Supporting Cultural and Religious Diversity in Higher Education

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Supporting Cultural and Religious Diversity in
Higher Education

• Dr Emma Tomalin and Dr Simon Smith
• Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious
  Studies

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Project rationale

• The PRS Subject Centre is working with other
  subject centres to explore the implications of
  cultural and religious issues in higher
  education.
• For example, how does cultural and religious
  diversity impact upon teaching style, content,
  assessment and student support?
• The project was set up in response to interest
  from the academic community as they find
  themselves working with an increasingly diverse
  student population.

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New legislation

• The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief)
  Regulations 2003 were introduced in response to
  the EUs Employment Directive.
• Outlaws discrimination on grounds of religion or
  belief in employment and vocational training.
• Associated legislation, but outside of the
  immediate remit of this project, includes
  anti-racism legislation and the proposed
  anti-religious hatred laws.

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The project so far.

• Design and dissemination of questionnaire to
  individuals working in higher education.
• Developing an on-line search engine to assist
  individuals in answering specific questions
  relating to cultural and religious diversity in
  their work environments.

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In this presentation I will

• Give a summary of key findings of questionnaires
  so far - suggestions for future direction of
  project.
• Discuss the web-based resources we will include
  in our on-line search engine.

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Main focus of questionnaire

• Asked respondents to tell us about situations
  when they felt it was necessary to make
  adjustments to accommodate students cultural and
  religious needs.
• Asked for suggestions about how LTSN/Higher
  Education Academy subject centres could support
  staff in the future in similar situations.

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75 respondents so far

• psychology - 8 respondents
• student counseling/welfare, education - 3
  respondents
• engineering, business, biology/ecology,
  law,geography, nursing - 2 respondents
• languages, health and hospital management,
  medicine, librarianship/ICT, international
  student support, equalities training officer,
  corporate services, literature and languages of
  SE asia, physiology, fine art, sociology and
  social policy, religious education,
  organisational development, archaeology and
  museum studies, physiotherapy, religious studies,
  complementary therapy, tourism, library
  -1respondents

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Key findings 1 situations

• Religious festivals and holy days
• Course content
• Teaching styles
• Student participation

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Key findings 2 adjusting to cultural and
religious diversity
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Key findings 3what hindered you?
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Key findings 4 what helped you?
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Key findings 5 staff issues.
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Key findings 6 how can the LTSN/Higher Education
Academy subject centres support you?
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Aims of this project
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Aim of on-line search engine

• To provide people working within higher education
  with a resource that will enable them to answer
  specific questions relating to cultural and
  religious diversity issues (e.g. dates of
  religious festivals, reasons for types of
  cultural dress, the basics of different religious
  beliefs etc)
• To enable people working within higher education
  to develop the skills and knowledge to avoid
  cultural stereotyping through religious and
  cultural literacy

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Web-based resources on cultural and religious
diversity

• Religion and culture are not necessarily the same
  thing although they do often intersect
  (http//www.camcnty.gov.uk/sub/cominfo/ethnic/)
• At this stage our research has focused upon
  religious websites

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Problems with religion and the web

• Information overload
• Quality and reliability of sites
• Sectarian issues
• Despite these caveats the web is an excellent
  resource for information about religion
• PRS LTSN has capacity to design search engine
  that avoids these issues as much as is possible

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Types of religious resource

• The majority of websites have been developed by
  religious organisations or individuals (e.g.
  www.buddhanet.net/ Website of the Buddha Dharma
  Education Association in Sydney. Non-sectarian).
• There are also plenty of websites that have been
  put together by academics and other
  informed/concerned individuals to educate
  people about different religious traditions(e.g.
  http//religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/)

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Cross-cutting themes

• In addition to websites that deal with
  particular religious traditions we have targeted
  resources that give information on cross-cutting
  themes as suggested by the questionnaire
  responses e.g. statistics on religious adherence,
  festivals and holy days, religious freedom,
  racial equality and human rights, age, cultural
  diversity, gender, ethics, food and alcohol,
  dress, rights of passage, migration..

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• In very near future we will begin to link sites
  to a search engine so that colleagues can begin
  to use this resource.
• We will collect case studies from individuals
  that have made offers and make these available on
  the website.
• Complete our annotated bibliography.

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• http//www.eprarthana.com/virtual/vpooja.asp