Research Papers - Education and Culture

The 'Thought for the Day' debate

Lizzie Clifford — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:56:19 +0000

This paper by Ekklesia researcher Lizzie Cifford looks into the background and history of BBC Radio 4's short 'Thought for the Day' (TftD) slot, as a precursor to a wider analysis of 'Thought for the Day' scripts which Ekklesia is currently embarked on. TftD has become a topic of public and media debate of late concerning the proposal that non-religious as well as religious voices should be heard on it. The paper seeks to reflect the range of viewpoints on TftD, as well as providing information about its development and presentation. It traces how the origins of TftD came in a context of BBC religious broadcasting which was originally viewed as ‘evangelistic and missionary’ and now has to adapt to a mixed-belief society, including humanists, atheists and those who see themselves as 'spiritual but not religious'. The paper describes how attempts at re-branding from the mid 1960s have been opposed by some in the Anglican Church and elsewhere as part of a concern about the withdrawal of the BBC from its position as a central broadcaster in what was seen as a ‘Christian country’. It also highlights how a number of other radio stations, in particular regional programmes, have output which is similar to TftD, but successfully include contributions from the non-religious, as well as ‘minority’ religions, raising further questions about why TftD itself has not followed suit. However, the aim of this paper is description rather than advocacy. Further research on the content of TftD will be published in the new year.

Lizzie Clifford

Dossier of independent evidence on faith schools

staff writers — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:45:07 +0100

This document has been produced by the Accord Coalition, of which Ekklesia is a founder member, to help researchers, journalists, campaigners and members of the public to find information about some of the policy implications of state funded faith schools and their practices. The aim is to bring together and summarise high quality research from reliable sources, pointing in particular to the shortcomings of faith schools and where changes need to made, particularly in the area of admissions and employment. With the exception of the 2009 poll commissioned by Accord from YouGov—itself a respected member of the British Polling Council—all evidence in the report is from sources independent of Accord and its members. Some sources cited however are religious, such as agency Tearfund, and other institutions that work with churches such as the Runnymede Trust. The evidence is also recent - all of it dates from 2001 or later and the majority was produced in the last two years. Research and opinion polls have been organised in reverse chronological order below, followed by relevant parliamentary questions and statistics from the DCSF.

Topics covered include:

• The impact of religious admissions on social segregation (sometimes called “cream skimming” or social selection)
• Faith schools and school standards / attainment
• Faith schools and community cohesion
• The number of new faith schools
• Faith schools and homophobia
• Faith schools and recruitment
• The number of schools of different types, and their denominations

Although the scope of evidence surveyed here is wide and cannot easily be summarised, it repeatedly gives cause for concern about the way that many faith schools operate, and the consequences of this for wider society. The polls and surveys in the report demonstrate that many members of the public have similar concerns as Accord, which is convinced that only legislative change will bring about an education system free from religious discrimination.

staff writers

Darwin and religion

John Hedley Brooke — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:54:43 +0000

In 2009 we mark the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the pioneering naturalist who posited the common descent of all species through evolution by natural selection – a discovery that has become foundational to the remarkable progress of the modern biological sciences, most recently in the arena of genomics. In this paper, reproduced courtesy of the International Society for Science and Religion (http://www.issr.org.uk/), one of the world’s leading historians of science - who is also actively involved in science-religion discussions - gives an overview of Darwin’s interactions with religion and belief. This essay forms a useful context and corrective to some of the zealous material seeking to ‘rescue’ or ‘advocate’ Darwin in relation to different religious and non- or anti-religious outlooks. There is also bibliographical and web material on issues related to evolution and belief, especially Christianity.

John Hedley Brooke

A step forward in the faith schools debate

Simon Barrow — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:51:59 +0000

An initial response to the Runnymede Trust's report, 'Right to Divide? Faith Schools and Community Cohesion'.

Simon Barrow

Changing faith schools for the better

staff writers — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:33:25 +0100

To coincide with Ekklesia's involvement as a founding member of the Accord coalition, this paper contains a cross-section of documents and media articles from Ekklesia and other sources (2205-2008) to resource the ongoing debate about the reform of faith schools. These cover a range of issues concerning current policies of – and towards – religiously sponsored state-funded schools, in the light of the principles and practice of fully-inclusive schooling. They remain the copyright of their originators and contain the original link. We begin with the Accord principles and the case for them; then four documents from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) with whom we cooperated on their very helpful Faith Schools Position Paper; Populus polling data on the public and faith schools; then a selection of media articles and research (including LSE, Institute of Education and National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), in chronological order.

staff writers