Exploring the place of religion in children's peer relationships

TY - CONF

T1 - Exploring the place of religion in children's peer relationships

AU - Strhan, Anna Harriet Block

AU - Hemming, Peter

AU - Neal, Sarah

AU - Malone, Joanna

PY - 2023/4/12

Y1 - 2023/4/12

N2 - This paper draws from an ongoing three-year study examining the significance of religion in how schools in Britain foster notions of citizenship – at national, local, and global scales, as well as how these intersect – and to examine how children and their parents experience these processes. The question of how schools should prepare children to be citizens of diverse, multifaith societies is a subject of ongoing public debate in liberal democracies in the Western world. Yet while there have been numerous studies of religion and education oriented towards issues such as the content and practice of religious education, we know little about how aspects of religion and citizenship become interrelated through everyday practices in schools, or what this means for children’s sense of belonging and or their relationships with each other.Addressing the neglected period of ‘middle childhood’ (aged 7-11) in the growing literature on religion and youth, our multi-sited ethnographic study examines the experiences of children and their parents from a range of religious and nonreligious backgrounds, with fieldwork and interviews with children, parents, and school staff conducted in primary schools in four diverse geographical areas of the UK. While previous sociological research focusing on socialization has tended to portray children’s religious identities as determined by their parents, our ethnographic approach provides original insight into children’s peer influence on each other in shaping their everyday religious and non-religious practices and performances in school life, and reveals how particular aspects of religion are interwoven in their friendships and interactions.

AB - This paper draws from an ongoing three-year study examining the significance of religion in how schools in Britain foster notions of citizenship – at national, local, and global scales, as well as how these intersect – and to examine how children and their parents experience these processes. The question of how schools should prepare children to be citizens of diverse, multifaith societies is a subject of ongoing public debate in liberal democracies in the Western world. Yet while there have been numerous studies of religion and education oriented towards issues such as the content and practice of religious education, we know little about how aspects of religion and citizenship become interrelated through everyday practices in schools, or what this means for children’s sense of belonging and or their relationships with each other.Addressing the neglected period of ‘middle childhood’ (aged 7-11) in the growing literature on religion and youth, our multi-sited ethnographic study examines the experiences of children and their parents from a range of religious and nonreligious backgrounds, with fieldwork and interviews with children, parents, and school staff conducted in primary schools in four diverse geographical areas of the UK. While previous sociological research focusing on socialization has tended to portray children’s religious identities as determined by their parents, our ethnographic approach provides original insight into children’s peer influence on each other in shaping their everyday religious and non-religious practices and performances in school life, and reveals how particular aspects of religion are interwoven in their friendships and interactions.

M3 - Paper

T2 - British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2023

Y2 - 12 April 2023 through 14 April 2023

ER -