INCLUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX EDUCATION: SUPPORTING CHILDREN FROM FAITH COMMUNITIES

The findings of Storying Sexual Relationships, a 3-year research project funded by the AHRC, have the potential to inform the delivery of a new Sex Education curriculum in secondary schools in England, in a manner that respects the religious sensitivities and rights of parents and children from faith communities.

Schools must consider the religious background of pupils when planning Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), though our preliminary research has shown that many are not sure how to do this, or how to deliver on their statutory obligation to explain to parents what they propose to teach. This establishes a need for (1) teaching resources adapted to the needs and rights of children from religious backgrounds, and also for (2) supporting schools and teachers who are attempting to engage with parents from faith communities.

The findings of the Storying Sexual Relationships project speak to each of these needs. Though concerned most directly with young British Muslims of Pakistani heritage, that project reached broader conclusions, relevant to other faith communities. We found that young people with religious backgrounds find it particualrly hard to talk about sex and love, and that this silence can be damaging. We also found that young people are breaking these silences, and doing so within the bounds of their faith, and that stories are an important vehicle for this. We propose to adapt these findings - about the possibilities of breaking silences about sex and love - to the delivery of religiously sensitive RSE.

This project revolves around two main impact and engagement activities: making and sharing RSE Teaching Resource Packs that are adapted to the needs of faith communities; and launching a Parents of Faith RSE Forum. The Teaching Resource Packs will draw upon the storying methods and a selection of stories, in print and short films, generated through the Storying Relationships project. The Parents of Faith RSE Forum will also draw upon the insights, generated through the Storying Sexual Relationships project, regarding the search for ways to broach issues that are widely regarded as private, sensitive and out of place in faith communities.

The impacts, arising from these activities, are designed to outlive the time horizons of the project. The teaching resource packs will be renewable, such that users will be able to introduce fresh and locally relevant content. Lessons learned from setting up the Forum will be distilled in the form of a Toolkit. The benefits of this impact and engagement work will be shared widely, beginning in the Sheffield region (including Doncaster) where these activities will take place, and then through wider networks. Teaching resources and the Toolkit will be shared through postal and online dissemination, through partner networks, and through CPD events, delivered face to face and online, free of charge.

This project will be conducted in partnership with two organisations: Faithstar, a Sheffield-based not-for-profit organisation that works with diverse faith communities to build 'understanding and cooperation whilst challenging prejudice and misconception'; and Sheffield E-Learning, an educational consultancy that has been commissioned to provide schools in the Sheffield region with teaching materials through which to deliver the new RSE. A postdoctoral researcher, employed by the project, will be seconded part-time to Faithstar, working as a community outreach worker, leading on the Parents of Faith RSE Forum. The project team will work with Sheffield E-Learning Team members to engage schools, pilot the resources, build the forum and run CPD events, through which initial dissemination of the resource packs will take place. The project will also be advised by a group of experts including representatives of the project partners and RSE teachers from diverse schools across the Sheffield region.