Religious diversity, inter‐ethnic relations and the Catholic school: introducing the responsive approach to single faith schooling

Abstract

The article offers a case study of the ways in which a Catholic primary school located in the centre of a large South‐Asian community in Leicester, UK, responded to the religious and ethnic diversity of its surroundings. The school, Our Saviour’s, engaged in shared activities with a neighbouring school which had a majority intake of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh children. Approaches to religious education at Our Saviour’s combined with weekly shared activities with the neighbouring school resulted in improved inter‐ethnic relations in the surrounding community, as children from both schools began socialising after school hours. This article draws on ethnographic research to give a case study of the ways in which Our Saviour’s employed a responsive approach to single faith schooling by engaging with religious and ethnic diversity as a means of promoting dialogue.

Keywords:

• faith schools
• multiculturalism
• Catholicism
• religious education

Notes

1. This article draws on the original research which was carried out as the basis for an MSc dissertation completed at the Sociology Department, University of Leicester, in September 2005.

2. Teachers used the term ‘Daman Catholics’ to refer to children from families who had recently migrated from Daman and Diu, a formerly Portuguese union territory on the west coast of India.