Faith-sensitive RSE in areas of low religious observance: Really?
Excerpts from an academic paper published in Sex Education Journal (2021)
By Jo Sell and Michael Reiss
Discussion
In this study, we examined the views of a range of secondary students in England, with respect to faith, religion or belief system, about whether RSE should take into account such values. The three inner-city schools were characterised by high levels of religious observance, with 94% of respondents to the questionnaire identifying as religious and 6% identifying as atheist or agnostic. In the fourth school, Rural School, only 26% identified as religious and 74% identified as atheist or agnostic. As the focus of this article is on the views of students in areas of low religious observance, we have focused on the data from Rural School.
Exploring the contributions of participants from Rural School, it is possible to see how showing respect for and understanding faith perspectives can enrich RSE for many students and not just those from a faith background. Workshops in particular demonstrated how Rural School students thought about the possible dilemmas faced by young people, some of whom were from faith backgrounds.
The workshops worked well, in the sense that students were able to talk in depth and with nuance about the scenarios, in the inner-city schools where there was a wide range of religious observance. However, in Rural School no one in the class selected for the workshop identified themselves as religious, so that workshop proved less relevant for understanding religious responses to issues, but helped to balance the responses of the inner-city students and offered insights into the understanding of students who were not used to thinking through religious issues. Some Rural School students showed a stereotypical understanding of people from faith backgrounds, for example, when it was assumed that Sam’s parents would not agree with her having an abortion, due to religious reasons, whereas the truth is that often those same families would advise abortions for their daughters to preserve the family honour. However, the workshop also demonstrated how the Rural School students tried to show empathy for the individuals depicted in the scenarios.
Our key finding is that although Rural School had low levels of faith observance, and many students there who did identify as having a faith did not feel it was very important to them, the views of its students still largely mirrored those of the more religious students in the inner-city schools with regards to how issues of faith should be addressed in RSE.
Possible implications
It might be asked about the limits to faith sensitivity. What, for example, is a teacher to do when faced with views with which she does not agree, expressed by a student and backed up by arguments from religion – for example, the argument that men and women have different roles assigned to them by God so that women should not have authority over men? There is a large literature on how to address controversial issues in the classroom. However, not all teachers are trained to be able to determine whether particular views can be categorised as ‘controversial’ from an epistemological viewpoint. The most straightforward approach for a teacher is to remember that schools should be places that are as safe as possible for all students and that they should be places for students to learn. Often, holding impromptu discussion sessions in which students are able, again we stress, as safely as is possible, to express their views can lead to some students changing their views. Of course, there are limits to this; a teacher can and should challenge certain views as being unacceptable. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to specify in advance precisely where such lines should be drawn. Furthermore, sometimes a teacher can play the role of ‘devil’s advocate’ as this can be a useful pedagogical device to enable students to work out for themselves, in the safe space that a classroom can sometimes afford, why certain views are not acceptable. For a knowledgeable teacher, it may be possible to teach students something about the diversity of views within religions on issues to do with gender or sexuality.
Faith-sensitivity has an importance in its own right for students. In addition, there are educational agendas where faith-sensitivity in RSE can not only enhance outcomes for schools and individual students but, in the English context, provide evidence suitable for school inspections undertaken by the government agency Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills). At present, schools in England need to demonstrate to Ofsted, local authorities and/or other external bodies that they are fulfilling their obligations to the delivery of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) provision, ‘Fundamental British values’ (FBV) and under the Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality and Human Rights Commission 2012), both in the curriculum and with regards to the ethos of the school. The facilitation of faith-sensitive RSE speaks to all these agendas and may also work to show how the school is fulfilling part of its Prevent Duty (Prime Minister’s Task Force on Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism 2013).
New statutory guidance in England on RSE and Health Education (DfE 2019) gives all schools the duty to consult with parents concerning RSE and requires schools to take the background of students into consideration when teaching RSE. Some parents are struggling to come to terms with some of the content of school RSE in the new guidance, even though little has changed. These parents, many of whom are from faith backgrounds, may be more reassured if training in the delivery of faith-sensitive RSE is given to school staff.
While a faith-sensitive teaching of RSE may have clear benefits in schools of high religious observance, findings from the study reported here suggest that there may also be advantages for non-religious students in schools in areas of low religious observance. Nonreligious as well as religious students may feel under pressure to behave sexually in ways they do not wish to. While Verity (discussed above) may not have wanted to have sex only within marriage, her interview indicates that she felt that she and others would benefit from receiving RSE that would enable them to resist pressure on them to have sex before they wanted to.
If RSE in England is to become faith-sensitive, then the 2010 Equality Act, and the subsequent Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality and Human Rights Commission 2012) must be important considerations. In line with these requirement, schools need to ensure that due regard is given to protected characteristics under both pieces of legislation: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. In so doing, it is important that faith-sensitive RSE does not disadvantage students whose identities may be erased or marginalised by certain religious lenses. Indeed, if lessons are to be faith-sensitive RSE provision should also be sensitive to other groups who may be minorities in society, e.g. disabled, pregnant or LGBT+ students – and there are issues of intersectionality to consider.
All this makes heavy demands on teachers. The journey from faith-sensitive RSE, through these other sensitivities, leads ultimately to student-sensitive RSE, in which the backgrounds, identities and needs of all groups in classrooms can be valued and enrich the RSE experience for all students. This would help give minority group members a confident sense of self and place, as well as enabling those from majority groups to learn and understand about, and from, those of whom they may have limited knowledge, and who they may at times misjudge or give limited regard to. Such an approach would celebrate diversity and, if handled well, bring about greater equality, not just for students with a religious faith, both in the classroom and beyond.
Conclusion
RSE is widely acknowledged to be important but difficult to teach. Many teachers in England feel unprepared to teach it and this lack of confidence is exacerbated by the plurality of values, including religious values, among students and society more generally. In this study we have shown that there is considerable agreement among students, whatever their faith, religion or belief system, about the importance of taking values seriously in the context of teaching about relationships and sex education. Such a finding is both interesting in itself and helps simplify the job of classroom teachers attempting to teach RSE when faced with a wide range of student views about the importance of religious faith. We conclude that it is realistic for RSE to be faith-sensitive and argue that making it such can contribute to a broader, overarching aim of student-sensitive RSE.
The full Paper can be found here
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