Religion, Values, and Changing Existential Landscapes within and beyond Primary School Worlds

Description

The presentation reflects on two recent ethnographic research projects, ‘Non-religious Childhoods: Growing Up Unbelieving in Contemporary Britain’ and ‘Becoming Citizens of “Post-Secular” Britain’, in which the relations between values, religion, and belonging in primary schools in Britain were key threads. While the place of religion in school life varied across the different schools we studied, there were nevertheless distinctive shared values, which could be seen as new ‘sacred’ values, which were being widely fostered across the different schools. These included ideas of respect, kindness, and therapeutic values.

This presentation considers briefly the role of these values in schools, and how pupils were experiencing them, including how they came to navigate tensions in relation to these values. It will then reflect on the role of these values, combined with pupils’ experiences in homes and engagements with media and culture, in contributing to changes in broader moral, religious, and existential landscapes.

Period	27 Jun 2025
Event title	Researching School Values
Event type	Workshop
Location	London, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International