Transcript Religious Education

Dialogue and difference
Religious identity, religious life and religious education
Joyce Miller
REDCo
 Religion in Education. A contribution to dialogue or a
factor of conflict in transforming societies of European
Countries
 Dialogue is different from conversation
 Implies difference and the need for resolution
 Difference is linked to aspect(s) of identity
Religious identity
 British Social Attitudes Survey of 2008 which showed
that religion, for many citizens, is a – and sometimes
the – salient feature of their identity:

61% said that religion is an important aspect of
how they define themselves

93% of Muslims said that religion is an important
part of their identity
2009-10 Citizenship survey
 The proportion of Muslim people who practised their
religion increased over time (from 73% in 2005 to 79%
in 2009-10), and this rise was particularly evident in the
younger (16-29) age group (from 68% to 80%)
 Religion per se did not predict the influence of religion
on everyday life. Instead practice of religion and
perceived importance of religion to a person’s identity
were more important predictors (CLG 2011, 8).
Identity/ies – stereotype(s)
‘First we were Asian,
Then we were Pakis,
Now we’re Muslims.’
Interviewee from the REDCo project
Separate phenomena
Samad and Sen point to the difference between:
 Ethnicization of religion (Islam as identity marker)
 Increasing religiosity
 Rise of fundamentalism (2007,15).
Religious/ faith identities
 'The state has made faith identities…highly salient
through the formation of its policies... one consequence
has been to construct adherence to the Islamic faith as
the major category of self-definition for many people
who would previously have seen themselves through
the lens of ethnicity and national heritage’ (Husband &
Alam, 2011, 204)
 'There is a pervasive sense that when it comes to Islam
in contemporary Britain, being devout is in itself a
suspicious act' (205).
Political identity
 The Rushdie affair became… ‘… The salient event in
the formation of a separate Muslim political identity in
Britain’ (See e.g. Modood, 2010; Husband and Alam, 2011, 30,
Goodhart 2013, 184)
 It caused ‘young British born Muslims to reinvent the
concept of the Ummah as global victims’ (Modood,
2006, 42)
 A new sense of transnational identity and a stimulus to
transnational political activity (Samad,2007, 11).
‘Racialised’ agenda
 ‘their [i.e. Muslim] cultural and religious
distinctiveness, not within or due to structural
determinants or forces’… ‘the state itself has promoted
a programme of categorical stereotyping of Muslim
communities’ (Husband & Alam, 2011, 58)
 'Institutionalised anti-Muslimism' (207).
‘National collective’
 …now can best be shared as a collective characteristic
through a common opposition to another faith’ (Husband &
Alam, 2011, 112)
 an alien faith is not merely another signifier of difference; it
is a highly salient and emotive basis for exclusion from the
national collective (113)
 ‘…it is their difference that must be made explicit so that
they can be clearly known as the cultural Trojan Horse that
they are: hence the reification of religious difference as a
vehicle for their ejection from the collective ethnos of the
national body’ (116).
‘Clash of Civilizations’
… Muslims became what Samuel Huntington described
as the ‘ideal enemy’, a group that is ‘racially and culturally
distinct and ideologically hostile’.
(Kundnani, 2014,10).
Two modes of thinking
The roots of terrorism are:
 1. Islamic culture’s failure to adapt to modernity – the
conservative view
 2. Not in Islam itself but 20th century idealogues who
distort the religion to produce …Islamism’ – the liberal
view (Kundnani, 2014, 10).
For example…
‘At the root of the crisis lies a radicalised
and politicised view of Islam, an ideology
that distorts and warps Islam’s true
message.’
Tony Blair, 23 April 2014
Singular identity
 ‘…odd presumption that the people of the world
can be uniquely categorised according to some
singular and overarching system of partitioning’
 ‘None can be taken alone to be the person's
identity’
 Intergroup strife can easily be fomented if
credence is given to the solitarist approach to
identity.
Amartya Sen (2006)
Religious identity and
ideology
 There needs to be a shift from focusing on religious
ideology to a broader understanding of the factors that
cohere to create extremist violent behaviour: political,
economic, social, historical, moral and intellectual, as
well as religious.
 Does RE play into the hands of politicians and the
media and their narrow understanding of the causes of
extremism?
Religiosity and RE
 Young people are willing to respect religious
identity but they do not show respect for
religiosity
 Religious commitment and behaviour are
viewed as ‘odd’
Julia Ipgrave (APPG evidence)
What, then, of RE?
 Need to explore both religious and political aspects of
Muslim/ Islamic identity, particularly
 RE part of a whole school curriculum and needs to be
seen in holistic context
 If we focus on ‘real’ Islam’ do we concur with the view
that ideology is the major issue?
 Need to enable critique of views that oversimplify and
generalise
 Need to return to the question of what RE is for…
Critiques of REsilience
 Conflation of community cohesion and ‘Prevent’
 State manipulation –e.g. Gearon, 2010, 2014
 ‘McCarthyism and instrumentalism– Moulin, 2012
 Failure to address Islamophobia and OrientalismRevell, 2012.
‘Religious life’ cf
‘instrumentalism’
 The relationship between religiosity and secularity
 Issues of reification and generalisation
 Buddhism as an example:
 Wisdom – interconnectedness
 Morality - intentionality
