tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/british-values-10935/articlesBritish values – The Conversation2023-10-03T14:02:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146572023-10-03T14:02:53Z2023-10-03T14:02:53ZDebating the ‘success’ of multiculturalism misses the point – it’s simply part of life in Britain today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551687/original/file-20231003-29-nv3cqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=114%2C73%2C5349%2C3563&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Diwali in Trafalgar Square: a celebration of multicultural Britain.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-03112019-square-charing-1549158512">Lara Ra/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Suella Braverman – the home secretary in one of the UK’s most ethnically diverse cabinets in history – has declared that multiculturalism has <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/europe-home-secretary-united-states-multiculturalism-prime-minister-b2418911.html">failed</a>. Speaking to an American think tank, Braverman spoke out against what she called a “misguided dogma” that has “allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it”. </p>
<p>I am a historian of multiculturalism, and grew up in Balsall Heath, an area of Birmingham with a decades-long history of rich cultural diversity. My experience of multiculturalism is not as something that can fail or succeed, but as something that shaped my life and that of my peers in a meaningful way. Comments like Braverman’s – and indeed, other politicians before her – ignore the reality of what multiculturalism means to people.</p>
<p>In 2017, former Ukip leader Nigel Farage blamed the Westminster Bridge terrorist attacks on the idea that multiculturalism had led to “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nigel-farage-london-terror-attack-multiculturalism-blame-immigration-lbc-radio-ukip-mep-leader-a7645586.html">divided communities</a>” and the presence of terrorist sympathisers.</p>
<p>Before Farage, the former prime minister David Cameron <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference">suggested</a> in 2011 that multiculturalism allowed “segregated communities” to behave in ways that were at odds with British cultural norms.</p>
<p>In the early 2000s, Labour home secretary David Blunkett introduced a range of measures to address the notion that multiculturalism had contributed to a lack of “community cohesion” in Britain. These measures aimed to promote “British values” and prevent local schools from becoming “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/apr/24/immigrationpolicy.immigrationandpublicservices">swamped</a>” by immigrants.</p>
<p>The criticism of multiculturalism from recent governments contrasts with the approach taken in the 1970s and 80s. The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/74/enacted">1976 Race Relations Act</a> decreed that councils take proactive steps to bring about “good relations” between different racial groups. In the years following, local councils enacted policies of multiculturalism, particularly in education, to cater for the particular needs of ethnically diverse communities.</p>
<p>There was a drive to allow pupils to wear religious clothing and provide information to parents in their first languages. Halal meat was made available in schools with a significant number of Muslim pupils. Councils also began to distribute funding to religious organisations, in the hope that this would help bring about better community relations.</p>
<p>These policies were not universally welcomed. Some on the left viewed them as an part of a wider <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/030639688302500202">attempt to weaken</a> the unity of black communities by setting ethnic groups against one another in a scramble for council funding. Others thought the language of multiculturalism was patronising and tokenistic, and did little to address the real issues faced by non-white groups. </p>
<p>On the <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/let-s-face-it-ray-honeyford-got-it-right-on-islam-and-education/">right</a>, multiculturalism has been decried as a form of political correctness. It was viewed as something that, in its celebration of diversity, had the potential to bring about an erosion of British cultural values. </p>
<h2>How multiculturalism actually exists</h2>
<p>What both sides of the debate miss is the extent to which multiculturalism is not only a policy or a political agenda, but a way of life. This is most apparent in Britain’s major cities, where immigrants from the Caribbean, South Asia and elsewhere settled in the 1950s and 60s. </p>
<p>By the 1960s in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/83/1/301/3862488">Balsall Heath</a>, an inner city area of Birmingham in the Midlands, one in four residents were black or Asian, and 13% of the population were Irish. When I grew up in the same area in the 1990s, more than 75% of local residents were from ethnic minority backgrounds. </p>
<p>My peers and I were familiar and comfortable with our <a href="https://www.routledge.com/After-Empire-Melancholia-or-Convivial-Culture/Gilroy/p/book/9780415343084">cultural differences</a>. Friends explained the significance of Ramadan or the kara (the iron bangle often worn by Sikhs) in between lessons and unruly games of football. We even had a particular way of speaking. Our multicultural slang mixed Punjabi insults such as <em>teri maa di…</em> (your mother’s…) with snippets of Jamaican patois like slack, wicked, wagwan and laters.</p>
<p>Balsall Heath’s ethnic makeup yielded culturally significant musical exports. It is the home of UB40, a reggae band formed in 1978 by a group of young men of Scottish, Jamaican and Welsh-Yemeni descent, inspired by the house parties of their Caribbean neighbours.</p>
<p>A generation later, another local resident, Bally Sagoo, became a star of the British bhangra music scene. His distinctive fusions of traditional Punjabi music with hip-hop, reggae and funk earned him the <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/17598/">first Hindi-language single</a> to make the UK top 40 in 1996.</p>
<h2>The picture today</h2>
<p>Multiculturalism is one of the most significant social transformations across Britain as a whole over the last 100 years. In 1942, it was estimated that fewer than 5% of the population had experienced any direct <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526133267/">contact</a> with someone from an ethnic minority background. In 1958, almost 75% of people <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-33928-7">disapproved</a> of mixed-race relationships. In 2012, that figure had dropped to just 15%. </p>
<p>By 2021, <a href="https://www.easterneye.biz/ten-million-stories-of-migration-to-britain">more than a third</a> of the population of England were either migrants themselves or else had parents or grandparents born outside of the UK. <a href="https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-among-uks-first-super-25634180">Birmingham</a> had become one of two cities in which a majority of residents were from ethnic minority populations. And Britain’s mixed-race population was <a href="https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/population-of-england-and-wales/latest">approaching two million people</a>. The kind of diversity that I experienced in the 1990s is now a central pillar of the fabric of modern Britain.</p>
<p>This is not to downplay the structural issues that continue to affect ethnic minority communities in Britain, alongside the stubborn, pernicious presence of racism. Rather, it points to the problem with the tired debates about the “failure” of multiculturalism. </p>
<p>Despite Braverman’s comments, having a home secretary of Mauritian-Kenyan heritage, serving under Rishi Sunak, Britain’s first ethnic minority prime minister, only illuminates the extent to which Britain has now become irreversibly multicultural.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kieran Connell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A historian explains what politicians like Suella Braverman and David Cameron get wrong about multiculturalism.Kieran Connell, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2006642023-03-02T15:15:06Z2023-03-02T15:15:06ZPrevent review: why we need a new – and clearer – definition of Islamist extremism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512682/original/file-20230228-18-9x6pqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blur-movement-city-people-worker-shopping-162803969">Alice-Photo/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An independent review of the UK counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent, has recommended that the government increase its efforts to tackle Islamist extremism. </p>
<p>Prevent was launched nearly two decades ago to divert vulnerable people away from radicalisation and terrorism. It has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-both-sides-are-wrong-in-the-counter-extremism-debate-55714">controversial</a> from the outset, criticised by <a href="https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/expertcomment/the-prevent-strategy-is-fuelling-islamophobia-in-britain/">experts</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/30/home-office-threatened-with-libel-action-over-prevent-strategy-review">campaigners</a> alike for its tight focus on Islamist extremism in particular and the alleged targeting of Muslim communities in Britain this results in.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An aerial view of a mosque in a city centre." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512686/original/file-20230228-1260-ij47fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512686/original/file-20230228-1260-ij47fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512686/original/file-20230228-1260-ij47fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512686/original/file-20230228-1260-ij47fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512686/original/file-20230228-1260-ij47fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512686/original/file-20230228-1260-ij47fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512686/original/file-20230228-1260-ij47fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A clearer definition of extremism would ensure better protection for Britain’s 4 million Muslims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/peterborough-uk-september-10-2021-aerial-2041435607">Clare Louise Jackson/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>William Shawcross, a British journalist and current commissioner for public appointments, has conducted an independent review. In his 200-page report, he outlines how Prevent is not doing enough to counter non-violent Islamist extremism or to tackle organisations operating within the law and below the threshold of terrorism. </p>
<p>He also criticises “a double standard when dealing with the extreme right-wing and Islamism”. Prevent’s view of Islamist extremism, he says, is often too narrowly focused on banned terrorist organisations. Its view of extreme right wing, by contrast, is often too broadly focused on “mildly controversial” mainstream rightwing-leaning commentary. </p>
<p>One fundamental question this review poses is what exactly “Islamist extremism” is. This matters because many professionals (including teachers, lecturers, social workers, health workers and prison guards) are now legally obliged to watch out for it. <a href="https://www.icct.nl/publication/how-define-and-tackle-islamist-extremism-uk">Research</a> I have recently published with Maaha Elahi, a pupil barrister, shows that a clearer definition is possible.</p>
<h2>A new definition of “Islamist extremism”</h2>
<p>The UK government defines “extremism” as “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs”. This general definition has <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-extremism-mean-the-british-public-arent-sure-120858">done little</a> to improve the public’s understanding or to clarify what might distinguish Islamist extremism from other forms.</p>
<p>According to Prevent: “Islamist extremists regard Western intervention in Muslim-majority countries as a ‘war with Islam’, creating a narrative of ‘them’ and ‘us’.” This ideology, the definition says, includes the uncompromising belief that people cannot be both Muslim and British. “Islamist extremists specifically attack the principles of civic participation and social cohesion,” it says. “These extremists purport to identify grievances to which terrorist organisations then claim to have a solution.”</p>
<p>The problem is that Prevent’s definition is rooted in the government’s favoured concept of “British values”. It says little about how extreme Islam differs from more mainstream forms of the religion. And it offers little practical guidance for the professionals now under a legal duty to be aware of terrorist risks. </p>
<p>To explore how this might be improved, we revisited the 2013 libel case brought by a London imam, Shakeel Begg, against the BBC. In a televised interview conducted by journalist Andrew Neil with the Muslim Council of Britain, Begg was described as an “extremist speaker” holding “extremist positions”. He subsequently sued the BBC. </p>
<p>In deciding Begg’s case, Lord Justice Haddon-Cave distinguished between extreme and mainstream forms of Islam. Among other expert sources, he relied on philosopher and sociologist of religion Matthew Wilkinson and his 2018 book, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315514451">The Genealogy of Terror</a>, to set out ten indicators of what he termed “extremist Islamic positions”: </p>
<ol>
<li>Having a Manichean view of the world – a strict divide between “us” and “them” – including between the “right” and “wrong” kind of Muslim.</li>
<li>Reducing the idea of <em>jihad</em> to armed combat (or <em>qital</em>); the term can, in fact, also be translated simply as “striving”.</li>
<li>Ignoring the established Islamic doctrinal conditions for the declaration of <em>qital</em>, including support for terrorism.</li>
<li>Ignoring the Islamic regulations governing armed <em>jihad</em>, including attacks on civilians.</li>
<li>Advocating <em>qital</em> as a universal, individual religious obligation.</li>
<li>Interpreting sharia law to require breaking domestic (in our case, UK) law.</li>
<li>Classifying all non-Muslims as unbelievers (or <em>kuffar</em>).</li>
<li>Adhering to the extreme Salafist position that the Muslim faith negates and supersedes family, kinship and nation.</li>
<li>Citing or approving legal opinions (or <em>fatwa</em>) from Islamic scholars with extremist views.</li>
<li>Delivering or following teaching which encourages Muslims to engage in or support terrorism or violence in the name of Allah.</li>
</ol>
<p>This is helpful because it roots “Islamist extremism” in Islamic concepts, not British values. It reduces the risk of the British state implying that Islam stands apart from British society. According to UK <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021">census</a> data from 2021, 6.5% of those living in England and Wales – nearly 4 million people – are Muslim. Following Haddon-Cave’s lead would enable the government to play a more active role in protecting mainstream Islamic values for these Muslim communities. </p>
<p>Further, Haddon-Cave’s checklist approach offers a more practical solution to some of the uncertainty people feel. It helps to communicate more clearly what is meant – and what is not – by the term “Islamist extremism”. </p>
<p>This will contribute towards more positive relations between, for example, the police and Muslim communities. <a href="http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/">Checklists</a> have a long history in both the engineering and medical professions. They are easy to use and, as our understanding develops, easy to adapt over time. Although not strictly a checklist, the most widely used definition of “<a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism">antisemitism</a>”, for instance,
employs a working definition with a list of examples to help its users.</p>
<p>This checklist approach could also be easily adapted to other forms of extremism, from the far right to far left. The various properties of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569317.2018.1451227">rightwing</a> extremism that criminologist Elisabeth Carter identified in 2018 include authoritarianism, nationalism, racism, xenophobia and anti-democratic values. </p>
<p>Early definitions, for instance, of “rightwing extremism” often excluded populism because it was mainly considered a speech-writing style. As our understanding of it as a political ideology developed, later definitions included it. Carter’s study shows how a checklist could be adapted in line with such developments in our thinking. </p>
<p>There are differences of opinion over which is the more serious issue, Islamist or far-right extremism. Some point to the MI5’s annual threat update, in which Director General Ken McCallum <a href="https://www.mi5.gov.uk/news/director-general-ken-mccallum-gives-annual-threat-update">stated</a> that Islamist terrorism represent three-quarters of its terrorist caseload. Others highlight recent data – from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/individuals-referred-to-and-supported-through-the-prevent-programme-april-2021-to-march-2022/individuals-referred-to-and-supported-through-the-prevent-programme-april-2021-to-march-2022">Prevent</a> itself – that shows that extreme rightwing cases (between April 2021 and March 2022) in fact outnumbered Islamist cases for the second year running.</p>
<p>Home Secretary Suella Braverman <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-prevents-report-and-government-response/the-response-to-the-independent-review-of-prevent-accessible">has pledged</a> to fully implement the review’s recommendations. Campaigners, meanwhile, have <a href="https://www.preventwatch.org/shawcross-review-muslim-organisations-call-for-prevent-to-be-scrapped/">called</a> for Prevent to be scrapped. Either way, accurately defining and identifying extremism, in all its guises, remains crucial.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research study reported here was not funded by a specific research grant. Maaha Elahi and Dr Julian Hargreaves are grateful for support from the Woolf Institute.
