Studying religion in a divided society.

Abstract

This paper considers some key issues relating to the teaching of religious studies in Higher Education within a religiously divided society. It provides a brief historical context of one particular institution in Northern Ireland and reviews some of the efforts being made to create an ethos of diversity and inclusion through developing an approach to the study and research of religion that is inclusive, acknowledges difference and seeks to deal with it positively and constructively.

Transformative Religious Education

An increasing literature on the teaching of religious education has emphasised the need for critical openness in studying religion (Hull 1984; Jackson 1997; Watson 1993; Wright 1993, 2000, 2003). Andrew Wright, for example, has highlighted the fact that the study of religion is not adequate if it ignores the differences and competing truth claims of religions; at the very least this alienates students who, from their own experience of religious differences in the wider world, will realise that a sanitised, homogenous portrayal of religion is not entirely honest (Wright 1993). Also Jackson believes that the study of religion cannot be detached or objective but involves an interpretive process which naturally leads to reflection: 'the activity of grasping another's way of life is inseparable in practice from that of pondering on the issues and questions raised by it.' (Jackson 1997, 130) Building on Rorty's concept of edification, Jackson concludes that if religion is studied in an interpretive way that provides space for open debate and reflection then religious education becomes a transformative experience for the learner.

The experience of teaching Religious Studies in a religiously divided community has led the present writers to believe that the academic study of religion must be done openly, honestly and with criticality but within a deliberately cultivated learning culture which promotes values of mutual respect, appreciation of difference, and dealing with conflict creatively.

Religious Studies at Stranmillis University College in Context

Teacher education in Northern Ireland, like many other aspects of public life in Northern Ireland, has a history which shows evidence of sectarian struggle. When Stranmillis College opened in 1922 it was intended to be a non-denominational teacher training college preparing men and women to teach in a religiously mixed state school system. Unfortunately the main Christian churches, who up to that point had significant control over schooling, did not agree to the vision of mixed state schooling--Catholic schools maintained their independence and the Protestant churches only agreed to transfer their schools to state control in return for guarantees which ensured significant continued influence over their schools. The result was two separate systems of education--Catholic Church schools for Catholic children and state controlled schools for everyone else. The state controlled schools were strongly influenced by Protestant values through the control of religious education by Protestant clergy and through the influence of Protestant ministers on school management committees. In this atmosphere Stranmillis College quickly became a de facto Protestant teacher training college. Shortly after its opening the Roman Catholic authorities made it clear that they would not recognise teachers who trained at Stranmillis as qualified to teach in Roman Catholic schools. The religious partisanship of the college was further increased when Protestant clergy achieved significant representation on its management committee (Akenson 1973).

As a result of the religious roots of schooling in Northern Ireland, religious education has always featured on school curricula. Traditionally such teaching was confessional and focused almost entirely on Christianity however the subject has evolved considerably in the last 40 years. In the 1960s significant changes began to occur in the content and methods used in the teaching of Religious Education in both primary and secondary schools. In an increasingly plural and secular society the subject in state schools came to be justified on educational rather than religious grounds (Barnes 2000). A significant part of the evolution of the subject was its elevation to the status of an examined subject for 16 year olds (O-level) in 1973 (NIGCEEB 1973). In line with these developments a Religious Studies Department in Stranmillis College was formally established in 1962 to train teachers for teaching Religious Education in primary and secondary schools (Marshall 1972; Beale and Phoenix 1998). Religious education at Stranmillis College had up to that point been provided by a number of chaplains, but the classes they provided were primarily for the personal education of the students, and there was no real attempt made to make the lectures relevant to work in schools (Marshall 1972).

In this new era of a more professional approach to religious education the Stranmillis College Religious Studies Department staff were academics committed to developing the profile and status of the subject in educational terms, but the fact that they were all also ordained Protestant clergymen meant that the teaching of religious studies remained largely Christian in nature and the courses reflected their background in Protestant theology.

