance and meaning of a particular place or tradition.

The majority of degree courses in religious studies include some kind of field visit to places of worship at least, and there are also a number of day visits to places such as Glastonbury, Skanda Vale, Southall, Jewish London and Bhakti Vedanta Manor. Some students also have the chance for a tutor led study tour abroad and popular places include India, Rome, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Andalusia and Nepal. In the research we are interested in the extent to, and manner in which, these visits and tours are embedded into the student learning experience. Students' expectations are obviously partly determined by the ways in which the field work is structured as part of their degree programme and the outcomes achieved will vary considerably depending on the nature of the demands made. This paper will discuss some approaches to these factors.

It is well understood that student attitudes toward learning will impact upon their learning outcomes. This is perhaps never more relevant than in non-conventional learning environments, or non-standard assessment requirements. Of course, both of these factors are magnified by 'off-campus' engagement with religion. By taking students out of the comfort zone of the lecture-theatre and the, perhaps slightly less comfortable but still all too familiar zone of standard format essay writing, student expectations are necessarily challenged and need careful management to ensure effective engagement with the subject matter and satisfactory outcomes for the student learning experience.

Managing these student expectations begins with careful management of staff expectations. Indeed, although Religious Studies often successfully provides methodologies of practical engagement for fieldwork regarding individual student research or project-work, we argue that whole-class or group engagement in the field somewhat lags behind. Whilst there are, of course, isolated pockets of excellent practice in our subject - examples which this project seeks to highlight and share - too often, there is a danger of learning outside the lecture-theatre being construed as 'academia-lite'. Field visits, and we are being very careful here to use the word 'visit', not 'trip', are extra-curricular events that are often primarily understood by university departments (and senior management) in terms of marketing exercises, student bonding mechanisms in induction week, or other simplistic approaches. Whilst not denying the importance of the social experience for students on such visits - indeed, it is at the heart of their learning experience if managed effectively - and the importance of making courses attractive and exciting for students, we argue that there needs to be a systematic rethink concerning the place of the field visit or study tour in the undergraduate engagement with diverse religious traditions and communities.

Valuing first-hand student engagement with living religious traditions is essential to provide extended learning opportunities in addition to traditional 'book-knowledge', which still represents the overwhelming majority of the student learning experience on undergraduate courses of religion. Of course, at the heart of this issue is the retention of robust academic standards and the systemization of learning opportunities outside the lecture-theatre. This systematising must come through two major approaches: firstly understanding field visits and study tours as 'embedded pedagogy' and secondly by connecting efficient curriculum progression and suitable non-traditional assessment.

We use the term 'embedded pedagogy' to mean two main things: firstly, that direct personal experience of interaction with living religion should be a formulated and structured part of the wider campus-based degree programme for undergraduate students of religion. Field visits must be used to support and extend lecture-theatre based learning - they must not be seen merely as 'added value' or 'extension activities'; the first step should be to integrate field visits into the relevant areas of traditionally taught campus-based modules, and the logical next step - one that we positively advocate - is to create modules focused upon experiential learning and field visits. Put simply, engaging with living religion should be at the heart of an undergraduate's experience of religious studies, not merely an adjunct.

Secondly, by 'embedded pedagogy' we mean that the learning experience provided to students by field visits and study tours should be highlighted as an effective way of deepening engagement with the knowledge provided by standardised learning which occurs in traditional lecture-theatre teaching. To give a very simple example, in the introductory course on Asian traditions taught by one of the authors, students are introduced to the complexities surrounding terminology, categorisation and identity concerning the contested terms 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism' - this gives them a basic understanding of the historical, sociological, theological and philosophical intricacies that impact upon the use of these terms. However, from the student's own testimonies, nothing quite strikes home like their experience of visiting Skanda Vale, a 'Hindu' community in Carmarthenshire whose permanent members take Franciscan vows of monasticism, follow a Sri Lankan Guru in the paths of Bhakti and Karma Yoga, celebrate Easter and Christmas, have a temple dedicated to Mother Kali, hold a Christian Eucharist every Sunday and reject the label 'Hindu'. That is, until their bull Shambo, who tested positive for Bovine TB, became a front-page celebrity in the pages of the London, New York and Delhi Times, when he was destroyed by the Welsh Assembly Government - a sacrilegious act in the eyes of the Skanda Vale community who used an explicitly Hindu hermeneutic to express the importance of Shambo to the world's press (Warrier, 2010). At Skanda Vale, students are able to, quite literally, see, hear, taste and smell the multifaceted complexities that religious 'belonging' and 'identity' create for the individual devotee and the wider religious community.