Dr Julian Hargreaves had an advisory role for the Commission for Countering Extremism and has offered academic advice to Counter Terrorism Policing.</span></em></p>Rooting the definition of ‘Islamist extremism’ in Islamic concepts, not British values, reduces the risk of the British state implying that Islam stands apart from British society.Julian Hargreaves, Director of Research at the Woolf Institute and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Islamic Studies, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1179902019-06-10T10:34:35Z2019-06-10T10:34:35ZBritain still doesn’t know the purpose of the Life in the UK citizenship test – and it shows<p>Amid the current Brexit paralysis, the UK government has gone quiet on its plans to reassess the Life in the UK test following the recommendations of a <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldcitizen/118/11802.htm">2018 Lords report on citizenship and civic engagement</a>. Yet, with Brexit apparently still on the horizon and the country still reeling from the scandal involving <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/15/why-the-children-of-windrush-demand-an-immigration-amnesty">members of the Windrush generation</a> who wrongly faced deportation, a discussion over the role and meaning of British citizenship, including how or even whether it should be tested, remains as vital as ever.</p>
<p>Within the UK’s restrictive and <a href="https://qz.com/1235688/thousands-of-qualified-people-cant-get-uk-citizenship-because-they-cant-afford-it/">costly</a> path to citizenship, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/life-in-the-uk-test">Life in the UK test</a> is supposed to demonstrate that a person applying for British citizenship or indefinite leave to remain has <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/41/section/1">“sufficient knowledge”</a> about life in the UK. This is a lot to expect a 24 question multiple choice test to show, even if the questions were fit for purpose. Unfortunately, the reality is that the test has often contained <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-citizenship-test-is-inconsistent-and-riddled-with-errors-15217">factual errors</a> and is routinely criticised for <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2280329">focusing on national trivia</a> over more practical knowledge. </p>
<p>Even the home secretary, Sajid Javid, has described the test as akin to a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sajid-javid-conservative-party-conference-speech-british-citizenship-test-pub-quiz-a8566186.html">“pub quiz”</a>. In 2018, he announced plans to replace the Life in the UK test with a more stringent <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sajid-javid-immigrants-home-secretary-british-values-citizenship-conservative-conference-speak-a8564821.html">British values test</a>, but these plans have yet to materialise. </p>
<p>The 2018 Lords report said there were still questions around the purpose of the test, which has been taken by more than 2m people since its introduction in 2005. This is despite the fact that it has already been redesigned twice, in 2007 and again in 2013.</p>
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<h2>A certain type of Britishness</h2>
<p>Although the point of the test is to demonstrate knowledge of life in the UK, the <a href="https://lifeintheuktests.co.uk/study-guide/">handbook</a> that accompanies the test claims to help applicants “integrate into society and play a full role in your local community”. It’s not, therefore, clear whether the purpose is to test if somebody has already integrated, or to encourage and facilitate their integration.</p>
<p>It’s also unclear what kind of integration is being facilitated or assessed. In many respects, the test seems to prioritise cultural integration – into a particularly white Anglo nation – over social and political integration. While there are questions about voting and parliament, the handbook is more concerned with Monty Python, roast beef, pantomimes, Edward Elgar and allotments, than the NHS, schools or emergency services. Despite the fact that citizenship is fundamentally about political membership of the state, such content reveals an expectation for new citizens to have similar cultural knowledge that nationals do, and a particular kind of national at that.</p>
<p>The test was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/07/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices">proposed</a> in the early 2000s during a period of <a href="https://www.kundnani.org/the-death-of-multiculturalism/">public concern</a> over immigration and social cohesion. So it’s also possible to see it as part of a broader effort to demonstrate that the government is “in control” and that migrants who settle or naturalise in the UK are knowledgeable and committed. Effectively, as a project aimed at reassuring “us” that “they” are the kind of migrants “we” want. </p>
<p>But if this is case, the test is again misfiring. Most UK citizens are remarkably ill-informed about the specific requirements and content of the test. When I conducted <a href="https://nationalliveslocalvoices.wordpress.com/">research</a> with white British-born citizens in a suburb of London, several people explicitly suggested to me that citizenship itself is largely irrelevant. As one man told me: “They get a passport but in my eyes that doesn’t make them British.” While the effect of such comments was to exclude naturalised citizens from being seen as “truly British”, they were sometimes made with more inclusive intentions. For example, some people I spoke to believed that migrants could become British without jumping through bureaucratic hoops.</p>
<h2>Time for a rethink</h2>
<p>Either way, it’s clear that passing a test and acquiring formal British citizenship has limited potential to make someone British in the eyes of the white British majority. For many, this is supported by the widely reported idea that most British-born citizens would <a href="https://www.wsj.com/video/can-you-pass-the-british-citizenship-test/A9E47B58-5A03-40F0-A077-A76E30182633.html">fail the test</a>.</p>
<p>With around 150,000 people taking the test each year, and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/life-in-the-uk-test">paying £50</a> for the privilege, it’s time for some honest answers about what, and who, the test is really for. The UK needs a conversation about whether the test is there to help migrants, to reassure an anxious public, to prove integration or facilitate it, to make citizens, or even to make particular kinds of British nationals. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the question remains whether the test is just <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2280329&download=yes">another barrier</a> within the UK immigration system which, as with <a href="https://theconversation.com/theresa-mays-failing-hostile-environment-immigration-checks-by-landlords-breach-human-rights-112820">other immigration policies</a>, actually risks <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/life-in-the-uk-marginalisation/">alienating new citizens and damaging integration</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Clarke receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>It’s unclear if the Life in the UK test is designed to test whether somebody has already integrated, or to encourage it.Amy Clarke, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1093902019-01-21T15:08:21Z2019-01-21T15:08:21ZRefugees and family migrants more likely to feel British than other immigrants<p>Public anxiety over immigration was a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-latest-news-leave-eu-immigration-main-reason-european-union-survey-a7811651.html">key factor</a> in the Brexit referendum result. The government’s recent proposals for a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46613900">new post-Brexit immigration system</a>, which will put an end to the free movement of people from the EU, are intended to ease this same anxiety. </p>
<p>Yet, the emphasis of the new proposals is on meeting the future skills requirements of the domestic labour market. Commentators quickly pointed out that concerns over immigration are not always strictly economic in nature, and perceived <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9f8bfe2a-0471-11e9-99df-6183d3002ee1">threats to British culture and identity</a> may be equally important.</p>
<p>The perception that people in some minority groups lack a sense of belonging in the UK has led successive governments to introduce policies <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">explicitly promoting British values</a>. Unease around these issues has arguably also increased opposition to the admission of <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/reports/thinking-behind-the-numbers-understanding-public-opinion-on-immigration-in-britain/">refugees and family migrants</a>, who tend to arrive from countries that are culturally quite distinct from the UK. </p>
<p>Official nervousness around refugee arrivals was apparent during the refugee crisis in the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11839283/David-Cameron-Britain-should-not-take-more-refugees.html">summer of 2015</a>, and again in recent weeks, as the government declared a “major incident” over the small number of people trying to reach the UK in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46705128">boats across the English Channel</a>.</p>
<h2>Feelings of Britishness</h2>
<p>My recent <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11150-018-9439-8">research</a> suggests that people who came to the UK as refugees or family migrants are much more likely than economic migrants to feel that they have a British national identity. A family migrant is anyone who said they originally migrated to accompany other family members, or to join family members who are already here. My analysis was based on data from the UK Labour Force Survey, which contained interviews with more than 76,000 migrants between 2010 and 2017. While 25% of economic migrants reported feeling British, this rose to 53% for refugees and 62% for family migrants. </p>
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<p>Even when comparing only migrants who came to the UK from the same countries of origin, and accounting for differences in their age at arrival, time since migration, ethnicity, and educational background, refugees and family migrants still stood out as the most likely to say they felt British. </p>
<p>This type of descriptive research only attempts to analyse patterns of British national identity over the relevant time period. It cannot be used to establish definitive explanations for these patterns, or to make predictions about what would happen in different future immigration scenarios.</p>
<p>Yet, the most simple and general explanation for my finding is that refugees and family migrants are more likely than economic migrants to plan to stay in the UK long term. The defining characteristic of an economic migrant is their pursuit of employment, which may or may not be viewed as a long-term arrangement. In contrast, a family migrant is defined by their attachment to family members in the country, and a refugee is defined by their having arrived in the country after fleeing war or persecution. In both these cases, a migrant’s anticipated length of stay in the UK is likely to be longer term.</p>
<p>It’s possible to more or less eliminate some other possible explanations for this finding. For example, I show in additional <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11150-018-9439-8#Tab3">analysis</a> that the result is not driven purely by a higher uptake of legal citizenship among refugees and family migrants, or by a higher proportion of family migrants arriving from countries in the British Commonwealth. Although citizenship and Commonwealth origins do seem to matter for identity, among people who are not British citizens, refugees and family migrants are still more likely to report a British identity. The same is true among migrants who come from countries outside the Commonwealth.</p>
<h2>Longer stays</h2>
<p>A large body of <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.54.1.98">previous research</a> suggests that other important aspects of migrant life – such as language learning or completing new qualifications – are shaped by how long a person intends to stay in their new country. This makes sense: learning the language to an advanced level or completing a qualification that is only recognised in the new county may simply not be worthwhile if one intends to leave before long. </p>
<p>The same logic could apply in the case of adopting a new national identity: for many who intend to stay for the foreseeable future, it is natural to develop a sense of feeling “British”, while for others it isn’t. A change in national identity may be more difficult than physically crossing an international border. </p>
<p>There’s no need for the UK to wish all migrants to feel British. All sorts of people migrate to the UK for different reasons, hopefully improving their own lives in the process, as well as contributing to the domestic economy and culture in different ways. It would be strange to suggest that a short-term migrant should or could adopt a British national identity, though it would perhaps be a sign of a healthy, inclusive national culture if a proportion of longer-term migrants did so. These matters of culture and identity are worth considering alongside strictly economic criteria in response to public anxiety over immigration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109390/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article is based on research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The author declares previous research contracts at the UK Home Office, and data access at the UK Home Office relating to an earlier version of this research.</span></em></p>New research suggests that refugees and family migrants are more likely to report a British identity than economic migrants.Stuart Campbell, Research Associate, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1028712018-10-29T11:53:46Z2018-10-29T11:53:46ZBritain’s new counter-terrorism legislation will undermine the rule of law even further<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242506/original/file-20181026-7065-i0qtps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cardiff-uk-3-june-2017-policeman-652817239?src=fKD0m1oXZ29umghInUNUiA-1-97">IanRedding/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When he first unveiled the British government’s latest package of counter-terror legislation in June 2018, Home Secretary Sajid Javid <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/11/counter-terrorism-orwell-strategy-parliament">justified it</a> as a way of ensuring that “the police have the powers they need to protect us”. </p>
<p>If approved by parliament, the <a href="https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/counterterrorismandbordersecurity.html">Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill</a> would make it a crime to express views favourable to terrorist groups, or to view terrorist material online. Javid argues that the threat of terrorism requires this kind of innovation, and that current laws need extending so that the police can keep citizens safe without breaking the law themselves.</p>
<p>Others are less enthusiastic. Max Hill, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, <a href="https://terrorismlegislationreviewer.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Clause-3-submission-July-18.docx">warned</a> that: “A principled boundary line as to the legitimate usage of criminal law is being crossed.” The new laws don’t so much extend the law as stretch it, perhaps to breaking point.</p>
<p>As the bill now moves to its committee stages in the House of Lords, it seems likely to ignite debate about counter-terrorist legislation – not only about how appropriate it is to criminalise “precursor” activities such as watching a video, but about what can and can’t be done with the law more generally. </p>
<p>The rule of law is one of the “fundamental British values” prescribed by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance">Prevent</a> counter-terrorism programme. So it is ironic – and alarming – that counter-terrorist legislation threatens to undermine it.</p>
<h2>The rule of law</h2>
<p>Many lawyers would argue that the rule of law is simply the situation in which the same laws apply and are enforced equally throughout society, irrespective of whether those laws themselves are good or bad. However, a stronger case for the rule of law can be made if we follow a school of thought associated with the American legal philosopher Lon Fuller. In his 1964 work, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Morality_of_Law.html?id=5bC42qgnjmEC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">The Morality of Law</a>, Fuller argued that the coherence of the law as a system is valuable in itself – something he called the “internal morality” of law.</p>
<p>This internal morality can be summed up in three requirements. The law must be uniform, applying the same rules throughout society; it must be knowable, so that citizens can understand what it requires of them; and it must be followable. The rule of law therefore means that not only should the law apply to all alike, but also that everyone is able to understand what it requires and to choose to follow it, or break it.</p>
<p>Since 2000, new terrorist offences have multiplied, with successive governments insisting that they are needed in order to keep people safe. So how do these offences – and the new bill – measure up to this model of the rule of law? </p>
<h2>Criminalising the future</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2017.14">a recent paper</a>, I looked at successful prosecutions under counter-terrorist legislation between 2006 and 2016. In that ten-year period, 155 counter-terrorist prosecutions were successfully brought, involving 391 separate charges. Every one of the terrorist offences of which suspects in these trials were found guilty was a “precursor” offence, criminalising actions prior to a terrorist act being committed – more precisely, actions which could have led to a terrorist act being committed at some time in future. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2475249/Terrorist-bomb-maker-Hassan-Tabbakh-jailed-for-seven-years.html">Hassan Tabbakh</a>, for example, received a seven-year sentence for preparing acts of terrorism, on the grounds of possessing chemicals with the intention of making bombs – although Tabbakh did not have a detonator, and the chemicals would not have ignited in any case. Others received prison sentences for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12576973">uploading videos</a> of combat in Afghanistan, and for making notes on bomb-making in an attempt to <a href="http://www.mentalhealthlaw.co.uk/R_v_G;_R_v_J_(2009)_UKHL_13">“wind up” the staff</a> at a young offenders’ institution.</p>
<p>Precursor offences like these criminalise actions and situations not on their own merits, but on the basis of the further actions that they might eventually have led to, or facilitated, or encouraged. The sheer breadth of such laws means that they are bound to be applied selectively and with extensive use of police discretion – which means that they are not, in practice, applied uniformly. </p>
<p>There is inevitably a tendency to use counter-terror legislation to prosecute the kind of people who “look like” terrorists – at present, predominantly British Muslims. The case of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/28/soldier-jailed-nailbomb-ryan-mcgee-manchester-bomb">Ryan McGee</a> illustrates this. He was a serving soldier and English Defence League supporter who kept a home-made bomb in his bedroom, for which he received a two-year sentence on an explosives charge. (Unlike Tabbakh’s bomb, McGee’s was fully constructed and viable.)</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242511/original/file-20181026-7068-1gbf3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242511/original/file-20181026-7068-1gbf3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242511/original/file-20181026-7068-1gbf3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242511/original/file-20181026-7068-1gbf3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242511/original/file-20181026-7068-1gbf3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242511/original/file-20181026-7068-1gbf3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242511/original/file-20181026-7068-1gbf3h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bending the rule of law.</span>
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<h2>Permanent zone of suspicion</h2>
<p>Contemporary counter-terrorist legislation is a systematic deviation from the values of the rule of law, which the new bill threatens to entrench. In a nasty irony, one of the shortfalls identified here – the lack of uniformity – masks the others: put simply, most of the British population is never going to have to worry about falling foul of counter-terrorist law and policing. </p>
<p>For the minority who do, the effect of these shortfalls is menacing. In principle, the law leaves all citizens free to act how they please, as long as other people’s rights are not infringed. But anyone who falls, or believes that they might fall, under suspicion of terrorist sympathies also knows that it would be advisable for them to avoid doing anything, possessing any item or making any statement that might later be presented as being related to terrorism in some way. Members of that group – British Muslims now, Irish in Britain in the 1970s, perhaps another group in the future – live in a permanent zone of suspicion. </p>
<p>The new laws would extend that zone still further. In the words of Corey Stoughton of the campaign group Liberty, the new provisions <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-06-26/debates/a2d24560-1b1b-475c-bbb6-b7100b3e6aaa/Counter-TerrorismAndBorderSecurityBill(SecondSitting)">take a</a> “dramatic step in the wrong direction”. Ironically, legislation passed to protect the rule of law – along with freedom, democracy and Prevent’s other “British values” – are creating the conditions for the rule of law to be dangerously undermined.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Edwards has contributed to a review of Prevent training in education, supported by the Home Office.</span></em></p>Counter-terrorism legislation has created a permanent zone of suspicion – but not for everyone.Philip Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/864232017-10-30T12:28:06Z2017-10-30T12:28:06ZWhat British Muslims think about the term ‘British values’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192288/original/file-20171027-13315-1tzp6p6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C1009%2C523&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Views on British values, from British Muslims. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://britishmuslimvalues.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/alif-lam-mim-trailer/">Alif. Lam. Mim. by M.Malik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Channel 4’s recent programme <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-week-as-a-muslim">My Week as a Muslim</a>, in which a non-Muslim woman lived with a Pakistani family for a week, was a reminder of the ongoing curiosity about Muslim life in British society. The programme was criticised for its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/20/channel-4-brownface-tv-documentary-my-week-as-a-muslim-niqab-racism">use of “brownfacing”</a> as the woman wore dark make-up and a niqab to appear Pakistani – highlighting the resilience of assumptions that British Muslims are non-white or somehow non-British. </p>
<p>This abiding curiosity about how Muslims live and what Muslims think frequently stems from enduring concerns around integration. In the past, such concerns were usually couched in the language of multiculturalism or community cohesion, but today they are often centred around the idea of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/british-values-10935">British values</a>”. While the meaning of the term remains unclear, it saturates public life in areas as diverse as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf">counter-radicalisation policy</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/sep/22/schools-should-not-be-afraid-to-promote-british-values-says-ofsted-head">education</a>. Yet, in one recent study, around half of British adults <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/02/19/tracker-islam-and-british-values/">surveyed believed Islam to be incompatible</a> with British values. </p>
<p>For the last year, we have been working with Muslims across eastern England and East Anglia who have produced their own short films about British values as part of an ongoing <a href="https://britishmuslimvalues.wordpress.com/about/">research</a> project. Doing so, we hoped, would tell us a little more about what the term British values means to Muslims in an often neglected region. It might also shed light on how those Muslims feel when they encounter the term in media headlines or opinion polls. </p>
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<p>Although we’re mindful of the dangers of generalisation – and cautious that these reflections are still provisional – we have picked out three themes that recur in a number of our films and interviews with those who made them. </p>
<h2>Elusiveness</h2>
<p>The term British values was often seen by our filmmakers as an elusive and ambiguous one. Some, such as Shukria from Bedford, were confident in articulating the term precisely – in her case as “having the freedom to express yourself however you want”. But many others professed to not knowing what the term means. </p>
<p>Haroon, a college student in Norwich, told us: “I can’t really speak on British values, because I don’t know anything about them … to me it’s a weightless word, it has no meaning to it.” Fatima, from Bedford, held a similar view: “To be honest, I don’t know, it doesn’t mean anything to me … We were never taught what British values were.” </p>
