Blog Post 2: Faith

1. Religion, Belief and Faith Identities in Learning and Teaching at UAL

I found this to be a valuable site with some articles and resources that were very interesting. It seems to be very much a live, work in progress resource, which is great. It’s certainly an online space that I wasn’t aware of before and I would engage the group myself were to research an area that intersected with religion and faith. It’s good to know that it exists and has a presence.

The article on Pen Portraits, by Angela Drisdale Gordon was interesting to me, when thinking about my teaching and learning experience.
She discusses an icebreaker activity involving students and the tutor asking and answering questions, including ‘do you have a faith’? This light touch exploration of each other’s identify and beliefs I can see being a useful tool, to invite and permit open sharing, however I also feel that it may be a little uncomfortable for some people to be asked to disclose such personal things when they first meet a new group of people. I know that for some people faith is a very personal thing.

My sense is that in 2022, in a secular country like the UK, in liberal arts education institute like UAL it’s more ‘widely acceptable’ among the student peer group to introduce yourself as gay or queer than to proclaim a have a practiced faith. While this is obviously progress in terms of LGBTQ visibility and acceptance, it poses the questions of whether religion, (or some religions) are frowned upon or perceived as ‘old fashioned’ or bigoted?

I fully acknowledge that this questions is also being informed by my own positionally, as I know for many years I myself had very little respect for Catholicism, having grown up a Catholic and felt condemned by (what I viewed as) homophobic doctrine.

Angela Drisdale Gordon also talks about facilitating student’s first hand exploration of cultures and religions through visits and suggested explorations. I feel this is very valuable and something I very much try encourage in my own teaching practice. Having lived in Hackney for over 20 years, I have lived in a number of multi-faith and multi-cultural communities. Since I have started teaching at UAL I have been struck by how many students I have talked to don’t seem to want to explore the city in the way I did in the 1990s when I came to live here. To restrict your movement in to certain places a city like London, whether consciously or unconsciously, I feel is akin to the echo chamber effect that social media creates, where we only encounter those who are like us, look like and think like us, which I think can be very dangerous and divisive. This is why Angela Drisdale Gordon advocating that students should be encouraged to explore places where they will encounter differences in religion and culture (which will be visible in the built environment) is so very valuable.

When I was a design student at The School of Art, Architecture and Design (formerly The Cass, which has been among a number of institutions who have dropped the name in 2020 due to the ties Cass had with the slave trade) in Aldgate East (some years ago now) I was tasked with researching, and producing work that responded to Whitechapel in East London. I learnt so much about the changes to this area over the last 2-300 years, and as many people will know if they spend any time in this area, the area had transitioned from being home to French Protestants in the 18th Century, to predominantly Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe in the 19th C and Bangladeshi Muslims in the 20th C. Brick Lane Jamme Masjid has been a place of worship for all three of these world religions.

To conclude, I feel that experiencing different religions and beliefs through the city can really help students of all cultures and backgrounds foster a sense of acceptance, connection and also pride that London is home to so many cultures and religious communities.

Setting research briefs and tasks that involve students getting out into different areas of the city that they may not usually see is something I currently do in my practice, through a brief called ‘Alternative Postcards from London’ (on courses when all students were located in London). They were tasked with exploring an area of London they had never been to, as a’derive’ (a directionless, observant, wander practiced by the Situationist Internationale movement in the 20th C). The were tasked with collecting visual research, sketches, found objects, photos and even recordings. Then, creating a series of 3 postcards which communicates somethings about how this place and how you feel about this place (bringing in Psycho-geography). This can of course be easily adapted to any city or town, so can be used for online courses where students are in different locations as well.

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2. I have selected some quotes from three sections of ‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education.’ Stimulus paper (Modood & Calhoun, 2015)
I will use these to discuss two things I learnt from the text and one question/provocation I have about the text.

Secular states and public religions //

‘political secularism in Western Europe is best understood not in terms of ‘separation’, nor in terms of one-sided control but in terms of mutual autonomy and mutual support’ (Stepan, 2000)

Changes in religious demography //

The decline of religious identity in the UK, but ‘this is not to say that religion has disappeared or is about to, but for many it has become more in the form of ‘belief without belonging’ Bailey (1997)

I would suggest that new forms of capturing (categorising & recording) the nuances of these forms of ‘secular faith’ might be useful in the future in higher education and in society more widely. At present, the data will likely be skewed and due to the categories or questions being asked at the point when data is collected.
My question would be, is there a need to rethink the definitions of faith, outside of the scope of organised religion?

‘Whilst the young and the highly educated are two groups that are less likely to be religious, nevertheless the majority of university students say they are religious’ Weller, Hooley & Moore (2011); Guest, Aune, Sharma & Warner (2013)

‘the growth of religion in Britain, after its long decline through most of the 20th century, looks set to be a fact about 21st century Britain, although it may be disproportionately non-white and inner-city.’

