‘Marching at the Speed of the Slowest Man’: The Facilitation and Regulation of Student Autonomy in a Pluralist Jewish Day School

ABSTRACT

Faith schools are often perceived as restricting students’ autonomy through inculcating a single religious ideology and compelling participation in collective worship. Based on interviews and focus groups with parents, students and senior staff, this article investigates how England’s one pluralist Jewish secondary school has, in contrast, attempted to accommodate various forms of Jewish practice and facilitate students’ agency to determine their Jewish identities as desired. It reveals that students enjoy opportunities to actively negotiate Judaism, but that their autonomy is not without limits, and issues inherent to pluralism exist in executing an ethos accommodative of diverse, personalized expressions of Jewishness.

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomy
• pluralist education
• Jewish identity
• religious practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ In the case of England, the term ‘faith school’ is conventionally used in policy documents to refer to any school with a ‘religious character’ as designated under section 69(3) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 in the case of state-maintained schools, and section 5 of The Religious Character of Schools (Designation Procedure) (Independent Schools) (England) Regulations 2003 in the case of independent schools.

² R (on the application of E) v Governing Body of JFS and the Admissions Appeal Panel of JFS and others [2009] UKSC 15.

³ Usually understood as the Liberal and Reform movements in the UK.

⁴ The governing bodies of voluntary aided schools are permitted to determine admission arrangements under sections 88–89 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, and arrangements for religious education under Schedule 19 para. 4(3) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.

⁵ Section 71 (1–2) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 affords parents the right to withdraw their children from religious education and worship in community, foundation and voluntary schools, but not the children themselves.

⁶ Daily morning prayer.

⁷ Grace after meals.

⁸ Children of families with low incomes or who receive benefits may be eligible for free school meals.

⁹ School Standards and Framework Act 1998, schedule 20, s. 3.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maxim G. M. Samson

Maxim G. M. Samson is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geography at DePaul University. E-mail: [email protected]