This issue of student engagement with living religions has sparked an interest which will form a central tranche of the ongoing research in this project -a focus upon the notion of 'intimacy' between students and staff and the religious practitioners and practices in which they come into contact. During our first few interviews with staff, which form a central part of this research project, and after collating a small initial sample of student questionnaires and assessment work that have arisen from field visits and study tours, one theme that has consistently arisen is the role that differing levels of intimacy have upon the student learning experience.

To date, we have identified two basic ways in which intimacy affects the student learning experience. These ideas will be explored further during the interviews which will take place over the coming months of the project.

The first relationship of intimacy refers to the intimacy of the sacred space which is being presented to the students. We refer to this as 'Empty vs. Living Spaces'. Visits to places of worship often take the form of arranged visits to meet an agreed host to view a sacred space - and yet it is relatively rare for such an experience to occur whilst the building or complex is occupied for ceremonies or rituals. Sometimes this is not appropriate - a recent student tour of the New York Church of Scientology, led by one of the authors, excluded a visit to the auditing rooms to respect the privacy of the religious participants, a boundary that should, of course, be respected - likewise, one should not expect student access to the Catholic Confessional. However, visits to churches, temples, synagogues or mosques that are presented as 'empty spaces' to students cannot, by definition, provide the student with a complete engagement with the purpose and meaning of that sacred space and the community that uses it. Whilst a host will often provide excellent survey information to students, there will necessarily be a 'gap' in the student experience. Distinct from this approach is the involvement of students in actual religious events that occur in these sacred spaces, where the spaces become living centres of religion for the communities in question. These range from 'passive' attendance at Christian or Sikh ceremonies to practical engagement in receiving Hindu Arti, 'dowsing' for leylines on Glastonbury Tor, or using a Scientology E-Meter with a trained Auditor. Of course, this more practical engagement raises a host of ethical issues that link intrinsically to the student learning experience, and the authors are currently undertaking an exercise in understanding student engagement with ritual, and the ways in which this affects the learning experience of students from both religious and non-religious backgrounds.

Secondly, during our initial research, it has become clear that the host or guide at a religious community or site plays a vital role in the student learning experience. We are not here referring to the simplistic fact that some people are better communicators than others, but are referring specifically to the methodological approach that is taken by these guides, often unconsciously, which affects their approach to their, often voluntary, duties in helping and guiding students. Labelling this factor as 'Caretaker vs. Karma-Yogin', it is apparent that the intimacy generated between the students and the sacred site or religious community is deepened when the guide is themselves undertaking a religious action in engaging with the students. We are here borrowing the term 'Karma-Yogin' from the Hindu tradition, wherein it refers to a devotee who performs a religious duty with no desire for reward. This elevates the individual's role beyond that of a mere guide or caretaker and means that there is a process of religious action occurring in the interaction with the students. Put simply, the very act of guiding and educating students becomes a religious act for the individual. An example of this can be seen in the annual field-visit run by Trinity Saint David to the Skanda Vale community. The monk who is the usual guide for the students is an ex-secondary school teacher with a wonderful sense of humour and down to earth attitude who is happy to talk to the students regarding the finer practicalities of choosing to take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. This, of course, makes him an excellent guide. However, the engagement with students, and their subsequent learning experience, is deepened tremendously by the fact that the monk is not performing the role of a sacred tour guide, but is actually performing part of his dharma , or religious duty, by undertaking seva, or service to humanity, as a practical example of his duty as a karma-yogin. At Skanda Vale, therefore, students are not just being informed about religion, but become a part of the process of religious action, whereby the monk's obligation of religious service is fulfilled by his actions as host and guide.

Of course, managing students on field visits and, especially, international study tours requires careful prior management of expectations to ensure the students engage effectively in a contextualised learning experience that is embedded within their wider curriculum.

