Conservative government and support for the religious institution: religious education in English schools

During the 1980s Conservative governments instituted programs that were intended to use religion to achieve Conservative goals. An example is the reform of religious education in the English state schools undertaken by the Thatcher government. This paper reports on the expectations regarding religious education by several influential groups: Thatcherites, religious education specialists, and religious leaders. The conclusion is that the reform of religious education is not likely to advance Conservative policies. In their study of northern-European countries, including the UK, Torney-Porta and Hahn related the renewed interest in moral education to the election of Conservative politicians during the 1980s (Torney-Porta and Hahn 1988). In England Thatcher’s government passed an educational reform act meant to enhance the place of Christianity in the schools (Cox and Cairns 1989). This paper examines the affinity between political conservatism and Christianity, the goals of the Thatcher government relating to the reform of religious education, and the positions of other groups influencing English religious education. The conclusion is that the government’s reform effort will probably not be a success from a Conservative perspective. POLITICAL CONSERVATISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND SOCIAL CHANGE Political conservatism means the primacy of economic growth in public policy, which results in a commitment to capitalism, because this economic system is believed to provide the fastest economic growth, and to an emphasis on maintaining social order, which is A]JS Volume no. 45 lssue no. 2 jurle 1994 g) l orldon School of FcorlomU.S 1994 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.186 on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:22:36 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 196 Joseph B. Tamney considered a necessary condition for economic development. Conservatives seek control of the agencies of socialization in order to ensure that citizens have values such as the work ethic and family stability which will further productivity and social order. Within western civilization there has existed an affinity between political conservatism and religion. Most obviously, both have espoused an ascetic lifestyle and traditional familial norms (Tamney 1992b). In recent times large influxes of foreigners have led to calls for the defense of western culture (Torney-Porta and Hahn 1988: 51). In this crisis Conservative governments have tried to use religion as a national symbol. My argument is that in contemporary societies government projects undertaken by Conservatives to enlist the support of religion for their causes are likely to fail. Because of their prevalence and importance, the focus is on Conservative efforts to use religious education in public schools. Based on a study of the religious education program in Singapore, Tamney concluded that this curriculum failed to advance Conservative goals because the expectations for religious education were inconsistent with other educational values and because of the nature of the contemporary religious institution (Tamney 1992b). In a modern society schools are valued as a means of achieving material success, and the primary purpose of the curriculum is the production of a skilled pool of potential workers. Because religion is not relevant to either goal, it will not be taken seriously by students or those in charge of the curriculum. The likely disutility of religious education to Conservatives stems also from the nature of religion in western societies. Christian leaders have shifted to the left, and their churches are evolving from national into international organizations (Berger 1982). These changes have reduced Christianity’s usefulness to political conservatives (Tamney 1992a). In this essay I would add two other reasons why religious education is not likely to serve Conservative purposes: humanistic influence and the importance of multi-culturalism. It will be argued that humanistic educational philosophy and multi-culturalism affect religious education in such a way as to make it less useful to Conservatives. My general argument, then, is that the efforts of Conservative governments to use religious education are not likely to be successful from the Conservative viewpoint. The specific case to be considered is recent legislation meant to reenforce the place of Christianity in English public schools. I begin with a brief history of English religious education. ENGLISH RELIGIOUS EDUCA I ION In England church and state have long been entangled. In this context religious education in state schools is not out of character. With the This content downloaded from 157.55.39.186 on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:22:36 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Conservative government and supportfor the religtous institution 197 passage of the Education Act in 1944, religious instruction was required in all primary and secondary schools; prior to that year religious education had been optional. ‘ In addition, the Education Act required a daily act of collective worship at each school. Education authorities interpreted the law to mean teaching Christianity, and the religion classes became biblical studies. By the mid-1960s immigration had changed the religious composition of England. In some urban areas there existed a multiplicity of faith from African, Asian, and European traditions and some teachers at metropolitan schools concluded that instruction in Christianity alone was wrong. Moreover, reading, travel, and the mass media had awakened an appreciative interest in foreign religions among the European-English. As a result of these changes, some schools began teaching about various world religions. With this change in content came a new attitude All religions were to be respected as being valid, and as seeming to have truth in them if looked at from the point of view of the believer. (Cox and Cairns 1989: 19) In the late 1970s, several localauthorities (mostnotably, Birmingham and Hampshire) created new model programs that sought to introduce students to religions other than Christianity and that stressed teaching about religion rather than socializing students into a religion. By 1988 many schools were in one way or another not living up to the requirements of the 1944 act. In July 1988 Parliament passed the Education Reform Bill. Its purpose was to promote ‘the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental, and physical development of pupils’. It was mandated that religious