Faiths in Action

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Faiths in Action was a Department for Communities and Local Government-backed £4.4 million grant programme for faith, inter-faith, voluntary and community sector groups and organizations in England, which ran from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2011.

In all, the programme funded 575 small-scale projects within local communities to enable people of different faiths and wider civil society to develop strong and positive relationships.

The Community Development Foundation has recently published an assessment of the programme: Daniel Pearmain, Faiths in Action: Final Evaluation Report.

In particular, this explores the experiences of 297 projects which received funding during Year 2 of the programme (1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011) and which replied to the survey (non-response was about 40%). The report is available at:

http://www.cdf.org.uk/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=31a7bf5e-0490-421d-b532-0ce610153b20&groupId=10128

Key statistics from the evaluation include the following:

  • 78% of projects were carried out by voluntary and community sector groups, registered charities or similar agencies, with a further 17% led by faith-based groups 
  • 21% of projects operated exclusively within the local area (defined as within 20 minutes’ walking distance), 49% within the local authority, 21% regionally, 7% nationally, and 2% internationally 
  • On average, 338 individuals benefited from each project, and nearly 200,000 from the programme; the median was lower (110), since the mean was distorted by groups working with large numbers of school students 
  • Beneficiary groups were diverse: women (89%), men (76%), youth (73%), people on low incomes (64%), urban dwellers (62%), people of a particular religion or belief (60%), unemployed (57%), single (57%), families (54%), people of a particular ethnicity (52%), elderly (47%), children (45%), disabled (36%), and refugees (34%) 
  • Faith communities benefiting from projects included: Christians (89%), Muslims (86%), Hindus (51%), Sikhs (38%), those of no religion (35%), Jews (32%), Buddhists (27%), and Baha’is (16%) 
  • 71% of projects stimulated engagement with specific groups not previously worked with in the community, and this was especially the case with people of a particular religion/belief or ethnicity 
  • 57% of projects reported that the Faiths in Action funding had contributed a great deal to their awareness of inter-faith activity in the local area and 32% a little, and 84% had participated rather more in local inter-faith networks as a result 
  • 60% claimed that their projects had contributed a great deal to integration between faith groups in their local area and 31% a little 
  • 25% of projects felt that the funding had considerably increased their group’s influence on local decision-making affecting community cohesion and faith, and 46% that it had modestly increased their influence 
  • Each project boosted volunteering by an average of seven persons, or 4,000 across the programme
  • 44% of projects said that support from the programme had helped them develop capacity to access other sources of funding through enhanced kudos, learning opportunities, and improved practical skills 
  • 81% of projects said that their organization would continue the same or similar work following cessation of Faiths in Action funding

The report also includes a more qualitative evaluation of the three-year (2008-11) £1.9 million Government programme to capacity-build a network of nine Regional Faith Forums in England. The first Forum was set up in 1997, the most recent in 2010.

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National Student Survey

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Clive D. Field

There is a very wide variation in the satisfaction of full-time final-year undergraduate students with the quality of the teaching of first degrees in theology and religious studies at UK universities.

This is according to results from the National Student Survey (NSS), which has been running annually since 2005, and whose 2010-11 data were published today. The survey is administered by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the higher education funding councils.

The percentage of students at each institution who said that they definitely or mostly agreed with the statement that ‘overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course’ (question 22) is shown below.

The data relate to undergraduate courses in theology and religious studies except where an asterisk appears (denoting a course in philosophy, theology and religious studies). In some cases, the satisfaction scores are based on more than one year’s NSS results.

100% Durham University

100% University of Exeter

100% Liverpool Hope University

100% University of St Andrews

98%   University of Cambridge

98%   St Mary’s University College, Twickenham

97%   University of Stirling*

96%   University of Kent

96%   University of Oxford

96%   York St John University

94%   University of Bristol

94%   University of Chester

94%   University of Glasgow*

94%   University of Nottingham

93%   University of Aberdeen

93%   Heythrop College, University of London

90%   University of Edinburgh

90%   University of Manchester

89%   Lancaster University

89%   Oxford Brookes University*

89%   Roehampton University

89%   University of Winchester

88%   University of Sheffield

87%   Bangor University

86%   King’s College London

86%   University of Leeds

84%   Anglia Ruskin University*

84%   Cardiff University

83%   Bath Spa University

81%   Newman University College

81%   Queen’s University Belfast

76%   University of Birmingham

76%   Canterbury Christ Church University

76%   School of Oriental and African Studies

76%   University of Wolverhampton

74%   University of Hull

73%   Middlesex University*

72%   University of Gloucestershire

71%   University of Wales, Trinity St David (formerly Lampeter)

The league table is in line with expectations in many respects, not least in the strong showing by such institutions as Durham University, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.

