The practice of the integrated curriculum
The 1971 primary school curriculum clearly endorsed the principle of the integrated curriculum and instructed schools to integrate religious themes and values as much as possible into other lessons. In the introduction to part one of the Teachers’ Handbook it was stated that the curriculum should be seen ‘more as an integral whole rather than as a logical structure containing conveniently differentiated parts’. It asserted that ‘the separation of religious and secular instruction into differentiated subject compartments serves only to throw the whole educational function out of focus’. All schools were consequently expected to offer a curriculum where religious and secular instruction could be integrated. While the 1999 Primary School Curriculum
does not express support for an integrated curriculum in such an explicit manner, it does state that it encompasses the philosophical thrust of the 1971 document and it recognises the principle of ‘the integrated nature of the curriculum’ as being central to that philosophy.
The continued integrated nature of the curriculum may be seen, for example, in the current Church of Ireland (Anglican) religious education programme, ‘Follow Me’. This programme is constructed using the same framework of strand units found throughout the rest of the curriculum:
‘
This structure can facilitate the integration of religious education with the rest of the curriculum –
connections can be made with other curriculum areas which can give religious education a place in the life of the school beyond the time allocated to it each day.
How does this interpretation of religion within the curriculum manifest itself in
practice, and what are the experiences of teachers, parents and pupils? Over two thirds of the schools surveyed stated that the ethos of the school is integrated into other lessons.
The degree of integration varies from a comprehensive inclusion of religion – ‘permeates all lessons’, ‘is an integral part of the school curriculum’ and
‘a Christian ethos predominates throughout’ – to a more general emphasis – ‘where appropriate, a Catholic/Christian viewpoint is used in lessons’ and ‘general reference as occurs’.
Frequently, the ethos of the school informs the position taken in regard to
the subject called ‘Social, Personal and Health Education’, where issues surrounding relationships and sexuality are taught.
The pupils and parents interviewed gave a picture of the extent of the integration of religion (depending upon the individual teacher) into secular subjects such as nature studies, poetry, art, history, drama, singing, reading classes and language lessons:
‘We were talking about swifts. I remember asking, how do they know when to
come back from Africa and the teacher said that it was just because God made them that way. And nearly all the songs we do are religious songs.’ [pupil]
‘A lot of things are attributed to God, like rainbows and the rain coming down.’
[parent]
‘It can be very subtle. All projects seem to be religious based. We don’t get too uptight about it but all the projects are religion based.’ [parent]
Teachers also spoke of the extent they were expected to integrate religion into other subjects:
‘Yes, you do, definitely you do [teach an integrated curriculum]. First of all,
we were told to teach that way in college . . . That’s how we were taught. So we would teach an integrated curriculum. For example, in our school we have an assembly once a week on Friday and a different class takes the assembly each week. So if you were doing assembly that week you would spend half your week getting ready for assembly – a little drama, your song, prayer. And that takes place outside of your half-hour of religion . . . And we’d say grace before we eat our lunch.’
‘How far it is brought into the curriculum probably depends on individual
teachers and how strongly teachers feel about their own faiths. Certainly if someone was a religious fanatic they could run amok. Moral religious values would tend to come into the curriculum, for example, abortion with older children.’
The expectation that a religious ethos should permeate beyond specific religion classes is not confined solely to its anticipated integration with secular subjects.
As noted at the beginning of this paper, r 68 of the Rules for National Schools insists that ‘a religious spirit should inform and vivify the whole work of the school’ and not simply be restricted to the taught hours of the school day.
The questionnaire survey confirmed that this ‘religious spirit’ does indeed permeate throughout the school day and in a variety of ways.
For example, 70% of schools surveyed by questionnaire hold a school assembly on a regular basis.
Of these, 80% have a religious focus and they comprise prayers, bible stories, hymn singing and addresses by clergy. In 50%of cases no opt-out clause is offered to any children not of that religious belief. In those schools that do offer an opt-out facility, the choices include remaining in class (3%): ‘children who do not want to participate in the morning prayers are expected to stay silent and just show
respect to those praying’; or coming to school late (33%): ‘we have mass in the morning on occasions and the children can come in after if they wish’.
Some schools (30%) hold class assemblies, all of which are religious in content. Only 33% of these schools offer an opt-out provision to non-participating pupils, the most common being to remain in the room: ‘work at side of room during prayers or just stay in seat reading etc’.
The ethos of the school is integrated into other activities. Thus,
68% of schools hold religious services during school hours, either at the local church or on school premises. The frequency of these services range from once a month through to ‘once or twice a year’, and include services at Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday, feast days, for a funeral (parent or school member), anniversary mass (former principal or recent past pupil) and for the sacrament of reconciliation. The majority of these services (70%) are of a denominational nature with the remainder being broadly Christian in focus. The most common opt-out provisions include the option to ‘study
on own under supervision’ or ‘to be collected from school by parents’.