‘While in general, young people are less likely to be religious than older people, amongst ethnic minorities, expressions of commitment by the young can be exceptionally high: more than a third of Indians and African Asians, and two-thirds of Pakistani and Bangladeshi 16-34 year-olds said that religion was very important to how they led their lives, compared with a fifth of Caribbeans and 5% of whites.‘

Religion and dissent in universities //

‘Gender and sexuality are challenging issues for universities that struggle to combine respect for religion with clarity that a lack of respect or denigration based on gender or sexuality cannot be countenanced.’

I was not surprised that non-British young people hold their religion in higher value and importance than British young people, especially those from India and Pakistan. I have spent a lot of time in India and know how religion is a pervasive part of life, family and everyday experience, especially when compared to Northern Europe. However, the figure of two thirds of Pakistani and Bangladeshi 16-34 year-olds saying that religion was very important to how they led their lives, was perhaps higher than I thought it would be. (but I recognise that, that assumption is still coming from my own bias as someone who lives in a secular country).

3. Kwame Anthony Appiah Reith lecture on Creed:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds

Kwame Reith points out that, religious communities shift their beliefs on gender (equality) over time & reading of religious texts is down to the interpretation of those who read it at a particular time and place.
Interpretation and reinterpretation is the norm.

system of representation = language = true & false arrises

Kwame’s lecture appears to be problematising the doctrine of any and all religions and reminds us that there can be no know objective truth.
The question about how the ‘truth’ can shift was interesting, I liked his answer that conversation is important, if they are willing to. Not everyone will.

Can the concept of religion be unhelpful? Yes, it can of course be very divisive. Should we view people as ‘communities’ instead was an interesting question. A community has more in common than difference, but they may have different religious or spiritual beliefs.
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4. Terms of reference from SoN around Faith:

I read the Terms of Reference (p9) and two articles from this publication;
Interview with Mark Dean, Chaplin (p25-26)
Social Justice / Buddism / Queerness, by Tiffany Webster (p35-36)

I found this to be a very interesting publication that attempted to start to answer some of the difficult questions surrounding religion today. Especially in relation to religion in education and how religion intersects with race, sexuality, gender.

The terms of ref on p9 written by the publication lead, (her name isn’t given) resonated with me personally. Having grown up in a practicing Christian / Catholic household I was subject to all the culture, tradition and doctrine on this religion. But I can’t say that I ever had what people describe as faith. As a young person realising they are gay, and living in an environment where Catholicism was very central, is uncomfortable and potentially damaging. Perhaps it was this experience that spurred my process of questioning and exploring spiritual practices outside of this particularly religion and outside of Christianity.

I have always been fascinated by religion and spent a number of years exploring Buddhism in my 30s. I have travelled in SE Asia and India widely and witnessed (albeit from my privileged position as a western, white person, with the means to visit these countries) the pervasiveness and central role religion play in other parts of the world. Through these experiences and knowing people of different religions over the years I have often respected and admired religious practice, as well as sometimes finding it problematic. My experience in some ways echos hers, as she states, she has had to ‘up-pack everything I was every taught, and explore uncharted territory’ on a ‘journey of understanding, questioning, re-evaluating’.

As a human and as an educator I strive to be respectful of all religions, and recognise the central importance of religion to many students and colleagues. However I do acknowledge a negative bias I have, undoubtedly due to my own experience, I find any religious doctrine that excludes and condemns others hard to deal with personally. However, I do accept other peoples beliefs and values.

I appreciated how Chaplin Mark Dean acknowledged the potential conflict arising between religious identity and other intersectional identities in his interview. His response to this was to not ‘take a simplistic or binary approach to religion in the university’ which I respect, but I would have liked to hear more from him about what this non-binary, complex approach would look like in practice. Maybe I will pop and see him for a cup of tea and ask him?

Overall, it was really interesting and it’s great to know this is in place and people are thinking about, writing and talking about this questions and topics. I now know this is a resource for myself and my students, and that is valuable. Thinking back, I’ve had conversations with students that acknowledges their religion or religious traditions, but I don’t recall a student’s work that explicitly deals with religion. Whereas I’ve had many students who have responded to social, environmental and political issues. With 50% of students at UAL stating that they have a religion, why is this? I’m sure there’s not a simple answer to this, it may also be influenced by my teaching practice in some subtle but real ways. I whole heartedly encourage students to bring themselves and their lived experiences into their practice and I fully acknowledge that may include their religious belief or identity.

I’d be interested to hear by blog team’s experience and thought on this. Thanks.