Faith Schools and Tolerance: a Comparative Study of the Influence of Faith Schools on Students' Attitudes of Tolerance

Faith Schools and Tolerance: a comparative study of the influence of faith schools on students' attitudes of tolerance. Helen Sarah Everett A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Institute of Education; University of London Supervisors; Dr Edward Vickers and Dr Germ Janmaat. Funded by an ESRC 1+3 studentship 1 Declaration I hereby declare that, except where explicit attribution is made, the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. Word count (exclusive of appendices, list of references and bibliography): 97,743 words Helen Everett March 2012 2 Abstract Faith Schoolsand Tolerance: a comparative study of the influence of faith schoolson students' attitudes of tolerance. Faith schools constitute approximately one third of all state-maintained schools and two fifths ofthe independent schools in England. Nevertheless they have historically been, and remain, controversial. In the current social climate questions have been raised about the ability of faith schools to promote Community Cohesion and, included within that, their ability to promote tolerance. This research explores one aspect of this debate by looking at the effect that faith schools have on their students' attitudes of tolerance. As well as asking what differences exist between students in faith and non-faith schools it also looks at which aspects of the schools might be impacting on the students and affecting their attitudes of tolerance. Using a mixed methods approach, this research looks at six English secondary schools, including a range of faith as well as non-faith schools, and from both state and independent sectors. The complexity and multiple meanings associated with the term tolerance are explored, incorporating different understandings and objects oftolerance. Although not generalisable to the whole population of faith schools, the findings suggest that the categorisation of schools into faith/non-faith has little relevance when considering their effect on tolerance. In only one school were any differences found in the students' attitudes of tolerance which could be related to any particular aspect of the school. The students in the Muslim Independent school were found to be less tolerant of those people whose behaviour contravened Islamic teachings, and it is suggested that the school impacted on this attitude through less effective development of its students' cognitive skills, and the way it nurtured their religious identity. The research also finds that students in both the faith and non-faith schools were lesstolerant of religious groups than they were of some other groups in society, which was seen to result from the nature of the contact with those of other faiths provided by the schools. 3 For Henry and in memory ofmy parents/ Sam and Joyce Totterdell 4 Acknowledgements There are a great many people who have helped me through this PhD and the MRes which preceded it, many of whom are unaware of the help they have given. However, there are some people who deserve a particular mention. I want to begin by thanking those who made the project possible. First of all I would like to thank the six schools, and the two schools who were part of the pilot, for agreeing to participate in the research, as well as all the participants, students and staff, within the schools. Without them there would be no research. Having been a teacher myself I am very aware of the myriad of calls on a school's time and I am very grateful that these schools found time and space to cope with, and accommodate, a researcher. I also want to extend my thanks to the ESRC for funding this research and the MRes which preceded it. Their financial support meant that I could concentrate solely on the PhD and had one less thing to worry about. Throughout the process there have been some specific people who have given me continued and ongoing support in a variety of ways. I would like to thank Marjeta Sulaj for her unfailing faith in me that I would complete it, and my brother for his belief in me, and whose own PhD experience showed me very clearly how not to write up a PhD. My friend Gloria has also given me amazing support. Not only has she listened patiently to my ramblings as well as reading and commenting on the final draft, she also quietly, but firmly, encouraged me to take breaks. I would also like to thank Sadaf Rizvi for her encouragement and advice throughout the PhD and for her helpful comments on the final draft. The most important people throughout this PhD, to whom most thanks need to be given, have been my supervisors Dr Ed Vickers and Dr Germ Janmaat, and my husband Henry. Without the support of Ed, and Professor Andy Green who also provided valuable support in my first year, I would not have embarked