Schools also reported that the ethos of the school was promoted through religious symbols on walls, altars in classrooms, grace before meals, prayers at the start and end of the day, visits to churches, visits from clergy and the staging of Nativity plays and carol singing at Christmas time.
The majority of school policy documents, submitted with completed questionnaires, were explicit in stating the extent of the permeation of the school ethos in school life: a ‘Christian Spirit will inform all the activities of the school’; a ‘Christian environment is offered’ by the school; and, in explaining the extent of school links with local parishes, ‘this, for example, is shown by the fact that the pupils attend services in the local church and the Rector visits the school on a regular basis in his role as Chaplain’. These reports are in keeping with statements by religious authorities which have been consistent in explicitly asserting the importance of the school ethos to the life of their schools.
For example, in February 2005, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin re-emphasised the need for a Catholic school to ‘have a defined ethos which should be verifiable in all its aspects’. He noted that ‘a Catholic ethos must be the integrating factor for all aspects of the life of the Catholic school’ and that a Catholic school must ‘place at the centre of its mission the passing on of the message of Jesus Christ, his truth and his love, from generation to generation, as a factor of liberation, integration and hope in the young person’s life’.
The parents interviewed confirmed that an integrated curriculum is practised
throughout the school day:
‘It actually turned out in reality that religion is not a subject that they do for a half-hour. It’s constantly brought up again and again like prayers here and there, colouring in pictures, say of the nativity.’
‘It was 24 /7!’
‘
I had a strong sense that everything was predicated on following the Church
of Ireland [ethos]. It came into every subject. I find it hard to pinpoint . . . but a strong Church of Ireland Christian atmosphere did pervade.’
‘
Religion comes into almost everything, from blessing themselves in the morning to prayers before dinner and after dinner, at the end of the day. The priest calls in frequently with little messages.’
Teachers also described the pervasive nature of the integrated curriculum:
‘Religion crops up a lot. For example, if a child’s granny dies then the class
says a prayer.’
‘Certainly it’s there throughout the day, and throughout the calendar year with feast days etc. Religion is there . . . I think it is integrated into the life of the school, maybe not into all subjects.
You have your prayers in the morning, your prayers before you eat and your prayers going home in the evening time.’
The questionnaire and interview surveys provide a qualitative insight into how the integrated curriculum is taught in Irish primary schools. To determine whether the integrated curriculum and its teachings are in accord with the standards of international human rights law, it is necessary to ask two critical questions derived from international jurisprudence.
Is the nature of the religious knowledge taught through an integrated curriculum conveyed in a manner that can be described as ‘objective, critical and pluralistic manner’ or ‘neutral and objective’?
Does such teaching have an aim of indoctrination? These are now addressed, using the interview responses.
Neutral and objective?
When asked whether they believed that the religious knowledge put across through the integrated curriculum was conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner, parents were of the opinion that this was not the case:
‘How can that be possible to integrate doctrinal beliefs in an objective, critical
and pluralist manner?’
‘No allowance is made for those who may have had a different perspective. It’s not presented with any balance – it’s presented as fact.’
‘It couldn’t be objective and pluralist as long as these really pure Catholic Virgin Mary prayers are being used. It is definitely not pluralist or objective, not at all. It is specifically Catholic.’
‘It’s only one religion [that is taught], not the subject of religion. A big difference.Not integrating a multi-denominational approach to religion. They’re being anti all those things.’
‘
It’s taught as fact . . . it’s taught as something that definitely, obviously, really happened. God is this, Jesus did that, instead of saying some people think this or that . . . They teach it only in its most simplistic, narrow form. It’s not taught in a broad ethical or philosophical way.’
Aim of indoctrination?
With respect to the aim of indoctrination,
parents were adamant that the lack of objectivity and neutrality in the teaching of the integrated curriculum combined with its compulsory nature resulted in the involuntary indoctrination of their children into a particular religious faith:
‘If you’re only steeped in one religion – is that not indoctrination? It is all
indoctrination simply because adults have the influence to children at a very basic level at an early age without perhaps understanding that they are [indoctrinating], a child absorbs.’
‘My problem would be the indoctrination part of the religious teaching and the
acceptance of it as a school subject, an educational pursuit. These are issues kids are not aware of.’
Teachers confirmed the inherent aim of indoctrination in the integrated curriculum in Irish primary schools:
‘It could vary from individual to individual. More conservative teachers could be teaching in a way that is indoctrination, mightn’t even be aware of it. Others may be more objective.
Once something is integrated it becomes difficult not to indoctrinate people by sheer dint of its integration . . . And where do you put the children who do not want to be exposed to that religion?’
‘
The school’s role is to indoctrinate. That is its purpose.’