But there are a number of surprises, especially in comparison with the assessment of the quality of research in theology, divinity and religious studies, as measured in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

For example, Liverpool Hope University, only 20% of whose research output in the field was judged 3* or 4* in 2008 (i.e. world-leading or internationally excellent) was joint top of the NSS table with 100%.

Towards the other end of the spectrum, the University of Birmingham achieved a 60% rating of its research at 3* and 4* but came well down the NSS list (in joint 32nd place, out of 39 institutions).

The NSS data can be searched and downloaded from:

http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/

The RAE results will be found at:

http://rae.ac.uk/results/qualityProfile.aspx?id=61&type=uoa

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Campaigning Christians

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Churchgoing Christians in the UK have a strong campaigning streak, according to a ComRes Cpanel poll commissioned by Premier Christian Media and published on 1 August. Online interviews were conducted with 529 Christians aged 18 and over on 6-18 July 2011.

Asked how important they considered various socio-religious issues to have a campaign on, the number of Christians replying ‘very important’ or ‘important’ ranged from 85% on abortion to 95% on parenting and the family.

93% each opted for campaigns on care of the elderly and freedom of religious expression, 92% for marriage, 91% for the persecuted Church, and 87% for lobbying on euthanasia or assisted suicide.

A press release accompanying the survey, and the basis for a report in the Church of England Newspaper for 5 August, claimed that ‘it revealed a staggering gulf between what young and older generations of believers regard as issues of importance.’

In particular, ‘pro-life and end of life issues were of greater concern to young people aged between 18-34 years compared with those over the age of 65’, whereas ‘youth related issues were of greater concern to over 65s compared to young people (under 35s)’.

However, these differences emerged when considering only those who said ‘very important’ in relation to each issue. If the figures for ‘very important’ and ‘important’ are summed, then the age margins narrow considerably.

In terms of gender, the single most notable variation was over attitudes to abortion, 79% of male and 91% of female Christians regarding it as very important or important to campaign on this topic. There were smaller gaps (84% versus 92% and 89% versus 95% respectively) on euthanasia and marriage.

Breaks were also provided by region, denomination and churchmanship, but individual cell sizes are too small to permit meaningful analysis. There was likewise disaggregation for those in a church leadership role, attendees at Alpha courses, and members of a Christian organization.

The data tables are available to download, but – for some unexplained reason – they do not include the answers about campaigns on youth work and young people in prison. The tables will be found at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_tables_Q5_Aug11.pdf

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Terrorist Threats

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Despite renewed media preoccupation with far-right organizations in Britain, following revelations of links between them and Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the recent outrages in Norway, many Britons still view ‘Islamic terrorism’ as the greater problem, even though two-thirds also see the far right as a serious or minor threat.

This is one of the findings from a YouGov poll for today’s edition of The Sunday Times, in which 2,529 British adults aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 28 and 29 July 2011. The data tables are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-29-310711.pdf

19% of respondents believed that the police and security services should devote more resources than currently to Islamic terrorism, and less to other extremists. Men (25%) were more likely to take this view than women (14%), and Conservative voters (23%) more than Liberal Democrats (14%).

Just 8% wanted resources switched from countering Islamic terrorism towards other extremists, rising to 15% among the 18-24s and 13% with Liberal Democrats. 50% contended that the police and security services were getting the balance about right, and 23% were unsure what to think.

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Britons, Islamophobia and the Qur’an

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

One-quarter of adult Britons blame Muslims for the existence of Islamophobia in the UK, according to a ComRes poll of 1,004 adults aged 18 and over undertaken by telephone between 8 and 10 July 2011, and published on 21 July.

