Resources
The Face to Faith programme provides an array of different resources for schools to use.
This is not a “compulsory curriculum”, but sets of resources for schools to integrate into their own curricular needs and current practice. Resources on the Face to Faith secure site include access to blogs, ways to connect with other students online through a student forum, an online teacher forum, and information on special events and video conferences.
We encourage teachers to adapt and interpret the materials to ensure that they are most appropriate to their own students, schools, and cultural situations. Learn more about how to register your school.
The skills set our materials support
The resources are designed to support teachers in helping their students, not only to grown in knowledge and understanding, but to effectively develop their skills. The skills set that our materials support is one that is vital for the development of 21st century global citizens, including:
- respectful dialogue
- active listening
- effective cooperation
- creative thinking
- reflection
- conflict management
We think that it is very important to remember that, by giving students the opportunity to explore ideas of faith, belief and identity in a safe, supportive and open environment, where they learn to respectfully encounter others, teachers are giving them the skills that they need to protect their students from the voices of extremism later in life.
Introductory compulsory module
There is only one compulsory section to the whole programme, which is the Introduction module. This module introduces students to the core concept of respectful dialogue. It does this by identifying and building up a number of key skills required for successful participation. These skills include collaboration, active listening, cooperation, critical thinking, and respectful dialogue. Activities suggested in the module also give students the opportunity to explore the nature of identity, how to make judgements about information on the internet, the nature of their own communities, their influences, as well as getting to know one another on a more profound level. The videoconference in the Introduction module allows the students to get to know each other and find out about their lives and their communities in general. This first contact is critical as it forms the foundation for genuine dialogue in the future, and helps students to practice the skills that they have learned.
Additional Modules
After this point, the direction in which you take your students is entirely up to you; you can work your way through other modules, or pick one or two. You can participate in our special day VCs; your participation is entirely driven by the requirements of your curriculum needs.
The following additional modules continue the development of students’ skills, but also have a much tighter emphasis upon enhancing their faith literacy. Face to Faith is not a traditional “World religions course”, but does examine these issues from the perspectives of the world’s major religious traditions. Throughout all modules students are encouraged to publish their thoughts, ideas, and key learning through the online community – building a genuine community of critical enquiry, where they can support one another and enhance their learning, at the same time as developing important ICT and writing skills. Each of these modules also has a call to action – where students are encouraged to act upon what they have learned through community projects.
These additional modules include:
“A Common Word between the Young People of the World”
This module is designed as a bridge between the skills-based approach of the introductory module, and the subsequent modules’ focus upon faith approaches. The idea of compassion as a common focus of Faith Narratives is important as a way into understanding subsequent issues-based work, so this module encourages students to explore the meaning of compassion through a wide variety of different perspectives. The module also gives students a chance to explore the ideas of inter-faith dialogue more deeply, by looking at the example of the Common Word project.
"Wealth, Poverty & Charity"
In this module students explore the different meanings of wealth and poverty - both spiritual and materialistic and learn about the different ways that faith traditions teach about wealth and charity. The videoconference encounter is an opportunity for students to share their thoughts on faith and wealth and how wealth may best be used with regards giving to charity, as well as giving students the opportunity to dialogue around more challenging issues.
"Environment"
The environment module continues to build on the key skills learned in the introductory module. Students continue to investigate, co-operate, debate and think critically, and with open minds on a range of issues concerning the environment. The content of the course is diverse: exploring questions such as what does it mean to be at home? How can people of different faiths come together to tackle issues such as global warming or sustainable development? Using the content vehicle of the environment students explore and celebrate one another’s beliefs and values seeking out commonalities, and considering how faith can be a positive force for change.
"The Art of Expression"
This module is a creative exploration of truth and beauty in the world’s religions, including their art, architecture, music and sacred scriptures. The module places high emphasis upon students’ own skills of reflection and begins with critical examination of beauty in the arts, across human cultures, as well as in the natural world. The module also engages with some political themes, looking in particular at the limits that religions and societies place upon freedom of expression.
Each module is scaffold by a series of lesson plans and suggested class activities. The aim is for schools to undertake sufficient in-class preparation prior to each video conference with a partner school in order to ensure that the encounter is meaningful and rewarding. Each module is designed to move students from dialogue to social action, either collaboratively with their partner school or individually. The outcomes from social action projects are shared between the schools in the online community.
Videoconference
Face to Faith allows students and teachers from around the world to interact directly with one another through our videoconferences. All of our videoconferences are facilitated by our team of trained and experienced facilitators, who manage the discussion – but it is also important to remember that they work closely with the teachers who are involved, to ensure that the content and structure is most appropriate to the requirements of the students.
- School to school Videoconferences are facilitated discussions between two schools, based upon the work that they have done in one of the modules. They may share work that they have done together, or discuss the different approaches of different cultures to specific issues. These are greatly enhanced through the sharing of prior information, and presentations through the online community – which may also be used for follow up discussion.
- Special Day Videoconferences, bring a number of schools together from different countries together with expert speakers who have considerable experience in the field in question. The speakers share their experience, answer questions from the students, and encourage dialogue between the schools.
- Professional Development Videoconferences occur twice every month, allowing teachers around the world to interact with the Face to Faith team, who prepare specific presentations based upon the requests of teachers.
- Expert speakers. If you would like your students to have input from a member of a specific faith community which is unrepresented in your locality, then let us know, and we will be able to arrange expert speakers to address your students and answer their questions, from a wide range of religious traditions.
- Other purposes. We are happy to arrange one off videoconferences for special occasions; to connect up groups of teachers or even parents, in order to learn from one another about the Face to Faith programme.
