THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION
Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU)
2010 Seminars
30 November 2010
AHRC/ESRC PROJECT
Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity: Reporting on First Impressions
from the Field
Presenters:
Dr Julia Ipgrave & Dr Elisabeth Arweck
Chair:
Prof. Leslie Francis
Summary
A three-year project (2009–2012) in the Warwick Religions and Education Research
Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick, funded by the ESRC/AHRC Religion
and Society Programme, seeks to address a gap in knowledge by investigating the
attitudes of 13–16 year-old pupils across the United Kingdom (England, Wales.,
Northern Ireland, Scotland, London). The increasing religious diversity in the UK
presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the relationships between different
social and religious communities and institutions. The media highlight difference and
divisions in local and national contexts and there is recognition, at the level of
government, that religion cannot be relegated to the private sphere. There is also a
recognition that religious education and citizenship education in school can contribute
to community cohesion by teaching about religious diversity. However, there is little
research on pupils’ attitudes to religious diversity and the factors that shape such
attitudes. The seminar focused on the first phase of the project, which involved focus
groups discussions with young people in British schools, presenting some of their
views and comments on religious diversity, mapping the various contexts of the
schools visited, and drawing out some of the emerging themes.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: Please note that the following reflects the early stages of
the data analysis and is thus subject to revision.
Further Details about the Contents of the Seminar Presentation
The presentation was in four parts, with Elisabeth Arweck and Julia Ipgrave taking it
in turns to address the following sections:
1.
Project Background (EA)
2.
School Contexts (JI)
3.
Themes from a School (EA)
4.
Themes across Schools (JI)
1.
Project Background
This section provided an overview of the project, giving details about its duration, the
WRERU members involved, the wider context within which the project was
conceived, the project’s objectives and its time-table. It outlined the framework within
which the research to date has been carried out.
The project started with a qualitative phase, which involved focus group
discussions in secondary schools. The schools were located in various contexts across
the four nations (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England) and London. London is
treated as a special case because of its size and its distinctive patterns of diversity. It
was envisaged that three schools would be visited in each ‘nation’ with three group
interviews in each school. The intention was to investigate the key themes and issues
the students identify with religious diversity and the variety of positions they adopt in
response.
This phase of the project started with the team developing a comprehensive
document which considered in detail how the key research questions, sampling,
theoretical framework (definition of diversity) and ‘contextualisations’ needed to be
co-ordinated in the qualitative and quantitative phases of the project. The design of
interview schedules was then based on this document, paving the way for the school
visits. Literature searches were conducted during this phase as well, with a
bibliography of relevant references being compiled.
By late November 2010, focus group interviews had been conducted in Wales,
Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and London. The number of schools visited
exceeded the project’s target of 15, as did the number of interviews in some schools.
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The range of schools (re composition, location, etc.) is as wide as access to schools
permitted. The data analysis was at its early stages, but most, if not all interviews had
been transcribed and analysis on a school by school basis was quite advanced.
Further, the data from the school interviews had fed into the pilot questionnaire, as
planned.
2.
School Contexts (JI) As mentioned, the team sought to capture as wide a
range of contexts as was possible. In terms of geography, both urban and rural areas
were captured in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England, and London.
In terms of community, schools were characterized by
 a ‘mono-religious’ local culture, high levels of religious activity
 religiously active and religiously plural local communities
 religiously plural communities including a sizeable non-religious element
 low levels of religious activity locally
 low levels of religious activity but a separate, clearly defined religious group
in close proximity
In terms of the school’s approach to religion:
—religion assumed
—religion actively promoted
—expressions of pupil religion supported
—religion as school ethos
—religion as a curriculum subject
—religion struggling for a place in the curriculum
3.
Themes from a School (EA)
In order to provide a flavour of the kinds of responses which young people gave in
answer to the focus group questions, one school of all the 21 schools visited was
selected at random for the seminar. This was an academy, situated in a large industrial
multi-cultural city in the Midlands. The academy is the successor of a community
school and opened in September 2008 on the former school’s premises. By February
2010, the academy had moved into a new purpose-built building on the same site.
Given the design of the new building, it projected a ‘corporate’ image, which was also
reflected in the style of the pupils’ uniform. The academy has a dual specialism:
business and enterprise as well as information and communication, which, too,
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underline the corporate image. In terms of size, c 640 pupils + 110 students in 6th
form were on roll (figures from November 2009). Although non-denominational, the
academy had a ‘strong and caring ethos’ which is ‘based on Christian values’ (as
stated in the school’s prospectus). These were also reflected in classroom displays.
The catchment area and pupil body appeared to be mainly white, with some pupils
from non-white ethnic backgrounds present.
Three groups of pupils were interviewed in this school: they were mixed (in
terms of gender and religious or non-religious identity), with 2 groups of Y8 pupils
(12–13 yrs old) and 1 group of Y9 pupils (13–14 yrs old).
The questions asked revolved around four broad areas:
A) faith background/identity
B) values
C) encounter with diversity
D) attitudes to diversity
A selection of the pupils’ statements relating to each area was presented to convey
both the diversity and commonalities between pupils’ attitudes. These statements raise
a number of issues, including the question of identification (‘labels’), the importance
of direct contact with people from different backgrounds and pupils’ different
approaches to values, especially as they were in a school where ‘values’ are writ
large.
4.
Theme across Schools (JI)
The final part of the seminar sought to identify themes which went across the schools
visited. While generalised conclusions from what has been found are not possible—at
least not at this stage—there are a number of interesting themes that run through the
existing data. The one chosen for the purpose of this presentation was young people’s
attitudes to the religiosity of their classmates in contexts where the young people are
familiar with religion and religious practice in their own communities and in contexts
where they are not—contexts within which religion is viewed as ‘normal’ by the
students and those in which it is not.
Briefly, the possible permutations can be summarised as follows:
 where religious engagement is viewed as normal and most students are
engaged
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 where religious engagement is viewed as normal and a sizeable number of
students are not engaged
 where religious engagement is viewed as normal and the school population is
religiously mixed
 where
religious
engagement
is
largely
associated
with
particular
cultural/ethnic groups within the school
 where religious engagement is viewed as abnormal and only a minority is
engaged
Familiarity with religion in their community—or the lack of familiarity—is key to
whether pupils view their peers’ religion as normal or not: if there is lack of familiarity
with religion and religious practice, religion is perceived as abnormal. On the other
hand, where there is familiarity with religion and religious practice, religion is
perceived as normal. Analysis of the qualitative data collected across a number of
schools suggests that familiarity engenders acceptance of the religious perspective,
confidence in religious expression, and an affinity with the perspectives of other
religions. It also suggests that lack of familiarity with religion can lead to lack of
understanding of the religiosity of fellow students with a firm faith commitment, to
negative attitudes towards their religiously-informed behaviour in particular, and to
religious students being reluctant to express their beliefs openly.
Our analysis at this stage thus tends towards a number of hypotheses about the links
between familiarity with religion, religious literacy and religious tolerance—questions
which lend themselves to further discussion and testing through the rigorous work of
our WRERU colleagues in the quantitative stage of the project.
Elisabeth Arweck & Julia Ipgrave
December 2010