Dr James Nelson, Queen’s University Belfast, & Dr Rebecca Loader, University of Cambridge
This presentation shares evidence-based findings from two academic research projects that examined schools and Religious Education (RE) curricula – entitled “Experiences of Education among Minority Ethnic Groups in Northern Ireland”, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and “Religion and Worldviews Education for All” (RWE4All), funded by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust. It aims to inform Assembly deliberations about reform in both school curricular and race equality legislation and help tackle racism in Northern Ireland.
The first project focused on minority ethnic groups and found that by establishing Christianity as normative in Northern Ireland, the current core RE syllabus may lead to inequalities in children’s ability to access and communicate religious knowledge. It showed how limiting opportunities for pupils to learn key concepts from other religious traditions, the present curriculum can impede children from non-Christian faith backgrounds from communicating their social experiences in a way that is meaningful to them and their peers. Further indicating how the current curriculum may reduce children’s capacity to make sense of their encounters with faiths or belief systems of which they are not members, the research noted an absence of objective and critical information can cause children to rely on information sources characterised by bias or prejudice, particularly in relation to minority religious traditions. Moreover, interview responses suggested that current arrangements for withdrawal may fail to provide high quality knowledge to pupils of other (non-Christian) faith and belief traditions, and they may not adequately respect parents’ decisions to opt out of RE.
The second project – RWE4All – provides qualitative evidence from parents and grandparents who belong to minority faith traditions and participated in the study. Some of these participants reported “othering” and marginalisation as a result of narrow and confessional RE curricula and collective worship in schools. The participants also identified issues with the withdrawal option from both RE and collective worship. Teachers too identified professional supports they need in providing a more diverse education. The project also included a survey of a Northern Ireland-wide representative sample of adults (1,051 responses) to study RE teaching in primary schools. The results showed support for broadening the current curricula to not only include a diversity of religions and worldviews, but also a pedagogical approach to teaching both, which is both objective and critical.
Date of Seminar: 22 April 2022
Policy Briefing
Presentation
Seminar video will be forthcoming