Managing student expectations of unfamiliar religious or social contexts is vital to a successful learning outcome for a study tour. In the authors' experiences, the provision of a seminar series prior to departure, where students can become familiarised with relevant cultural, political and historical contexts for both the religion or religions in question, and also for the specific context of those religions in the country to be visited has greatly supporting students. One way of achieving this effectively is in group book reviewing, where the students engage in group discussion and presentations focused upon directed reading tasks. At Trinity University College Carmarthen (now part of Trinity Saint David), this has always been focused upon a contemporary account of the country in question so as to provide a specific context - for example, on a recent visit to Turkey, a book by a BBC Turkey correspondent (Morris, 2005), which specifically examined the role of Islam in politics in contemporary Turkey, in addition to the role of Muslim minority groups in the country, was chosen in preference to a 'standard' textbook on Islam. In current text books on studying religion in the field, there is a tendency to concentrate on the specific etiquette that is required when visiting places of worship, but students require much greater contextual detail so as to engage effectively with specific situations and sites, and focused seminars are one way of achieving this. Respectful visiting is only one step above unengaged tourism, and academic engagement requires a deeper level of understanding the expectations we have for students. Of course, this systematic treatment of the study tour as a part of the wider curriculum will also reinforce these academic expectations, to which we will now turn.

In constructing a degree it is possible to build continuity and progression into the field work elements of religious studies and we will discuss one example here of a programme where this is done. The other major factor, we argue, in maximising the usefulness of working outside the classroom is that there is some form of assessment involved, and we consider some of the ways in which student learning can be assessed. The degree programme in theology and religious studies at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, which we give as an example, deliberately builds in skills in fieldwork from level four, and requires students to be increasingly more independent in their work, and to explore more complex sites, as they move through to their final year. Students sometimes choose to use field work for their dissertation research. Field work plays a part in Christian theology and biblical studies in this degree but this paper will only refer to the work done in religious studies.

At level four there are organised tutor led visits to six places of worship as part of a core course and during curriculum time. It is interesting to note that in our local mosque the actual caretaker sometimes shows us around when nothing else has been formally organised for us and he, in many ways, is more of a karma-yogin than the Imam or other official guide. Some of the places of worship offer hospitality in the form of a drink, and sometimes food, and this obviously changes the nature of the student participation. Being offered kara prashad at the gurdwara and lunch in the langar make this visit the one which brings students up against issues of shared food and religious significance; it is in many ways the most intimate of the visits.

There is also an optional module called 'Religion, Community and Culture' which is entirely based on field visits to museums and galleries in London, to St Paul's Cathedral for evensong and to Spitalfields which students undertake in small groups. There is a tutor led day visit to Southall to get them launched in a more active way. The module uses the introduction to Gerd Baumann's very interesting account of his fieldwork in Southall called Contesting Culture (1996) where he problematises the use of the terms 'community' and 'culture'.

At level five students can study individual religions and are taken by tutors to attend worship outside the timetable slot. They also have a chance to talk for an hour, in small groups, to a visitor from the religion; a kind of group interview organised by the tutor. The visitors are asked only to respond to the questions and not to fill any silences that may arise. Of course, these visitors are giving representations of their own traditions, but they do not prepare any specific input in advance. This is organised within the classroom, allowing visitors from different traditions within a religion to be involved and allowing students to practise interview skills in a structured way. There is also a requirement for students to undertake a short individual face to face interview with someone of their own choice.

At level six students complete a case study of a worshipping community for a module on 'religion in modern Britain' which requires being a participant observer at worship, an interview with a member of the worshipping community, and the analysis of various publications and other materials produced there. This threefold approach mirrors the three types of field work activity discussed by Wolcott (1999, 44ff). In addition both second and final year students have the opportunity for a tutor led study tour to Jerusalem and the Galilee, and to Rome, in alternate years. The aspects of continuity and progression at level five and six for these modules will be discussed in the next section on assessment.

If field work is only used as illustration of material which has already been explored and learned in other ways, then it is not fully embedded in the curriculum; it is merely an add on, used perhaps to increase motivation or help students to bond as a group. These are worthwhile objectives but do not enable students to learn how to use field work to study religion. If students are expected to take field work seriously then, we argue, it has to be assessed. Assessment is judgement based on evidence, and there are various ways in which students can produce evidence of their learning for tutors to judge. Although by no means exhaustive, the following discussion illustrates some of the creative ways in which field visits and study tours are being assessed. Some of these examples come from responses to the questionnaires we have sent out as part of the research project, and from the first of the interviews we have conducted.