The survey was commissioned by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, in the run-up to its annual convention on 22-24 July, ‘in order to inform its plans to counter the tide of prejudice against Islam and highlight strategies to promote better community relations’.

The media were the group most likely to be blamed for Islamophobia, by 29% of the entire sample, rising to 40% among those aged 18-24 (against 18% of over-65s). Far-right political movements were cited by 13%, and politicians and government by 10%.

Muslims abroad (14%) were seen as more responsible for domestic Islamophobia than Muslims in the UK (11%). 1% mentioned the police, 4% other causes, 1% denied that Islamophobia existed in the UK, and 17% expressed no opinion. 

Asked whether the Qur’an justified the use of violence against non-Muslims, only 14% agreed that it did, with 65% disagreeing and 21% uncertain. Dissentients were particularly found among the 18-24s (75%) and Scots (72%).

Although replies were disaggregated by religious affiliation, Christians and those professing no religion alone were sufficiently numerous for analysis. The latter were more well-disposed to Muslims than the former, but the difference on both questions was not substantial.

The computer tabulations for the poll, and the associated press release from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/poll/499/ahmadiyya-muslim-association-uk-islamophobia-survey.htm

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Equality Duties and Schools

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Even before the Public Sector Equality Duty came into effect on 5 April 2011, thereby extending the legislative diversity responsibilities of public bodies to religion or belief, more than nine-tenths of maintained schools had already built religion or belief into their written equality policies or schemes.

This finding derives from a telephone survey of 503 maintained primary schools, secondary schools (including a booster of academies), special schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) in England and Wales, which was conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Equality and Human Rights Commission between 7 June and 20 July 2010.

The proportion of schools covering religion or belief in their schemes averaged 93% but reached 98% in secondary schools, academies and special schools. The lowest figures were for primary schools (92%) and – somewhat paradoxically – faith schools (90%).

Nevertheless, only 34% of schools which covered religion or belief in their equality policies had actually set specific targets relating to the religion or belief equality strand at the time of fieldwork. This equated to 31% of all schools (dropping to 21% in the case of secondary schools).

The survey is reported in Graham Bukowski, Hazel Roberts, Jen Fraser and Fiona Johnson, The Equality Duties and Schools, Equality and Human Rights Commission Research Report, No. 70, published on 11 July 2011 and downloadable from:

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/rr70_equality_duties_and_schools.pdf

The report also disaggregates the replies of faith schools to most questions touching on other aspects of equality besides religion or belief, although it should be noted that only 69 faith schools were included in the sample.

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National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Religion is already a major component of the Big Society, even on a narrow definition, and without taking full account of the wider contribution of faith communities to the development of the country’s social capital.

For example, 19% of charities and social enterprises in England claim to undertake specifically religious or faith-based activities, and 13% describe this as their main focus.

14% regard the advancement of religion or spiritual welfare through the support of religious or spiritual practice as one of their roles and 11% as a principal goal.

18% consider faith communities as clients, users or beneficiaries of their work, and 8% as their main audience.

These are some of the findings from the 2010 National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises (NSCSE), which was conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Office for Civil Society (part of the Cabinet Office) and published on 6 July 2011. 

The data derive from self-completion postal questionnaires sent out in September 2010 to a sample of charities, social enterprises and voluntary organizations across all 151 single and two-tier local authorities in England. 44,109 of them, or 41%, had replied (by post or online survey link) by the close of fieldwork in January 2011.  

National topline data, reports for all 151 local authorities, and an online reporting tool for customized queries are already available on the NSCSE website. The complete dataset and technical report will also be available there within a few weeks. See:

http://www.nscsesurvey.com/results2010/

The NSCSE is comparable to the 2008 National Survey of Third Sector Organisations (NSTSO), which was carried out between September and December 2008 in all 149 upper-tier local authorities in England in existence at that time. This achieved responses from 48,939 organizations, 47% of those sampled.

A database of organizations drawing on the list of registered charities and registers of Community Interest Companies, Companies Limited by Guarantee and Industrial and Provident Societies in England was supplied by Guidestar UK as the basis for both surveys.