<p>For some, this ambiguity was even more pronounced when they reflected on whether anything is distinctively British about values such as “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs” – the language the Home Office uses to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published">define the term</a>. As one of the people interviewed put it, such values “should be universal regardless – British, non-British, faith or no faith”.</p>
<h2>Compatibility</h2>
<p>Despite this ambiguity, the British Muslims we spoke to saw some similarities between British values and values associated with Islam. As one interviewee put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I think about British values and I think about my faith, I think there’s a lot of common ground. And common ground for me is serving my community, looking after my neighbours, regardless of whoever they are. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The claim that a vague and ambiguous set of British values actually complements Islamic values could appear counter-intuitive. But the indistinctness of the term might actually make the idea of British values easier to square with other sets of religious or non-religious values. A desire to identify with the Britishness of these values – or to be seen by others to identify with this Britishness – could also be more important than concerns about their specific content or meaning. </p>
<h2>Dog-whistle politics</h2>
<p>There also seems to be genuine public concern among those with whom we spoke about how the term British values is used in politics and the media. Many people on this project pointed to the manipulation of the term by politicians and media commentators to serve dog-whistle politics, often in the aftermath of violent and tragic events. In the words of one anonymous participant: “Whenever there’s an attack, you have the government … start talking about [British] values.” </p>
<p>In this way, the term British values was seen by two of those we spoke to as a coded “warning” to specific communities, which contributed to “divisive” and “alienating” politics. These sentiments can also offer insights about how those exposed to the term within classrooms or places of worship might feel. </p>
<p>The next stage of our research will be to carry out a series of focus groups in East Anglia with Muslim and non-Muslim participants to dig further into the meaning of British values. Wherever that takes us it is clear that the term remains a contested and contentious one, that must be used with care by politicians, commentators, and others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Jarvis receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council scheme under the Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (Reference: AH/N008340/1)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eylem Atakav works for the University of East Anglia. She receives funding from the Research Councils UK and Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Marsden receives funding from the Research Council UK and the Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>A series of films made by Muslims shows how much confusion remains about the term.Lee Jarvis, Professor of International Politics, School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication, University of East AngliaEylem Atakav, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies, University of East AngliaLee Marsden, Professor of International Relations, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/694822017-01-31T09:09:33Z2017-01-31T09:09:33ZNot long ago, there was a British European identity – so what happened?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154739/original/image-20170130-7675-1rsiwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can Britain be European without the EU?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/european-union-united-kingdom-flags-waving-363077531?src=BYFHItCl-Uwe-UFdN4mgyQ-1-12">www.shutterstock.com/Fresh Stock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>National identity is a double-edged sword. It can give a <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/robert-colls/british-national-identity">shared sense of belonging</a> to something bigger; inspiring and helping people to band together. It can equally lead down a path of mistrust, exclusion, and xenophobia. In times of change it can be hard to maintain the balance, and is no doubt something many Britons are struggling with post-EU referendum.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://time.com/4636141/theresa-may-brexit-speech-transcript/">her big Brexit speech</a>, Prime Minister Theresa May spoke of how she wanted Britain to be “truly global”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the best friend and neighbour to our European partners, but a country that reaches beyond the borders of Europe too. A country that gets out into the world to build relationships with old friends and new allies alike.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Certainly a sentiment that many were hoping for, but it was not so long ago that Britons were encouraged to realise the value in being part of the European family. Indeed, in the wake of World War II, the idea that both British and European identity should be embraced made an enormous amount of sense. </p>
<h2>Lessons from the past</h2>
<p>Since the war, national affairs have seen many peaks and troughs, but nothing compared to the crisis currently unfolding. Though a global view should not be ignored, we still need to cultivate and nurture European-ness going forward, especially when the union bonds are cut.</p>
<p>I recently came across <a href="http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-people-next-door-reel-1/">news footage from 1948</a> which sheds some interesting light on how British-European identity developed. Among other things, the film features a group of British children, orphaned by the war, boarding a ship for a sponsored holiday to Belgium. The narrator explains that through such travels, “our children will be more than British: they’ll be Europeans”. </p>
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<p>In the period after World War II, insular nationalist perspectives were largely discredited. Extreme nationalism, after all, had been <a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/%7Eghost20j/classweb/ghost20j/Perpetrator%20Motivations%20Behind%20the%20Holocaust%20German%20Nationalism.html">one of the root causes</a> of the war. Many viewed integration and fostering a sense of European identity as a way to <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/david-held-kyle-mcnally/europe-eu-and-european-identity">move beyond nationalism</a>. It was a chance for Europe to start afresh, with a renewed political, economic and social order.</p>
<p>This European consciousness worked well as a replacement for discredited nationalism in places such as divided Germany. However, in countries with less compromised pasts and presents, such as Britain, it had to be actively fostered and promoted. </p>
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<p>Citizen-led initiatives such as cultural exchange schemes, student mobility projects, <a href="http://www.alda-europe.eu/plus/public/publications/71-CITIES-final-publication-EN-web-31012011.pdf">town twinning</a>, and cross-national professional organisations <a href="http://isj.org.uk/the-ideology-of-europeanism-and-europes-migrant-other/">were part of a wider movement</a> that helped to build a sense of European belonging for ordinary British people. It is not a coincidence that many of these programmes focused on the young: here was a future-oriented vision of an emerging British citizen who would see him or herself as belonging to, and leading in, a democratic European project. </p>
<h2>Identity in the nuclear age</h2>
<p>This is not to imply that the British government had a straightforward relationship with European integration, however. Though Winston Churchill called for the <a href="http://www.cfr.org/europe/churchills-united-states-europe-speech-zurich/p32536">“United States of Europe”</a> in 1946, Clement Attlee’s government, which came to power in 1945, was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/21/brexit-euroscepticism-history">opposed to integration</a>.</p>
<p>By 1948, perspectives were changing. The Cold War was developing in earnest; the US was <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q3S_63sGvPYC&pg=PT103&lpg=PT103&dq=america+favoured+%22united+states+of+europe%22&source=bl&ots=EJldeNctkD&sig=0g2TWvreX8DPNcalttlI4hyRMl8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic6qWbpbzRAhWKDcAKHbmhAtE4ChDoAQg5MAU#v=onepage&q=america%20favoured%20%22united%20states%20of%20europe%22&f=false">increasingly in favour</a> of a federalist structure for western Europe, to act as a bulwark against the Soviet sphere. The May 1948 Hague Congress prompted considerable <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q3S_63sGvPYC&pg=PT103&lpg=PT103&dq=america+favoured+%22united+states+of+europe%22&source=bl&ots=EJldeNctkD&sig=0g2TWvreX8DPNcalttlI4hyRMl8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic6qWbpbzRAhWKDcAKHbmhAtE4ChDoAQg5MAU#v=onepage&q=america%20favoured%20%22united%20states%20of%20europe%22&f=false">enthusiasm for the European project</a>, both among policymakers and in popular opinion. Greater European integration was increasingly seen as an answer to national vulnerability in the nuclear age. </p>
<p>It was in this context that the orphaned British children of the newsreel made their voyage to Belgium, to become a new breed of European citizen. If these children are still alive, they would now be in their eighties – and potentially part of the 64% of British voters over 65 years of age that <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/06/27/how-britain-voted/">chose to leave the EU</a>.</p>
<h2>Fostering identity</h2>
<p>You may be asking at this point what went wrong? It is not easy to say whether the social and cultural projects aimed at fostering a collective sense of European identity were a success or not. In 1948, they were experiencing a boom moment, and though some initiatives dried up over time – not many orphans are still sent for holidays in Belgium – others, like the <a href="http://www.erasmusprogramme.com/">ERASMUS student and teacher exchange programme</a>, founded 30 years ago, have flourished.</p>
<p>If integration programmes had more effectively reached areas where the Leave campaign had the greatest influence, would the referendum have been different? There is no research to back this up at present, but it is an interesting point to consider.</p>
<p>European integration was a response: an endeavour built on the shared desire for cooperation, unity, and protection from the threat of war. Without it, Britain will truly be diminished. Though there is nothing wrong with the global outlook that May suggested, neither should we rush to undo the years of European integration.</p>
<p>The British European spirit is still alive and can thrive, if there is commitment to build it. Just look at what happened when English astronaut Tim Peake went to the International Space Station on behalf of the European Space Agency: Britain responded with a great swell of pride. Indeed, the head of the European Space Agency said that it had delivered a fresh boost of “<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjM-YLS6OnRAhUnK8AKHdBSBMEQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ibtimes.co.uk%2Ftim-peake-esa-boss-claims-british-astronaut-represents-european-spirit-1566098&usg=AFQjCNEoVjLB9OzVM_h-teJ8DfnD_aMWJQ">European spirit</a>”.</p>
<p>Perhaps the best way forward is fostering European spirit through such large-scale projects, rather than community initiatives. But without trying, Britons will never know.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Clifford receives funding from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Children in the 1940s were brought up believing that European identity was the way forward – so what went wrong?Rebecca Clifford, Associate Professor of Modern History, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/699372016-12-06T14:19:24Z2016-12-06T14:19:24ZAn oath to entry – but should all citizens pledge allegiance to British values, not just new migrants?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148879/original/image-20161206-25749-1v3my7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How British are you?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren Whittingham/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A much-anticipated <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/574565/The_Casey_Review.pdf">review</a> into “integration and opportunity” in some of Britain’s “most isolated communities” by Dame Louise Casey has finally been published.</p>
<p>On immigration, Casey’s verdict was: “too much for some communities”, without public consent or political leadership. On integration: “worrying” segregation is occurring, some people have little meaningful interaction with others outside their community and patriarchal and misogynistic behaviours are taking place “in the name of cultural or religious values”.</p>
<p>Having already led reviews into <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6151/2183663.pdf">troubled families</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reflections-on-child-sexual-exploitation-a-report-by-louise-casey-cb">child sexual exploitation</a>, Casey had built up a reputation as the go-to no-nonsense call-a-spade-a-spade tsar. And she is robust in her critique of the road to integration thus far, embracing the classic critique of the failure of multiculturalism as too much “‘saris, samosas and steel drums’ for the already well-intentioned”. </p>
<p>The solution: a spirit of compassion and unity <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/casey-calls-for-integration-plan-to-bind-communities-together">through a focus</a> on “our common British values of tolerance, democracy, equality and respect”. Casey’s overall recommendation is for the government to forge “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38209285">a bold new integration strategy</a>”, which she proposes could include an “oath of integration with British values and society” and its values by all new migrants on arrival in the country.</p>
<h2>Another step in the process</h2>
<p>At present, migrants must demonstrate their knowledge of British history and culture through a “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/life-in-the-uk-test/book-life-in-uk-test">Life in the UK</a>” test – also known as a citizenship test – to secure the right to remain in the country. But it is currently only if they want to go through the naturalisation process to obtain a British passport and citizenship that they are required to take an <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268021/oathofallegiance.pdf">oath of allegiance</a> and a pledge to “respect the rights, freedoms and laws of the UK”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148880/original/image-20161206-15334-b8q3cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148880/original/image-20161206-15334-b8q3cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148880/original/image-20161206-15334-b8q3cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148880/original/image-20161206-15334-b8q3cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148880/original/image-20161206-15334-b8q3cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148880/original/image-20161206-15334-b8q3cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148880/original/image-20161206-15334-b8q3cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More tests to come?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/grassrootsgroundswell/16154586711/sizes/l">grassrootsgroundswell/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If such an oath was required on arrival to the UK, it’s not likely it would cause very many migrants to reconsider making the journey from their corner of the world to ours. But then, this is hardly a proposal aimed at restricting the numbers of newcomers, but rather a symbolic contract between migrant and state on the British way of life. The politicians looking at Casey’s proposals should beware: symbolism can risk becoming an empty gesture if in practice it becomes a bureaucratic hurdle, a box-ticking exercise. </p>
<p>While motivations for coming to the UK are diverse, most people who come to Britain do so to better their lots in life, for themselves and their families. It seems unlikely that an oath and pledge of allegiance will be seen as anything other than another step in the process of getting to the country. </p>
<h2>Symbolism has to be meaningful</h2>
<p>It is useful to remember that the pioneer Muslim migrants from the subcontinent at the centre of this report were <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137275158">once viewed</a> as model migrants because they were self-sufficient and made few public demands – instead, relying on family and kinship ties to build “institutionally complete” communities. Now the descendants of these migrants are viewed with suspicion for living parallel lives and not being willing to integrate. </p>
<p>Issues of integration are not simply about cultural difference, lifestyles and values, but also about the opportunities and challenges of living in a post-industrial economy where many working-class people of all ethinicities feel left behind. When resources are limited and services cut, when desires for a life better than one’s parents are dashed, then people who are “different” are an easy scapegoat. In this situation it is difficult to see how an oath taken by migrants at the point of entry would be of help to subsequent generations. </p>
<p>That the oath would only be required for migrants is based on the assumption that existing citizens of the UK, born or naturalised, are fully paid-up adherents to the concept of “British values”. </p>
<p>In her report, Casey rightfully highlights the intolerance bred by misogynist males who restrict the rights of women as well as the perpetrators of the rising numbers of identity-based hate crimes. It’s questionable whether they subscribe to tolerance, democracy, equality and respect – and whether they would also benefit from an oath of allegiance to British values. </p>
<p>Symbolism is important in our shared collective narrative about who were are and what we want to be. But it has to be meaningful symbolism – shared by everyone. Otherwise, it’s a slippery slope towards “saris, steel bands and samosas”. A road well travelled by the well intentioned, but called out by Casey for being a dead end.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parveen Akhtar has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy. </span></em></p>A new report has suggested migrants should be required to pledge allegiance to British values on arrival in the UK.Parveen Akhtar, Lecturer in Political Science, Aston Centre for Europe, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/550792016-04-14T09:49:15Z2016-04-14T09:49:15ZThe strange history of secularism twists debate about British Muslim attitudes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118350/original/image-20160412-15864-1wkm8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two worlds? Minaret in Brick Lane, East London.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/12580570@N08/16331653134/in/photolist-64EuXV-4DK3PR-64JRLW-64F8uH-7TdKyY-6568Cz-64Eust-4BAsWS-64F2RD-64KkJU-o4Yqtc-9Kenj7-9KbxqM-9Keodw-5or4cS-ofMBbX-64F4mT-64Fa4D-64Kjdf-64JH17-5mbBpG-5zuogF-5HbkMn-65ap5J-7TdxQS-6568rp-7PvVPk-a14zan-Ef2qFy-oaZTCJ-oufjPp-ost4wf-7BKA6r-9Ux8F7-dhzhEk-av2jVo-qTaZus-8cNrZ4-9uVMjj-xNJH1b-9Vea3C-9Veahq-9Vea8U-9VbjV6-9Vea75-9Vbuct-ni2ZMu-9VbjRM-9Veakq-Cv5tSX">Andy Sedg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Governments in Britain have tended to treat Muslim citizens much like colonial administrations treated their subjects. Intermediaries – tribal leaders or religious figures – are found to establish communication between the empire and its people. One positive thing about a recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law">ICM poll of British muslims</a> is that it offers an alternative. The survey, carried out for a Channel 4 documentary, was never going to be able to reflect the complexity of British Muslim life accurately, but it does signal a shift by engaging directly with Muslim citizens. </p>
<p>How poll data is used is one way to test how colonialism’s legacy might linger on. The <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3418620/Muslims-not-like-just-accept-never-integrate-says-former-racial-equalities-chief-Trevor-Phillips.html">Daily Mail chose</a> for its headline the quote: “Muslims are not like us and we should just accept that they will not integrate …” while <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1676189/poll-half-of-muslims-want-homosexuality-banned">Sky News highlighted</a> that: “Half of British Muslims want homosexuality banned.” </p>
<p>Few media outlets rushed to use the headline that “86% of Muslims feel strong affiliation with UK, higher than the national average”, although this too is one of the findings from the survey. It is an “us and them” framework that fails to spark debate about who “we” might be and why “they”, with all their differences, might need greater integration with us, as the report has suggested. </p>
<p>We don’t have space here to discuss how the category Muslim <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/12/what-do-muslims-think-skewed-poll-wont-tell-us">may be broken up</a> across class, regional or ethnic background. Nor will we get into comparisons with others: whether, for instance, British Catholics, or for that matter, members of the Conservative Party, might have similar sentiments towards homosexuality.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118356/original/image-20160412-15861-1vyxgo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Same stop. Same destination?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kamshots/249877169/in/photolist-9osD3P-dn9iVn-axYJRS-ds15pe-axW3xV-HQfD7-dtBsLN-61B77e-65BDBS-bv5ryg-7RX9iJ-zYdWLU-Aux2bA-Arntoo-6wRhKf-pNckQ1-Vc9pF-o5FM4-KLkkc-8s6tB9">Kamyar Adl/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I want to focus on a more pervasive but implicit idea that allows the obsessive focus on difference. It is what Trevor Philips, the former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and presenter of the documentary, has called everyone else’s “centre of gravity”. A key aspect of that is the concept of secularism, which many take to mean the separation of church and state. </p>
<h2>State of affairs</h2>
<p>There is an underlying assumption that Islam as a religion is uncomfortable with secularism and that Muslims require “integration” to be able to live in secular states. This assumption finds forceful evidence in the desire expressed by 23% of the Muslims polled for some form of sharia law in UK. Critics who claim that Islamic thought and practice is uncomfortable with secularism may be right, but we need to pause and consider first what they mean by secularism. Is it the same thing that many Muslims might be uncomfortable with? </p>
<p>The most common assumption about secularism is that it is a separation of state and religion. This assumes a universal definition of religion as a specific set of ideas and practices that we can separate from other aspects of life. This definition is, of course, a product of a particular social historical context and not one that is universally true.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118359/original/image-20160412-15853-1qjue9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Part of life. The Koran.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mohammedj/5180004483/in/photolist-8TJSS8-9hrFXj-9LxaJN-bQyddZ-9BCJdY-9y2JNH-7EP4HU-4XJsbd-6UMbmY-9BzNu2-aQ3HGV-5EBgnj-6QTkFd-9gb79Z-sjEm1a-9wSi5y-fcu46g-dCWjWH-pBfuA5-6UMbr3-8TJSSp-6Rrh2Q-f4FFHZ-e4RzUD-86JwvX-sjEnLV-qYcEEz-6QtTz1-6QmoX-bz8QKB-6Rnd2X-4xp66k-89wXAL-anAQe7-cVdMS9-86MJau-4dMeq-bBDwDy-adLE1Y-bBDwJj-89wwe9-8bAYde-9bTbP-DZ8U8i-9BzMea-91CzR1-8uuTrh-6QSQWs-86Jwqz-czmwJG">Mohammed J/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Colonialism was integral not just to exporting ideas about what constitutes a religion to other parts of the world, but on imposing that vision of religion on societies that did not demarcate the spiritual from the economic, the moral from the political. </p>
<p>Britain, a deeply Christian society <a href="http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/611">right up to the early 1960s</a> and where empire and Christianity were tied closely together in a “civilising mission”, imposed its definitions on its Asian and African colonies, actively reshaping religious practices. It is not widely discussed that the rigid codification of sharia, as well as Hindu practices, was a process started by <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=73223">colonial administration in India</a> in the late 18th century. </p>
<p>In fact, the notion of religion as a compartmentalised aspect of human existence does not mean much for those who think of Islam, not as a set of specific practices or laws, but as <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secularizing-Islamists-Jamaat-Islami-Jamaat-ud-Dawa/dp/0226384683">a way of life, or “deen”</a>, which has long been wrongly translated as “religion”. </p>
<p>More critically, the definition of secularism as a separation of church and state obscures a key reality. Historically, secularism has actually entailed the increasing control and management of religious thought and practice by the state. It is not a separation, but a relationship in which the state has increasing control.</p>
<p>In his nuanced analysis of secularism and its development within the European context, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Formations_of_the_Secular.html?id=CeJ85XwCPxQC">cultural theorist Talal Asad showed</a> how this led not just to opening up of church property for market circulation, but also to a new closeness. Perhaps it is easiest if we think of secularism as an inversion of a previous relationship in the European context where the Roman Catholic church had extensive control over the state. </p>
<h2>Saudi atheism</h2>
<p>Within what we call the “Western” experience of secularism are many differences: the American constitution attempts to protect religious practice from heavy state intervention, leading to a highly religious citizenry. The French state has generally carried out very <a href="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/secularisminfrance">aggressive management of religious practice</a>.</p>