Students at Stranmillis University College

As a result of the segregation of schooling and teacher training in Northern Ireland the number of students attending Stranmillis University College from religious backgrounds other than Protestant has historically been very small. In recent times the College has made a pro-active effort to be religiously, socially and ethnically inclusive; the recently reformulated mission statement of the College is to pursue educational excellence 'in a shared learning environment where diversity is welcomed ...' And it would seem that this has had a modest impact on the diversity of students training to be teachers in the College. The Religious Studies department has benefited from a small but steady increase in the number of Catholic students enrolling for Religious Studies as their main course, but over 90% of students in each year who choose Religious Studies as their main course come from (often quite conservative) Protestant backgrounds. Clearly, teaching religious studies in an open and critical way can be more difficult in a mono-religious environment. Indeed, recent research by Liechty and Clegg (2001) makes the point that sectarianism is systemic throughout Northern Ireland and is perpetuated at communal and institutional levels through segregation of housing, schooling and sporting organisations. It has been suggested that teachers in Northern Ireland are one of the groups to have suffered the greatest disadvantage from this social separation, most of them having attended separate schools as children (from age 4 to 18), many having gone on to attend separate teacher education institutions before going back to teach in separate schools! It should not be surprising under such circumstances that when teachers have been challenged to explore issues relating to diversity and sectarianism in their lessons many have found this to be difficult (Richardson 2002).

A recent piece of research (Richardson 2003) carried out with teacher education students from Stranmillis and the nearby Catholic university college, St. Mary's, set out to explore what views they held on issues around religious diversity in education. Eighty percent of the students questioned were Religious Studies specialists, and most indicated an openness to learning about, and teaching, religious diversity. While most had had opportunities for some (though limited) learning about diversity within Christian traditions, awareness of world religions was much more limited among students in both university colleges. Stranmillis students generally indicated a less positive attitude towards issues of religious diversity than their St. Mary's counterparts. There seems little doubt that the students' openness to religious diversity is tempered by the lack of opportunity within the system as a whole for developing their awareness.

Another recent research project has turned up similar results. A "Small World Project" was initiated by the Stranmillis University College Religious Studies department in 2003 with the aim of producing two textbooks for post-primary school pupils on World Religions by means of exploring the lives of young people from a variety of religious backgrounds in Northern Ireland. Students in the Religious Studies department were encouraged to participate in the project by acting as research assistants who would help to gather primary data relating to the young people to be featured in the books. Seven students were interviewed for the research assistant posts and were asked about their experience and understanding of religions diversity. Of the 7 interviewed all were from Protestant backgrounds and 5 responded to the question, 'How much do you feel you understand the beliefs and practices of religious traditions other than your own?' with statements such as 'I've never really seen people of other religions before--I've lead a very sort of sheltered life' or 'To be honest, I don't have much understanding.'

Shaping a New Approach: Critical Openness in Religions Education

Clearly, segregation, a limited understanding and experience of diversity by the students and a societal context of violent religious sectarianism present serious challenges for the educator wishing to teach religions studies at Stranmillis University College. The temptation is to exclude any discussion of religious differences from the seminar room which may prove to be controversial, to pitch material to the interests of the Protestant majority, only to consider what Catholics and Protestants have in common and to teach about religions in a phenomenological way that ignores their truth claims. It is the belief of the current members of staff, however, that these are not appropriate responses. To see a place of learning as an oasis or a safe harbour is not appropriate in all circumstances. Richardson (2002) has suggested that in the area of education the 'safe harbour' metaphor be replaced by that of 'building a bridge'. Such a process recognises difficulties but takes risks and reaches out. This seems to be a particularly significant metaphor in relation to religious education in the context of religious separation and conflict.

Awareness of the literature on more critical approaches to religious education has through time informed the teaching by individual members of the Religious Studies department at Stranmillis University College, but at the start of the academic year 200304 a conscious decision was made explicitly and proactively to promote diversity and inclusion as an ethos at all levels of the department's work. Four values underlying the promotion of diversity and inclusion were agreed by the members of the Religious Studies department:

1. Respect for and equal treatment of persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.

2. Appreciation and understanding of difference through balanced investigation, research and critical analysis.

3. Open exploration of controversial issues and competing truth claims.

4. Creative approaches to dealing with conflict.

In the department's teaching and research it was decided that staff members would seek to focus on promoting these values in three areas: being inclusive in their own work, teaching the students to be inclusive in their work and training the students how to teach inclusively in schools.

