What do young people think about religious diversity? Researchers set out to fill gap

Promotion of respect for religious diversity by governments and community organisations is seen as a crucial component in countering violent extremism yet ironically little is known about what young Australians’ think or know about different religions and worldviews.

An international project, recently funded by the Australian Research Council, will bring together researchers from the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Monash and Warwick Universities. It will provide the first Australian, large-scale study of young people’s attitudes to, and experiences of, religious diversity.

The research will also identify ways to help governments and schools promote wellbeing, interreligious understanding and social inclusion.

The research team, led by Associate Professor Mary Louise Rasmussen from Monash, comprises Dr Anna Halafoff and Associate Professor Andrew Singleton from ADI, Professor Gary Bouma from Monash, and international colleagues Professor Robert Jackson, Professor Leslie Francis and Dr Elisabeth Arweck from Warwick University.

“Warwick is the centre for research on religion and education,” Dr Halafoff said.

“Professor Jackson is a leader in this particular field and has worked on a number of major studies in this area as well as advising the Council of Europe in education about diverse religions and worldviews.”

“It is a real privilege to be partnering with them and our Monash colleagues,” enthused Dr Halafoff. Dr Halafoff said the Australian research would build on findings from a UK study into young people’s views of religious diversity carried out by the Warwick team in 2009-2012.

“At the moment we really don’t have any sufficient empirical evidence to tell us what young Australian’s understanding is of diverse religions and beliefs,” she said.  “We also don’t know what factors shape those views.

“We know from the Scanlon Foundation report that discrimination, based on skin colour, ethnic origin or religion, is an issue in Australia.

“But what is driving it?  “Is it people’s peers, their families, the media?”

Dr Halafoff said the lack of education about religions and worldviews in state schools meant Australians had low levels of religious literacy and as a result a limited ability to understand the internal diversity within religions.

“Many religious traditions promote both cultures of peace and cultures of direct and structural violence,” she said.

“In Buddhism for instance there is considerable debate about gender equality but there is little public awareness about this and the complexity of religion in contemporary society more generally."

Dr Halafoff said in the United Kingdom religious education was compulsory and it had been teaching about diverse religions since the 1980s.

The team knew, from research out of the UK and Europe which looked at the role formal religious education played in creating a more cohesive society, that students believed that the main preconditions for peaceful coexistence between people of different religions were a knowledge about each other’s religions and worldviews, shared interests, and joint activities.

“In Australia the importance of appreciating religious diversity and spiritual wellbeing for students is emphasised in the recent Melbourne Declaration of Educational Goals but there hasn’t really been a coherent, evidence-based approach to education about religious diversity,” she said.

“There are elective religion subjects available in Year 11 and 12 however they are seldom offered in government schools. Many faith-based schools by contrast offer education programs on diverse religions and ethics.

Dr Halafoff said the new Australian Curriculum provides some opportunities for teaching about religions and worldviews across the Curriculum.

“What was a significant development and first step after the review of the Australian curriculum was conducted in 2014, was that Victoria chose to include content on ‘Learning about world views and religions’ as part of its commitment to fostering multicultural and multifaith harmony in its version of the curriculum,” she said.

“This content was at least in part inspired by Professor Jackson’s Signposts, document which is a tool to help educators and other stakeholders develop their own policies and approaches to teaching and learning about religions and beliefs.

Dr Halafoff said awareness of Professor Jackson’s work grew out of a Monash-Warwick Alliance workshop and public lecture, which was hosted by Deakin University, that was attended by scholars and representatives from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) in early 2015.”

Dr Halafoff said one of the benefits of the timing of the research was that researchers would be able to benchmark understanding of different religions just as the curriculum was being rolled out.

“Once we have gathered this data and have a better idea of what assists with positive attitudes to diversity and what impedes them and creates tensions, we have a better opportunity to inform the development of curricula and teacher training,” she said.