on this research, nor would I have been awarded an ESRC 1 + 3 Studentship. Ed and Germ have been tremendously supportive and encouraging throughout. They have steered me through the research, giving me much-needed critical feedback, but they have always done so in a positive and productive way. Although they have 5 given me advice they have always encouraged me to develop and have confidence in my own ideas. Finally Henry has lived with this thesis, and me doing this, for over three years and by now must be thoroughly sick of it. He has kept me calm and encouraged me when things have not been going well, listened to my ideas, as well as offering practical help such as proof reading. Most of all he has just been there and had faith in me. 6 Table of Contents Declaration 2 Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 5 Table of Contents 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 10 1.11 ntroduction 10 1.2 Faith Schools and their Effect on Tolerance 10 1.3 A Note on Terminology 14 1.4 The Increasing Debate Over Faith Schools 16 1.5 A Brief Overview ofthe Thesis 18 Chapter 2: Understanding Tolerance 21 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 Defining Tolerance 22 2.3 The Origin of Tolerance 29 2.4 Tolerance, Religions and Faith 42 2.5 Education and Tolerance 46 2.6 Faith Schools and Tolerance 58 2.7 Conclusion 66 Chapter 3: Methodology 70 3.1 Introduction 70 3.2 Determining the Students' Attitudes of Tolerance 71 3.3 Determining the School Effect: Research Reliability and Validation 77 3.4 The Research Schools 79 3.5 The Choice of Participants 84 3.6 Gaining Access and Researching Within the Schools 86 3.7 Analysing the Data 87 3.8 Ethical Considerations 88 3.9 My Position as the Researcher 91 7 Chapter 4: The School 93 4.1 Introduction 93 4.2 School Themes 94 4.3 The Roman Catholic Independent School 98 4.4 The Roman Catholic State School. 108 4.5 The Evangelical Christian School 115 4.6 The Muslim School 123 4.7 The Non-Faith Independent School. 135 4.8 The Non-Faith State School 140 4.9 Provisional Hypotheses 146 Chapter 5: The Students' Religious Identity 151 5.1 Introduction 151 5.2 Identification: Identifying with the Faith 152 5.3 Salience: How Distinctive is the Group? 158 5.4 Relevance: The Relevant Out-Group 164 5.5 Social Structure: Permeability 168 5.6 Influences on Student Beliefs 169 5.7 Conclusion 174 Chapter 6: The Students' Experience of School 180 6.1 Introduction 180 6.2 Contact 180 6.3 Cognitive Sophistication 189 6.4 Socialisation 201 6.5 Conclusion 202 6.6 Concluding Remarks to Chapters 4, 5 and 6 207 Chapter 7: Is There any Difference in Tolerance? 208 7.1 Introduction 208 7.2 How do we detect tolerance? 209 7.3 Passive Tolerance 210 7.4 Active Tolerance 235 7.5 Conclusion and Summary 252 8 Chapter 8: The Discussion 256 8.1 Introduction 256 8.2 Part A: Research Question A 259 8.3 Part B: Research Question B 273 8.4. Conclusion 299 Chapter 9: Summary and Concluding Remarks 300 9.1 Introduction 300 9.2 The Main Research Findings 300 9.3 Limitations 302 9.4 The Impact 303 9.5 Further Research 306 Bibliography 309 Appendices 327 Appendix A: The Student Questionnaire 327 Appendix B: The Student Interview Schedule 342 Appendix C:The Questionnaire Pilot 345 Appendix D: School Aspects in the Student Interviews and Questionnaire 348 Appendix E: Faith School Definitions 349 Appendix F: Interview Respondents 351 Appendix G: Research Schedule 353 Appendix H: School Characteristics 354 Appendix I: Year 10 Background Characteristics 355 Appendix J: School Area Ethnic and Religious Statistics 357 Appendix K: Technical Details 359 Appendix L: t-Statistics 362 Appendix M: Is there an Indirect School Effect? 365 9 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction In 200S David Bell (Guardian, 200Sc), the then Chief Inspector for Schools, made a speech on Citizenship in which he suggested that many faith schools needed to adapt their curricula to ensure that children are helped 'to acquire an appreciation of and a respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony' and that 'pupils should know the positives of a diverse community and its importance in a world where too many communities are fractured'. He expressed concern that 'many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society' (ibid). Within the speech explicit reference was made to Muslim, Orthodox Jewish and Evangelical Christian schools. David Bell's remarks were interesting in that they were a public questioning of Government policy at a time when New Labour was promoting faith schools (Annette, 200S; DfES, 200St but they were not novel, being part of a much wider, and ongoing, debate surrounding the place of faith in education, which in recent years has focused on the effect offaith schools on Community Cohesion.

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