Being inclusive, teaching to be inclusive and training to teach inclusively

Being Inclusive: Planning and preparation of modules

The new approach to diversity and inclusion in 2003 corresponded with the rewriting of the Bachelor of Education degree in the university college; this is the main degree which the Religious Studies department contributes to. In addition to the usual process of the revision and evaluation of modules there was an attempt to carry out a 'diversity impact assessment' of the existing provision. This required an honest consideration of module content, skills development, teaching and learning strategies and assessment in the light of the four aims for diversity and inclusion. Following the initial drafting of the modules a scrutiny process was carried out which created a forum for reflection on whether any aspect of the module might have a negative impact on diversity and in what way the module might be improved to promote the four key values of diversity and inclusion. As a result of this process the modules offered by the religions studies department, the content of the modules and some teaching strategies have radically changed. In brief, the study of world religions for all students has been introduced; Church history modules have been altered to reflect greater diversity within the Christian tradition; there is a greater emphasis on diversity issues in all modules that relate to classroom practice; the importance of active learning methods which enhance student participation has been recognized and as a result an increase in the number of teaching strategies which facilitate dialogue and debate within the classroom has been planned.

Teaching to be Inclusive: Small World Project

As we have already noted, the teaching of world religions in schools in Northern Ireland has been neglected for a considerable time and many students who come to Stranmillis University College feel that they have had little knowledge or experience of religious diversity. With this in mind, the Religious Studies department established the Small World Project with the dual aim of developing two textbooks on World Religions for use in post-primary schools in Northern Ireland and giving student teachers an opportunity to be involved in a project which would bring them into contact with greater religious and cultural diversity. Informed by the 'interpretive approach' to religious education (Jackson 1997) the textbooks will try to avoid presenting the religions as reified static systems but using the results of ethnographic research it is hoped to provide a picture of the religions and their traditions in a 'vibrant, flexible and organic way' (Jackson 1997, p47). The project is still in its early stages but it is already possible to see that it is an example of transformative education (Wardekker and Miedma 200l) for all the students involved. From comments made at the regular project team meetings it is clear that students have a strong sense of being involved in a process of learning and development which is markedly different from education as "transmission of knowledge'. They often remark that learning about the religious traditions of the families they are researching frequently forces them to deal with personal issues regarding appreciation, understanding and respect for difference. It would seem that training students to be inclusive is greatly enhanced by creating opportunities for genuine personal engagement with people from diverse religious traditions.

Training to Teach Inclusively: An Inter-College Approach

Many educational professionals in Northern Ireland have long sought ways of offsetting the worst effects of educational separateness through various curriculum and contact programmes. In the context of the University College processes have been in operation for almost two decades to promote awareness and understanding between the mainly Protestant teacher education students from Stranmillis and the Catholic students from St. Mary's, including those majoring on Religious Studies. Its approach, however, has usually been limited to superficial contact and it has often lacked rigour and depth. In the past few years there has been an attempt to refocus it as a 'Diversity and Mutual Understanding Programme' and to base it more firmly in a curriculum and personal and professional development context. The aim is to enable students to develop skills and competencies in discussing sensitive issues in a safe context so that they can apply these processes in their future teaching. This refocused programme still has some way to go, but it has the potential of being generally supportive of the work being carried out specifically with Religious Studies students.

Conclusions

There is a feeling that as we enter the twenty-first century societies are increasingly divided along religious lines and there is a subsequent concern within some educational institutions that learning about religion will, in such a context, prove destructive and divisive unless differences can be resolved or ignored through the teaching process. We believe that this is an unhelpful analysis and can only lead to a misinterpretation of religion and a naive disregard of religious truth claims. In a society which bears many scars of religious and cultural separation and division the task of teaching religion in schools and in higher education often appears daunting. If such study is to have credibility it is crucial that it is carried out on a basis of openness, honesty and criticality within an ethos of respect for diversity and a readiness to deal creatively with conflict.

References

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