REMC

This study explores the transmission of religious beliefs and values through the education system and the family across different EU country contexts. The two-year study is funded through the EU Seventh Framework Programme involving a consortium of seven partners  and co-ordinated by the ESRI.  The study began on the 1st January 2008 and will receive co-funding amounting to €833,628 from the European Commission.

Across European countries, the education system plays a role in the transmission of religious or secular beliefs and values, with consequent implications for social cohesion between religious and cultural groups. The influence of schooling can occur through the explicit teaching of religious doctrine and values within schools, the formal preparation of children for religious rites of passage (such as Confirmation), informal socialisation in relation to particular norms and values, specific rules about dress and behaviour, and the socio-cultural networks to which young people are exposed (or from which they are excluded). The relative importance of the education system in religious socialisation is likely to vary across European countries, with religious authorities playing a significant role in school management in some countries while, in other cases, there is a deliberate separation between church and school structures.

The study focuses on primary education because of its potentially crucial role in the formation of children’s beliefs and values. It focuses on two sets of objectives:

To examine the particular importance that religious denomination plays in relation to parental choice of school and to explore the relative importance of religion compared to other reasons (such as social selectivity, gender composition, reputation, cost, lack of alternative options or proximity to home).

To examine how religious beliefs and values are transmitted in the course of education across a range of countries with different education systems.

The study uses both primary research and secondary analysis of existing data sources. Secondary analysis will be used to identify different models of how religious belief is treated in diverse educational systems. Located within this broad overview, interviews with teachers, parents and students will be carried out in primary schools in Belgium (Flanders), Germany, Ireland, Malta, and Scotland, countries with very different religious compositions and educational systems.

This innovative project will contribute to the conceptualisation of religious socialisation within multicultural settings and to policy development in the educational arena by highlighting the role of religion in school choice as well as potential tensions between home and school regarding religious formation and practice.