Ethical Issues: Secular Education In The United Kingdom

Ethical Issues in Health & Social Care
Ethical Considerations of Religious as opposed to secular education in The United Kingdom
Level 6
BA (Hons) Health & Applied Social Studies

Word Count 3051

In December of 2011, the Prime Minister, David Cameron stated that the UK is a 'Christian Country ' and staunchly defended the role of religion in politics in British values. He stated that the UK needed Christian values in order to counter Britain 's "moral collapse" and that previous ideals of "live and let live" had too often become "do what you please", (news.bbc.co.uk, 2011).
However this is contrast with recent statistics that suggests that in fact only 43% of the UK considers itself Christian and 51% follow no religion
at all, (natcen.ac.uk, 2011).
Currently, in the United Kingdom (UK) there is no official separation of church and state. Britain is a multi faith society in which everyone has the right to religious freedom. Although Britain is historically a Christian society, British culture is usually tolerant towards the faiths of others and those who have no religious beliefs,(Koenig & Carson, 2012).
The Church of England is established as the state church for England, with Scotland and Wales having their own state churches. The Church of England is also considered ‘The Mother Church’ for the entire World Wide Anglican Community, (Joireman, 2009).
The Church of England itself, is a ‘reform’ Anglican tradition, it generally believes the traditional values as set in Catholic creed. These refer to following of the teachings of Jesus Christ; however the church accepts the inclusion of gay people within their community, the ordination of female clergy, strict limitations on medical termination of pregnancy and marriage following a divorce, (Village & Francis, 2009).
However, there are representatives from every global religion who currently reside in the United Kingdom, (ons.gov.uk, 2011).
Consequently, should religions be part of post-modern educational policies, (Coulby, 1996)?
This paper will examine current issues concerning educational policy as regards to religious opposed to secular schools in the United Kingdom, and in particular the ethical concerns which surrounds this debate.
The 2001 UK census placed Christianity as by far the most prevalent religion in the UK at 71% of the British public. However humanist and atheist groups criticised the manner in which this information was gathered, (Sherif, 2011). It appeared that the census was worded in such a way to create a presumption of religious faith; it asked the question, 'what religion are you?’ This exact question wording did not differentiate between those people who held religious faith and those people who maintained a religious affiliation without necessarily having strong religious views. In fact a more recent government publication concluded that there were a large proportion of people who say they are Christians who are not people of faith or attend religious services regularly, (www.statistics.gov.uk, 2004).

By the 2011 census, the wording regarding religious affiliation had changed to ask the respondents if in fact they held any religious belief. This slight alteration in wording produced a significant change in statistics as regards religion so that 40% of adults professed no religion at all, (White, 2011).
The Human Rights Act, (1998) states,
‘Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others,’ (legislation.gov.uk, 2012).
This statement suggests that wherever possible each individual within society has the right to follow their own religious affiliation.
Nonetheless does an educational establishment have a responsibility to recognise the importance of religion in places of human society or indeed should they teach only known facts? Can schools consciously act to reshape the organisation of society into a purposeful collection of individuals who believe that schools are for pupils, for learning, and for improvement within the context of religious education or, as the secular movement would suggest promote insularity, self-protection, and complacency by teaching set religious text, (Coulter et al, 2008).

