World Religions in Religious Education in Northern Ireland: A Policy Implementation Analysis using Strategic Action Field Theory

Abstract

This article analyses the implementation of a policy that introduced the teaching of world religions in religious education in Northern Ireland. Using a policy implementation evaluation framework informed by strategic action field (SAF) theory we assess the effectiveness of the policy intervention by exploring teachers’ descriptions of their practice. We discover that there is evidence of teacher buy-in to the policy, but very significant variation in the quality of implementation and reasons for this are explored. It is concluded that the policy evaluation tool developed here is likely to have value in assessing the implementation of curriculum policy in other contexts.