<p>Secularism as state management of religion is precisely the aspect that the vast majority of Muslims find alien. On the other hand, Islamists – by definition those who want to take over the state to transform society through their interpretation of Islam – find it an appealing prospect. </p>
<p>Unlike the Catholic church, which forms the bedrock of many European attitudes towards religion, Islamic practice has been fairly decentralised over the last 1,400 years. Sharia has been, for the most part, a set of guidelines rather than a set of laws, enforced not by the state but self-imposed through believers deciding to follow the scholarly opinions of particular muftis. </p>
<p>This self-imposition has allowed Islamic thought and practice much more entrenchment in social and political life. That Islam is not reliant on state imposition is precisely what makes it much more accessible to believers than the structured hierarchy of European churches. </p>
<p>Where states such as in Saudi Arabia have pursued state imposition, the level of disaffection with religious practice is very high. In recent decades, atheism has seen significant growth in the kingdom. So many have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/23/a-surprising-map-of-where-the-worlds-atheists-live/">declared their atheism</a> that the government last year <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-declares-all-atheists-are-terrorists-in-new-law-to-crack-down-on-political-dissidents-9228389.html">passed a law against it</a>.</p>
<p>Secularism, apparently a cornerstone of British values, is then something quite different from what mainstream understanding would suggest, as is the relationship of Muslims with it. Insisting on integration, without any questioning of dominant assumptions and beliefs, values and ideas, carries strong echoes of colonialism. How and why the UK’s “centre of gravity” came to be defined through its opposition to Muslims needs to be opened up if this report is to be an exercise in bringing us all together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55079/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Humeira Iqtidar had received funding from the ERC for her project Tolerance in Contemporary Muslim Thought: Political Theory Beyond the West (2012-2015) </span></em></p>An ‘us and them’ narrative pervades reporting about British Muslim attitudes, but there remains lack of understanding about what the separation of the church and state really means.Humeira Iqtidar, Senior Lecturer in Politics, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519262015-12-07T12:00:54Z2015-12-07T12:00:54ZSchools need to do more to improve children’s religious literacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104651/original/image-20151207-3147-17dzbcy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C46%2C919%2C796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Compulsory lessons for modern Britain.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ALMAGAMI/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>British society is in serious need of higher levels of religious literacy. The potential for misunderstanding, stereotyping and oversimplification based on ignorance is huge – and schools have a big part to play in putting this right. </p>
<p>Religion has dramatically changed in Britain. <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/ethnicity-and-religion-of-non-uk-born-population-in-england-and-wales--2011-census/rpt.html#tab-Religion">Fewer people</a> profess Christianity, more profess a post-Christian spirituality, humanism or atheism, while Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Jewish communities assert themselves in public and seek to play a role in shaping policies.</p>
<p>Yet the degree of understanding of these faith actors and of religion in general is low. The need for investment in religious literacy is one of the main themes of the <a href="http://www.corab.org.uk/">Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life</a> (CORAB), which has just published a report called <a href="http://corablivingwithdifference.com/">Living With Difference</a> – in which I was involved as a member of the steering group. As religious literacy and experience of diversity begins at school, we have recommended some changes to the place of religion in state education.</p>
<p>The most important is that religious education should be a compulsory subject. We’re not talking about instruction in a particular religion or secular beliefs – but religious education as a multi-disciplinary subject showing the nature and presence of religion and secular philosophies across time and across the world. It should be taught in classes comprising those of all faiths and none – and without exemptions – as part of the national curriculum. This knowledge, acquired in diverse classrooms, is essential for living together in mutual understanding and respect.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ending-christian-assembly-lets-open-our-eyes-to-the-value-of-collective-worship-in-schools-28736">existing law requiring all schools</a> to hold assemblies of a broadly Christian character – largely honoured in the breach in secondary schools – should be repealed. </p>
<p>Schools should be free to be flexible: to have no assemblies or belief-specific instruction, to have several of them, or to have them only for those who ask for them. This could be achieved through discussions between parents, teachers, pupils and governors and could take place within the formal timetable or as extra-curricular activities. An option could be all-inclusive assemblies but no single template should be imposed. It’s important to support a diversity achieved through dialogue and practiced on a voluntary basis.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104650/original/image-20151207-3144-11t1b80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104650/original/image-20151207-3144-11t1b80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104650/original/image-20151207-3144-11t1b80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104650/original/image-20151207-3144-11t1b80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104650/original/image-20151207-3144-11t1b80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104650/original/image-20151207-3144-11t1b80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104650/original/image-20151207-3144-11t1b80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Call to relax the law governing compulsory assembly with a Christian character.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SpeedKingz/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Don’t let faith schools segregate society</h2>
<p>This same balance is to be found in the Commission’s approach to state-funded faith schools. They constitute about a third of all state schools in England, with Church of England being most common at primary and Catholic at secondary level.</p>
<p>Among <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015">state-funded schools in England</a>, 37% of primary and 19% of secondary schools have a designated religious character. Some academies also have a religious ethos but are not formally designated as such. In <a href="http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/address-list-of-schools/?lang=en">Wales</a>, 16% of primary and 9% of secondary schools have a religious character. </p>
<p>Faith schools are popular with some parents and their numbers have been growing – an <a href="http://www.jpr.org.uk/documents/JPR_Jews_in_the_UK_in_2013_NJCS_preliminary_findings.Feb.%202014.pdf">unprecedented half of all Jews</a> are taught in state-funded Jewish schools, for example.</p>
<p>They are an important part of the diversity of the educational system but they also contribute to the segregating processes in society. Most educational segregation by religion and ethnicity, not to mention class, is primarily due to the neighbourhoods which feed into local state schools – and to parental choice. Nevertheless, faith schools should not ignore the goal of inclusivity and cohesion. </p>
<p>While CORAB does not recommend any kind of quota, we urge all faith schools to seek to offer an education not confined to those selected on the basis of faith. All bodies responsible for school admissions should be required to take measures to reduce selection on the grounds of religion.</p>
<h2>A new conversation on British values</h2>
<p>Another aspect of the balance between diversity and the common good, between cultivating a national story and ensuring that all can be participants in shaping it and including themselves within it, is that of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/british-values">British values</a>”. </p>
<p>Sparked by a generalised suspicion of the influence of Muslims upon some schools following a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/trojan-horse">scandal in Birmingham in 2014</a>, the current government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/380595/SMSC_Guidance_Maintained_Schools.pdf">instituted a statutory requirement</a> for schools to teach “fundamental British values”. </p>
<p>We do not reject the idea of an educational ethos grounded in national values. But we recommend an entirely different approach. A national conversation should be launched across the UK by leaders of faith communities and ethical traditions to create a shared understanding of the fundamental values underlying public life. It would take place at all levels and in all regions. The outcome might be a statement of the principles and values which foster the common good, and which should underpin and guide public life.</p>
<p>What it means to be British is an ongoing story. It is not fixed and final. People in the past understood the concept differently from the way it is seen today and everybody must be able to participate in shaping its meaning for the future. What we need now is a conception of Britain that is encompassing and welcoming of its religious and secular diversity.</p>
<p>There needs to be mutual respect between secular and religious people, where all are confident in helping to shape public policy and feel challenged to act together to respond to the many manifest ills in society. This is a vision that goes beyond recommendations for schooling, but the school is one of the important sites for its nurture and realisation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tariq Modood was on the steering group for the Living with Difference report published by the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life. </span></em></p>A new report has set out a vision of diversity for British schools – including repeal of the law for compulsory Christian assembly.Tariq Modood, Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/426652015-08-05T10:30:06Z2015-08-05T10:30:06ZHow schools can teach children to be ‘good’ EU citizens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90771/original/image-20150804-11999-n9z9lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What kind of Europe will his future hold? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sklkphoto/14319430903/sizes/l">Serge Klk/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the Greek financial crisis <a href="https://theconversation.com/greece-in-crisis-even-if-grexit-is-averted-the-eurozone-needs-a-fundamental-rethink-44095">destabilising the Eurozone</a> and near <a href="https://theconversation.com/calais-migrants-are-not-invading-theyre-just-a-small-part-of-a-global-refugee-crisis-45616">hysterical reporting</a> of the migrant situation in Calais, young people, many of them newcomers to European politics, have a lot to get their heads around. In the UK, where voters will choose in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/eu-referendum">forthcoming referendum</a> whether the country should leave the EU, children are facing a future where the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe may be very different. </p>
<p>Their <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PpjKAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">views on European issues</a> are likely to be determined by the degree to which their parents, siblings and friends might discuss the news, if at all – and from what political perspective. In many households such matters may only receive fairly cursory attention, sometimes with no more than a passing reaction to headline news items and broadcast “sound-bites” that necessarily oversimplify complex issues and events.</p>
<p>The UK formal schooling system is often regarded as adopting a fairly insular approach, with a national curriculum geared <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-history-exams-shouldnt-just-be-a-test-of-britishness-25799">towards British</a>, largely English, history and a declining <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-fall-back-in-love-with-learning-languages-23094">take-up of foreign languages</a>. Contrast this with many other EU member states where bilingualism and multilingualism are often the norm rather than the exception. </p>
<p>Under such circumstances, those school teachers that do attempt to teach young people to be globally competent, are likely to be facing an uphill struggle. Ideas for some of these <a href="http://www.globallycompetent.com/model/">“global competencies”</a> include open-mindedness, attentiveness to diversity and intercultural capability. </p>
<h2>What kind of citizenship?</h2>
<p>The concept of citizenship has entered the national curriculum, but is largely geared towards teaching children to be good national citizens, rather than global ones. There has been much debate surrounding what constitutes “Britishness” and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/british-values">British values</a>, an issue now associated with countering the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-on-the-frontline-against-terror-what-should-schools-do-about-radicalisation-43942">radicalisation of young people</a>.</p>
<p>However, when EU institutions discuss aspects of citizenship this is often couched in terms of rights, duties, responsibilities and a “<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_199.pdf">sense of belonging</a>”. It is this last aspect that is central to the capturing of young people’s “hearts and minds”, both in how they identify themselves and also their relationship with those in their local, regional and global communities. By highlighting the values promoted by the EU, teachers and parents would be helping to instil aspects of self-awareness and open-mindedness rather than distrust and rejection of diversity and multiculturalism.</p>
<p>From a British child’s perspective, regardless of their socio-economic position and upbringing, the world is likely to appear both divisive and competitive, particularly as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-one-of-the-wealthiest-countries-in-the-world-is-failing-to-feed-its-people-41872">social and economic equalities widen</a>. The EU motto <a href="http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/symbols/motto/index_en.htm">“United in Diversity”</a> is therefore a difficult concept for British schoolteachers to explain to children, let alone enthuse them to embrace this sentiment.</p>
<h2>Ways to build children’s awareness</h2>
<p>However, several government and civil society initiatives are already attempting to build children’s awareness of community issues and how they may engage as “good” citizens – not just of Britain, but of a wider world. The <a href="http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/">Association for Citizenship Teachers</a> provides resources on citizenship issues ranging from early years through to post-16. There are also networks of like-minded schools that are part of the <a href="http://globaldimension.org.uk/glp">Global Learning Programme</a>, which includes development education organisations such as <a href="http://think-global.org.uk/">Think Global</a>. </p>
<p>Government-run programmes such as the <a href="http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/">National Citizen Service</a> for 15 to 17-year-olds and the <a href="http://www.volunteerics.org/">International Citizen Service</a> for 18 to 25-year-olds offer opportunities for children and young adults to develop a sense of engagement and inclusiveness that is not necessarily restricted by national borders and preoccupations.</p>
<p>The ideas that we should teach children well so that they may “lead the way” in political life as they grow older has been a goal used by many. What that way, or ways, might be in a European context remains largely unscripted. There are useful pathways emerging in various EU members states – for <a href="https://europa.eu/eyd2015/en/fairstyria/posts/fairyoungstyria-competition">example in Austria</a>, where a competition was held recently for schools to demonstrate their sustainability and global responsibility. </p>
<p>Any attempts to teach children to be good EU citizens would do well to include discussion of their place in a wider world. There has also been a commitment to pursuing these goals via the Millennium Development Goals and their forthcoming successors, <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/7891TRANSFORMING%20OUR%20WORLD.pdf">the Sustainable Development Goals</a>. </p>
<p>Parents, teachers, mainstream media and social media will remain significant influencing factors for the majority of children, helping them to reinterpret and reconfigure their worldviews. Young people will always face challenges in understanding their sense of self, position in society and their ability to alter this. For those growing up in the 21st century, the future is perhaps more “unwritten” than ever before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roy Smith has previously received funding from the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the development education organisation Think Global and also a Council member of the Pacific Islands Society of UK and Ireland. </span></em></p>It’s an uphill battle to teach British schoolchildren about EU citizenship.Roy Smith, Principal Lecturer, History, Languages and International Studies, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/436692015-06-24T11:33:15Z2015-06-24T11:33:15ZRadicalisation on campus: why new counter-terror duties for universities will not work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86116/original/image-20150623-19374-1t9hcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are no easy 'tell-tale signs' of radicalisation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Students via Intellistudies/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government’s attempts to prevent university students from being drawn into violent extremism and terrorism could backfire. From July 1, there will be new duties placed on universities following <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/417943/Prevent_Duty_Guidance_England_Wales.pdf">changes to the government’s PREVENT programme</a> in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. </p>
<p>Universities will now be required to provide specialist staff training on radicalisation, carry out risk assessments on the vulnerability of students and have appropriate welfare programmes in place, among other things. While I am acutely aware of the dangers of students being drawn towards extremist ideologies of any persuasion, my concerns are that these new measures will be counter-productive.</p>
<p>One rationale for the new duties is that university staff are uniquely placed to see the changes in the behaviour and outlook of students who have been radicalised. The notion of easily identifiable “changes” have been around for a while, first posited by the then home secretary, John Reid a decade ago. Back then, he was <a href="http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/local-news/extremists-disrupt-reid-terror-speech-3977851">telling Muslim parents</a> about the need to be vigilant in watching their children for the “tell-tale signs” of extremism. </p>
<p>Oft-repeated since, no politician has yet set out exactly what these “tell-tale signs” might be. Neither does the new PREVENT guidance. Unsurprising because in essence, when “changes” or “tell-tale signs” are referred to they are in many ways little more than mere code for becoming “more Muslim”. Whether visual – growing a beard or wearing the niqab for example – or vocal – practising your religion more openly or developing political views about British foreign policy or Palestine for instance – it is the recognition of more Muslim-ness that is problematic. </p>
<p>A number of worrying assumptions underpin this. First, because being “more Muslim” is understood to be a bad thing. This does, however, resonate with the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40608397?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">“good Muslim/bad Muslim”</a> quandary that has featured prominently in various political discourses since 9/11.</p>
<p>Second, why is being “more Muslim” seen to be bad? The answer is because it is seen to go against the norm; against who “we” are, hence the recent emphasis on Britishness and <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-many-minorities-britain-is-not-living-up-to-its-own-values-28465">British values</a> in the education system. This is a recurrent theme in <a href="http://www.politicsandreligionjournal.com/images/pdf_files/srpski/godina4_broj2/8%20chris%20allen%20vol.iv%20no.2.pdf">my research into Islamophobia</a>: Muslims being routinely seen to be a homogenous “Other” – known and understood through various negative stereotypical attributes and characteristics that seek to demarcate “them” from “us”.</p>
<p>Because those stereotypical attributions and characteristics affirm that Muslims are inherently violent, manipulative, anti-Western and supportive of terrorism, it can then be argued as mere “common sense” to not only be suspicious of those who become “more Muslim” but to monitor them as well. </p>
<p>Most worrying is that even before these new duties were put in place, researchers <a href="http://www.academia.edu/8122641/Radicalization_and_counter-radicalization_at_British_universities_Muslim_encounters_and_alternatives">Katherine Brown and Tania Saeed had shown</a> how counter-radicalisation programmes had established universities as spaces for covert policing and surveillance where it is almost impossible for many to reconcile being publicly Muslim with being an “ordinary” student. The new duties have the potential to make the situation even worse.</p>
<h2>Greater scrutiny</h2>
<p>Universities are also spaces where wider issues about the demonisation of Muslims and Islam can also be seen to be played out. Here at the University of Birmingham, this was all too evident when a spate of <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/two-racist-graffiti-attacks-birmingham-8469507">Islamophobic graffiti attacks</a> on campus took place in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86114/original/image-20150623-19420-wklxkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86114/original/image-20150623-19420-wklxkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86114/original/image-20150623-19420-wklxkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86114/original/image-20150623-19420-wklxkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86114/original/image-20150623-19420-wklxkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86114/original/image-20150623-19420-wklxkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86114/original/image-20150623-19420-wklxkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Islamophobic graffiti on campus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Messages such as “Kill Islam before it kills you” and “Islam must die” were sprayed on some of the university’s most prominent buildings. Some people I spoke to dismissed the graffiti out of hand on the basis that it was perpetrated by those from outside the university. Given that similar graffiti <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/university-birmingham-racist-graffiti-attack-8858769">continued</a> to be found inside buildings and toilets, such dismissals may have been as optimistic as they were premature. The university reported the graffiti to the West Midlands Police, who told The Conversation that there had been no subsequent arrests and that the investigation was closed, pending any new information. </p>
<p>As one <a href="http://www.redbrick.me/comment/who-will-apologise-for-anti-muslim-attacks/">Muslim student at the university responded</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a Muslim student at the University of Birmingham and a born-and-bred Brummie, am I surprised by these attacks on my community? The short answer: No.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.redbrick.me/comment/comment-feature/islamophobia-the-new-norm-on-campus/">Another wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s normal now. But then you can’t ignore it … Every time you come back on to campus, you’re reminded of it … it’s that nagging thought in the back of your head that keeps coming back … do I belong here? </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Futile but damaging</h2>
<p>As social and urban geographer Arshad Isakjee puts it, <a href="https://theconversation.com/david-cameron-has-passed-the-buck-with-extremism-speech-43564">approaches to “spot” radicalisation have to date been entirely futile</a>. In spite of the fact that the “tell-tale signs” continue to appear obvious to politicians, they remain elusive to the rest of us. </p>
<p>However, it is the impact of the even greater scrutiny of Muslim students that is most worrying. Given the current situation, the mere perception that Muslim students will now be subjected to even more monitoring and scrutiny – irrespective of the reality – will present even more barriers to Muslims being just “ordinary” students. </p>