The Education Reform Act, 1988 included the statutory requirements that all schools in the United Kingdom are required to teach a programme of religious studies according to local and national guidelines. Religious Education in the UK is intended to promote the values of truth, justice, and respect for all and for the environment. It also seeks to help pupils to develop insights, a capacity for moral and spiritual life and personal autonomy.
Ethics provides a standard of moral principles which support human beings making decisions as to how they lead their lives and structure societies, (Singer,2011). Within Religious education these ideas are examined within classrooms as part of wider religious ideals. Humanists and Atheists believe that morals are rooted in human experience and assert their belief that education ought to be about imparting of facts. In the Humanist view providing anything other than facts is opinion, which they believe can have the effect in creating religious indoctrination. They believe this is an abuse of pupil 's trust, and their human rights, (Watson & Thompson, 2006).
The teacher within religious education class has responsibilities both to engender ethical and moral thought within their pupils but also impart facts as regards the background of religious studies. The intent of this instruction is that the pupil is guided through developing moral qualities to a point where they can think critically about their own religious and ethical convictions. However there would be a clear ethical dilemma if the teacher was to emphasise their own views or religious convictions within the classroom setting, (Strhan, 2010).
For the teacher to profess and teach any sort of religious preference would be tantamount to ‘preaching’ and as such would have the possible effect of indoctrinating the pupil into one religious tradition over all others, (Smith ,1997).
Most people in the world today follow one of two sets of values, which can be view as mutually exclusive. These values are either based on religious doctrine, or upon purely secular ethics, (Berger, 2011). It is certainly the case that some groups of people live entirely by the strict guidelines as laid out within the interpretations of their particular religious texts, while others feel they should obey society’s moral codes or ethics. This presents as one of the central conflicts for modern society, (Bauberot et al, 2009).
Clearly these two positions are often incompatible with each other and their consequences are central to how society educates its youth. How is society expected to educate children when religious of secular group have completely opposing views when analysing emotive topics such as abortion, war, and homosexuality, for example?
The pedagogical learning model has been the prevailing learning model in the education of children since the nineteenth century, (Dirckinck-Holmfeld et al, 2012). This model promotes the values of educational activities that impart knowledge or skill; the teacher is the expert and the pupil is the learner, (Noort, 2010). The goal of pedagogy is to cultivate the moral awareness and the method consists of training in judgment, (Merritt, 2011). Teachers, therefore have a duty to impart morals without imposing their own religious doctrine upon the pupil and so therefore acting with beneficence, (Baumfield, 2010).
The andragogical learning model is a concept formulated by Malcolm Knowles in his 1970 book, 'The Modern Practice of Adult Education '. He attempted to explain the difference between the processes of the learner being fully dependent upon the teacher toward increasing self-directedness. It refers to both the practical aspects of adult teaching and learning and to the academic study of adult education, (Knowles, 1973). In this context the adult learner can also be the independent learner or older pupil.
Nonetheless when one seeks to compare the pedagogical and andragogical learning models, there must be an understanding of what the basic difference is between the two. Andragogy promotes critical thought and exploration; in contrast pedagogy educators and students remain passive as to their roles in the learning process, and rely on the student’s total intellectual dependency on the teacher for any acquired knowledge that he receives.
There is the belief that if a pupil does not learn, then the teacher has failed at actually imparting of knowledge, and provides no recourse against the pupil for his lack of interest or participation in the learning process, (Zmuda, 2010).
There is always the issue that pupils within the pedagogical environment rely heavily on the experiences and opinions of their teachers as well as the teacher 's knowledge of the subject of their studies, (Mansour, 2011). Consequently there is the danger that the teacher can even unwittingly, bring their own emotional responses into moral and religious education, (Chubbuck & Zembylas, 2008).
In contrast the adult learner or older pupil, brings to his educational pursuit his own experiences and past learning on which to rely on as a resource in a collaborative learning environment.
Consequently the younger learner is much more susceptible to indoctrination by education policies that do not recognise the multicultural and multi-religious modern British society, (Alvarez, 2011).
In a recent BBC news article a humanist from Jersey, Reg Le Sueur, stated that schools in Jersey are too deeply indoctrinated within the Christian religion, he felt that school pupils should not have religious education forced onto them. The State of Jersey syllabus says the act of worship should be broadly Christian in nature and similar to mainland UK. He felt that it was inappropriate that most people have heard of Jesus but that less had heard of Socrates, (news.bbc.co.uk, 2012).
Current British religious education focuses on the six major world religious traditions; Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, (Morgan & Lawton, 2007). In secondary and post 16 years education, lessons focus on exploring each faith 's concerns in areas such as leadership, an individual 's private life and whether certain lifestyles are considered unacceptable, such as homosexuality, couples living together outside of marriage and divorce. Also concerns regarding reproduction, abortion, In vitro fertilisation, the use of stem cells for research and euthanasia. These lessons explore specific religious approaches to life 's most pressing problems. However the National Curriculum, (www.education.gov.uk, 2012), does not expressly require the inclusion of Humanist or Atheist ideals. Religious Education classes are conducted on the premise that god exists.
There may be token references to the possibility there may not be a god or that there may be a multiplicity of gods, but no more.
This is not a required part of the curriculum and as such some schools may not include this if they have their own religious bias, (Onfray, 2005). One common homework assignment given to pupils in secondary education is entitled, "How do you explain your idea of God to someone else?" This again holds a presumption of there actually being a god. How will the pupil from a family who follow a humanist tradition be expected to answer this, (McDowell & Morrow, 2010)?
It is possible for parents to withdraw their children from religious education classes, however this process can be difficult as it requires the parents to write to the local education authority and give their reasons for doing so. A school may also apply to remove teaching Christianity from the curriculum if they have a majority none Christian population, (nasacre.org.uk, 2012). In practice this rarely done.
In January 2012, Professor Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and out spoken atheist, voiced concerns regarding the teaching of creationism in British schools. Creationist beliefs (or creation myths), promote the notion that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic God, (Baigrie,1986).
However The Department for Education has stated that any model of British school (including the newly devised 'Freeschools ' and Academies, Audsley & O 'Connell, 2011), must steer the focus of science education away from "evidence-based views or theories" that run "contrary to established scientific and/or historical evidence and explanations", (guardian.co.uk, 2012).
Immanuel Kant, (1724-1804), The German philosopher established, 'Duty-based or Deontological ethics '. These ethics are concerned with what people do, not with the consequences of their actions, (Buchanan & Ocholla, 2010). In fact the word 'deontological ' comes from the Greek word ‘deon’, which means 'duty ', (Corrigan & Farrell, 2004). By following these ethical ideals teachers must impart knowledge that is purely factual disregarding whether these facts are morally right or wrong.
Consequently, for instance, the teacher would offer facts regarding the medical procedure involved in abortion without including any of the ethical or religious concerns. Under this form of ethics the teacher is not required to justify an action by showing that it produced good consequences in terms of the pupils understanding. This is especially in reference to religious implications for quite emotive life issues. There is no requirement for the teacher to explore the ethical concerns and the consequence is also not considered, (Strike & Soltis, 2004).
Many of the world 's religions and indeed some atheist traditions oppose such issues as abortion on moral and ethical grounds, believing it is the taking of a human life, although some religious traditions accept abortion in certain specific cases, (Kaczor, 2011). However the educator teaching from a purely deontological standpoint would be expected to provide the basic facts of each religious tradition, without the inclusion of any highly emotive language which may not be necessarily addressed in order to avoid conflict in the classroom, (Hand & Winstanley, 2009).

