The Disenchanted Assembly: The Consultation on Religious Observance in Scottish Schools
This article explores issues of social inclusion, social cohesion, culture and identity in education. The medium through which these themes are addressed is a critical analysis of the consultation on religious observance in Scottish schools. The consultation took place between November 2002 and March 2003, under the aegis of the Religious Observance Review Group (RORG). The written and oral submissions to the consultation were analysed by a research team based in The SCRE Centre in the Faculty of Education at the University of Glasgow. The consultation exercise generated a large number of responses — over 1,400. This is considerably in excess of the number of responses to other recent consultations, and is a measure of the level of public interest generated by the consultation. For example, the consultation exercise launched in the autumn of 2002 by the Expert Panel on School Meals generated a total of 208 responses (Lowden and Pirrie 2002).
A Very Scottish Affair: Catholic education and the State
This paper draws on key features of Scottish religious and political history as the backdrop to understanding the very particular place occupied by Catholic education in Scotland. This place, it is suggested, is quite different from that of religiously denominated schooling in other parts of the United Kingdom and is subject to a more comprehensive and sustained critique from politicians, academics and the media. Some of the criticisms levelled partake in general philosophical criticisms of publicly funded denominational schooling but are refracted through the lens of Scottish cultural history. The paper outlines three key issues worthy of reflection—divisiveness, church rights to approval of teachers and identity within the polity. It goes on to suggest that much of the opposition to the continued existence of such schools has philosophically and empirically weak foundations but that for Catholic schooling to continue to make a meaningful contribution to the polity it must remain ethically and culturally distinctive, while developing a self-critical sense and a willingness to be involved in the wider public conversation.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND 1878 - 1978
was largely preoccupied with the task of erecting a network of elementary schools to meet the needs, particularly in the industrialised counties of the west-central belt, of the seemingly inexorable growth of Catholic numbers. The second phase, ushered in by the 1918 settlement, outwardly promised to remove most of those financial disabilities which, in Catholic eyes, formed the cornerstone of the 1872 statute. In practice, however, the years 1918 -45 were marked by consolidation and steady rather than rapid progress. Finally, the post-1945 era was distinguished not merely by a considerable expansion of Catholic secondary schooling but also by the organisational revolution which, from the late 1960s onwards, was linked with the move towards a comprehensive system of secondary education. It is with an examination of these trends that the remainder of this paper is concerned.