Left, Graveyard in Oaxaca during day of the dead, picture by Kenneth Garrett. Right, Getting a cleanse in Mexico City.
Integrating religion and faith seems an important aspect of promoting inclusive education. However, it asks both students and educators to have a common understanding of what honoring someone’s faith might mean in both practical and intellectual terms. How it impacts assessments, for example, or considering religious holidays when planning and how someone’s beliefs can interact harmoniously with conflicting identities and beliefs.
It seems like there needs to be a lot more work and research to arrive at this common understanding. For my own understanding and reflection, the words by Kwame Anthony Appiah TED talk (2014) were very useful. He speaks of a definition or rather a non-definition of religion. Explaining how religion is undefinable and questioning how we see it, asking us to broaden the scope of what is traditionally seen as being religious, and showing some examples of beliefs that don’t fit with in the accepted list of religions.
His talk made me reflect on how I view my own religious beliefs. I was raised catholic and growing up in Mexico, I had problematic experiences with Catholicism that led me to decide to call myself an atheist. However, I still take part and, in many ways, believe in a lot of the traditions of my cultural heritage, which are often intertwined with Catholicism. Day of the dead for example is a deeply imbedded tradition in Mexico, and something I’ve always celebrated. Mexico is a deeply spiritual country and I’ve grown up not only hearing about intangible things on my day to day but having a deep respect for practices that are embedded in mysticism, often engaging in such practices. I have always struggled with having a name for these beliefs as they don’t necessarily follow a particular “religion” so this reflection of looking at faith as something much more complicated is really interesting. Perhaps it is a more inclusive way of looking at religion and understanding others’ beliefs, without attempting to fit them in specific boxes, moving beyond monolithic representations to include individual interpretations and practices.
Moreover, students today are not only faced with local questions and problems but also with global ones. And the diversity of information and perspectives with which we are confronted is challenging. Perhaps embracing religious topics in the classroom can serve as a platform to discuss issues of power, domination, and social structures. By reflecting on these topics, students can develop a critical understanding of how religion intersects with societal issues (Gaus, R. 2021). I think this is a real challenge for institutions such as UAL with a lot of different aspects that need to be taken into consideration, finding a way to balance secularism with religious expression. This efforts need to go beyond just the classroom, knowledge does not necessarily lead to action and if we want to foster tolerance and educate individuals that not only care about the world but have an impact in shaping global issues, then colleges need to be places where these values can be lived and experienced.
References
Gaus, R. (2021). Global (Citizenship) Education as inclusive and diversity learning in Religious Education. Journal of Religious Education, 69(2), pp.179–192. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-021-00142-w.
TED (2014). Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY
Images
@NatGeoES (2019). ¿Qué es el Día de los Muertos? [online] National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.es/video/tv/que-es-el-dia-de-los-muertos.
3 responses to “Blog 2 – Faith”
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I think everything you say about the way you experienced spirituality growing up in Mexico really does echo Appiah’s point – religion can appear in so many different forms and does not always follow a set structured pattern or have practises exist as part of a larger organised faith. Your examples prove that ‘religion’ or spiritual practices can be cultural too, engrained within a countries history and the way people relate to each other, not just in following the practices of a larger body like Catholicism, for example.
I agree with what you say about students being faced with such a large amount of information from all different sources – it seems that this is indeed a symptom of the modern age where we have access to so much information and opinion at the tips of our fingers on our devices, and you’re right that it’s definitely important to teach them critical thinking skills so they can analyse different viewpoints while understanding the context they come from and to be inclusive of viewpoints that differ to their own.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, I really appreciate how you picked up on the connection between personal experiences of spirituality and Appiah’s wider points. I agree, I think religion or faith isn’t always something that fits into clear structures or rules, and for many people it’s so interwoven with culture, memory, and family traditions that it’s hard to separate one from the other. In places like Mexico, it really feels like spirituality sits in the everyday in the colours, the rituals, the food, even in the way people care for each other. It’s not always about organised religion in a formal sense, but more about how meaning and connection are expressed.
And yes, the overload of information students face today is so real, I see it all the time. It can feel overwhelming even for us, so I can only imagine what it’s like for someone just starting out in higher education, trying to make sense of it all. I completely agree that developing critical thinking is key not just as an academic skill but as a way of navigating the world, especially when it comes to making space for perspectives that might feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable. There’s something really valuable about learning to hold multiple viewpoints at once, even when they challenge our own.
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Thanks so much for this, Paula. Your observation that students are not only faced with local questions but global ones really spoke to me – it highlights the complexity of being a university with students from all over the world, and also our access to news and reporting of global events.
What do you think the relationship is between religion-faith-belief and your practice at Wimbledon? Does religion-faith-belief have an impact in technical spaces and/or performance work, and how do you (or will you) respond?
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