<p>And if so, this will have the potential to reinforce the very basis of those extremist narratives that the new duties have been introduced to tackle: that “Islam” and “the West” can never coexist. If, as I predict, Muslims students feel increasingly pressurised, marginalised and excluded as a result of these new duties, then the law is likely to reinforce rather than counter the very same arguments that are used to justify the transition towards being radical and extreme.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Allen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Extra attention from university staff could make it hard to reconcile being publicly Muslim with being an ‘ordinary’ student.Chris Allen, Lecturer in Social Policy, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/392582015-03-25T06:32:00Z2015-03-25T06:32:00ZTheresa May’s hidden British value – monolingualism<p>In a recent speech outlining Britain’s anti-extremism strategy entitled <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-stronger-britain-built-on-our-values">A Stronger Britain, Built On Our Values</a>, the home secretary, Theresa May, identified five “British values” that “are the means by which we have made our multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious society succeed”. </p>
<p>It is telling that nowhere in the speech did she acknowledge that Britain is, always has been and is likely to remain a multilingual society. </p>
<p>May returned to a well-rehearsed trope for politicians from across the political spectrum that to be British is to speak English. She now joins former Labour home secretary <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/15/race.thinktanks">David Blunkett</a> – who famously equated not speaking English at home with “the schizophrenia which bedevils generational relationships” – in putting language at the centre of the debate about the role of language in modern Britain.</p>
<p>Announcing a “step-change in the way we help people to learn the English language” she (re)announced “penalties” for people who did not learn English – a reference to the chancellor George Osborne’s announcement of benefits cuts for those same people in the <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/george-osborne-spending-review-cuts">2013 spending review</a>. She also announced a “sharp reduction in funding for translation services”, and a “significant increase in the funding available for English language training”.</p>
<h2>Demonising translation</h2>
<p>Much has been made of the cost of translation and interpreting services provided by local authorities. In 2013, the communities secretary, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9924577/Stop-wasting-millions-translating-leaflets-into-foreign-languages-Eric-Pickles-tells-councils.html">Eric Pickles</a>, lambasted such services as “a very expensive and poor use of taxpayers’ money”. Some right-leaning newspapers, such as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10080870/Police-spend-40-million-on-translators-in-just-three-years.html">The Telegraph</a> and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2904814/Shock-figures-reveal-huge-sums-spent-translators-police-councils-hospitals.html">The Daily Mail</a> have carried sensational stories detailing particularly egregious-sounding tales from a Bangladeshi interpreter being paid £126 for ten minutes of work in a hospital or a police force spending almost £7m on “mostly Romanian” crime suspects. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75812/original/image-20150324-17678-et1sl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75812/original/image-20150324-17678-et1sl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75812/original/image-20150324-17678-et1sl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75812/original/image-20150324-17678-et1sl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75812/original/image-20150324-17678-et1sl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75812/original/image-20150324-17678-et1sl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75812/original/image-20150324-17678-et1sl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Speaking one lanugage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Man Great Britain tongue via Vepar5/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s worth thinking about this spending in the context of May’s emphasis in her speech on those core British values of “the rule of law”, “participation”, “equality” and “respect for minorities”.</p>
<p>One of Pickles’s spendthrift targets was Labour-controlled Southwark – and, in response to his swingeing attack, <a href="http://www.24dash.com/news/central_government/2013-03-14-Council-fights-back-against-Pickles-translation-cost-criticisms">Richard Livingstone</a>, a member of the finance committee, hit back pointing out that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sixty-nine percent of our translation costs go on social services, particularly in relation to safeguarding vulnerable people … If a social worker needs to communicate with a mother over the safety of her child, that social worker can’t say ‘go away and learn English and I’ll come back in six months’. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Inherent hypocrisy</h2>
<p>So it would be hypocritical to really claim “regard for the rule of law” as a core British value and then allow defendants to take part in a process they do not understand. Let alone support non-English speaking victims of crime seeking justice in our courts.</p>
<p>David Jones, a GP, has argued that translation services are a good use of money. Writing back in 2007 in the <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/334/7590/399">British Medical Journal</a> he argued: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my practice in Tottenham, a deprived inner-city area of London with a diverse population of new migrants to the UK, like all GPs, I often care for three generations. It seems completely unrealistic to expect, for example, a 76-year-old Somali woman, often with no previous formal education, to attend English classes and acquire English. Such patients, who may expect to live for 20 years, will always need an interpreter. Her daughter struggles a bit, and we often use an interpreter, usually via the telephone. Her granddaughter, aged 10, is of course effortlessly bilingual. We need to take a long view sometimes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His point about which groups of people are accessing translation services is well made. It is largely older, poorer, less educated women who often have little experience of English who depend on these services. Studies from the US have shown that patients with limited English are <a href="http://www.aipfcc.org.au/articles/adverse%20events%20and%20language%20competency%20in%20US.pdf">more likely to suffer physical harm</a> from adverse clinical interventions. According to Zurich-based health researcher <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HFw8gdmnqXQC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=Alexander+Bischoff+%E2%80%98Do+language+barriers+increase+inequalities&source=bl&ots=1GhrsNi04W&sig=iLq9dneZ6c1EojgKslHcYW6147k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oqMQVdqKFsLgaPnvgtgP&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Alexander%20Bischoff%20%E2%80%98Do%20language%20barriers%20increase%20inequalities&f=false">Alexander Bischoff</a>: “foreign-language patients who have access to professional interpreters have improved outcomes, for example, less hospitalisation, better chronic disease outcomes, and lower health care costs.” </p>
<h2>Desire to learn English</h2>
<p>By emphasising that immigrants should learn English so that translation services aren’t actually required in the first place, May is pushing at a wide open door: the vast majority of immigrants are very keen to learn English as quickly as possible. This can be seen in the success of government-funded adult English classes. </p>
<p>So great was the demand in the eight years between 2001-2 and 2008-9 that the Labour government had to treble spending on English for Speakers of Other Languages courses to £300m over that period. And in 2005 they took the decision to start charging anyone who wasn’t on Employment and Support Allowance or Jobseeker’s Allowance benefits. In this context, Osborne’s threat of: “If you’re not prepared to learn English, your benefits will be cut” sounded as hollow in 2013 as Theresa May’s rehash of it does now. </p>
<p>Costs of classes vary depending what’s on offer, but an intensive one-year course of 15 hours a week could easily cost more than £1 000. According to <a href="http://www.natecla.org.uk/content/485/Campaigns-">National Association for Teaching English and Community Languages</a>, funding cuts since 2011 have resulted in a 42% drop in the number of migrants able to access an English language course in the UK, down from 82,900 in 2012-13 to 48,300 this academic year. And a survey in May 2014 suggested providers had waiting lists of up 1,000 potential student, meaning that many of those desperate to learn English are being turned away. </p>
<p>Perhaps the real issue at the heart of May’s latest intervention is the unease our politicians and some of our media seem to have with the multilingual society we inhabit and its conflation with the problem of extremism. We can’t claim to respect minorities if we don’t respect their right to use their own language. </p>
<hr>
<p>Next read: <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-spectre-of-british-values-and-education-policy-39102">The spectre of ‘British values’ and education policy</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39258/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Monaghan is affiliated with NALDIC, the UK's professional association for people working with learners of English as an additional language in UK schools.</span></em></p>As part of an anti-extremism strategy, the home secretary says funds for translation services will be cut, but more put into English lessons.Frank Monaghan, Senior Lecturer in Education and Language Studies, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/391022015-03-20T16:16:48Z2015-03-20T16:16:48ZThe spectre of ‘British values’ and education policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75502/original/image-20150320-14639-147pfmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teaching children to uphold British values is at the head of parties' agenda.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Boy with Union Jack cap via Funny Solution Studio/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">Trojan Horse affair</a> in Birmingham schools last year has left an indelible mark on the education system and the ensuing debate on the need for schools to uphold “British values” has infused parties’ proposals for education. This is despite a <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/473/47302.htm">final report</a> into the affair by the House of Commons education committee which concluded that apart from one incident, no evidence of extremism or radicalisation was found in any of the schools involved and there was “no evidence of a sustained plot”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published">Guidelines for schools</a> on embedding British values were introduced in November 2014 and were designed to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Tighten up the standards on pupil welfare to improve safeguarding and on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils to strengthen the barriers to extremism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These guidelines were also an attempt to shore up a national identity at a time of increasing threats from fundamentalism. But the move has caused anger in religious schools such as St Benedict’s Catholic Secondary School in Bury St Edmunds, which <a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/02/03/catholic-school-downgraded-by-ofsted-named-one-of-the-best-in-britain/">was downgraded</a> by the schools’ inspectorate Ofsted last year for failing to prepare students for life in modern Britain.</p>
<h2>Conservative backlash</h2>
<p>The whole idea of British values may have been conceived by the former Conservative secretary of state for education, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/20/what-do-michael-goves-new-rules-on-british-values-mean-for-schools">Michael Gove</a>, but feelings in his party on the issue are running high. Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, <a href="http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tory-mp-attacks-ofsted-inspections-8864568">recently argued in the House of Commons</a> that Ofsted was waging a war against faith schools with the policy, citing the recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/25/durham-free-school-to-close-education-secretary">announcement to close</a> the Christian-ethos Durham Free School. </p>
<p>This tension between nationalism and faith places the Conservatives in an uncomfortable position. Although the party has declared its intention to <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31791485">forge ahead with the expansion</a> of its academy and free schools programmes (many of which will presumably be faith-based), it has vacillated in its support of Ofsted in a number of areas, including the policing of British values. </p>
<p>The Conservatives have been seemingly content to use the inspection system to drive their academy and free school programme, by enjoining schools judged to be weak to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/feb/11/schools-resisting-academy-status-forced-conversion">become academies</a>, yet also reluctant to allow it to perform thorough inspections of academy chains. Recent developments have moved the inspectorate a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30952906">little closer to doing this</a>, but Ofsted still has to stop <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11179995/Nicky-Morgan-clashes-with-Ofsted-chief-over-academies.html">short of offering an actual judgement</a> on the overall performance of multi-academy trusts. </p>
<h2>Diverging views</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, UKIP has specifically mentioned British values in its proposals for education, <a href="http://www.ukip.org/policies_for_people">stating</a>: “UKIP supports the principle of free schools that are open to the whole community and uphold British values.” This infers that those schools found to be lacking in this area would not be supported. UKIP also states that parents and governors would have the power to trigger snap inspections, potentially exacerbating Ofsted’s already contentious role in this issue. </p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/12/school-inspections-political-meddling-gove-ofsted">Labour’s Tristram Hunt</a>, writing in The Observer, described British values as a ministerial fad and announced Labour’s intention to reform and de-politicise Ofsted. </p>
<p>The Liberal Democrats have spoken out on a number of occasions about their concern in labelling values as specifically British. In an interview last June with The Independent, its leader <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-clegg-teaching-british-values-in-schools-could-upset-moderate-muslims-9552742.html">Nick Clegg</a> expressed concern that imposing British values in schools could alienate moderate Muslims. But since then the whole issue surrounding British values has not been confined to those holding Muslim beliefs but has been the subject of heated discussion <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11292905/Catholics-demand-apology-after-Ofsted-makes-unsubstantiated-extremism-claim-against-school.html">within a number of other faith groups too.</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ed.html">The Green Party</a> talks in terms of human values rather than British ones but firmly declares that, “no publicly funded schools shall be run by a religious organisation” and that “privately run schools run by religious organisations must reflect the inclusive nature of British society.” It also states that faith schools will not be allowed to opt out of equality and diversity legislation, nor will they be allowed to promote homophobia or transphobia on the grounds of religion. </p>
<p>The Greens are also proposing that Ofsted be dismantled and replaced by a local system of accountability shared between each local authority and a new National Council of Educational Excellence. <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2015/02/16/scrap-ofsted-and-the-national-curriculum-says-green-party.aspx">Speaking to the TES</a> in February, Green leader Natalie Bennett argued that Ofsted has become very damaging and that parachuting inspectors in every few years was not an appropriate form of accountability.</p>
<h2>Governance issues</h2>
<p>It is somewhat ironic that the incident that initiated the whole issue around British values and their promotion in education is not only widely viewed as a hoax, but also rooted not in extremism but in <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/473/47302.htm">inadequate governance and oversight</a>. </p>
<p>Debates around incorporation of the policing of British values into the inspection schedule, Ofsted’s heavy-handed approach in policing them and the conflation of the whole idea of British values with the fight against extremism, are not going to disappear overnight. Nor are the accusations that what began as a failure of governance in 21 Birmingham schools has since been used to downgrade and close many others. </p>
<p>In considering any future policies on accountability and oversight, the next government will have to think very carefully about what is to be done with the spectre of British values or wake up with a severe post-election hangover from the last administration’s policies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham schools last year has left an indelible mark on the education system and the ensuing debate on the need for schools to uphold “British values” has infused parties…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369192015-01-30T06:23:55Z2015-01-30T06:23:55ZNicky Morgan’s pursuit of knowledge is diluted by the obsession with ‘British values’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70483/original/image-20150129-22311-f5jln4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do you 'dare to know?'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/15975711972/sizes/l">Prime Minister's Office</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Those who have agitated for subject knowledge, rather than skills, to be the focus of the national curriculum, may have been pleased to hear the secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, following in her predecessor Michael Gove’s footsteps in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-why-knowledge-matters">a recent speech</a> at the think tank <a href="http://www.politeia.co.uk/">Politeia</a>. </p>
<p>Morgan said that the government’s education reforms have at their heart “a determination to place knowledge back at the core of what pupils learn in school” over the previously prioritised “development of skills”. She said that “it’s impossible for young people to gain the skills and attributes that we all prize, without the knowledge base to put those skills into action”. She went on to argue: “A rich corpus of knowledge should be the equal right of every child.” </p>
<p>Some may question her commitment to that, as the head of a department that just last year announced it <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28108153">was dropping the knowledge-rich</a> International GCSEs – IGCSEs – from its league tables, effectively leaving them as a resource for independent schools. That move <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31023685">has now caused anger</a> at those independent schools who appear to have slipped down league tables as a result. </p>
<h2>Winning the argument for knowledge</h2>
<p>It’s true that the new national curriculum has more knowledge in it, put in by people committed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-subject-of-subjects-27035">subject-based education</a> – where teachers are experts in their subjects and use this as the bedrock of their teaching, rather than focusing on children’s soft skills. </p>
<p>Morgan may also have been thinking about <a href="http://www.pimlicoacademy.org/">Pimlico Academy</a>, the <a href="http://www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/">West London Free School</a> and the <a href="http://eastlondonscienceschool.co.uk/">East London Science School</a> – all excellent examples of knowledge-based schools. </p>
<p>The problem is you can’t just say that knowledge is important. You have to win the argument for knowledge. Morgan fails to do that because she is still thinking about knowledge in a way that those who “prized the development of skills” such as the New Labour government always did. That administration was obsessed with <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/skills-and-new-labour-inside-education-policymaking/2011549.fullarticle">skills policies</a>.</p>
<p>She thinks about knowledge as instrumental – as important for some other reason, such as trying to create greater social mobility. Yet knowledge doesn’t “matter” in the way she presents the case for it. Knowledge is an end in itself.</p>
<h2>Not part of a social engineering project</h2>
<p>I would argue that knowledge is not something we value, it is a value. It also carries with it a range of other epistemological values including freedom of speech, honesty, consistency, and the constant questioning of assumptions that are the foundation of knowledge. These are not external values imposed from the outside, but are values internal to the pursuit of knowledge. These values do not have to be taught separately. They are integral to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.</p>
<p>You can’t win the argument for knowledge if, like Morgan and many others who formally support a knowledge-based curriculum, you support it because it will do some social engineering in the name of “fairness and social justice”. Morgan is capitulating to the skills argument by saying we will get the skills we need if children have knowledge. </p>
<p>She wants to help the disadvantaged and underachieving by giving them knowledge. In this way, she hopes to increase social mobility. She wants to produce well-rounded children, <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-build-childrens-character-leave-self-esteem-out-of-it-35506">develop character</a> and support what she considers to be the core “British values” of “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, tolerance and respect”. Even “freedom of speech” gets a mention as a “British value” at the end of her speech. </p>
<h2>Moral leadership?</h2>
<p>The authoritarian tone is clearly there – no school will be exempt from imposing whatever the <a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-over-national-values-is-a-threat-to-the-education-system-34635">government determines is a “British” value</a>. In this speech Morgan moves from a defence of knowledge to the imposition of values in order to regain “moral” leadership.</p>
<p>The argument about what constitute “British values” is already turning into a bitter and confusing one. Morgan needn’t have gotten into it if she really understood what knowledge is: a universal value that has been the basis of all great cultures. In ancient Greece, Islamic countries at their highest point, and in Enlightenment Europe, the desire for knowledge was the over-riding value. </p>
<p>The philosopher Immanuel Kant said the motto of the Enlightenment was “<em>Sapere aude</em> – Dare to know!” and he started his famous essay “<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html">What is Enlightenment?</a>” with this powerful statement: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers and pupils do not need government guidance about how to live – they need a real commitment to knowledge. All of the other social engineering initiatives, especially the requirement to teach “British values” will be counter-productive and will take away the emphasis on knowledge.</p>
<p>If Morgan really wanted to undo the infantilisation of the teaching profession and ensure that a knowledge-based curriculum was possible for every pupil, she should adopt Kant’s motto and simply say to them: “Dare to know!”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Those who have agitated for subject knowledge, rather than skills, to be the focus of the national curriculum, may have been pleased to hear the secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, following…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355832014-12-31T08:56:01Z2014-12-31T08:56:01ZTrojan Horse ‘plot’ exposed a fragmented education system<p>Any review of 2014 in education must examine a Trojan Horse bearing “British values”. The scandal that broke in April centred on the investigation of 21 Birmingham schools suspected of being involved in a plot to “<a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100268346/trojan-horse-schools-the-leaked-inspectors-report/">Islamise</a>” their children’s education. It was followed in November by <a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-over-national-values-is-a-threat-to-the-education-system-34635">the inspection</a> of seven schools in Tower Hamlets, which were also held to be at risk of Islamic radicalisation. </p>
<p>The inspections and investigations in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets did not uncover widespread extremism or radicalisation in schools, although they did find failures of governance and in some cases a reluctance to promote the rather ill-defined notion <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">of British values</a>. The fallout from the investigations, after which a number of schools were put into “special measures” has revealed how increasingly fragmented the school landscape in England is in the run-up to the general election in 2015. </p>
<h2>Limitations of autonomy</h2>
<p>The supposed Trojan Horse “plot” has been examined extensively in relation to its implications for <a href="http://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">Ofsted</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-schools-have-been-pushed-to-front-in-preventing-extremism-34513">schools’ role in preventing terrorism</a> and <a href="http://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-snap-school-inspections-will-not-solve-wider-governance-issues-27824">school governance</a>. </p>
