Supporting Cultural and Religious

Diversity in Higher Education

Dr Emma Tomalin and Dr Simon Smith

Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies

Project rationale…Project rationale…

• The PRS Subject Centre is working with other subject centres to explore the implications of cultural and religious issues in higher education.

• For example, how does cultural and religious diversity impact upon teaching style, content, assessment and student support?

• The project was set up in response to interest from the academic community as they find themselves working with an increasingly diverse student population.

New legislation…

• The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 were introduced in response to the EU’s Employment Directive.

• Outlaws discrimination on grounds of religion or belief in employment and vocational training.

• Associated legislation, but outside of the immediate remit of this project, includes anti-racism legislation and the proposed anti-religious hatred laws.

The project so far….

• Design and dissemination of questionnaire to individuals working in higher education.

• Developing an on-line search engine to assist individuals in answering specific questions relating to cultural and religious diversity in their work environments.

In this presentation I will…

• Give a summary of key findings of questionnaires so far - suggestions for future direction of project.

• Discuss the web-based resources we will include in our on-line search engine.

Main focus of questionnaire

• Asked respondents to tell us about situations when they felt it was necessary to make adjustments to accommodate student’s cultural and religious needs.

• Asked for suggestions about how LTSN/Higher Education Academy subject centres could support staff in the future in similar situations.

75 respondents so far…

• psychology - 8 respondents• student counseling/welfare, education - 3 respondents• engineering, business, biology/ecology, law,geography,

nursing - 2 respondents• languages, health and hospital management, medicine,

librarianship/ICT, international student support, equalities training officer, corporate services, literature and languages of SE asia, physiology, fine art, sociology and social policy, religious education, organisational development, archaeology and museum studies, physiotherapy, religious studies, complementary therapy, tourism, library -1respondents

Key findings 1: situations

• Religious festivals and holy days

• Course content

• Teaching styles

• Student participation

religious festivals and holy days

timetabling and assessment

not knowing when festivals are or their significance

e.g. Islam - Friday is holy day, Ramadan, provisions for daily prayer

need for calendar of festivals

students to be encouraged to say what their needs are

Course content

reflecting worldview/cultural values of students

avoiding 'sensitive' issues?

e.g. teaching of psychology reflecting 'western' values

sex(uality), politics (e.g. Islam and terrorism), evolutionary theory etc...

At what level is it appropriate to challenge views of students?

teaching styles

being aware of teaching styles students are familiar with

avoiding imposing stereotypes

student participation

in social events

in the classroom

in work placements

food and alcohol restrictions, gender issues

mixed groups, anti-vivisection, clothing - health and safety regulations

clothing, restrictions facing women, cultural constraints concerning certain occupations

Key findings 2: adjusting to cultural and religious diversity

timetabling, extensions,provision of prayer facilities

religious festivals and holy days

e.g. evolutionary theory - show that it is not incompatible with religious worldviewe.g. stress that content of course reflects western view and encourage other perspectives

avoid using 'we' - suggests one viewpointuse examples from other cultures/countries

course content

one-to-one sessionsflexible learning and teaching strategies

mix students from different cultural backgrounds

teaching styles

liase with catering, organise social events without alcohol,one-to-one mentoring

mix students from different cultural backgrounds

student participation

Key findings 3:what hindered you?

personal ignorance of cultures/religions andhow to avoid offence;

lack of information/training provided by university

information

students are not always happy to express their needsor to ask for help

cultural constraints

students from the same religion/cutlure asking for differentarrangements;

difficult to adjust to needs of all the students;language barrier - international students; some students are extremely 'sensitive'

diversity of students

in rectruitment university welcomes diversitywhen it comes to needs of students diversity is ignored;

timetable already stretched;lack of cooperation from other staff

institutional

Key findings 4: what helped you?

broad range of cultures amongst staffmulti-cultural city

cooperation of students

training e.g. Cardiff Univeristy

chaplaincy, equal opportunities officer

Key findings 5: staff issues.

some disciplines more hostile to staffwho are religious

time off for festivals and holy days

staff suffered jokes, harassment at handsof colleagues and students

staff accused of racism

university does not employ enough 'minorities'

gender issues: men and women being alone

Key findings 6: how can the LTSN/Higher Education Academy subject centres support you?

leaflets/booklets/databasecalendar of religious festivals

training eventsteam visits to departments

case studies - examples ofgood practice

information

campaign for diversity to be integrated intocurriculum

institutional

Aims of this project…

Training

annotated bibliography

calendar of religious festivals

On-line search engine

case studies

Mannuals/guidelines/databases

widening participation

press for incorporation of diversityinto curriculum

Questionnaires

Supporting Cultural and Religious Diveristy

Aim of on-line search engine…

• To provide people working within higher education with a resource that will enable them to answer specific questions relating to cultural and religious diversity issues (e.g. dates of religious festivals, reasons for types of cultural dress, the basics of different religious beliefs etc…);

• To enable people working within higher education to develop the skills and knowledge to avoid cultural stereotyping through ‘religious and cultural literacy’

Web-based resources on cultural and religious diversity…

• Religion and culture are not necessarily the same thing although they do often intersect (http://www.camcnty.gov.uk/sub/cominfo/ethnic/)

• At this stage our research has focused upon religious websites

Problems with religion and the web

• Information overload• Quality and reliability of sites• Sectarian issues• Despite these caveats the web is an excellent

resource for information about religion• PRS LTSN has capacity to design search engine

that avoids these issues as much as is possible

Types of religious resource

• The majority of websites have been developed by religious organisations or individuals (e.g. www.buddhanet.net/ Website of the Buddha Dharma Education Association in Sydney. Non-sectarian).

• There are also plenty of websites that have been put together by academics and other ‘informed’/concerned individuals to educate people about different religious traditions(e.g. http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/)

Cross-cutting themes

In addition to websites that deal with particular religious traditions we have targeted resources that give information on ‘cross-cutting themes’ as suggested by the questionnaire responses e.g. statistics on religious adherence, festivals and holy days, religious freedom, racial equality and human rights, age, cultural diversity, gender, ethics, food and alcohol, dress, rights of passage, migration…..

• In very near future we will begin to link sites to a search engine so that colleagues can begin to use this resource.

• We will collect case studies from individuals that have made offers and make these available on the website.

• Complete our annotated bibliography.

• http://www.eprarthana.com/virtual/vpooja.asp