Faith

I was brought up Roman Catholic. My parents came from a catholic background and wanted to bring me and my sisters up in the same way. Now as adults, none of us go to church or practise. I turned my back on the catholic religion, as didn’t agree with many of their views and I find its history appalling, South America conquistadors, the Magdalena laundries in Ireland, sex scandals, the list goes on. But I do believe in a stronger force so I guess I’d call myself spiritual.

The other day I was with friends and I was questioned if I was a catholic? I said ‘no I’m not now but was raised that way’ and their answer was ‘once a catholic, always a catholic’. I went to protest, and then thought about my catholic guilt which still lives with me every day, I still believe if I speak badly about religion, I will be punished, I pick my kids up of they blaspheme and I still pray to God when something terrible happens. So, I guess I’ve been indoctrinated and no matter how hard I try to step away, it’s part of me,- sadly mainly the guilt!

I respect and am respectful to peoples religious beliefs and their traditions. I understand why religion is so important to so many people. That it is part of who they are. I think that essentially all religions goal is to bring out the good in humanity , but I struggle, when religion beliefs end up causes so much pain and bloodshed.

I’m interested to develop more understanding so I’m looking forward to reading more.

Religion, belief and faith identities in learning and teaching.

This was an incredibly helpful document with loads of great articles and insight. Its great source of information on religious, spiritual, and philosophical beliefs that can be used to engage discussion.

I found the case studies really helpful as they offered examples of different exercises and methods to engage with students regarding the conversation of religious belief and identity. The case study on Pen portraits, I found a simple yet a clever way to start, getting the students to open up without having to delve too deep. Through creating these opportunities, it enable discussions for everyone, including the teachers, to gain insight into the beliefs and perspectives on a range of issues and topics.

By doing exercises like the pen portraits case studies, gives us, as teachers, a greater understanding of who we are teaching and for the students to understand the teachers thoughts.

The students I work with have the goal of going to the media industry after their MA. It is important not to indoctrinate and spread false truths though the work we do, but to highlight non biased views, equality voices and representation. The media is a key source where these issues can he discussed and promoted to create change, empathy and understanding. The factual programmes that the students make should give a balanced presentation, to not mislead or misinform the viewer. Most importantly to ensure impartiality.

Due to this we need to be aware of who we are when we make these programmes, by addressing our own positionality we can better understand our views and beliefs.

‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education.

I found this a fascinating reading, I never considered how entwined church and the state were in the UK. As every state in the EU gives funding to religious schools or for religious educations in state schools. In the UK, for example, we have the Church of England but there is an autonomy, this means that no church can influence the government and the government can’t influence religion. That every person is able to have the ”freedom to believe, worship and form religious organisations within the law”. I find the last quote confusing as there is an autonomy, which means the government can’t influence the church, but is it not being influenced by the fact that religion has to stay within the law?

Changes in religious demography was about social change in Britain and the decline of religion in general and of public religion in particular to Christian beliefs and practise. It seems today that in the UK there is a rise in ‘beliefs without belonging, spirituality or implicit religion’. Believes in God has decreased but belief in the soul has increased. I am one of these people as I no longer believe in one organised religion but I do believe myself to be a spiritual person.

Although there has been a decline in religious beliefs in the UK, there has been an increase in other religions due to immigration. ‘Minority group religions’. have changed the religious geography in Britain. There has been a shift as cities have become more religious than in the countryside. This is because there has been an increase of immigrant to large cities which has increased the number of people practising in minority faiths. For many who immigrated to the UK, their religion is important to how they live their lives and they have kept their beliefs and continued to practise.

The section on Religion and knowledge of religion in UK universities I was surprised to hear about the role of chaplains. I had no idea that this was available to everyone. I think this paper was really enlightening for me as I hadn’t really considered how interlinked religion has on universities and for the students. I didn’t consider religion in my teaching or look into the role of the university. As an associate lecturer, I tended to turn up, teach my lecture and leave. From doing this unit its highlighted to me how important it is to consider religion in our teaching. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the focus of the lesson but we do have to be mindful of our students beliefs and that cultural assumptions can’t just be made.

Freedom of speech is important and that must included everyone. We must respect all opinions even if they are not our own, creating a space for debate and discussion that can facilitate opportunities to enable greater understanding.

UAL has a large number of international students and this is great as it creates a diverse and rich environment to learn. Students are not just learning their chosen craft but also about other cultures, religions, thoughts and opinions. The ideas for case studies to open up these conversation are good but I wouldn’t have know of any of these resources if I had not done this course. This conversation should be a part of the mainstream but how can we do that? Who’s responsibility is it? How do we build this into our teaching, if people aren’t aware that its an important topic to discuss?

These questions were answered in the SoN The little book of Big case studies. It was a really insightful read of how a discussion can go badly go wrong and the impact it had on a student. The book offered tools to help set up discussions and create a safe space to enable open conversations to flourish.

 Kwame Anthony Appiah Reith lecture on Creed.

I found this so interesting to listen to his talk examining identity and religion. In the lecture he talks about how religious practice is as important as religious writings.  I related to the idea that over the centuries all religions have had to reinterpreted their scriptures to fit the times in order to survive, As Kwane said ‘religious identities, like all identities are transformed through history, that’s how they survive’. He goes on to add that ‘religion doesn’t shape society, but society shapes its interpretation of religion’. He talks about women in Islam and how often the scriptures are interpreted to restrict women’s freedom or power, and yet in Bangladesh and Pakistan, ‘countries where Islam is the state religion, have had more women prime ministers, and have a larger percentage of women in their legislatures than the United States does’. In the UK we spend a lot of time talking about the role of women in Islam and use quotes from the Quran to back this up but this shows that different communities interpret their religion in different ways. All religion is open to our own interpretation. That often the stories are metaphors for how we should live our lives.

Later he goes on to say that although you might study the Torah and embraced all its principles and beliefs this doesn’t make you Jewish. So, religion is also an identity, you can be Jewish and not practise. My sister still believes herself to be catholic but no longer practises or goes to church. For her its apart of her identity, her moral compass, the way she lives her life rather than a place to go. I however, I no longer consider myself as Roman Catholic, but I was raised and went to a RC school. Even though I don’t identity with being RC, I’m sure it’s a massive unconscious part of who I am, due to it being a part of my life for so long. I feel that Kwane lecture has provoked me to question my religious identity, something I no longer considered relevant. Can we really step away from our religion, when it was a part of the foundations of our childhood?

I would like to listen to this lecture again at the end of this topic, once I have a wide understanding of the role religion still has in as our society.

Bibliography:

‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher
Education.’ Stimulus paper (Modood & Calhoun, 2015)

Kwame, A.A (2016), The Reith Lectures: Mistaken Identity series, Creed. Available at:BBC Radio 4 – The Reith Lectures, Kwame Anthony Appiah: Mistaken Identities, Creed