 Concentration – mindfulness
 Some key Buddhist concepts:
 Citta
 Karma
 Authority – the Kalama sutta.
Is this the problem for RE?
 ‘… evidence of teachers’ confusion about what they
were trying to achieve in RE and how to translate this
into effective planning, teaching and assessment. In
many of the schools visited, the subject was
increasingly losing touch with the idea that RE should
be primarily concerned with helping pupils to make
sense of the world of religion and belief’ (Ofsted, 2013,
14).
 Does RE Work?
Are these the answers? 1
 ‘It should develop in pupils an aptitude for
dialogue so that they can participate positively
in our society with its diverse religions and
worldviews’ (RE Review, 2013,14) (my emphasis).
RE and socio-political issues?
2
 RE should enable ‘critical discussion of religion
and religions within their globalised and
politicised context and which also addresses
controversial local issues’
Michael Grimmitt ( 2010, 17).
RE as part of curriculum? 3
 Signposts - Council of Europe’s work on religion and
beliefs is closely linked to:
 Intercultural understanding
 Human rights
 Education for democratic citizenship (2014, 15)
 Pupils’ SMSC development
 Duty to promote community cohesion
Secular transcendence? 4
Identity seems now to imply membership of a group,
through ethnicity, affinity or religion or otherwise. Rather
than acknowledging the miraculous privilege of existence
as a conscious being… it has reference now to knowing
one’s place culturally and historically speaking.
Marilynne Robinson: 2012, xiii
RE’s ‘multiple identities’? 5
 There are many disciplines within our area of study and
many facets to our work, we have varying and
sometimes competing our aims and purposes, we have
a range of content and skills and different values, we
have different communities and interest groups and a
wider range of schools than ever before
 There is room for all of us with our differing priorities.
RE and community relations
 RE is in a unique position because key questions about
community relations are intrinsic to the content of our
subject.
 Why would RE teachers (or any teacher) not wish
to promote better community relations?
References
 Cannadine, D (2013) The Undivided Past. History
beyond our differences (London, Penguin)
 CLG (2011) Race, Religion and Equalities: A report on
the 2009-10 Citizenship Survey (London, DCLG)
 Gearon, L (2010) ‘Which community? Whose
cohesion? Community cohesion, citizenship and
religious education: from revolutionary democracy to
liberal autocracy’ in M. Grimmitt (Ed) Religious
Education and Social and Community Cohesion (Great
Wakering: McCrimmons)
References
 Gearon, L (2014) ‘The counter-terrorist classroom:
countering extremism through (religious) education’ in
Religion and Conflict (London,
TonyBlairFaithFoundation)
 Goodhart, D (2013) The British Dream: Successes and
failures of post-war migration (London, Atlantic Books)
 Grelle, B (2014) Unpublished plenary paper, ISREV
References
 Grimmitt, M (2010) ‘Introduction’ in Religious
Education and Social and Community Cohesion (Great
Wakering: McCrimmons)
 Husband, C and Alam, Y (2011) Social Cohesion and
Counter-Terrorism: A policy contradiction (Bristol, The
Policy Press)
 Jackson, R (2014) Signposts (Strasbourg, Council of
Europe Publishing)
References
 Kundnani, A (2014) The Muslims are coming! (London, Verso)
 Malik, Z (2010) We are a Muslim, Please (London Heinemann)
 Modood, T (2006) ‘British Muslims and the politics of multiculturalism’ in T.
Modood, A. Triandafyllidou and R. Zapata-Barrero (Eds) Multiculturalism,
Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (London, Routledge), 37-56
 Modood, T (2010) Still Not Easy Being British (Stoke on Trentham Books)
 Moulin, D (2012) ‘Religious Education in England After 9/11’ Religious
Education (107:2) 158-173
 Ofsted (2013) Religious Education: realising the potential (London, Ofsted)
References
 REC (2013) A Review of Religious Education in England .
http://resubjectreview.recouncil.org.uk/media/file/RE_Review.pdf
 Revell, L (2012) Islam and Education (Stoke on Trent, Trentham)
 Robinson, M (2012) When I was a Child I Read Books (London,
Virago)
 Samad, Y (2007) ‘Introduction’ in Y Samad and K Sen (eds)
Islam in the European Union: Transnationalism, Youth and the War
on Terror (Oxford, Oxford University Press)
 Sen, A (2006) Identity and Violence: The illusion of destiny.
(London, Allen Lane)
References
 Woodhead, L and Catto, R (2012) Religion and Change
in Modern Britain (London, Routledge)
 Wright, A (2010) ‘Community, diversity and truth: What
might local faith communities reasonably expect of
religious education in the state schools of a secular
democracy? ’ in M. Grimmitt (Ed) Religious Education
and Social and Community Cohesion 131-144 (Great
Wakering: McCrimmons)
Questions of identities??
 ‘… religious and political authorities have a great stake
in using educational systems to promote “preferred”
religious and national identities… So my question is –
aren’t we really talking about replacing one preferred
identity – a narrowly religious or nationalistic one – with
an alternative preferred identity that is more inclusive
and multicultural in nature? And to what extent does
this require engagement not only in struggles for
spiritual and educational reform, but in broader societal
and political struggles as well?’
Question of dialogue
 The Buddhist response is to go inward: to observe the
mind, to practise mindfulness
 ‘Right speech’ - part of the Noble Eightfold Path
 Mindfulness as a spiritual and a moral and a social
exercise – none can be separated and each is explored
within its context