<p>In the recently published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-annual-report-201314-published">Annual Ofsted Report 2013-14</a>, the West Midlands regional report states that in several of the 21 schools inspected in Birmingham, children are “being badly prepared for life in modern Britain”. It concludes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The issues identified in Birmingham remain a significant concern. These inspections have called into question the nature and extent of the accountabilities associated with the high levels of autonomy currently enjoyed by academies. They also raise concerns about the effectiveness of the local authority to hold schools and governing bodies to account.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The final sentence is revealing. The concerns about the effectiveness of Birmingham as a local authority mask the fact that since 2010 local authorities’ capacity to hold schools and governing bodies to account has been severely curtailed – precisely because academies have been given such autonomy.</p>
<p>One of the priorities outlined in the 2010 Schools White Paper, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-importance-of-teaching-the-schools-white-paper-2010">The Importance of Teaching</a>, published by the Coalition was to create a “self-improving system”. Central to this ambition was the rapid expansion of the academies programme. </p>
<p>There were 203 academies in England in 2010. There are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development">4,344 today</a>. Both academies and free schools, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-open-schools-and-successful-applications">252 of which have opened</a> since 2010, are independent of local authority control and directly accountable to the secretary of state for education. Coupled with extensive public sector funding cuts, the result has been a drastic reduction in both local authority capacity and local oversight of schools. </p>
<h2>Where the blame gets laid</h2>
<p>As a result, we have an increasingly complex and fragmented school landscape, in which new <a href="https://theconversation.com/failing-academy-chains-highlight-hole-at-heart-of-education-policy-23954">“middle-tier” structures</a> and organisations, such as academy chains and teaching school alliances, have emerged to fill the vacuum between local schools and the Department for Education. Many of these may work well, but when things appear to go wrong, as in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets, the focus of national government, Ofsted and the media remains on the local authority, rather than on <a href="https://theconversation.com/pupils-at-academy-chains-being-failed-by-inspection-loophole-31584">academy chains, which are rather more difficult to hold to account</a>.</p>
<p>Six of the Birmingham schools and all those in Tower Hamlets were put into special measures after the inspections. But only one of the schools in each place is maintained by local authorities – the remaining schools in Birmingham are academies and independent Muslim schools in Tower Hamlets, outside of local authority control.</p>
<p>Considerable work is now needed to rebuild trust in both local schools and national government in these communities. Analaysis by <a href="https://birminghamcase.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/the-trojan-horse-affair-and-its-consequences-a-response-from-birmingham-case/">Birmingham Campaign for State Education</a> has shown that this has been made more difficult in Birmingham by the fact that many of the recommendations of the <a href="http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/trojanhorsereview">independent review</a> Birmingham City Council commissioned into the affair cannot be implemented because it has no authority over academies. As <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/17/trojan-horse-affair-five-lessons-help-schools">Tim Brighouse</a>, former chief education officer in Birmingham, emphasised in June:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So great have been the recent cuts in local authority expenditure that Birmingham and many other local authorities have neither the resources nor sufficient senior and experienced staff to carry out their role effectively. Worse, the arrival of academies and free schools has created an open season for lay people and professionals keen to pursue their own eccentric ideas about schooling.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is not uncommon. A recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325816/DFE-RR359.pdf">“temperature check”</a> of local authorities revealed that they have had some success overcoming funding and staffing cuts in education by brokering local partnerships to support school improvement and planning for fluctuations in the number of school spaces needed. But authorities were rather less advanced in other key areas, such as supporting vulnerable children. The point is not that local authorities have always been highly effective, but that in the absence of other local structures, they should not be held accountable when they no longer have the power or capacity to act.</p>
<h2>Political positioning</h2>
<p>What does this mean for the future? As we move towards an increasingly uncertain election in 2015, Conservative party policy seems to promise more of the same for the increasingly fragmented middle tier. The current secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-about-our-plan-for-education">spoken recently of her commitment</a> to the “self-improving, school-led system”, characterised by bottom-up innovations coming from “networks of schools and teachers collaborating with one another to drive up standards”. As the Trojan horse incidents underline, rhetoric about localism continues to mask the increasing centralisation of power. </p>
<p>Labour’s recent policy document, <a href="http://www.yourbritain.org.uk/agenda-2015/policy-commissions/education-and-children-policy-commission/education-and-children-policy-consultation">Education and Children</a>, takes the fragmented schools system as a starting point to emphasise the need for “strong local accountability”. But while it advocates incentives for effective partnerships between schools, there is no indication of how the multi-layered local levels of trust necessary to support effective school-to-school collaboration will be created. Nor how the academies programme, to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/best-schools-would-still-be-able-to-convert-to-academies-under-labour-says-tristram-hunt-9802257.html">which Labour remains committed</a>, will be overseen.</p>
<p>Add into the mix the unpredictability of smaller parties’ influence if the outcome of the election is inconclusive, and the future looks just as uncertain and fragmented as today. Without locally accountable structures to support and challenge schools, moral panics, like those we have seen in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets in 2014, are likely to recur.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>To read more of The Conversation’s coverage on the Trojan Horse affair from 2014, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/trojan-horse">click here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Jopling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Any review of 2014 in education must examine a Trojan Horse bearing “British values”. The scandal that broke in April centred on the investigation of 21 Birmingham schools suspected of being involved in…Michael Jopling, Professor in Education, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/346352014-11-25T15:49:03Z2014-11-25T15:49:03ZDebate over national values is a threat to the education system<p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/21/ofsted-muslim-schools-london-closure-threat">results of seven school inspections</a> in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets have brought a fresh wave of allegations that some schools are not providing a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils, who may be vulnerable to radicalisation. A <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-her-majestys-chief-inspector-sir-michael-wilshaw-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt-hon">memorandum on the inspections</a> sent by Ofsted’s chief inspector of schools Michael Wilshaw to the education secretary Nicky Morgan has upped the ante in debates that conflate conservative religious values with the risk of radicalisation and extremism. </p>
<p>In six independent schools that were visited in the borough, inspectors found serious concerns over the safeguarding and welfare of pupils, lack of provision of a broad and balanced curriculum and issues around leadership, management and teaching. </p>
<p>Four of the <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-her-majestys-chief-inspector-sir-michael-wilshaw-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt-hon">six independent Muslim schools have been judged</a> inadequate, with two failing to meet independent school standards. The only <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/20/church-england-school-john-cass-ofsted-downgraded-extremism">maintained school involved in the recent inspections</a>, Sir John Cass in Stepney, was also downgraded by Ofsted from outstanding to inadequate. This followed concerns about segregation between boys and girls in school areas and insufficient guidance on “the dangers associated with using the internet, particularly in relation to extremist views”. </p>
<h2>The ‘British values’ minefield</h2>
<p>Kenny Frederick, a former school leader in Tower Hamlets, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/20/church-england-school-john-cass-ofsted-downgraded-extremism">articulated concerns</a> that resonate with those also voiced <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/14/jewish-schools-complain-ofsted-inspections">in Jewish communities</a> that have been subject to similar inspections. Frederick said that putting a school in special measures “will only be negative” for a school and its community. “People will feel resentful. All we are going to do is alienate. If I was one of the kids, it would not be doing anything for my British values.” </p>
<p>The whole area surrounding “British values”, schools and religion has been thrown into confusion since the <a href="http://www.insted.co.uk/trojan-horse.pdf">Birmingham “Trojan Horse” affair</a> over allegations of a takeover of school board by hardline Muslim governors. The Muslim community is not unique in stating that the subsequent introduction of a responsibility for schools to promote “British values” and the apparent conflation of religious conservatism with extremism by both government and media is riddled with ideological and political complexities.</p>
<p>For example, Nigel Genders, <a href="http://www.christian.org.uk/news/c-of-e-new-school-standards-are-dangerous-and-divisive/">speaking on behalf of the Church of England</a>, raised serious concerns during the recent consultation into the Proposed New Independent Schools Standards in July. <a href="https://staging.churchofengland.org/media/2112859/140730independentschoolsbritishvaluesconsultationcofe.pdf">His response </a>agreed that: “There is a legitimate exploration to be undertaken of values in the context of our distinctive national culture, literature, legal and political systems.” But he added that “many of those values cannot be defined as uniquely British”. He continued by highlighting the church’s concerns that the “British values should emanate from a broad public conversation,not from the secretary of state”.</p>
<h2>Schools and culture</h2>
<p>The apparent appropriation of values by the state is a worrying trend. More worrying still is how Ofsted is being used to police these values – particularly as they have yet to be fully defined. A recent Ofsted report following a snap inspection at the <a href="http://www.st-benedicts.suffolk.sch.uk/">St Benedict’s Catholic secondary school</a> in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, claimed that younger pupils “show less awareness of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation”.</p>
<p>The report, which was withdrawn very soon after its publication, went on to question whether the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/14/ofsted-british-values-suffolk-school-bury-st-edmunds">school prepared pupils “for life and work in modern Britain</a>”. It was apparently withdrawn due to concerns around quality – a little too late for those who had already seen the <a href="http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/news/local/latest-news/breaking-ofsted-tells-bury-st-edmunds-school-to-withdraw-shock-report-1-6337061">report posted on the schools website</a>.</p>
<h2>The new values police</h2>
<p>The present guidance given to inspectors on how to spot a “British value” is scant to say the least. The 2014 revised <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook">school inspection handbook</a> contains four references to values which link to curriculum and safeguarding, the most specific of which are articulated in terms of the social development of pupils. </p>
<p>School governors are also instrumental in the whole area of values. The extent to which they are expected to define and be conversant with values at every level of school life is outlined in detail on the <a href="http://www.nga.org.uk/Home.aspx">National Governors Association website</a>. But the question of how all of these areas will be effectively investigated by the inspectorate and then translated into a tangible threat of radicalisation and extremism remains a very grey area indeed.</p>
<p>Again the issue of British values is making life difficult for governors, as <a href="https://governingmatters.wordpress.com/">Naureen Khalid</a>, school governor and co-founder of @ukgovchat told me. She said: “I personally think in terms of human values. As long as my school promotes these, I’m happy.”</p>
<p>As director of the Universities’ Police Science Institute in Cardiff, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-schools-have-been-pushed-to-front-in-preventing-extremism-34513">Martin Innes points out</a> that there is a distinct lack of knowledge – not only around what works in preventing extremism, but equally how we can effectively identify real triggers. He also brings home the dangers of branding schools and their communities with extremist labels, quoting the steady decline in Muslims between the ages of 16 and 24 who feel that police treat them fairly.</p>
<h2>Trust eroding</h2>
<p>The announcement by the home secretary, Teresa May, on the intention to include new statutory powers to prevent individuals being drawn into terrorism within the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/24/uk-terrorism-measures-campus-ban-extremists-theresa-may">Channel anti-radicalisation programme</a>, looks likely to place increasing levels of pressure on governors, school leaders and inspectors. But they are already working in communities where levels of trust in public bodies appears to be reaching an all time low.</p>
<p>Of course, it is vitally important to prevent terrorism, but the present system risks undermining hard-won community cohesion. It also risks transforming schools from being trusted institutions at the heart of their communities into organisations undermined by suspicion, doubt and a panoptecon-like scrutiny. This is more likely to give rise to the very activities that both government and inspectorate are so eager to expunge. </p>
<p>To avoid this, as the Church of England’s Genders points out, we need a public debate about the human values that form the core of our society. Until this happens, the grey area around these “British values” is open to mis-interpretation, political manipulation and false assumptions. That may well cause repercussions which could fundamentally undermine our system of education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The results of seven school inspections in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets have brought a fresh wave of allegations that some schools are not providing a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/322392014-10-15T05:24:13Z2014-10-15T05:24:13ZHow Muslim faith schools are teaching tolerance and respect through ‘Islamicised’ curriculum<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/shadow-of-extremism-scandal-lingers-as-birmingham-goes-back-to-school-31028">Trojan Horse extremism affair</a> that hit a group of Birmingham schools this summer and the ongoing <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/extremism-in-schools-3/">inquiries</a> into it, have raised suspicions <a href="https://theconversation.com/shadow-of-extremism-scandal-lingers-as-birmingham-goes-back-to-school-31028">among Muslim parents</a>, teachers, and pupils in the UK. News from schools inspectorate Ofsted that the action plans put in place at the five Birmingham schools deemed to be failing are still <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29613448">“not fit for purpose”</a> could raise tensions further. </p>
<p>Peter Clarke, the former head of counter terrorism who was drafted in to investigate the allegations in Birmingham, concluded in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">his final report</a> that several concerning practices were going on in certain schools, such as the harassment of teachers and bullying of headteachers to impose what is considered as Islamic extremism. He has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11157116/Trojan-Horse-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg.html">recently spoken out to claim</a> that what he found was “just the tip of the iceberg”. </p>
<p>I condemn these practices. Yet I have criticisms of Clarke’s report, stemming from <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-8972-1_34">my body of research</a> on Muslim faith schools in the UK which focused on how these schools socialise Muslim pupils and, in doing so, how such schools “Islamicise” the British national curriculum. </p>
<p>Contrary to Clarke’s report – which helped spark the introduction of new rules on the teaching of <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">British values</a> – the Islamicised curriculum I observed in action is aimed at promoting an alignment between national education goals and Muslim belief.</p>
<h2>Teaching at Muslim faith schools</h2>
<p>My research has been primarily based on independent Muslim faith schools, which teach the national curriculum in addition to Islamic subjects, whereas the schools reported to be affected in the Trojan Horse affair were primarily state-funded and secular. </p>
<p>The school where I conducted my main ethnographic study – which is not named due to the ethical and confidential nature of my research and was not in Birmingham – used the national curriculum, and an Islamic and “Islamicised” curricula. </p>
<p>In this particular school, the national curriculum covered 80% of the school’s total teaching. The rest of the teaching was based on the Islamic curriculum and comprised the teaching of Arabic, <em>tajweed</em> (Qur’anic recitation and memorisation), Islamic studies and some <em>Ibadah</em> (worship) sessions. This comprised two and a half hours of teaching per day, accommodated by an extended school day.</p>
<h2>Islamicised curriculum</h2>
<p>An Islamicised curriculum was embedded in the overall teaching at the school. It was apparent in the ways in which teachers tried to blend Islamic education with some aspects of the national curriculum, and in the “Islamic ethos” of the school. </p>
<p>The teachers “Islamicised” lessons to bring in an Islamic interpretation of the topics taught in the national curriculum. For example, while teaching reproduction in a science lesson, one teacher discussed references to embryology in the Qur’an. She cited several verses from the Qur'an – surah 39, verse 6, surah 23 verse 13, 14 – that explained the process of development of an embryo.</p>
<p>I also came across cases where differences exist between Islamic and national curriculum perspectives, for example evolution and creationism. Teachers taught such topics by discussing the contrasting perspectives and expected students to reflect on both. </p>
<p>Prayers were compulsory. The school building was covered with Islamic displays and Muslim women did not shake hands with men. Talks in the assemblies strengthened messages of general Muslim brotherhood, in the context of extending support to those in war or crisis-stricken countries.</p>
<p>Of course, the above practices are not expected to take place to this level in non-faith schools and I condemn that they were imposed by force in some state schools which have a non-faith character in Birmingham. </p>
<h2>Not just ‘hardline Sunnis’</h2>
<p>The Islamicisation of the curriculum in any school is a complex phenomenon. I did not come across a single understanding of what “Islamising” or “Islamicising” a curriculum meant, with opinion varying across schools and even between parents, pupils and teachers within the same schools. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, in his report Clarke considers many aspects of this Islamicisation as stemming from one “hardline strand of Sunni Islam”. His inquiry lacked some basic understanding of Islam and could have benefitted from including a representative with more knowledge of the faith. Many of the practices that he regards as conservative strands of Sunni Islam are widely accepted and practiced in most Islamic schools of thought – Sunni or non-Sunni – and are seen as necessary to maintain the Islamic values of tolerance and respect. </p>
<p>Muslim women are not expected to shake hands with men in Shia strands either. The segregation of boys and girls in swimming lessons is not only a preference of Sunnis but is actually a provision in most (non-Muslim) faith schools and many secular schools as well. Sex and relationship education has been an issue for most, if not all Muslim parents, both conservative and non-conservative. </p>
<h2>Dissatisfied parents</h2>
<p>My research has shown that the emergence of Muslim faith schools is a result of dissatisfaction among Muslim parents. They felt local schools would not meet their children’s educational needs or provide structures and facilities to enable them to meet their religious obligations. </p>
<p>Much research has found that Muslim children consistently <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-infidel-within/">underachieved in state schools</a>, face <a href="http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9780230005501">racism</a>, and encounter difficulties in meeting their religious obligations. </p>
<p>This concern has been reflected when Muslims in cities with a high population concentration (including Birmingham), have requested that secular state schools where Muslim children are in a majority be converted into state-funded Muslim faith schools. </p>
<p>The other route has been to set up independent Muslim schools and apply for state-funding. So far <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintained-faith-schools">only 11 Muslim faith schools</a> have been able to secure state-funding. The school where I conducted my main research applied for state funding but the request was turned down. In addition, in 2013 it was revealed that only <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/28/christian-faith-schools-islamic-hindu">one in five applications</a> to set up Muslim free schools had been approved. </p>
<p>In my view, if parents want their children to be state-educated but attend a faith school, more should be given that choice. The curriculum that I observed in a Muslim faith school does not seem to conflict with the norms of mainstream education. Instead, it presents an example of how coherence and alignment can be achieved between key national priorities in education and the identity and beliefs of Muslim groups. It clearly presents an example of an educational practice that can be used to build the values of tolerance and respect – which are very much at the centre of Sunni Islam.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sadaf Rizvi received funding for her doctoral studies from the Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva. </span></em></p>The Trojan Horse extremism affair that hit a group of Birmingham schools this summer and the ongoing inquiries into it, have raised suspicions among Muslim parents, teachers, and pupils in the UK. News…Sadaf Rizvi, Associate lecturer, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/310282014-09-01T05:09:07Z2014-09-01T05:09:07ZShadow of extremism scandal lingers as Birmingham goes back to school<p>If a week is a long time in politics, then the school summer holidays must have seemed like a lifetime the for governors, teachers, pupils and staff at the <a href="http://theconversation.com/operation-trojan-horse-examining-the-islamic-takeover-of-birmingham-schools-25764">21 schools at the centre</a> of the Trojan Horse plot in Birmingham. </p>
<p>Allegations made in an anonymous letter – now widely <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/13/alleged-islamic-plot-birmingham-schools-possible-hoax">thought to be a hoax</a> – surfaced in March of a “plot” to overthrow existing teachers and governors in non-faith state schools as a means of replacing them with “Islam-friendly” individuals prepared to run the schools in accordance with conservative Islamic principles. In response, the 21 schools were subjected to what can only be described as unprecedented levels of public and <a href="http://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">political scrutiny</a>.</p>
<p>While the summer holidays provided some respite – not least because the allegations have finally begun to disappear from the public gaze – the spectre of Trojan Horse will once more raise its ugly head as schools go back across Birmingham. The new academic year will see staff, pupils and parents beginning the process of dealing with the fallout from the allegations.</p>
<h2>Impact on parents and pupils</h2>
<p>In a handful of schools, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-snap-school-inspections-will-not-solve-wider-governance-issues-27824">Ofsted investigators</a> raised important concerns about certain aspects of school governance and five were <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/advice-note-provided-academies-and-maintained-schools-birmingham-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt">put into special measures</a>. But given that a number of governors involved have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/20/saltley-school-governors-resign-ofsted-trojan-horse">already resigned</a> or left their posts, addressing these very clear issues should be relatively unproblematic. </p>
