Affective Engagements with Religion and Citizenship in English Primary Schools

TY - JOUR

T1 - Affective Engagements with Religion and Citizenship in English Primary Schools

AU - Strhan, Anna Harriet Block

AU - Malone, Joanna

AU - Hemming, Peter

AU - Neal, Sarah

N1 - This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2025/2/14

Y1 - 2025/2/14

N2 - This article draws on qualitative data from the ‘Becoming Citizens of “Post-secular” Britain’ study to examine different ways in which religion becomes interwoven in affective citizenship in school worlds. Focusing on the ‘affective atmospheres’ associated with Religious Education (RE) and collective worship in two contrasting primary schools in England, our analysis highlights how Christianity remains privileged to different degrees in both. We investigate the children’s emotional and embodied engagements with the aspects of religion they encounter through RE and collective worship – ranging from interest via boredom to feelings of injustice – and reveal how these problematize current policies for English schools as failing to mirror shifting landscapes of non/religious diversification. We argue that the children’s responses can be interpreted as an expression of their lived citizenship in relation to the new non/religious pluralism they are growing up within and shaping.

AB - This article draws on qualitative data from the ‘Becoming Citizens of “Post-secular” Britain’ study to examine different ways in which religion becomes interwoven in affective citizenship in school worlds. Focusing on the ‘affective atmospheres’ associated with Religious Education (RE) and collective worship in two contrasting primary schools in England, our analysis highlights how Christianity remains privileged to different degrees in both. We investigate the children’s emotional and embodied engagements with the aspects of religion they encounter through RE and collective worship – ranging from interest via boredom to feelings of injustice – and reveal how these problematize current policies for English schools as failing to mirror shifting landscapes of non/religious diversification. We argue that the children’s responses can be interpreted as an expression of their lived citizenship in relation to the new non/religious pluralism they are growing up within and shaping.

KW - Affective atmospheres

KW - Religion

KW - Citizenship

KW - Affective citizenship

KW - Education

U2 - 10.1080/01425692.2025.2462954

DO - 10.1080/01425692.2025.2462954

M3 - Article

SN - 0142-5692

JO - British Journal of Sociology of Education

JF - British Journal of Sociology of Education

ER -