Religious identify and religious education reform in transnational contexts

• In Event: Highlighted session: Religious teaching and learning across diverse cultural settings and contexts

Proposal

In post secular liberal societies, Religious Education (RE) is a contested area of the curriculum particularly in its attempt to respond to powerful socio-cultural forces in society, and the world at large (Wardekker and Miedema, 2001; Parker and Freathy, 2011; Skeie, 2001; Horton, 1993). In RE these forces engender debates related to whether in public schools RE should be approached from an exclusivist (single religion/confessional) or inclusivist (phenomenological/non-confessional) position, and for the inclusivist approach which religions should be studied, why and how (see Williame, 2007; Hobson and Edwards, 1999). In countries such as Northern Ireland, Nigeria and Israel where religion is a polarising factor (Bayim, 2015; Barnes, 2018; Katz, 2018), RE can be a shocking business (Cox, 1982) and prone to high levels of conflict (Barnes, 2018). As Wright astutely observes, part of the problem is that as a school subject RE ‘leads us paradoxically into the realm of … uncertainty and truth… cynicism and apathy, faith and commitment’ (Wright, 1993, p. 10). RE is perhaps one of the few curriculum subjects confined not only to ‘internal dynamics of the classroom or even the school’ but crucially impacted by ‘a more complex set of [external] forces, confirmations, disconfirmations, encouragements and discouragements’ (Conroy et al., 2013, 58).

While optimistically (as in England) scholars such as Moulin are beginning to see a strengthened RE (Moulin, 2012), the contemporary status of the subject presents a rather depressing picture and seemingly unable to shake off the historical ‘Cinderella’ tag (Dierenfield, 1967; Bastide, 2000). As such RE remains the subject schools would rather ignore so that teachers can devote time to ‘useful’ subjects such as Science, Literacy and Numeracy upon which PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is based, and the implications of this international assessment on the quality (or lack) of a country’s education (Chater and Erricker, 2013; Grek, 2009). Despite its variable treatment in schools (Conroy et al., 2013), in many countries RE has survived mainly for two reasons: first, by law RE is a legal requirement in public schools (e.g. UK), and secondly, as a form of cultural heritage and national identity through the teaching of particular religions (Matemba, 2015; Wardekker and Miedema, 2001; Jackson, 2004). For these reasons, in many countries attempts to bring sweeping reforms in RE engenders fierce debates and contestations (Parker and Freathy, 2011).

This paper explores how stakeholders in different socio-cultural contexts engage with RE reform, and the extent to which religious identity engenders polarised debates in the micro-politics of reform in RE essentially because stakeholders want the subject to draw on elements of their particular culture, tradition and theologies. While the outcomes of recent RE reforms in Scotland and Malawi are well known (Conroy, 2014; Matemba, and Addai-Mununkum, 2017), what is less explored in the discourse are stakeholders’ perspectives on the role of religious identity in these reforms. The paper attempts to address this issue guided by three key related research questions:

• How do stakeholders in Scotland and Malawi express their religious identity in discussions related to RE?
• Which religious groups are dominant in such discussions? Secondly, to what extent is religious identity a complicating factor in RE reform?
• How does religious identity influence what stakeholders want for schools, and why?

Data that informs this paper is based on the findings of a large phenomenological study mainly based on semi-structured face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders: Scotland (n=26) and Malawi (n=31). To minimise the limitations of a phenomenology approach to research, for example reductionism, additional data from observations and documentary analysis are used (Singleton, Straits and Straits, 1993).

The paper is inspired by Odduran Bråten’s innovative approach to comparative RE related to three dimensions and four levels of comparison (Bråten, 2013). To date only one study has applied Bråten’s model in examining RE between Quebec (Canada) and Flanders (Belgium), two countries with similar socio-cultural contexts being both European and culturally western (Franken, 2017). As far as I can ascertain, the present paper is the first to apply Bråten’s model between two countries in different socio-cultural contexts: one African and religiously conservative (Malawi) and other European and secular-liberal (Scotland). The comparisons reveal both in-country (national) and cross-country (supranational) perspectives on how stakeholders in the two countries engage with the micro-politics of religious identity in RE reform (Bråten, 2015).

In this paper I draw on Bourdieu’s concept of “social space and symbolic power” as analytical framework to explicate the idea of (religious) education as a positive social space (a citizenship ‘moment’) in schools and yet compromised by ideological posturing that religious identity engenders for RE (Bourdieu, 1987; 2013). Micro-politics of (religious) identity gives historically dominant religions (e.g. Christianity) symbolic power that de-legitimises the religious ‘others’ in RE. I argue that in Scotland and Malawi educational reforms have been necessary to reposition RE through the adoption of post-confessional multi-faith models so that it becomes a school subject that accommodates multiple religious identifies, and in turn facilitate and/or create ‘neutral’ social spaces for studying religion in the contemporary school.

The paper provides insights on national and supranational comparisons in RE, and the extent to which educational reforms engender entrenched and politicised debates centred on religious identity. It argues that despite the data arising from two countries in different socio-cultural contexts—one African and religiously conservative (Malawi) and other European and secular-liberal (Scotland), importantly the findings reveal common issues and insights in the micro-politics of religious identity and educational reform in RE.

Keywords: Religion and Religious Education, Comparative Methodology, Educational Reform, Bourdieu

Author

• Yonah Hisbon Matemba, University of the West of Scotland