Promoting "British Values" in a Postsecular Policy Nexus? Narrative Research With Teachers of Social Studies

• In Event: 77.058 - MTCC Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: 77.058-8 - Beyond Traditional Methods: New Development in Citizenship Education and Civic Engagement

Abstract

Since 2014, schools in England have been obliged to actively promote ‘fundamental British Values’ (FBV). Existing research has tended to focus on the problematics of Britishness in the policy rather than its concern with values. This paper reports on research into the enactment of FBV as an instance of values education, with secondary teachers of religious education (RE), citizenship and personal, social and health education (PSHE). Understood from a post-secular perspective, FBV blurs the boundaries between the moral, psychological and political conceptions of values education that underpin these subjects. Findings suggest that teachers are appreciative of the opportunity to address values from this perspective but that the policy underestimates the complexity of existing practice into which it intervenes.

Author

• Jane McDonnell, Manchester Metropolitan University