Mediatising religious education: BBC radio and television for children and schools, c.1920s-1970s

Drawing upon research carried out as part of a Leverhulme Trust-funded project, this lecture provides a selective account of religious educational broadcasting at the BBC between the 1920s and the 1970s. Against the background social change, policy and curriculum developments, it examines the changing aims of broadcasters, the style, content and modes of delivery of programmes, and considers how religious education on radio and television in schools was listened to and viewed by teachers and children in the past. Amongst the larger questions to be considered will be how was the sacred depicted for children; what influences did religious educational broadcasting have upon curriculum RE, and teaching practises; to what extent did religious educational broadcasting prove a vehicle for mooted dechristianisation; and what might be said to be the successes and missed opportunities of religious educational broadcasting?