A research report on the reception of the 2005 Religious Observance Guidelines in Scotland

Abstract

This article gives a brief overview of the place of religious observance (RO) within Scotland’s non-denominational state school sector, and the background to recent changes in educational thinking and government policy which led to new guidelines being introduced in 2005. The article reports on a study conducted in 2008 into the reception of the new RO guidelines and their implementation within three primary schools and one secondary school in a local authority area, together with empirical data from each of the four case studies and interview extracts from head teachers, RO practitioners and pupils. The article then highlights some problems arising from the new guidelines and suggests some areas for future empirical research.

Keywords:

• religious observance
• spiritual development
• religion in schools
• non-religious spirituality
• identity formation
• Scotland

Notes

1. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) is a Scottish government department with the responsibility of inspecting schools and providing government with data and advice on education policy. The equivalent body in England is Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools.

2. In May 2008 there was widespread media coverage of the findings of the organisation Christian Research that there are more Catholics attending Sunday Mass in Scotland since 2005 than those attending Church of Scotland services for the first time since the Protestant Reformation of 1560.

3. While the term Religious Observance remains in place, the Scottish government in February 2011 issued a new circular which, while containing no substantive changes to the 2005 guidelines, did explicitly authorise schools to change the term Religious Observance to something else such as Time for Reflection if judged appropriate.

4. In the spirit of ‘giving voice’ to our participants, we decided not to translate their native Scots into English. For international readers, we have inserted translations of some words in brackets where necessary.

5. We have not included data from the interview with parents as a result of it being dominated by an ongoing issue that was not relevant to this article.

6. Another head teacher of a large primary school advised us at our initial meeting that RO was ‘a grey area’.

7. In Scotland, children begin primary 1 at four-and-a-half years old so that primary seven pupils are aged between 10–and-a-half and 11–and-a-half years old. After primary 7, pupils go to secondary school so S1 pupils are between 11-and-a-half and 12-and-a-half years old and S2 pupils are between 12-and-a-half and 13-and-a-half years old.

8. A Protestant organisation founded in England in 1868 now operating in many countries with the purpose of evangelising children and young people through reading the Bible.