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Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Churchgoing teenagers are the biggest backers of Muslim identity in Britain, according to preliminary research results from the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and released on 26 July 2011 in connection with the two-day conference on ‘Religion in Education: Findings from the Religion and Society Programme’.

The survey, which is still ongoing, is directed by Professor Leslie Francis of the University of Warwick and forms part of a wider project on ‘Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity’, funded by the Programme, and of which Professor Robert Jackson is the principal investigator. For the project website, see:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wie/research/wreru/research/current/ahrc/

The views of 10,000 13- to 15-year-old pupils, 2,000 each from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and London, will eventually be canvassed, at state maintained, independent and faith-based schools. Responses from the first 3,000 were presented at the conference and reported in a University of Warwick press release at:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/new_survey_shows/

The extent of agreement with three key statements affecting Muslims was as follows:

Muslims should be allowed to wear the headscarf in schools:

  • no religion 60%
  • nominal (non-churchgoing) Christians 59%
  • practising Christians 79%

Muslims should be allowed to wear the burka in schools:

  • no religion 51%
  • nominal Christians 52%
  • practising Christians 63%

I am in favour of Muslim schools:

  • no religion 18%
  • nominal Christians 23%
  • practising Christians 29%

Francis commented: ‘This survey has really given voice to the views of young people from across Britain into their experience of living in a culture that increasingly reflects religious diversity. Young people from different religious backgrounds clearly show respect for each other. But the challenge facing schools today is to enable those young people who do not come from a religious background themselves to gain insight into how their peers from religious homes feel about things.’

An article in the print edition of the Daily Telegraph for 27 July covers the same survey, but from the perspective of the 1,500 female respondents only. The journalist notes that, whereas nearly all the female pupils who were practising Christians agreed that ‘we must respect all religions’, the proportion was three-quarters for those without faith.

Similarly, almost three-quarters of the female practising Christians said that they found learning about different religions interesting, compared with about half of the nominal Christians and the irreligious. 

The Religion and Society Programme is a joint initiative of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council. It runs until the end of 2012, but many projects have now made significant enough progress to be reporting findings and other news. These are regularly featured on the Programme’s website at:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/

BRIN was itself funded under the Programme during 2008-10, thus enabling this website to get off the ground.

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Participation in Higher Education and Religion

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Clive D. Field

‘Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs more likely to go to university than their Christian classmates’, proclaimed the headline to Richard Vaughan’s article in The TES for 22 July 2011. The story was subsequently picked up by the Daily Telegraph on 23 July and by some online media.

Vaughan’s report referred to the findings of ‘a landmark Government research programme’, and a bit of delving by BRIN has identified the source as the Department for Education’s Statistical Bulletin B01/2011, published on 7 July and available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SBU/b001014/b01-2011.pdf

This particular issue of the Statistical Bulletin was devoted to the activities and experiences of 19-year-olds in England (measured by their academic age – their actual ages would have been 19 and 20), based upon the results from successive waves of the Youth Cohort Study and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE, also known as Next Steps).

The data on participation in higher education by religion came from the LSYPE alone and appear in Table 2.1.1. They measure enrolment in higher education at academic age 19 (wave 7, 2010) against religion at academic age 15 (wave 3, 2006). Obviously, as the Statistical Bulletin acknowledges, some teenagers may have changed their religion during the intervening four years.

The greatest participation in higher education was recorded among Hindus (77%). Then came Sikhs (63%), Muslims (53%), Christians (45%), and those without religion (32%). Cell sizes were too small to publish figures for Buddhists, Jews and other groups. 

Vaughan commented that: ‘The statistics reflect wider research which shows British white working-class students do worse at school and are less likely to go on to higher education than Asian pupils.’

Quoted in The TES, Professor Steve Strand of Warwick University also doubted whether the LSYPE statistics exemplified a genuinely religious effect, describing religion as just a ‘proxy’ for ethnicity.

‘The fact that white working-class pupils are the least likely to go to university and those from Asian groups are more likely has nothing to do with whether they are Christian or Hindu,’ Strand said.

‘It’s to do with a number of factors, but (generally speaking) white working-class children and their parents often do not see the relevance of the curriculum or of attending university. Asian families, even if they are from difficult socio-economic backgrounds, see education as a way out.’

