ABSTRACT

It is widely agreed that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) needs to take account of cultural and religious considerations and this principle is reflected in current government advice in England. At the same time, and for a number of reasons, many of those who teach RSE in schools find it difficult to take account of religious considerations, for example because they are unsure how to handle the views of students when these are strongly influenced by religious values. In this article, we report on fieldwork undertaken with school students in England including in one school that was characterised by low religious observance. Our key finding troubles the notion that students who identify as agnostic or atheistic are unsympathetic to religious considerations. We found that the large majority of students for whom religion was not personally important nevertheless saw great value in what we term ‘faith-sensitive RSE’. This has implications for how RSE might be taught in schools where there is a diversity of students, in regards to the importance they attach to religion.

摘要

人们普遍认为，关系与性教育（RSE）需要考虑文化和宗教因素，这一原则在英国当前的政府建议中得到了体现。同时，由于多种原因，许多在学校教RSE的人发现很难考虑宗教方面的考虑，例如，因为他们不确定在宗教强烈影响下如何处理学生的观点价值观。在本文中，我们报告了与英格兰的学生一起进行的田野调查，其中包括在一所宗教信仰低的学校。我们的主要发现困扰着这样的观念，即认为不可知论者或无神论者并不赞同宗教考虑。我们发现，对于宗教而言，个人并不重要的绝大多数学生仍然对我们所说的“对信仰敏感的RSE”具有很高的价值。就他们对宗教的重视程度而言，这对在学生众多的学校中如何教授RSE产生了影响。