<p>We should not overlook the fact that some of the schools concerned had been transformed from failing to <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/oldknow-academy-birmingham-schools-trojan-horse-ofsted">outstanding</a> under those same governors. Parents may be supportive of how the schools were being run, thereby raising the possibility of some being unhappy and even unwilling to support the changes required – especially if claims that <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/trojan-horse-involve-parents-future-7686181">new governors have failed to involve parents</a> are correct. Some might also point to reports that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-28878927">GCSE results at two of the schools have fallen</a> since the investigations and changes have been made. </p>
<p>There will also be concern among parents about the long-term impact on their children, some fearing that the allegations will detrimentally impact their future job and education opportunities. As the former <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/22/muslims-birmingham-schools-education-nicky-morgan">Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob</a> put it: “The impact of this stigma on a whole generation of the city’s Muslim students when applying to universities and jobs cannot be overstated.” </p>
<p>This fear of being seen to be guilty by association – of being an extremist or at least sympathetic to the goals and objectives of extremists – is a real and tangible one, something that will be as relevant to staff at the schools as the pupils.</p>
<h2>Solutions to extremism</h2>
<p>Over the space of a few months, the Trojan Horse allegations became conflated with the wider <a href="http://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">issue of tackling extremism</a>. Former prime minister Tony Blair <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10900955/Trojan-Horse-plot-driven-by-same-warped-Islamic-extremism-as-Boko-Harams-says-Tony-Blair.html">suggested</a> the allegations in Birmingham’s schools were directly linked to the kidnapping of <a href="https://theconversation.com/boko-haram-the-terror-group-that-kidnapped-200-schoolgirls-25931">200 girls by Boko Haram</a> militants in Nigeria. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">report</a> anti-terror chief Peter Clarke, brought in to investigate the allegations in Birmingham on behalf of the Department for Education, said: “I have neither specifically looked for nor found any evidence of terrorism, violent extremism or radicalisation in any of the schools we examined in detail.”</p>
<p>But that same perceived link has again raised its ugly head in relation to the <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9293762/the-british-beheaders/">growing number of British Muslims</a> going to fight in Syria and Iraq for Islamic State. </p>
<p>Focusing on the threat they might subsequently pose to Britain if and when they might decide to return, some commentators suggested that <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/484061/The-Sunday-Express-on-British-children-traffic-wardens-and-Andy-Murray">extremism in British schools</a> is a causal factor in the decision-making of those choosing to fight in the Middle East. </p>
<p>The “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11052510/We-must-give-ourselves-all-the-legal-powers-we-need-to-prevail.html">solution</a>” being posited by politicians and commentators alike to this growing challenge is extremely similar to what has been suggested in relation to solving the “problem” in Birmingham’s schools: the need to place a greater emphasis on the teaching of <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">“British values”</a> as part of the school curriculum.</p>
<h2>‘Clear message’ to British Muslims</h2>
<p>In spite of the lack of evidence of extremism in Birmingham’s schools, <a href="http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754651406">as my research has shown</a>, many in wider society believe that there is “no smoke without fire” when it comes to Muslims and Islam. So it is almost certain that many people in Britain will believe that a culture of extremism exists within Birmingham’s schools, even though there is little to substantiate such claims.</p>
<p>This has a potential impact on all Britain’s Muslims, and it will further add to the weariness that is already apparent in the Birmingham community. Many of the city’s Muslims are still reeling from the impact of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-13331161">now defunct Project Champion</a> – where more than 200 “spy” cameras were placed around two of the most densely populated Muslim areas in the city. <a href="http://etn.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/07/05/1468796813492488">Research I did with my colleague Arshad Isakjee</a> highlighted that the message from this is that Birmingham’s Muslims are a “suspect community”. </p>
<p>Trojan Horse will only reinforce this further and its shadow will be felt for some time yet. As children across the country return to school for the new academic year, many in Birmingham will be feeling just that little bit more anxious and fraught, increasingly isolated and marginalised. In doing so, the message that they do not belong – not even to the city in which they were born, grew up and continue to live – might just be the very message that the true extremists will want ordinary Muslims in Birmingham and elsewhere to hear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Allen is an independent member of the Coalition Government's Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group. He receives no remuneration for this.</span></em></p>If a week is a long time in politics, then the school summer holidays must have seemed like a lifetime the for governors, teachers, pupils and staff at the 21 schools at the centre of the Trojan Horse…Chris Allen, Lecturer in Social Policy, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/304362014-08-13T11:21:14Z2014-08-13T11:21:14ZTeaching British values to toddlers will be tough to enforce
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28700449">recent announcement</a> by the new secretary of state for education Nicky Morgan that toddlers must be taught British values is the latest in a chain of events precipitated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">Trojan Horse affair over extremism at some schools in Birmingham</a>. </p>
<p>But awareness of equality and diversity issues has been central to early years education for years now. Many early years teachers already underpin their teaching with these values –values that will now be tagged as “officially British”. The big question is how Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, will interpret and police the way these values are taught to toddlers. </p>
<p>Following on from recent changes to <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook">the School Inspection Handbook</a> – largely instigated following the Trojan Horse affair – the government has launched a consultation into changes to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/341923/Consultation_Document_-_School_and_Early_Years_Finance__England__Regulations_2014.pdf">school and early years finance regulations</a>. Crucially, this proposes that funding be withdrawn from providers that do not “actively promote fundamental British values”.</p>
<h2>Going over old ground?</h2>
<p>But experts argue that the definition of these values – learning right from wrong, to take turns and sharing – are values that have been fundamental to early years provision for a considerable amount of time. This position was emphasised by Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1145873/nurseries-teach-children-british-values-lose-funding">in a recent interview</a> on the proposed changes.</p>
<p>This view is also supported by Sue Griffin, former national training manager for the National Childminding Association and author of <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Inclusion_Equality_and_Diversity_in_Work.html?id=aykijn1O6KoC">Inclusion, Equality and Diversity in working with children</a>. She told me, “Early years settings have a lot to teach the education sector and right wing politicians about addressing inclusion, equality and diversity, since practitioners with our youngest children have been exploring these issues for decades.”</p>
<p>She went on to emphasise the need for practitioners “to keep their nerve and carry on in the confidence that they are thinking seriously about practical ways of helping children to develop unprejudiced views and learn to respect and value one another, whatever their differences in ethnicity, culture, family background.”</p>
<h2>What are British values?</h2>
<p>There is little dispute around the actual values being advocated by government, but the insertion of the word British and its apparent annexation of these values is, for many, deeply disturbing. </p>
<p>The term British on its own is difficult to define. There is no single definition of what it means to be British as historian Paul Ward points out in his book on <a href="http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/abs/10.4324/9780203494721?isOnline=false">Britishness since 1870</a>. He highlights the fact that Britishness is not innate, static or permanent and has been mediated by many identities, not least race, colour, gender and class. </p>
<p>If we can’t define British, then British values are even more nebulous to pin down as educationalist <a href="http://www.gusjohn.com/">Gus John describes</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>David Cameron and people like me see the world through different eyes. We see our combined history through different lenses and therefore I have a take on the legacy of Empire and what Britain should have been doing about these last 50 years that differs fundamentally from that of Mr Cameron and the roots of his ‘British values’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It seems bewildering to some professionals in this area that the government should seek to make such a provocative statement about British values. <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1145873/nurseries-teach-children-british-values-lose-funding">Liz Bayram</a>, chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years said that the existing early years curriculum “already requires nurseries and child-minders to develop key skills such as teaching children to take turns and challenge negative attitudes”.</p>
<p>She goes on to say that Ofsted already has the power to judge values under the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-the-quality-and-range-of-education-and-childcare-from-birth-to-5-years/supporting-pages/early-years-foundation-stage">Early Years Foundation Stage</a> and can already, “tackle concerns by judging a setting as requiring improvement”. Bayram calls the innovation “a big reaction to an issue that may not even be there, and that could be tackled by the inspection framework that is already in place”.</p>
<p>Creating policy on this matter is one thing but it is quite another when it comes down to putting it into operation. Asking inspectors to define what a British value is and what is not will add a very tricky element to their training. This is already <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook">overloaded with the numerous requirements</a> demanded of practising inspectors, not only in the act of inspection itself but equally in post-inspection reporting to the public. They will need to explain exactly how they came to their judgements on this issue.</p>
<p>The guidance contained in the School Inspection Handbook comes into force this September. It remains to be seen how Ofsted will deal with this latest turn in the complex business of regulating English education, and the early years sector will no doubt look on with interest. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The recent announcement by the new secretary of state for education Nicky Morgan that toddlers must be taught British values is the latest in a chain of events precipitated by the Trojan Horse affair over…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/286962014-07-08T12:01:36Z2014-07-08T12:01:36ZChristian Britain has always been imaginary – it’s time to teach children that<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53282/original/p8b2cx9r-1404810475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part of the skyline... but part of the school day too?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepaws/10657815515/sizes/l">Mikepaws</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When prime minister <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10770425/David-Cameron-says-Christians-should-be-more-evangelical.html">David Cameron said recently that</a> Britain was a “Christian country” and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, his words sparked <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/21/britain-christian-country_n_5184166.html">a furore</a>. While the idea of “Christian Britain” is largely imaginary for many, it remains entangled with the history of religious education. Such debates are now resurfacing amid a call from within the Church of England itself – by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10951894/Compulsory-Christian-school-assembly-should-be-scrapped-Church-of-England-education-chief.html">the Bishop of Oxford</a> – to abandon the law requiring Christian worship in state schools. </p>
<p>It was a Times leader of the 17 February, 1940, “Religion and National Life”, which set in train a flurry of opinion in its letters columns over the following months. It reflected a majority view that religious education (including school worship) was vital to the future spiritual health of the nation. </p>
<p>In the context of World War II, it somehow made sense to assert: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It will be of little use to fight, as we are fighting today, for the preservation of Christian principles, if Christianity itself is to have no future, or at immense cost to safeguard religion against attack from without if we allow it by neglect to be from within. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It was oft-repeated rhetoric like this which fuelled the imagination of a “Christian Britain”, and enabled <a href="http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409471202">a direct link</a> between the national cause in war, Christianity, and British identity. Soon afterwards the BBC began its long-running Religious Service for Schools, as well as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00467601003685741#.U7cmxZRdU1I">a religious epilogue to its Children’s Hour</a>. Ultimately, such rhetorical optimism led to the religious clauses of <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/pdfs/1944-education-act.pdf">the 1944 Education Act</a>, which included making collective worship in maintained schools the obligatory beginning to every school day.</p>
<h2>Post-war reality check</h2>
<p>The vision of “rechristianising” the masses through the school system soon hit against some hard realities. The resources necessary – qualified and sympathetic Christian teachers – were unavailable to plant the seed to gather the imagined harvest. Any latent <a href="http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=12936">Christian sentiment fostered by the war</a>, clerical rhetoric and National Days of Prayer, was soon dissipated by the relative comforts of peace, and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2012.761733#.U7ciz5RdU1I">the advance of secularising trends</a>. </p>
<p>By the 1960s, even leading clerics who had championed the cause of compulsory worship in wartime had to conclude that perhaps they had been too optimistic. One, the sometime bishop of Bristol, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00239706808557201?queryID=%24%7BresultBean.queryID%7D#.U7bQjbHb7Io">Frederick Cockin</a>, pointed out that though the 1944 Act had stipulated that religious worship should take place daily, it nowhere required that it be Christian. He went on, somewhat ruefully to say: “we shall do no service to the Christian position by trying to insist on a position of privilege”. </p>
<p>Even so, whatever form “worship” might take – and Cockin remained committed to its legal standing – he argued its value to the school community needed to provide the substance of the rationale for its place in the school day. Diverse perspectives of staff and students on religion also needed to be acknowledged and taken into account: Christian allegiance should not be assumed. </p>
<p>By the 1970s, it had become even clearer that educational reasons alone could provide justification for continuing with the practice of compulsory school worship. It seemed no longer justifiable to make a key aim of worship to foster Christian belief. </p>
<p>In 1975, John Hull pronounced school worship “dead” in its Christianising form, which Hull argued was “indoctrination”. Instead, in his book <a href="http://www.johnmhull.biz/School%20Worship.html">School Worship: an obituary</a>, he proposed certain reforms, effective changes of tone and emphasis. These included that “assemblies” would encourage a reflective approach to living, demonstrate democratic values, and provide an objective experience of worship, without necessarily expecting children to give cognitive assent. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2011.620013#.U7ckAJRdU1I">In an increasingly multi-faith Britain</a>, such proposals made pragmatic sense, winning widespread assent amongst educators, both Christian and not.</p>
<h2>Broadly Christian character</h2>
<p>However, the liberalising trends represented by Hull’s intervention suffered at the hands of <a href="http://scholar.qsensei.com/content/7nbff">cultural conservatives</a> embued in the politics of the Thatcher era who were concerned to preserve posited British Christian identity. The <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/40/contents">1988 Education Reform Act</a> can be read in this vein. </p>
<p>Although it relaxed the demand that the whole school meet together for the daily act of worship, it underlined that worship should be of a “broadly Christian character” (except where a school successfully appeals for exemption from doing so). This was an even more out-of-place expectation than it had been in 1944. </p>
<p>Schools and teachers have since been forced by the realities of cultural circumstance into generously and creatively interpreting the more stringent legal requirement for a mainly “Christian” worship. They often use the slot to unify the school community, nurture a school ethos, and reflect upon moral and spiritual issues, using a range of religious and non-religious resources to do so. Far from being meaningless, the majority of schools work hard to ensure that worship is significant for children.</p>
<h2>What else to worship?</h2>
<p>School worship has been made a feature of the totem that is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">British identity and values</a> debate. Fears of its erosion are implicated in a sense of loss of an imagined past. If Britain were ever Christian, it was not so in any straightforward and uncomplicated way, whether by measures of churchgoing, popular sentiment or demonstrations of civil religiosity. </p>
<p>The descriptor “Christian” at an individual level belies a plethora of motives, experiences, beliefs and loyalties. At a rhetorical level, the notion of “Christian Britain” has often been deployed to advantage certain cultural causes or to nation-build. </p>
<p>Harking back to Cockin, if Christianity does have particular historical-cultural import, should this equate to any claim for continuing special treatment in law or in education? </p>
<p>If the “Christian” requirement were to be removed, following a recent call by the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/scrap-meaningless-christian-assemblies-in-nonreligious-state-schools-say-governors-9571848.html">National Governors’ Association</a>, and now the Bishop of Oxford, what (if anything) would fill the void? What would children be required to “worship” instead? Perhaps the very thing protecting the current collective worship slot from being appropriated for alternative tub-thumping political purposes is that it remains of the character of a spiritual religious practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen G. Parker receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>When prime minister David Cameron said recently that Britain was a “Christian country” and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, his words sparked a furore. While the idea of “Christian Britain” is largely…Stephen G. Parker, Professor of the History of Religion and Education, University of WorcesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/287362014-07-03T05:05:20Z2014-07-03T05:05:20ZEnding Christian assembly: let’s open our eyes to the value of collective worship in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52897/original/yrxdkkjw-1404315975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Let us pray.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-170935139/stock-photo-open-book-in-male-hands.html?src=mY3F_kp3qjzxaGCXaibpxw-1-62">Open book by Sergey and Ekaterina/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Challenges from parents and teachers to the law requiring an act of collective worship in schools are not new. Now the National Governors’ Association has <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/scrap-meaningless-christian-assemblies-in-nonreligious-state-schools-say-governors-9571848.html">called for</a> Christian assemblies in non-religious state schools to be scrapped. </p>
<p>But while the time is ripe for a re-engagement with the law, ironically, collective worship is important to the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">debate about British values</a> in education. </p>
<p>Collective worship can be a formative learning experience for both British and global values. It can ramify across a whole school curriculum and, when accompanied by the critical intelligence promoted by good religious education, contribute hugely to moral discernment.</p>
<p>“Worship” (or worthship) is all about “attributing worth to” something. An imaginative interpretation of collective worship is an opportunity for a school to gather round and explore the deepest beliefs and values which inform the communities that feed into it. That includes exposure to stories and music, anniversaries and festivals, visual imagery and performance. These may be celebrating, regretting or rebuking, but they will all be set within the horizons of a common wealth which is Christian, and secular and multi-faith. </p>
<h2>40 years of looking for an alternative</h2>
<p>Reistance to the requirement for collective worship surfaced in 1975 in reports from the then Schools Council and John Hull’s book <a href="http://www.johnmhull.biz/School%20Worship.html">School Worship: An Obituary</a>. It was also there in discussions ahead of the 1988 Education Reform Act. But politicians were reluctant to abandon the legal requirement. This was because a minority of them believed that what happened in schools should be the same as in any local church on a Sunday. For many more politicians it was a recognition that the provision remained overwhelmingly popular according to repeated opinion polls. </p>
<p>There was a major attempt to arrive at an alternative arrangement in the mid-1990s. It <a href="http://www.cstg.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/culham_cw_reviewed.pdf">took the form of a national consultation</a> by the Inter Faith Network for the UK, the National Associations of Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs), and the Religious Education Council of England and Wales. This produced large-scale consensus, but the lack of total unanimity was enough to excuse government inaction. </p>
<p>In 2003, Charles Clarke, when he was secretary of state for education, promised that he would pick up on this once the development of a National Framework for Religious Education was completed. It <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090903160937/http:/qca.org.uk/libraryAssets/media/9817_re_national_framework_04.pdf">was in 2004</a>, but by then Clarke had been moved on to the Home Office. </p>
<p>It is time for another rethink. What sort is a different matter and it would be wise to reflect carefully on the desirable outcomes of any changes.</p>
<h2>The law as it stands</h2>
<p>Contrary to impressions conveyed in the media, the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/40/contents">current legal prescription</a>, which was introduced in 1988 and stands to this day, is both more sophisticated and more flexible than ephemeral headlines allow. It states that:</p>
<p>• <strong>Worship should be “collective” not “corporate”</strong> Corporate worship is an activity distinctive to a community of believers gathering to express their shared faith. Collective worship is an activity expressive of the religious beliefs of some but not all of those present. Arguably, the former might be appropriate in some “schools of a religious character”, such as faith schools, but certainly not in all other state-funded schools. There, collective worship is what is legally specified. </p>
<p>• <strong>“Wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”</strong>. This convoluted phrase was introduced into the 1988 Education Reform Act to indicate that Christian beliefs and values are an important part of a school’s constitution, reflecting that of the nation. It was also introduced to ensure that head teachers and governors could also have the professional discretion to be attentive to other mainstream beliefs and values. </p>
<p>“Wholly broadly Christian” expressly ruled out any denominational loadings. “Mainly” permitted just under half to attend to other beliefs and values. This ruling sits alongside the requirement that religious education teaching must include the other principal religions of the UK as well as Christianity. More than 25 years ago the same Education Act (section 8) made it illegal to ignore Muslim traditions, as well as those of other faiths. Those faiths should deservedly include that of the humanist community – a legal change now well worth considering.</p>