We will discuss five different forms of assessment, and the first is the book review. The previously given example of a suitable book for student-review as a part of a study tour to Turkey noted the ways in which the book helped students to understand a number of aspects of religion in the country. This pre-visit reading introduced a number of theoretical ideas relevant to the place being studied and also historical, political and religious material. Obviously the success of this form of assessment depends to a large extent on the quality of the book chosen and while there are a number that would be very useful for a visit to Jerusalem there is no obvious choice to inform a visit to Rome.

Often students are asked to make oral presentations, perhaps with a PowerPoint presentation or other form of visual material, to explain what they have learned from a particular visit. These may be individual or group presentations and are probably most useful if they are fairly tightly focused. The method requires students to be physically present, talking about what they learned and thereby mirrors one of the factors of field work itself - students are bodily engaged in their own learning, and they are the researchers, the instrument for generating knowledge and understanding.

Evidence of this engagement in the field is often assessed through the use of field notes, or logs, which are either submitted in their entirety or extracts are used in other forms. We are gathering examples of the ways in which the task is set and the kind of material that students are asked to gather. For example the field notes might include 'thick' description of a place of worship or a particular street (Geertz, 1973, 6). Students are encouraged to be reflective about their own role and responses to experience, and to interpret and analyse what they encounter in dialogue with theories and ideas as well as previous understandings. The field work is likely to raise more questions than answers, and it is in responding to these issues that students convey some of the nuances and complexities that make studying religion in the field so worthwhile.

The fourth method to be discussed is the portfolio. At St Mary's University College, this is a mixture of extracts from field notes, photos and other material evidence from the field, and extended reflection (a narrative). This method of assessment has been used for a number of years at all levels. In fact, the modules on Jerusalem and Rome originally had an essay as the assignment for level six and a portfolio for level five. The portfolios from the less experienced students were of a much higher quality than the essay since, in writing the essays, many of the students reverted to using traditional written sources of authority which they could have accessed without leaving the classroom. The essay was replaced with a portfolio and the tutors, and the external examiner, have been pleased to see the quality of recent work at level six. In order to discriminate between levels, level five students are asked to write a short amount about a range of different sites included on the itinerary. Level six students are asked to focus in depth on two sites, and to use free time during the visit to further their own research.

This does not mean that essays have no place in assessing field visits and study tours. In response to our first round of questionnaires we had a very interesting example of a written task for her level four students from Dr Deidre Burke at the University of Wolverhampton. This is the task: 'Read and make note of a textbook account of Hinduism. Identify three questions that you would like to ask informants at the two mandirs visited. How do the responses from your informants compare with your selected textbook version? Analyse critically how you would account for any differences. Include reference to emic and etic perspectives and the ways in which experiences may shape an informant's responses.' So, not only are students working with the similarities and differences of 'textbook' and 'lived' religion, they are also exploring the diversities between two different mandirs. Like most of the assessment methods discussed here there is no way of knowing in advance exactly what students will learn. By embedding field work in the curriculum and assessing appropriately, students are enabled to generate knowledge and understanding of living religion.

As a final word, it is highly relevant to note that the research which underpins the project on which this article is based shares several cross-over areas of interest with the research of other colleagues. To this end, the recent Foundations for the Future conference proved to be a highly productive opportunity to network and the authors, along with colleagues from across the UK will subsequently establish a virtual research network for academics interested in learning about religion 'outside the lecture-theatre'. If you are interested in joining this group, please contact s.gregg@tsd.ac.uk.

Bibliography

Baumann, G., Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multi-ethnic London, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Geertz, C., The Interpretation of Cultures, (New York: Basic Books Inc., 1973).

Morris, C., The New Turkey: The Quiet Revolution on the Edge of Europe, (London: Granta, 2005).

Wolcott, H., Ethnography: a Way of Seeing, London: Sage, 1999).

Warrier, M., 'The Temple Bull Controversy at Skanda Vale and the Construction of Hindu Identity in Britain', Hindu Studies, Volume 13, Number 3, (2010) pp. 261-278.

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Created on: December 9th 2011

Updated on: March 14th 2012