Is religious expression supported at school? Examining youth perspectives in an age of antagonisms

Liberal multicultural education policies have traditionally viewed religious freedom and equality as complementary aspects of state support for majority and minority groups. This complementarity has been undermined internationally by securitisation policy discourses, which portray Muslim minorities as potential extremists needing restrictions, and right-wing populist portrayals of majority religious freedom and minority religious equality as antagonistic. Internationally, we lack knowledge at scale about young people’s perceptions of support for their religious freedom and about their levels of commitment to religious equality. Such knowledge could inform efforts to interrupt potential antagonisms. Drawing on survey data from 3156 14–15-year-olds in England, this paper examines how youth perceive support for religious expression at school, what factors impact that perception, and its association with their commitment to religious equality. Using multinomial logistic regression, we find that teacher preparedness, rather than school secular/religious ethos, impacted participants’ largely positive perceptions of support for religious expression. Most indicated support for religious expression to be complementary to their commitment to religious equality. Drawing on a Critical Secular perspective, we argue that while these findings challenge current attempts to claim British Christian identity is under threat, they still indicate the normalisation of Christian-centric expectations about religious expression amongst youth.