<p>• <strong>“Age, aptitude and family background”</strong>. The law prescribes that, in arriving at the form of collective worship appropriate to the school, the headteacher must give careful consideration to the family backgrounds of pupils and also to their age and aptitude. When this was introduced back in 1988, schools were then advised by local authorities that assemblies could be variable in composition – such as divided up by year group or class. </p>
<p>• <strong>“Conscience clause”</strong> This gives parents the right to withdraw their sons and daughters from RE and collective worship on conscience grounds. But good educational practice should make this unnecessary.</p>
<h2>Government should step up</h2>
<p>Any re-engagement with the issue of collective worship should properly involve much more than a shift in these legal wordings. One issue is the need, confirmed by the 2011 Census, to include humanist affirmations. Another is that of how to ensure that teachers and governors have the confidence and competence to work responsibly with religious diversity.</p>
<p>In practice, the assembling tradition is stronger in primary than secondary schools. And legal requirements regarding provision for daily collective worship, like those for effective religious education, have for many years been commonly ignored. Once upon a time, the entire school community would have been involved (minus conscientious objectors). Now, alongisde the pupils, it is more usually only those teachers with designated responsibility.</p>
<p>Collective worship is neglected in initial teacher education and training, as it is in the further professional development, including that of head teachers. As with religious education, government ministers and the department of education have ignored evidence of underprovision from many quarters, <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/religious-education-realising-potential">even Ofsted</a>. </p>
<p>But as the education community is being asked to look deep into its role in promoting religious tolerance in a multi-faith Britain, perhaps the government should be more attentive to the fundamental aim that by the completion of formal education, young people are not only literate and numerate but also religiate. That’s actually what the national religious education tradition is properly all about: the education of conscience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Gates receives funding education charitable trusts. He is a former chair of the RE Council. </span></em></p>Challenges from parents and teachers to the law requiring an act of collective worship in schools are not new. Now the National Governors’ Association has called for Christian assemblies in non-religious…Brian Gates, Emeritus Professor of Religion, Ethics & Education, University of CumbriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/284652014-06-26T05:06:53Z2014-06-26T05:06:53ZFor many minorities, Britain is not living up to its own values<p>The controversy over the Trojan Horse allegations of “extremism” at a number of Birmingham schools has provoked much discussion concerning the need to teach and <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">assert British values</a> to children. There has been a quick turnaround from the government, and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322296/Consultation_Document_23_6_-_independent_school_standards.pdf">a two-month consultation has</a> now been launched on proposals to promote British values in schools. </p>
<p>The proposals come about as part of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322297/Draft_standards_changes_PBV_FV_23_6.pdf">changes to the department of education’s Independent School Standards</a>, expected to come into force in September 2014. One of the new standards being proposed requires owners of independent schools to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs; and encourage students to respect other people, with particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The draft proposals also include new clauses that say schools must “encourage respect for other people, paying particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010”
and “encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England”.</p>
<p>On the surface the general guidance seems reasonable, but a closer analysis reveals it is slanted and directed toward Muslim schools. For example, the proposed new standards seek to enable the secretary of state for education to utilise the Equality Act 2010 to take action against schools that breach equality provisions in regards to gender, sexual orientation and lack of tolerance for other faiths in its teaching. The consultation document specifically refers to girls sitting at the back of the class as an example of poor practice – a clear indication that it is directing its attention to Muslim schools.</p>
<p>But the guidance is silent on measures to tackle institutional inequality in schools. It offers no guidance on recruitment of staff, or on monitoring and taking action on any performance disparities between groups of students such as between males and females, or Muslims and Christians. Nor does it offer guidance on any other forms of discrimination that break the Equality Act and hinders student development. Equality is outlined solely in terms of values.</p>
<h2>Framed by white male politicians</h2>
<p>The question here is whether an understanding of the ideas of Britishness as outlined in the proposed new independent school standards would really resolve issues of social inclusion and equality in schools and the wider society. I’d argue that the appeal to “British values” is a smokescreen that hides a multitude of issues concerning inequality and justice not dealt with by other British institutions.</p>
<p>Political philosophers such as Michael Sandel, John Rawls and others have long-debated what values and mechanisms are required for arriving at the common good when you have a diversity of competing interests operating in society. Martin Luther King Jnr and other theologians have spoken of <a href="http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy">the “beloved community”</a> and explore the values, principles and ways of belonging that are required to create and sustain an ideal community. So it is legitimate to ask what type of communities we want to live in.</p>
<p>The problem with the current debate and the proposals emanating from them is the context in which “British values” are being framed. It is being done by powerful white male politicians who in talking about “values” in relation to British Muslim minority communities turn “British values” into a racial marker or label of racial differentiation. </p>
<p>The unspoken assumption here is that certain behaviours are labelled as Muslim and that these are not compatible with being British. Hence it is not your passport or the taxes that you pay, that determine whether you can participate in British public life. But now it’s your “values” that determine how British you are and the degree to which you can run and influence institutions in this country.</p>
<h2>Institutions under the spotlight</h2>
<p>Britain needs more than this. It needs a discussion on whether its institutions, from the NHS, to the police to schools, are genuine purveyors and defenders of equality and justice for all. Britain needs an honest and genuine reflection on whether its institutional and policy mechanisms are capable of delivering genuine justice and equality in a 21st century multicultural society. This society needs to incorporate Muslims rather than racialises them as an “other” to be dealt with differently. </p>
<p>A discussion about values needs to focus on all British institutions and the degree to which they genuinely reflect and represent the diversity of the country. Too many British institutions are woefully unrepresentative of the communities that they serve. And too many members of minority communities bear the scars of discrimination, poor service delivery and injustice that they have received from schools, hospitals, the police, the media and other so called venerable purveyors of “British values”. </p>
<p>Where is the public outcry over the lack of “British values” being put into practice on behalf of these citizens? Many black and minority ethnic citizens are still waiting for those proposals, rather than yet another piece of guidance that seeks to tell us how to be British, when much of the rest of Britain is failing to live up to its own values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Ackah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The controversy over the Trojan Horse allegations of “extremism” at a number of Birmingham schools has provoked much discussion concerning the need to teach and assert British values to children. There…William Ackah, Lecturer in Community and Voluntary Sector Studies, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278332014-06-25T05:06:02Z2014-06-25T05:06:02ZAcross Europe’s schools, push for national values is infringing religious freedoms<p>The ongoing debate on radicalisation and schools in both the UK and France is missing an important point: we are still not agreed on exactly what religious radicalism is. </p>
<p>The fact that the British secretary of state for education asked a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-27031941">former head of counter terrorism</a> to investigate the <a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-trojan-horse-examining-the-islamic-takeover-of-birmingham-schools-25764">Trojan Horse</a> “Islamist” plot at a number of schools in Birmingham shows a confusion that is spreading all over Europe: the idea that religious radicalism leads automatically to political radicalisation, and thereby terrorism. </p>
<p>And this is followed by another assumption – that to prevent terrorism we should promote a liberal conception of religion, or force religious people to accept the liberal values of a secular society. This, of course, is highly debatable. Could a religion be liberal and endorse, more or less willingly, liberal values? How should tolerance work – by imposing common values, or by recognising the right to have different values?</p>
<h2>Trojan Horse plot unthinkable in France</h2>
<p>When it comes to faith and schools, the French educational system is very different from the British one. Most French schools are strictly secular government schools (with 82% of the total of pupils), and most of the so-called “private schools” are also closely monitored by the ministry of education. Only private faith schools have a real autonomy, and most of them are Jewish. There are fewer than ten Muslim faith schools in France. </p>
<p>There have been reports concerning public schools in France such as the 2004 “<a href="ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/pub/edutel/syst/igen/rapports/rapport_obin.pdf">Rapport Obin</a>” which highlighted unauthorised religious activities such as prayers, and refusal to assist to some school activities on religious grounds such as swimming or sex education. There were also reports of absences from school canteens during the fast of Ramadan, and interventions during classes contesting some points made by the teacher on issues such as evolution, the Holocaust and Palestine. But the ministry of education considered such incidents as isolated cases and did not investigate further.</p>
<p>These attitudes come from individual pupils, and are not connected with any kind of “plot” such as the alleged one in Birmingham to take control of the schools. This would be impossible in France given the weak power of the “school board” and the strong control of the state. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that schoolteachers are confronted with growing demands from their pupils to take into considerations religious beliefs and norms.</p>
<p>Across Europe, the debate about conservative religion and radicalisation is not just about Islam. Evangelical and ultra-orthodox Jewish schools also claim to promote conservative values. These values could have been in line with the dominant social values some 60 years ago (rejection of homosexuality, support for gender segregation, refusal of sexual education), but are seen now as intolerant or backward. </p>
<p>The issue is not that the dominant European culture has became secular – a trend that began long before the 20th century – but that it has turned far more tolerant since the 1960s, including among the conservative rights, at least in Northern Europe. Despite some new approaches (such as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/vatican-ii-catholic-church-changes_n_1956641.html">Vatican II</a> within the Catholic church), the religious revival that has spread since the 1970s, coupled with the arrival of new forms of religiosity, such as charismatic Christianity among both protestants and Catholics, has led to a more fundamentalist approach in all religions.</p>
<p>All this has meant that the shrinking of religious practices in mainstream society turned remaining faith communities into more “radical” minorities, who feel threatened and besieged, if not harassed, by the dominant secular culture. </p>
<p>It should be no surprise that these growing tensions spread to the schooling system. Many parents do see a contradiction between their values and the values taught in school. In the US, this has led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-home-schooling-make-kids-more-politically-tolerant-24429">widespread takeup of home schooling</a>, which had been a trademark of “progressive” parents 50 years ago, by conservative Christian families.</p>
<h2>Where radicalism is not bred</h2>
<p>But does religious conservatism automatically lead to political radicalisation? Most of the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/3539/homegrown-terrorists">research</a> across Europe and <a href="http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR236Venhaus.pdf">the USA</a> on young Western jihadists shows that they are rarely part of a local Muslim faith community. A typical pattern of articles written to explain their trajectories shows the journalists being told by the stunned jihadist’s entourage that nobody had any hint about his religious radicalisation – except maybe in the last months preceding the action. </p>
<p>The relatively <a href="http://aei.pitt.edu/9378/2/9378.pdf">high percentage of converts among terrorists</a> indicates that radicalisation is not the consequence of a pervasive, long-term religious indoctrination in the midst of a local Muslim community, but is the result of an individual and sudden decision to go for action. </p>
<p>Conversely, many so-called religious fundamentalists are perfectly quietist in political terms. Think of the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/egypt-salafi-party-faces-growing-isolation-2014514111139164795.html">Egyptian Salafis</a>, who vocally advocate the implementation of sharia, but supported the anti-Islamism military take-over in their own country. Most ultra-orthodox Jewish communities, such as the Lubavitch, are far from being radical Zionist militants. Like the Salafis, they just want to create a local environment where they can live by their own rules and values.</p>
<h2>When a common identity impedes freedom</h2>
<p>So rather than obsessing over the dubious notion of a terrorist threat in schools, the debate should be on the limits of religious freedom. If ensuring mutual toleration between a secularist majority and minority faith communities is a very legitimate goal, should this imply the imposition of “common values”, tolerance excepted? </p>
<p>Concepts like <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">“British values”</a> or “French values” refer to a common “identity”– the populist’s favourite big word. But the idea that a society is supposed to share a common set of values (aside from loyalty to the nation) is quite new. </p>
<p>This dubious call for a common “identity” (instead of citizenship or nationality) looks more like a denial of a deeper crisis: European culture has drastically changed in the last 50 years, not because of immigration, but because of an in-depth secularisation. The call for identity is just a way to patch up pieces of an imaginary national culture that corresponds neither to history nor to the “great culture” of literature and arts.</p>
<p>Freedom of religion is a core part of the modern political values that made Europe what it is, after centuries of intolerance. It implies the recognition of diversity and pluralism. This has nothing to do with “multiculturalism”, because what is at stake here are precisely religious demands not cultural traditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivier Roy receives funding from European Research Council for the ReligioWest project</span></em></p>The ongoing debate on radicalisation and schools in both the UK and France is missing an important point: we are still not agreed on exactly what religious radicalism is. The fact that the British secretary…Olivier Roy, Head of the Mediterranean Programme, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278462014-06-11T14:25:34Z2014-06-11T14:25:34ZPromoting ‘British values’ opens up a can of worms for teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50835/original/g44r83nh-1402484449.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A full English. Is that British?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilgiovanewalter/2865216681/sizes/o/">ilgiovaneWalter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following recent allegations of Muslim extremism in some Birmingham schools and <a href="https://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-snap-school-inspections-will-not-solve-wider-governance-issues-27824">Ofsted putting five of them in special measures</a>, Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education announced that schools in Britain will be required to “actively promote British values”. </p>
<p>Gove’s announcement is not surprising. In 2012, his department <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/301107/Teachers__Standards.pdf">revised qualifying Teachers Standards</a> required newly qualified teachers [NQTs] not to undermine “fundamental British values” in their teaching and to show tolerance of other cultures and respect for the rights of others. </p>
<p>But what is meant by British values? In the teaching standards, the government defined British values as “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs”. This definition of British values coincides with <a href="http://www.ethnos.co.uk/pdfs/9_what_is_britishness_CRE.pdf">findings by the former Commission for Racial Equality</a> in 2005. But it is questionable whether democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs are actually unique to Britain. </p>
<h2>Are British values shared?</h2>
<p>How are British values constructed and can they be taught in schools? The previous Labour government in 2007 commissioned colleagues and I to <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eorderingdownload/rr819.pdf">conduct a study</a> around these issues. In part, the research was concerned with understanding teacher conceptions of British values and contentions of shared British identities which could be explored in schools as part of the citizenship education curriculum. </p>
<p>As part of developing a wider understanding of teacher practice in relation to promoting shared British values through citizenship education, teachers and headteachers were asked about their understanding of shared British values. For the majority, the shared nature of British values was difficult to articulate. Many even had reservations about whether all Britons do in fact share the same values. This scepticism led one primary school head to state: “You start worrying me when you say shared”. </p>
<p>Expanding on his concern that British values are not shared by all members of society, a secondary headteacher of a London school argued that tolerance of and inclusion of different groups only had “real value” and meaning in London, which as a city is “very ethnically diverse”. He added that “the further you move away from London, the less those values have any impact on the way people interrelate” and integrate with each other. </p>
<p>This perception is supported by the 2011 UK census and <a href="http://beta.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/crossing-the-line-white-young-people-and-community-cohesion/r/a1CG0000000GKSZMA4">Paul Thomas and Pete Sanderson</a> at the University of Huddersfield. Their research into community cohesion in the north of England suggests that white young people were less likely than Asian young people to self ascribe themselves as British. Instead, they identified themselves as English.</p>
<h2>Who measures who has them?</h2>
<p>In promoting an understanding of shared British values, the citizenship curriculum in 2007 was widened to include “identity and diversity: living together in the UK”. Keith Ajegbo, Dina Kiwan and Seema Sharma <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/6374/1/DfES_Diversity_%26_Citizenship.pdf">emphasised in their diversity curriculum review</a> of citizenship education that in order for young people to explore how they live together in the UK today and to debate the values they share with others, it is important they consider issues that have shaped the development of UK society.</p>
<p>However, the teachers we interviewed argued that there was a danger in trying to “over-analyse” or “discuss” British values and “Britishness”, especially if such analysis resulted in teachers trying to discover “how close they [pupils] are to that [British] value and how far away they are”. Therefore these teachers implied that honest debates about British values and whether they are shared or not were what was required in citizenship education. </p>
<p>A real difficulty these teachers envisioned in teaching about shared British values was that cultural values when internalised are durable and become difficult to change. They were concerned that where pupils or teachers disagreed with the idea that British values are shared, such disagreements would “be used” by the government and school governing bodies to exert compliance. As one head teacher put it, this could be “as a stick to beat some groups of people over the head with”; and by “people” he meant both teachers and pupils.</p>
<h2>Resistance to stoking division</h2>
<p>In his book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2839981-the-genesis-of-values">The Genesis of Values</a>, Hans Joas makes clear that governments need to consider whether values are “consensually shared and internalised as value(s)” by everyone – including the majority population. He also contends that: “any attempt to make a certain value system obligatory would be more likely to provoke counter movements than achieve its goal without entering resistance”. </p>
<p>This view was shared by the teachers we interviewed. Several expressing resistance to educating about British values, particularly where they had concerns that minority ethnic cultural values were not being respected in the wider society or included within the umbrella of British values. </p>
<p>Such fears led one head teacher to openly state that she would “worry about how to teach it”. She was concerned that a focus in citizenship education teaching on shared British values would lead to minority ethnic cultures and values being “ignored or dismissed”. This is more likely to occur where teachers bring uninformed views about particular ethnic groups to the classroom. Such views could be regarded as racist and demonstrating a lack of understanding and tolerance of minority ethnic groups.</p>
<h2>Work ahead for teachers</h2>
<p>Before the government requires schools to promote British values, it is incumbent on teachers to have an understanding of Britain as a multi-ethnic population with diverse cultural values. It’s also important that these understandings are sensitively explored so as to illustrate the ways in which minority ethnic groups also fit within notions of “Britishness”. </p>
<p>As one PSHE cordinator told us in our research, very often schools “get NQTs who haven’t really got very much idea at all” about Britain’s ethnic diversity. With the lack of focus on issues to do with ethnicity, culture and religious beliefs in the new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/301107/Teachers__Standards.pdf">Teachers’ Standards</a>, newly qualified teachers are less likely to be well informed about Britain’s diverse population.</p>
<p>All teachers will need opportunities through continuing professional development (CPD) to recognise that <a href="http://books.google.fr/books/about/Race_Culture_and_Difference.html?id=3NZonSikZPcC&redir_esc=y">British identities are multiple, fluid</a> and will continue to change. Individuals move between identities in different contexts and times, and this may affect their perceptions of <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/29/74.html">Britishness and shared British values</a>. Teachers will also need to reflect on and challenge the stereotyped views about different ethnic groups they and students might hold, and the labels that might apply to them. This matters as much to white British groups as it does to minority ethnic communities.</p>
<p>Teacher CPD is salient as, without an agreement as to what “Britishness” and “British values” are, teachers’ efforts not to undermine British values might actually serve to accentuate “differences” and create racial tensions. As one pupil put it to us, even if everyone is “the same on the outside” it does not mean they feel “the same on the inside”. </p>
<p>And finally, teachers will need to recognise and appreciate how perceptions of “race” and notions of “belonging” are constructed. And in turn how these concepts along with racism, structure some pupils’ understanding of “Britishness”, notions of “otherness” and experience of intolerance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Uvanney Maylor received funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families under the previous government. </span></em></p>Following recent allegations of Muslim extremism in some Birmingham schools and Ofsted putting five of them in special measures, Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education announced that schools…Uvanney Maylor, Professor of Education, University of BedfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.