I read ‘Religion, the public sphere and higher education’ by Professor Craig Calhoun. The section ‘Religion and dissent in universities’ made me realise how little we talk about religion in the classroom. Sometimes Muslim students mention religious obligations in the context of not being able to attend class. This year, I scheduled multiple dates for a session that fell around Eid so they could attend. In contrast, Christian students seldom mention religion maybe because the holiday calendar is already organised around their religious festivals. Considering this, I have changed the way I talk about holidays; instead of mentioning Christmas or Easter, I refer to the Winter Break and the Spring Break. But I think acknowledging the historical reasons for the existing calendar is important.
The Reith Lecture on Creed by Kwame Anthony Appiah made me consider the presence of doubt. I was raised in the Catholic faith, but as a teenager, the scandal of child sexual abuse within the Irish Catholic Church was exposed, making me question my faith. I didn’t think there was an option to take some of the teachings and to leave the institution behind. Instead I developed a complex relationship with Catholicism which I rarely speak about. However, this lecture has reignited my curiosity in religion and prompted me to discuss my history with religion more openly which could be helpful for students to hear.
The article by Raman Mundair in the Shades of Noir publication Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief is about exposure to different religions and questioning which one fits. Mundair settles on ‘self-imposed silence’ which resonates with me. I think belief can be experienced through having time and space for contemplation. I could include a moment of silence during sessions for students to just breathe and contemplate, whether they are religious or not. This could generate a small sense of wellbeing for everyone.
I could be more inclusive by speaking more freely about religion in class, highlighting religious festivals that students celebrate and recognising that faith might be a core part of their identity. One of the most course-related ways to do this would be when learning about consumer segmentation; students could reflect and share how they think marketing targets their religious and cultural beliefs.
‘Creed’ (2016) The Reith Lectures, BBC, Radio 4 Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds (Accessed: 17 July 2023)
Modood, T., & Calhoun, C. (2015). ‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for higher education’. Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Available at: http://www.tariqmodood.com/uploads/1/2/3/9/12392325/6379_lfhe_stimulus_paper_-_modood_calhoun_32pp.pdf (Accessed: 17 July 2023)
Shades of Noir, ‘Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief’. Available at: https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/higher-power-religion-faith-spirituality-belief/ (Accessed 17 July 2023)
Great points are made within this blog.
On reflection, I have been guilty of using religious holidays to describe the academic timetable, i.e. Christmas break and Easter break. I consciously realised this and now use the correct language to be inclusive for staff and students.
Thank you for your comment Michele. I think it’s ok to still use the terms Easter and Christmas. As you mentioned on your blog, for many people these can be cultural celebrations rather than religious or belief-based. I think students also accept that these are the phrases used in the UK. Rather than erasing them, maybe we can just add more to the conversation to include other religious festivities as well 🙂
Interesting points, Louise!
your point about representation and the student’s CSS feedback resonated with me and my experience on representation.
As far as I’m aware I’m one of two Latina academic members of staff within my school. A couple of years ago, a Latina student emailed me at the start of the year to say how excited she was to have me as a tutor as this would be the first time she would have a tutor who would understand and appreciate the references she was bringing into her projects. She felt that because her previous tutors didn’t understand where she was coming from, they never really encouraged her to explore her identity as a Latin American designer. I agree with you that a student’s search for peers with a shared background might be an appeal for community, but I also think a lot of times when students are talking about representation it’s because they feel like we don’t see how their intersectional identities relate to their work, or don’t encourage them to pursue them because we don’t understand that as well.
This also came up in on feedback from a student of a uni I work as external examiner – she commented on how she felt her tutors discouraged her to explore her background because they didn’t have enough knowledge on the subject to support her.
Of course we can’t know everything, and regardless of how diverse a team might be it’s impossible for everyone to be represented, but for me when students talk about representation it’s also about feeling like their identities are celebrated rather than ignored. I love your idea of bringing in students identities when talking about student segmentation, I’ve also been thinking of ways to create space for students to explore their identity within units as part of their projects. 🙂
Thank you for your comment Mariana. It is interesting to hear the student feedback; I can see on one had how tutors might feel unable to support subject matter they know nothing about, but on the other hand, should there be a way to help students explore any topic within a structure? Like, ‘freedom within a framework’. I have heard this narrative before, particularly in relation to art and design subjects where the concept being explored needs to be ‘legitimised’ by the tutor before students are allowed to explore it, or before the success of the work can be judged. I think we are able to have a really different approach on the business courses where we can lean on existing business/marketing/consumer theory so there are benchmarks for the concepts students are exploring. They are of course allowed (and encouraged) to critique the status quo but at least there are systems they can compare against or reject. Whereas with art and design, maybe this is less tangible, hence tutors feel out of their depth. It is a shame, and maybe relates more to ideas of taste and who gets to cultivate it. This is mentioned in this article by Richards and Finnegan which maybe you are reading as part of the next blogging task 🙂 https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/ug_retention_and_attainment_in_art_and_design2_1568037344.pdf
Hello Louise,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. It was very interesting. I have not read this paper by Professor Craig Calhoun, so it was very useful to hear what you had to say. The data included in the blog was interesting too. It is surprising that 42% of students state that they are of no religion. I wonder why that would be too. I like you have issues with the Churches ‘Murky past’ as you put it. I am not very religious, but was bought up as C of E, and have worked in a C of E school, so always put that on forms when asked. So it just makes me wonder do that many students really not have a religion, and is that a one off, or is that representative of the whole cohort, and if so, is the uptake of religion on the decline? I think talking about different celebrations and festivals is a good idea. It is better to get things out in the open, and sharing experiences. This is part of the SIT Social Identity Theory as discussed by Hahn in ‘A pedagogy of social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment’ where by discussing identities and differences we help to break down the barriers. Not speaking about them, only helps to magnify them.