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，关系和性教育 (RSE) 需要考虑文化和宗教因素，这一原则反映在英国当前的政府建议中。与此同时，出于多种原因，许多在学校教授 RSE 的人发现很难考虑宗教因素，例如，当学生的观点受到宗教强烈影响时，他们不确定如何处理这些观点。值。在本文中，我们报告了在英格兰学校学生进行的实地调查，包括在一所宗教信仰低的学校。我们的主要发现使认定为不可知论者或无神论者的学生对宗教考虑缺乏同情心的观点感到困扰。我们发现，大多数认为宗教对个人来说并不重要的学生仍然认为我们所说的“信仰敏感 RSE”非常有价值。这对学生多元化的学校如何教授 RSE 具有影响，即他们对宗教的重视。