The role of occupational standards in workplace religious literacy

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the UK National Occupational Standards to identify the breadth of occupations for which it has been determined that workers need some degree of religious literacy. A total of 465 standards documents which mention religion and beliefs relating to a diverse range of occupations were retrieved, of which 13 had a primary focus on religion and beliefs. Approximately 60 percent of these standards noted the need for knowledge about religion and beliefs, though only a quarter of these specified actual performance criteria. With some exceptions, most of the standards were vague as to what is meant by religion and its proxies, with very few attempts to define their terms. A lack of specificity renders the inclusion of references to religion largely tokenistic rather than reflecting a measure of religious literacy which could be practically operationalised.

KEYWORDS:

• National occupational standards
• religious literacy
• United Kingdom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beth R. Crisp

Beth R. Crisp is professor and discipline leader for social work in the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University in Australia. In addition to her PhD from La Trobe University, she has undergraduate degrees in social work (La Trobe University), political science (University of Melbourne) and theology (Melbourne College of Divinity). She is also a visiting fellow of the Faiths and Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a member of the Centre for Religion and Society, University of Divinity, Melbourne. Beth has particular interests in the interface between religion and social welfare practice and is internationally recognised for her research in social work education.

Adam Dinham

Adam Dinham is Professor of Faith & Public Policy and Director of the Faiths and Civil Society Unit, Goldsmiths, University of London. With degrees in Theology & Religious Studies (BA, MA Cambridge University), Applied Social Studies and Social Work (MA Brunel University), and Politics (PhD, Goldsmiths), his work focuses on religion through the lens of faith-based social action, faith-related social policy, and professional practice with religiously diverse publics. A central theme in his work is religious literacy. Adam convenes the leading policy-practice-research network on faith and civil society and is advisor to a number of national and international policy bodies. He is director of the Religious Literacy Leadership Programme, Professor of Religious Literacy at VID University, Oslo, Chair of the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group (BSA Socrel), and Fellow of the Westminster Abbey Institute for Faith and Public Life.