Growing Up Female and Catholic
Growing Up Female and Catholic in Ireland
Dr. Gareth Byrne and Dr. Bernadette Sweetman, spoke at the annual Ceist Conference in Athlone, on 29th September 2017, which this year was celebrating 10 years since the inauguration of the largest Catholic schools trust board in Ireland with over 100 schools under its care.
The speakers provided an overview of research they had carried out on ‘Religion and Diversity’ with Professor Leslie Francis (University of Warwick) under the auspices of the Irish Centre for Religious Education. The survey of over 3,000 second and third year students in Republic of Ireland schools provides for very interesting reading. The first published article from the research (see details below) compares results from the girls who participated in the survey in Ireland with those from Scotland who provided responses to the same survey. A number of the teachers attending the conference had organised for their students to participate in the survey.
The authors focused, with the Ceist participants, on what Irish girls have to say about religion and diversity. Among the notable results was the high level of interest in religious education among the Irish girls and the value they placed on learning about different religions. Generally speaking, for the girls in Ireland, from a variety of different types of schools, they are more connected with religion and their personal religious identity is more important to them than for those in Scotland, even if they are not practicing. They are also more likely to speak with parents and grandparents about religion.
Reference:
Francis, L., G. Byrne, B. Sweetman and G. Penny. 2016. Growing up female and Catholic in the Republic of Ireland and Scotland: The intersectionality of religious identity, religious saliency, and nationality. In Diversity and intersectionality: Studies in religion, education, and values, eds. L. J. Francis and J. Astley, 67-99. Oxford: Peter Lang.