This can limit the amount of discursive and analytical exploration that can be encountered during a religious studies lesson, (Baildon & Damico, 2011).
In educational terms Utilitarianism would suggest that the teacher respond to his or her pupils in order to create, 'the greatest happiness principle ', (Saguaro, 2010). This would suggest the educator should provide religious education for the majority number. For many English schools especially, this could prove almost impossible as their classes have increasing numbers of faiths represented within them, (Johnston et al, 2004). Nonetheless education has a vital role to play in assisting students to understand their cultural identity and consequently education acts as the distribution mechanism of the cultural values outside of the home setting. Certainly religious education does have prominent role to play in the promotion of community cohesion. It can act to break down boundaries and encourage inclusion within schools and communities, (Jackson, 2010). However to exclude certain religions and religious traditions from education would ultimately act to increasingly disenfranchise those pupils who follow those faiths which are excluded from British schools, (Paul, 2005). There is certainly the argument that many children whose religious education takes place only within religious settings and who are within culturally isolated groups are more likely to develop extreme religious beliefs. These beliefs may be at the source of social disharmony between religious traditions and cultures, which may in turn lead to violence, (Patel, 2011). . So for example the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, identified himself as a Christian Martyr and during his trial, (Asprem, 2012).

The principles of Non-malfeasance within a religious studies class would suggest that a teacher should always act in the best interest of his or her pupils, (Bondi et al, 2011).
However how would a teacher approach this when teaching matters of religious belief? Some individuals would consider the teaching of any religious doctrine to be harmful to children as it presumes a religious faith, other people would suggest that teaching of one religion over others to be harmful, especially for those pupils following the minority faith, (Kimball, 2008). However for any education system that avoids subjects that required critical and ethical thought in order to avoid controversy would also be considered harmful, (Singer, 2011). To avoid such subjects could possibly act to ‘whitewash’ them from the pupil’s experiences and again leave them open to extreme religious standpoints
For instance if a pupil within their home environment and the environment of their parent 's religion are only taught one aspect of a particular issue; for example that homosexuality is a sin and gay people should be persecuted, then this can be discussed safely and openly within the classroom. The pupil may continue to hold negative views as regards gay people; however over time they may begin to become less dogmatic as regards these issues and ultimately more accepting. The hope being that these ideals will be disseminated throughout wider society.
This has certainly been the case within the Roman Catholic Church which previously rejected all gay people but now accepts them within the religion, if not the practice of being gay, (Hornsby-Smith, 1991).
If an education system avoids the teaching of morals, ethics and religion, then it becomes up to parents and other groups to intervene. One concern as regards this would be that the education provided at home or within religious settings could be biased or even prejudiced against other groups. This sort of education could also misinform pupils, as to established scientific facts as in the case of creationist myths and teach these as fact, (Niyozov & Pluim, 2009). Nonetheless religion does have its benefits. Many studies have concluded that there are definite benefits of religious involvement. It is well documented that devoutly religious people tend to be healthier, live longer, and have higher levels of subjective well-being, (Mochon et al, 2010). In contrast however, people with only moderate religious beliefs report less overall life satisfaction than those with no belief systems in their lives, (Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2010).
The Humanist and Educational Psychologist, Margaret Knight caused disconcertion amongst the British public when in the 1950 's she suggested that moral education should no longer be linked to religious doctrine, (Hay, 1998). She suggested that the development of moral thinking in school children should focus on teachers encouraging the pupil’s own independent critical and analytical thought. She stated that, "Warm-hearted and generous natures are developed not primarily by training and discipline, important though these are in other ways, but by love".

For many, religious belief confers a sense of belonging, a sense of connection with the past and one 's ancestors. However for those who believe that death is the end of one 's personal existence then personal achievement can only be achieved during their life time. These people see education is the impetus behind achieving personal growth, (Pedler, 2011).
Secular ethics and religious education have never been completely reconciled with one another because their somewhat different values and moral codes. These differences will only grow larger if in the future their values become progressively more incompatible. Truth is very subjective, and different people and organizations can have legitimately different views on various ethical and moral issues.
Throughout history, children and young people have depended on their parental and pedagogical authority figures and political and religious leaders to determine what is true. Disagreements about what is true have caused various wars and conflicts.
Nonetheless it is important that religious education continues to be taught in British schools in order that pupils learn to respect and understand each other’s religious and moral views.

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