The right of withdrawal from Religious Education in England: School leaders’ beliefs, experiences and understandings of policy and practice.

Lundie, David and O'Siochru, Cathal (2019) The right of withdrawal from Religious Education in England: School leaders’ beliefs, experiences and understandings of policy and practice. British Journal of Religious Education, 43 (2). pp. 161-173. ISSN 0141-6200

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Abstract

The right of parents to withdraw children from RE was conceived as a protection for the rights of religious minorities at a time when Religious Instruction in the community school was of a Christian confessional nature, this paper questions whether this provision is still coherent or necessary for contemporary multi-faith RE. Based on a survey of 450 headteachers and RE coordinators. 70.5% of participants believe that the right to withdraw is no longer required. Participants’ experiences of right of withdrawal requests, such as the reasons given by parents, were correlated to their views on the right to withdraw. Exploring the roots of that belief in more detail we found that the majority of participants had experienced withdrawal requests for various reasons, and a sizeable minority (41.2%) had experienced requests to withdraw selectively from parts of RE. We also found considerable confusion regarding the legal status of withdrawal requests.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in British Journal of Religious Education on 26th June 2019, available https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.hope.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/01416200.2019.1628706
Keywords:	Withdrawal from religious education, freedom of conscience, education law, religion and law, crosstabulation
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Education
Depositing User:	Philippa Williams
Date Deposited:	16 May 2019 10:15
Last Modified:	12 Nov 2024 11:23
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/2847

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