An ongoing feature of liberal democracies in the Western world is the question around how schools should prepare children to be citizens of diverse, multifaith societies. While there have been numerous studies of religion and education oriented towards issues such as the content and practice of religious education, little is known about how ideas about religion, citizenship and national identity become interrelated through everyday practices in schools, or what this means for children’s sense of belonging in wider society. The Becoming Citizens of 'Post-Secular' Britain: Religion in Primary School Life grew out of a desire to understand more about these issues in the everyday lives of children. The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the project team is made up of Dr Anna Strhan (University of York), Dr Peter Hemming (University of Surrey), Professor Sarah Neal (University of Sheffield), and Dr Joanna Malone (University of York).
Our project explores how primary school children (aged 7-11) understand what it means to belong to different communities, and how this relates to religious or non-religious beliefs and values. We are also exploring what kinds of ideas about citizenship, national identity, and religion children encounter in everyday school life and more local forms of community and belonging. This will lead to a better understanding of how children learn to be citizens and enable the development of recommendations to help ensure that all children (whether religious or non-religious) feel fully included in school community life. The scope of our project is ambitious, it includes fieldwork in four different fieldsites of the UK (two in England, one in Scotland, and one in Wales), gaining the perspectives from school staff (including teachers and teaching assistants), parents and carers, and children themselves through interviews – as well as immersion to everyday school life through the use of ethnographic methods and child-centred research activities.
We are now six months into Becoming Citizens of ‘Post Secular’ Britain project. Early months of the project consisted of reading a broad range of literature that explores religion, non-religion, friendship, and ideas of citizenship in the primary school setting. Existing work such as Carol Vincent’s Tea and the Queen? Fundamental British Values, Schools and Citizenship, Anna Strhan and Rachael Shillitoe’s work on non-religious childhood, and Carol Vincent, Sarah Neal, and Humera Iqbal’s Friendship and Diversity: Class, Ethnicity and Social Relationships in the City highlight some of the key issues surrounding this topic from a range of viewpoints, including children, teachers, and parents. Findings from this existing literature helped up develop our child-centred activities, our interview schedules, and our ethnographic approach.
Since the beginning of the 2022 summer term, the Becoming Citizens project have been undertaking ethnography in a socially and ethnically diverse primary school in the North West of England. I, Joanna Malone, am the Postdoctoral Research Associate on the project and will be undertaking the fieldwork across the four fieldsites, I have a background in anthropology, sociology, and in qualitative methods. I have been working across two classes in year 5 (ages 9-10) for three days a week, acting as a teaching assistant in each class. During my time, I have gotten to know the pupils and the staff well. Child-centred research activities have been undertaken in both classes, including a drawing exercise to get a sense of what is important to children in their everyday lives, and an activity called ‘Community Carousel’, which was developed in collaboration with Dr Rachael Shillitoe, with the aim of interrogating what community means to children.
The drawing exercise allowed us to understand what children in the school consider important in their daily lives. Themes arising from this activity included family, friends, pets, food, games, religion, languages, and affiliation to a nation or to family origin. See below Figure 1. and Figure 2. for examples of the children’s drawings about the important things in their lives.
Figure 1. A drawing from a boy in a year 5 class from the drawing activity
Figure 2. A drawing from a girl in a year 5 class from the drawing activity
The Community Carousel was an activity that allowed the children to think more fully about what community means to them – a concept which many were unsure of at the beginning of the activity. This activity started with a free-listing exercise where, in pairs, children were invited to think of the first five things that popped into their mind when they heard the word community. They then fed back to the class and then together, we came up with five categories of community that could then be explored more deeply (see Figure 3. for an example of this from one of the classes). These five categories were written on flip chart paper and placed on five tables, the class then split into groups and spent five minutes at each table thinking in more detail about the particular theme. From the two classes, the themes included religion, family, friends, neighbourhood, city, nations, sports and games, and school.
Figure 3. Example from one class of the free-listing exercise on community meant to the children
Jubilee celebrations commenced on the last Friday (27th May) before half term with a fun day for children (and staff!) that included dressing up in red, white, or blue and a tea party in the afternoon, with plenty of sweets, cakes, crisps, and bunting to go around. The morning assembly also showcased a group of children from year 4 performing the national anthem in sign language for the rest of the school. In the lead up to the celebrations, each year group was given a decade of the Queen’s reign to research and to present on in some way. Year 5 researched 1960-1970 and were told to focus on three key events – England winning the 1966 World Cup, the Equal Pay Act (1970), and the influential music of the 1960s. Researching this was something the children thoroughly enjoyed, creating artwork, and even writing a song about the Queen in the style of 1960s music. Each year group’s research was displayed around the main hall of the school. Days such as these, and the preparation leading up to them, highlight how different kinds of ideas about citizenship, national identity, and religion are encountered by children in everyday school life – in this case, in a jovial and relaxed manner.
What has become clear in the five weeks I have been in the school is the importance of interaction and mutual respect amongst pupils in regard to religious and cultural diversity, something that has also come across strongly in the paired child-interviews conducted so far. Friendship also plays a significant role in children’s everyday experiences in school. During a photography activity with the children involved, many wanted to capture places where they had happy memories with their friends, where they hang out, and where they come together to play, dance, or chat. What has been indicated in findings so far is that it is what they share with friends, be it food, religion, or a place to play, which contributes to children’s sense of belonging in their school and their everyday lives.
With more child-centred activities and interviews to come, as well as interviews with parents and staff, the project team is really looking forward to learning more about how the children in this diverse and exciting school understand what it means to belong to different communities and how this relates to their religious or non-religious beliefs and values.