‘
That is what I think people have interpreted as ethos – that they have the freedom to indoctrinate. They have every right to indoctrinate. It’s people’s working definition of ethos. It’s almost a licence to do so . . . Part of the religious programme is to teach them a prayer before lunch, after lunch and a prayer in the morning. It leaks into the school day.
Definitely indoctrination. Definitely directed at a god.’
This account of the aim of the integrated curriculum would most certainly suggest that its teachings are aimed at advocating a specific religious view.
Schools are not simply facilitating the study of religion but are pursuing an aim of indoctrination by seeking to impose a particular religious belief through a devotional rather than academic approach to the teaching of religion.
Opt-out possibility
As already noted, international human rights law holds that if doctrinal religion is taught in schools, then those individuals who do not want to participate in such teaching must be offered an opt-out provision.60
However, teachers confirmed the difficulties that would exist for a child who wanted to avoid the teachings of the integrated curriculum:
‘[The integrated curriculum is] very real. Religion is integrated into other
subjects which is why it is impossible for a child who is a non-believer [to avoid it]. There’s no question of that. Christmas cards, songs, if you were in third class you might become the choir for the communion children . . . Obviously it’s integrated, of course it is.’
‘Generally, assembly is religious. The drama is a dramatised bible story with
the song and the prayer, eg thank you God for trees, God keep us safe. And on a practical level, you practise [for assembly] in the hall and you may not be able to practise in your official [religious education] half-hour. So if you had a child using the opt-out clause, can you say to the Mum well today don’t bring them in at 12 because that’s when the hall is free. It would be very, very difficult . . .’
‘
It would be near nigh impossible [for a child to opt out of the integrated
curriculum].’
‘[Minority-belief children] can’t be taken out of morning prayers, they can’t be taken out if a religious issue comes up in a reading . . . To my way of thinking this is practically unworkable . . . I would say that in 99.9% of cases where a child is not practising the religion of the school they are attending it is a very alienating experience for them . . . And that’s one of the reasons why I feel there shouldn’t be something in schools that’s going to reinforce in children feelings of alienation, you don’t belong to this community. We’ll tolerate you here to do your maths but we won’t tolerate you for being essentially
different.’
Furthermore, parents reported that the pervasiveness of such an integrated curriculum and the impossibility of opting out failed to respect their philosophical and religious convictions:
‘I’m unhappy with the way that the Catholic religion is playing such an important role in the whole curriculum. It is blended in . . . They pray before the lessons start in the morning, they pray before every break and they pray before school inishes.
You couldn’t possibly avoid it. Even if we took him out of religious classes. . . he would still constantly be confronted with religious Catholic belief . . . there is no way that you could possibly avoid it.’
‘[
The school authorities] objected to me withdrawing my child from Christian
drama: they told me that he cannot be excused from this. [They were] very, very unsympathetic, very dogmatic.’
‘I asked my daughter what happened [in morning prayers], just to see if she
did get the opportunity not to do it and whether other kids don’t do it. She was saying “I can’t do anything about it”.
She was saying sometimes she doesn’t want to but she has to do it every morning.’
‘
On Ash Wednesday they put ashes on his head. They knew my views on
religion but I came to pick him up one day and he had ashes on his forehead. I
asked the teacher about it, she said “ah sure all the children were having it, it’s not that much of a big deal”.’
Alternative provision
The evidence set out above illustrates how a doctrinal integrated curriculum, from which no opt out is possible, is practised in Irish primary schools. In such circumstances, the availability of acceptable alternative schooling, as argued above, would be a critical consideration in determining whether religious freedom was adequately protected in an education system.
In the Irish context the availability of a state-funded alternative to denominational schooling is extremely limited. As was noted above, only 41 out of approximately 3171 primary schools in the country are multi-denominational in ethos. These schools are typically vastly over-subscribed.
If parents wish to send a child to a multidenominational school and there is no such school in the locality, or there are insufficient places in a local multi-denominational school, they must get together with other like-minded parents to form an association and establish a school. This process is a daunting one. Furthermore, it is one in which the state offers no initial encouragement or assistance, either in terms of expertise or finance.
The lack of options together with a resulting sense of powerlessness was a dominant theme emerging from interviews with parents:
‘It is an important issue [the integrated curriculum] but I don’t know what I can do about it . . . No one complains about it . . . there is no where else to go.’
‘There weren’t any alternatives, there were absolutely none. Home education
would have been the only alternative.’
‘You feel impotent as a parent.’
The nature of the integrated curriculum found in Irish primary schools suggests that ts practice fails to respect international guarantees of religious freedom: its teachings are doctrinal; its aim is one of indoctrination; opting out is impossible and alternative acceptable schooling is extremely limited.
The question that then arises is whether domestic law can offer protection to the rights of those who believe that their religious freedom is violated in this way.
Originally Posted by rant_and_rave
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