Faith Schools and the Plural Society: Exploring Notions of Diversity in School Provision in England

Abstract

Around thirty per cent of all schools in England have a religious character. The author argues that the current ‘faith schools debate’ is more about the nature of its ‘plural society’ than about the place of such schools within the state-maintained sector. He suggests that to assume we are, in fact, living within a determinedly plural society is not as clear-cut as one might suppose, and that the very existence of the current ‘faith school debate’ in England is an indication that we are not as committed to pluralism as we might like to think. First he sets out two differing conceptions of the plural society - one strong, one weak. Then he sketches the historical and legislative backdrop to the present English state-maintained educational system. His third objective is to chart, briefly, the development of the educational system since the 1980s and to describe how it corresponds to changes from a strong to a weak concept of a plural society in which societal attitudes which once championed legislation supporting minority communities now seem to be leaning towards marginalising or even suppressing the contribution of such groups to the common good. Finally, he argues that the continuing existence of a distinctive dual system of educational provision in England, of which the Catholic sector is a paradigm, provides a bulwark against a creeping tide of weak pluralism, which has been likened to a form of damaging totalitarianism.