CALL FOR ABSTRACTS 

British Journal of Sociology of Education Special Issue

Diversity of Religion and Belief in Education: Inequality, Citizenship and Belonging

Guest edited by Peter Hemming, Lin Ma, Joanna Malone, Sarah Neal and Anna Strhan

Religion and belief continue to hold immense sociological importance, with 84% of the world’s population affiliated to a religious group (Pew Research Centre 2017). Globalisation and flows of mass migration have led to religiously diverse populations in countries across the globe. For example, many Western democracies are experiencing declining levels of institutional religious engagement, rising numbers of non-religious citizens, increasing non-Christian religious affiliations and growing interest in indigenous spiritualities (Beaman 2022). These emerging religious landscapes present a range of challenges for governments, such as how to adequately respond to diverse religious needs and balance competing interests amongst different faith and belief groups within educational contexts. How these challenges are addressed can have profound effects on different groups’ educational experiences and influence the extent to which they are subject to inequalities based on religion or belief (Hemming and Hailwood 2020).

Sociology is central to understanding these educational processes, whether through the everyday micro-dynamics of inclusion and exclusion and its consequences for identity, agency and belonging, or through macro-scale structural patterns of inequality and discrimination and their implications for citizenship, community relations and social justice. Furthermore, sociological perspectives can help to make sense of the wider backdrop of growing nationalism and intolerance within which these processes take place, where values and beliefs have become a major site of contestation (Fortier 2007, Yuval-Davis 2006). Yet, sociology of education has been relatively slow to engage with questions about religion and belief, tending to view religion as a subcategory of ‘race’, ethnicity and culture, or alternatively as a vehicle through which social class inequalities play out. 

The planned special issue will help address this gap by providing a set of high-quality, original articles that engage seriously with religion and belief, and interrogate its varied relationship with education, through the lens of inequality, citizenship and belonging. The guest editorial team encourages methodologically and theoretically diverse submissions focusing on any phase of education (pre-school to work-based learning) and education type (formal, non-formal, informal), featuring any combination of religion and belief groups (including non-religious), based in contexts from around the world (global north and south). Research themes may include (but are not limited to):

•	Provision for diversity of religion, belief, and worldview in schools with a secular or religious character/ethos;
•	Representations of religion and belief in the wider curriculum;
•	Approaches to and experiences of school assemblies or religious festivals in diverse contexts; 
•	Impacts of faith-based schools on religious mixing and segregation;
•	Religion and attainment at school or in higher education;
•	Provision for diversity of religion and belief on college or university campuses;
•	International university students’ religious identities and experiences;
•	Approaches to diversity of religion and belief in pre-school/nursery/kindergarten contexts;
•	Religion and belief in workplace equality, diversity and inclusion training;
•	Family socialisation practices regarding engagement with religious difference and plurality;
•	Inter-faith staff and/or student relations in educational contexts;
•	Representations of education and religion/belief in mainstream and social media;
•	Intersections of religion and belief with other social divisions in educational contexts.

Potential contributors are invited to send an abstract for consideration by Monday 12th February 2024, to Peter Hemming at [log in to unmask] If selected to proceed, authors will be asked to submit their final articles by 31st August 2024 at the latest, with an expected publication date for the special issue in 2025.

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