The TES additionally cited Muslim and Hindu spokespersons, lauding the higher educational aspirations of their communities, as well as a representative of the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales, who pointed to non-religious influences as explanation for the apparent under-performance of Christians.

The Statistical Bulletin also included (in Tables 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 respectively) analyses of Level 2 (five GCSEs at grades A*-C or equivalent) and Level 3 (two or more A Levels or equivalent) educational achievement by age 19, disaggregated by religion.

Those with no religion again sat at the bottom of the faith hierarchy, with 23% having no Level 2 qualification and 50% none at Level 3. Hindus topped both lists (92% attaining Level 2 and 79% Level 3), closely followed by Sikhs (91% and 73%). Christians came third and Muslims fourth, thus reversing their positions in the higher education table.  

Another interesting cross-tabulation by religion is to be found in Tables 5.1.1 and 5.1.2, relating to sexual experience by age 19. These reveal that those without religion were most likely to have had sex (94%) and Muslims the least (45%), by their own admission. 89% of Christians were sexually experienced and 62% of Hindus and Sikhs. The irreligious were also the likeliest to have had sex without any precautions or contraception (58%).

These five tables in the Statistical Bulletin naturally have the potential for adversarial exploitation, in terms of current debates about the inter-relationships between religion, ethnicity, education, social capital and morality. It would be particularly fascinating to have a comment on them from a secularist perspective. 

Given the public interest potential of LSYPE, it is worth reminding BRIN users that LSYPE datasets are routinely deposited at the Economic and Social Data Service as SN 5545, and thus available for secondary analysis, although wave 7 has not yet been released at the time of writing.

Wave 7 will be the final wave for which the Department for Education is responsible; the Economic and Social Research Council is currently assessing whether it can take over the study.

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Mission Work and Mission Workers

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Clive D. Field

A quantitative profile of mission work and mission workers in 2010 has recently been published by ADBC Publishers, the imprint of Brierley Consultancy, which undertook the underlying research on behalf of ReachAcross (formerly the Red Sea Mission Team), the mission agency devoted to ‘helping Muslims follow Jesus’.

The data derive from a questionnaire sent to 3,000 UK churches, of which more than one-fifth responded. This was not intended to be a statistically representative sample but was skewed towards larger churches (which were more likely to be able to maintain mission workers) and the ‘Affinity’ churches which already supported ReachAcross.

Responding places of worship defined contemporary mission work in terms of three roughly equal categories: spiritual (church planting 17%, discipleship 19%), community development or relief work (33%), and specialist ministries (youth work 17%, medical work 14%).

Not all churches supported mission workers, but, of those which did, the average number of workers was three, ranging from two for churches with Sunday congregations of less than 200 to seven for those with over 350.

The average number of mission agencies supported by the churches was six. 24% supported fewer than three, 32% between three and five, 30% from six to ten, and 14% eleven or more.

88% of the mission workers were partially funded by their supporting church and 6% were fully funded. 6% overall were not financed by their church, rising to one-quarter among long-term workers in their 70s. 83% of churches had a mission budget which averaged 13% of the church’s total income.

17% of the mission workers supported by responding churches were located in the UK, 16% in other parts of Europe, 29% in Africa, 17% in Asia, 9% in Latin America, and 14% in other places.

22% of the mission workers served in an independent capacity on their chosen mission field. The remainder were connected with a mission agency, half of them with a major agency and half with a small and less well-known one.  

20% of the mission workers served in a short-term (less than two years) capacity. They were mostly in their upper teens or twenties, often working overseas during a gap year. The average age of a long-term worker was 46, with the oldest workers tending to be supported by the smallest churches.

Final pastoral authority over mission workers was felt to be exercised by the supporting church in 21% of cases, jointly by the church and the mission agency in 42%, and the mission agency alone in 32%.

Copies of the 16-page pamphlet Mission Workers in the 21st Century by Peter Brierley can be obtained from ReachAcross, PO Box 304, Sevenoaks, TN13 9EL, price £2.60 (inclusive of postage and packing). Cheques should be made payable to ReachAcross.

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