ENGLAND AND WALES University of Warwick Prof. Dr. Robert Jackson Kevin O'Grady Since the 1980s there has been a growth in the recognition of Britain as a multicultural society and of interest in research relating to religious education and plurality. Jackson and Nesbitt's work in the 1980s and early 1990s focused on issues of religious and cultural identity and transmission in relation to children from different religious communities in England. Research in the 1990s connected such studies to issues including the representation of religions and the nature of cultural change . Recently, much of this work has been applied pedagogically, through the development of interpretive and dialogical approaches to the study of religions in schools and through preliminary research into such approaches . Also, recent research has begun to examine the relationship between religious education and education for democratic citizenship (including intercultural education) and the contribution that the study of religions can make to social cohesion . All this research has been conducted at a national level, but with preliminary co-operation with European partners through the setting up of research networks  and through collaboration at a curriculum development level via the Council of Europe . It is now time to develop closer European collaboration specifically in relation to research developments.