The relevance of Charlotte Mason’s ‘Saviour of the World’: moral and biblical learning in the 21st century, part 2 [forthcoming]

Elton-Chalcraft, Sally ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-7249 and Ackroyd, Rebekah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7557-9985 (2026) The relevance of Charlotte Mason’s ‘Saviour of the World’: moral and biblical learning in the 21st century, part 2 [forthcoming]. In: Van Pelt, Deani, Millar, Elizabeth and Elton-Chalcraft, Sally, (eds.) Awakening the whole child: a Charlotte Mason philosophy of education for the 21st century. Routledge, Abingdon, UK, pp. 173-185. Full text not available from this repository.

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Abstract

While Christian educators and Christian allies wholeheartedly support the important role faith plays in Mason’s philosophy of education—which underpins all her approaches to education—some educators prefer to emulate the approaches she advocated (many of which still have currency today) whilst ignoring the Christian “bits”, seemingly not realising (or refusing to admit) that Mason’s Christian faith, whether one agrees with it or not, is not so easy to separate from her educational philosophy and practice. This may be why many of her ideas (outdoor learning, narrative, real books for real readers, emphasis on early learning in the home, and so on) are enshrined within modern pedagogical practice, while many practitioners and parents are oblivious to how these ideas originated from Mason’s original Christian approaches. While her name may not be credited on the curriculum documents, much of the curriculum in the UK, and elsewhere, is informed by her practice. Some educationalists do acknowledge her groundbreaking ideas; for example, Cathy Nutbrown locates the importance of home learning as originating from Mason’s practice (Nutbrown et al., 2022), and Meek’s (2011) ideas about literacy and real books for real readers. We would argue that while there has been a resurgence of her pedagogical principles—particularly that children are born persons—there is less enthusiastic support for the explicitly Christian foundation of her pedagogy in post‑Christian society. Yet the sentiments she takes from the Gospels, in her Saviour of the World series, are not necessarily in conflict with other educational approaches which are (or at least claim to be) secular. This idea is picked up in the concluding chapter 32 (Elton‑Chalcraft et al).

Item Type:	Book Section
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781041075271 / 9781041075264 / 9781003640950
Departments:	Institute of Education > Primary PGCE Learning Education and Development (LED)
Additional Information:	Chapter 19 within book. Professor Sally Elton-Chalcraft, PhD, Professor of Social Justice in Education, University of Cumbria, UK. Rebekah Ackroyd, Senior Lecturer in Education (PG Studies), University of Cumbria, UK.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	16 Dec 2025 11:10
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2025 11:11
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/9246