Race, Religion, Class, Childhood, and the Acceptable Ways of Discussing “Choice” in Education Policy and Practice

• In Event: Race and Ethnicity Issues: Asian, Canadian, and American Perspectives

Abstract

Based on a wide-ranging national study, this paper demonstrates how education policy and practice in Ireland may subjectify 'authentic' religious identities in racialised, classed, gendered and adult-centred ways.The paper conceptualises child religious identifications as politically multi-faceted – both intersectional and intrasectional (Hemming and Madge 2012; Kitching 2014a). Far from choosing to ‘be or not be’ religious, both adults and children place differential emphases on affiliation and belonging, beliefs and values, behaviours and practices, and religious and spiritual experiences in situated ways.

Author

• Karl Kitching, University College Cork