Young People's Attitudes to Religious Diversity: Socialising Agents and Factors Emerging from Qualitative and Quantitative Data of a Nation-Wide Project in the UK

Abstract

This article is based on data arising from focus group discussions with young people in British schools, to draw out socialising influences and factors that shape their approaches to religious diversity. It explores questions such as: is religious socialisation taking place in the home, with active participation in religious communities, or is religious socialisation weakening from generation to generation? How does religious socialisation (or its lack) differ between and within religions and between particular localities? Which factors facilitate or impede socialising processes? These questions are addressed in the light of discussions with young people and survey results. The data arise from a project (2009–2012) in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit at the University of Warwick, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council/Arts and Humanities Research Council Religion and Society Programme, which applied a mixed methods approach to explore the attitudes of 13–16-year-old pupils across the UK towards religious diversity.

Keywords:

• Young People
• Religious Diversity
• Socialisation
• Family
• UK

Acknowledgements

Elisabeth Arweck gratefully acknowledges support from the Spalding Trust, which allowed her to attend the 32nd Conference of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR/SISR) in Turku, Finland, 27–30 June 2013, where she presented a paper on which this article is based. The WRERU team is grateful to the staff of the schools visited, to the young people who participated and to WRERU Associate Fellows and other colleagues (e.g. RE advisors, teachers, lecturers) who facilitated some school visits.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

[1] Details about the project’s objectives and research questions can be found at: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/WRERU.

[2] The team had planned 15 school visits (3 in each region) with 3 group discussions per school, but exceeded this in some cases.

[3] In all 4 nations of the UK, pupils start secondary (or high) school at age 11 or 12 and then, at age 16, either continue their studies or seek employment after the end of compulsory schooling. In England and Wales, pupils attend sixth-form college and then go to further training or university. In Scotland, there is no sixth form college, so pupils either leave at age 16 to gain employment or continue studying for ‘Highers’ (one year) and then either study for ‘Advanced Highers’ (one year) or go to university. In Northern Ireland, some pupils stay to study Advanced Level (AS and A2 level) subjects (which qualifies them for university) or more vocational qualifications.

[4] All aspects relating to the project were conducted following the ethics code of the University of Warwick and relevant professional associations (e.g. British Sociological Association).

[5] Except for one school where a technical glitch prevented the recording of all the discussions.

[6] These will be explored in more detail in separate articles.

[7] Given the nature of focus group discussions, the selected quotes are only indicative. They are drawn from discussions which the first author conducted in England and Wales.

[8] A forthcoming chapter is concerned with examining the role and effect of the school context (including RE) on religious socialisation and attitudes towards religious diversity.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme.