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Research

We need to talk about ‘Britishness’

Amanda Keddie

Research Summary

This paper is set against a backdrop of concerns about Britishness. It explores the view that high levels of cultural diversity within countries such as the UK are undermining social cohesion, because of minority groups’ failure to connect with mainstream ‘British’ (for the author, this usually means ‘White Anglo’) culture. The paper focuses on how these issues play out for several of the key teachers at ‘Hamilton Court’, a large English comprehensive multicultural school. Despite the school being socially settled, these teachers were concerned with students’ lack of affiliation with ‘British’ culture. The paper examines these concerns, questioning racialised understandings of ‘Britishness’ and assumptions that social cohesion only results when people affiliate with ‘Britishness’. The author calls for continued discussion about issues of Britishness, multiculturalism and schooling. Such discussions are important for RE teachers and other RE professionals, as one of the central aims of RE is the promotion of understanding of and between different religious groups present in the the UK.

Researcher

Amanda Keddie

Research Institution

University of Queenland, Australia

What is this about?

  • This is about concepts of ‘Britishness’ and how they relate to life in a large, multi-cultural comprehensive school in London.
  • According to one concept of ‘Britishness’, high levels of cultural diversity have affected the UK badly, dividing the country. This includes the view that minority groups have failed to integrate with a host culture.
  • Some key teachers at the studied school agree with this view and offer pupils in the school as an example of it. The author finds this strange, as the school appears to be a cohesive, harmonious place.
  • According to a different view of ‘Britishness’, it involves a set of positive relationships between different communities with links to different parts of the world as well as the UK. Pupils at the school incline to this latter view, offering their experiences e.g. of friendship groups in support of it.

What was done?

Interviews were carried out with 13 key staff of the school, chosen for their involvement in issues of equality and diversity, and with 10 students, who had been identified by the staff as able to provide insights into the same issues.

Main findings and outputs

  • 90% of the students at ‘Hamilton Court’ are of Black or ethnic minority background. Most of the students (approximately 40%) are of Indian heritage—identifying as Sikh (20%) or Hindu (25%) and a large proportion of students identify as Muslim (40%). The teaching and administration staff is predominantly of White British heritage.
  • Crime is low in the area and the school spoken of as harmonious. There has been ‘white flight’ from the borough but diversity is taken for granted in the school, pupils are accustomed to it and this explains the lack of tension or conflict. Students speak about this, enjoy it and describe it as creating a safe environment.
  • The author sees this as the ‘right kind of multiculturalism’ – inclusive in relation to matters of difference, reflecting a sense of belonging and common humanity.
    • Some teachers take a different view, lamenting students’ continuing identification with other countries, blaming their parents for this and complaining of a lack of assimilation to ‘British’ culture.
  • They see this as resulting in segregation and polarisation. There are comments that recognition of minority rights has gone too far, and now minorities relate less to ‘British’ culture than to their ‘own’.
  • Britain is in dire need of a convincing explanation of its own identity, concludes the author, but it will not be achieved through a racialised ‘us and them’ view. The identities and relationships enjoyed by the school’s diverse pupils are much more promising – as forms of Britishness.

Relevance to RE

The research’s emphasis on Britishness as a set of positive relationships between people of diverse backgrounds, cultures and religions is a crucial point for RE teachers to keep in mind. Often, pupils (and perhaps colleagues) have an assumption that in religious terms, ‘British’ equates to ‘Christian’, or only to certain Christian traditions. However, pupils (and families and communities) from diverse religious backgrounds are British, and the assumption otherwise should be challenged whenever it is voiced. When dealing with issues of ‘British values’, the value of celebrating diversity should be foregrounded (e.g. through policy statements, direct teaching, resources and materials for classroom display). Finally, the readiness of the young people in the study to engage socially across cultural or religious lines can be a strong pedagogical resource (i.e. in dialogical forms of RE).

Generalisability and potential limitations

The author does not view the research as generalisable, but illustrative of individual voices and experiences, and having connections to a wider set of attitudes and themes.

Find out more

The politics of Britishness: multiculturalism, schooling and social cohesion, British Educational Research Journal 40.3 pages 539-554 (published online 15 May 2013), 10.1002/berj.3101

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3101/abstract

 

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