Religious Fundamentalism and Education in Europe

Helen Everett

Institute of Education

London

Creationism is the belief that the world was created by God in six days as described in the Bible in Genesis Chapter 1. This has spawned the theory of Intelligent Design as an attempt to make the idea more scientific.  Evolutionary theory is underpinned by the writings and ideas of Charles Darwin and relate to his ideas on the origin of species and natural selection (1859) but the theory contains later additions.

  Islamic 

Evangelical Christian

State School

Faith Islam Christianity Secular Humanism[1]

Nature of Child Essentially good Essentially sinful Essentially good

Goal of Education To become good Muslim, preparation

for life to come

God’s Glory Acquisition of skills, self realisation[2]

Knowledge Comes from God Comes from God Based on scientific reasoning

Scripture Qur’an revealed by God, inerrant

Bible revealed by God, inerrant

Open to interpretation

Teacher Exemplar-Prophet Mohamed role

model

Discipler – Jesus role model

Facilitator

Evolution/Creationism

Creationism Creationism Evolution

RE Islamic-indoctrinating

Christian- indoctrinating

Non denominational,

comparative

Educational Responsibility

Community and Parent

Parent State

Underlying values No separation between secular

and sacred

No separation between secular

and sacred

Secular and sacred separate

 

Times Educational Supplement 21/7/06 ‘he [David Blunkett] said the Government at the time [1988] was “faced particularly in places like West Yorkshire, with youngsters going 15-20 miles to quite unacceptable education which was anything but open and liberal”’ And also ‘”that he [David Blunkett] did not feel comfortable” with his original 1988 decision to award funding to new Muslim faith schools, and admitted that the policy was driven entirely by “pragmatism”’ 

Education Guardian 18/01/05 reporting David Bell "Faith should not be blind. I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society." Many Muslim schools "must adapt their curriculum to ensure that [they provide] pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England and help them to acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony". "traditional Islamic education does not entirely fit pupils for their lives as Muslims in modern Britain".  

Can a state education system accommodate world views which are irreconcilable with the one underpinning the education system?

What are the consequences if it does? And what are the consequences if it does not?