Religious Humility in Post Primary Education - Ireland a Case Study

Author(s):

Catherine Stapleton(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES G 10, Primary and Post-primary Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-23

09:00-10:30

Room:

OB-H1.51

Chair:

Jonas Almqvist

Contribution

Globalization, European integration, and migration are challenging national identities and changing education across Europe (Faas, 2010). This research focused on the lived experiences of minority faith and non-religious students in Catholic Post Primary schools in Ireland. The rationale for the study was to understand how the human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion of all students is addressed in a traditionally Catholic school system. The literature review investigated the historical, socio-political and legal climate in which schools operate; it also explored human dignity, stereotyping, and adolescent identity development.

Three research questons were addressed :

Who are the non–catholic students and how do they articulate their Post Primary school experience?

Are teachers and institutions critically self-aware in engaging with individual non-Catholic students and parents?

Do religious inequalities exist and how are they addressed at an individual and institutional level?

The rational for the research is acknowledgement that increasing diversity of students alongside cultural shifts creates challenges for a traditionally homogenous school system (MaWhinney 2010, 2012), (Maher2009).

The theoretical framework used to analysis the data was Marcie Fisher -Borne et al (2015) cultural humility model.

Method

The researcher used a mixed methods approach which included three elements, namely stakeholder interviews, multi-belief student questionnaires and minority belief student interviews. A dearth of literature on the research topic prompted the researcher to enhance her understanding of key issues by interviewing 14 educational stakeholders, included were leaders of minority faith and non-religious groups alongside a former diocesan advisor,Education and Training Board ( ETB) research officer and educators from alternate settings including Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), and U.K. multidenominational schools. These interviews in tandem with the literature review informed the research questions and enabled the development of a student questionnaire. Non-probability, convenience sampling was used to select schools. The self-administered questionnaires were completed by 335 students from four Post Primary schools in rural Ireland. Schools were as similarly sized as possible, shared similar catchment areas and all were State funded. Similar numbers of students participated from the different school types and a gender balance was achieved. Following analysis of the questionnaires 20 in depth semi structured interviews of minority belief Post Primary students were conducted. In total 69 minority belief students participated in the research. Students for interview were sourced from within the participating schools or as a result of cooperation with minority belief groups. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in conjunction with NVivo computer software. The quantitative analysis used both manual and SPSS software to support in depth data analysis where cross tabulation on two categorical variables was carried out using Pearson Chi-Square and Fischer exact tests. Although the quantitative and qualitative data were analysed separately and provided three distinct sets of findings. Farmers (2006) triangulation protocol was employed to form a synergy between the three sets. Barbour (1993) suggests “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. Marcie Fisher-Borne et al (2015) cultural humility model was the theoretical framework used to marry the three data sets and facilitated in depth discussion of findings and the emergence of findings and recommendations.

Expected Outcomes

The research findings suggest minority faith and non religious students identity development and well being may be negatively impacted by teacher and student attitudes and stereotyping alongside traditional Catholic centric school practises. Analysis of questionnaire data found 58% of minority faith and non religious students were concerned by teachers attitudes to their religious difference , 47% by other students attitudes and 48% by stereotyping. Furthermore it can be said with 95% confidence that non Catholic students were less likely to feel they belonged in school than their Catholic counterparts and also found making friends more difficult. Furthermore the quantitative questionnaire findings were supported by student interviews. Through the lens of Marcia Fisher-Borne et al (2015) model of cultural humility suggest a number of challenges for denominational education providers in increasingly diverse school communities. Institutional challenges include institutional hegemony and stereotyping of religious others. A key concern identified is a lack of State accountability or desire to support minority belief students human rights. Individual accountabilities centred around a need to develop a school culture of critical self awareness and a desire to address religious inequalities.

References

Faas, Daniel. Negotiating Political Identities : Multiethnic Schools and Youth in Europe. Farnham, Surrey, GBR: Ashgate Publishing Group, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 13 January 2016. Devine, D. (2011) Securing migrant children’s educational well-being: perspective of policy and practice in Irish schools. In M. Darmody, N. Tyrrell, and S. Song (Eds) Mawhinney, A. (2007), Freedom of Religion in Irish primary school system: A Failure to Protect Human Rights? Legal Studies 27 no.3:379-403 Marcie Fisher-Borne, Jessie Montana Cain & Suzanne L. Martin (2015) From Mastery to Accountability: Cultural Humility as an Alternative to Cultural Competence, Social Work Education, 34:2, 165-181, DOI: 10.1080/02615479.2014.977244 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2014.977244 European Values Study Group (2010): European Values Study 2008, 4th wave, Integrated Dataset. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne, Germany, ZA4800 Data File Version 2.0.0 (2010-11-30) doi: 10. 4232/1. 10188 . Irving, B. ( 2012). Emerging Adulthood Theory, Research, and Recent Advances . Handbook of Psychology, Volume 6. Developmental Psychology,, 2nd Edition, Nov 2012. FAAS, D., DARMODY, M. and SOKOLOWSKA, B., Religious diversity in primary schools: Reflections from the Republic of Ireland, British Journal of Religious Education, 2016 Journal Article, 2016 Chambers, M. (2012). Students who are not Catholics in Catholic schools: Lessons from the Second Vatican Council about the Catholicity of schools. International Studies in Catholic Education. 4 (2) 186-199. Equal Status Act (2000,2011), section(7)(3)(c). Government of Ireland, The Stationary Office, Dublin Employment Equality Act (1998-2011) (section37(1). Government of Ireland, The Stationary Office, Dublin Irish Constitution (1937) available @ http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland.pdf, Committee Ninety-third session (2008) Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 40 of the Covenant: Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee. Geneva: 30 July 2008 Maher E. (2009), ‘Issues in Contemporary Irish Catholicism’, Doctrine and Life, Vol. 59, no. 5, pp. 3-13. MaWhinney A. (2010) International Human Rights Law and the Place of Religion in Schools. Paper presented at the Irish Human Rights Commission/TCD Conference Religion and Education: A Human Rights Perspective 27 November 2010

Author Information

Catherine Stapleton (presenting / submitting)

dublin city university

Carrick on Suir, Co.Tipperary

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