Christian Muslim Forum

Education

Dr Julia Ipgrave is senior research fellow in Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick. She has taught for 16 years in Leicester schools as class teacher, assistant head and head teacher. From this experience she developed a research interest in children's religious understanding and inter faith encounter leading to the development of pedagogies for religious dialogue in the classroom.

She has worked as researcher and research co-ordinator for REDCo 2007-9, an EC funded study of young people's perspectives on religion in school and society in Europe, she is a member of the Intercultural Encounter working group for the Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe producing resources for intercultural dialogue, and is currently working on a study of religion, religious education and community cohesion in schools across England for the Department of Children Schools and Families.

Recent publications include:
McKenna, U., Ipgrave, J. & Jackson, R. (2008) Interfaith Dialogue by Email in Primary Schools: an evaluation of the Building E-Bridges project, Munster: Waxmann.
Knauth, T., Jozsa, P., Bertram-Troost, G., Ipgrave, J. (eds.) (2008) Encountering Religious Pluralism in School and Society: A Qualitative Study of Teenage Perspectives in Europe, Munster: Waxmann.

Maurice Coles is a Consultant with the Schools Development Support Agency (SDSA) and a former Senior Advisor in Birmingham LEA. He has held a number of senior level posts in the Birmingham area, including Senior Advisor for Multicultural Education, School Improvement, Secondary, Special Needs and Community Education. He has recently written 'Every Muslim Child Matters'

Vision

We are committed to furthering positive interactions between Christian and Muslim students and teachers.

As Education Specialists we aim to bring together school age Christian and Muslim students and Christian and Muslim teachers in order to:

Engage in dialogue in a shared and safe environment on issues of mutual relevance and interest
Encourage meaningful interaction between the two faith groups in order to promote mutual understanding and co-operation
Develop long-term sustainable relationships between students and teachers from the two faith communities

To date we have led a project on faith in the media in a number of Birmingham primary schools and have run a workshop for Christian and Muslim pupils from the city at the BBC studios in the Mailbox, Birmingham (March 2007). Read about it here Schoolchildren_and_the_media.pdf. View photographs in our Gallery

We ran 'Belief & Being', conference in March 2008 for Christian and Muslim teachers to share their experiences as people of faith working in state schools.