IP. Faith.

Continuing the intersectionality study of socioeconomic class, specifically Working Class Home students. This blog will review the intersectionality in regards to faith. Data sets will be reviewed to understand this better and to establish any trends. England and Wales census information will be incorporated.

Data.
Religious Representation.

England and Wales Census data on Religion 2021. Ordered highest to lowest. Representing 52.1million people.(Religion, England and Wales February 2021. 2021).

UAL Religion. Ordered highest to lowest.(Dashboard, UAL. 2024).

England and Wales census has No Answered category. While  UAL has Prefer not to say, Spiritual, Unknown and Any other religion as their differences. These results will be omitted as they are not comparable. For the general populus in England and Wales , Christians represent the largest demographic, closely followed by No religion. Within UAL this is flipped, with no Religion representing the most popular response, but with a much larger difference of the two which is 45.4%, compared to the national difference of 8.9%.

Aligning the biggest differences starting with highest % increase representation at UAL, to lowest under representation at UAL compared to the England and Wales Census data. The % on the right represents the % of increase of decrease of the % difference.

Economically inactive people that identify as students according to Census data. Working age people.(Religion by Housing, Health, Employment, and Education, England and Wales Census 2021. 2021).

This was self-declared study, and not associated with a higher education institution, and can be personal or religious study. There is a difference in data between Muslims self declaring they are studying and the numbers recorded by academic institutions.

The data shows that the England and Wales largest two religions, Christianity and Islam are both under represented at UAL level compared to the national census data. 62% disparity between the two figures for Muslim. 26% disparity for Christians. Christians represent a much larger proportionate of the population.

The highest increase of representation for religion is Buddhist, with a 2.9% difference represent a proportionate increase of 680%. This is a high number, but due to Buddhists representing a small proportionate of the population it is still relatively small amount of students. No Religion saw a difference of 19.8% increase in representation when comparing the data, which was 153.1% increase of representation in UAL. Which is significant as for the UK Census, this is the second highest category, representing 22.2million people Reference.

Atheism and Buddhism are two increasingly popular belief options for younger demographics according to studies, (Kenny, D, L. 2024).

Data.
Working Class and Religion.
There is no explicit working class data for religion but there are socioeconomic census data which is a metric of working class.

Median hourly pay. England and Wales Census data.

(Religion, Education and Work in England and Wales February 2020. 2020).

Occupational Skill level. The lower the number represents the higher the skill.

(Religion, Education and Work in England and Wales February 2020. 2020).

Religion and degrees received. Ordered highest %, to lowest %.

(Religion, Education and Work in England and Wales February 2020. 2020).

It is important not to generalise, or use data out of context. Responsibility reviewing the data, and remembering there are individual stories behind it is important.

Summary.
Two of the UKs largest religions, Christianity and Islam both have low metrics for socioeconomic class. Muslim census data shows that there is a large proportion of the Muslim community that are not economically active, or engaged in academic qualifications but may be engaged in religious education.

Christians and Muslims represent the largest religious majority in the UK, yet both are disproportionately under represented at UAL. In the general population Christians represent over seven times the number of Muslims. No Religion represents the second largest affiliation in the UK and largest in UAL. Atheism, agnostic and Humanists can be categorised within this. Are we doing our best to fully support the working class individuals in these communities?

Religion, Working-class, Education.
Historical Context.
The UKs historic context of supporting and educating working class religious students is complex.


(Appendix).

(Students by HE provider, level, mode and domicile. 2015).

The British educated classes have long worried and fantasised about working-class religious belief and unbelief (Ackers, P. 2019). UAL still seems to unfortunately have this historical legacy, not based on religious persecution but based on inherent systematic financial barriers of inclusion around class.

Learnings, in the teaching space.
To best support working class religious students, would be to follow a model of support used for all socio economic groups around inclusive multi faith or interfaith education, but being mindful that time and other resources of working class students might be more finite.

From my experience on the MADAD course of creating an environment of interfaith teaching space we follow the following principles with respect and understanding being the foundation.

We can’t ignore the needs of none believers either, the above practices need to be inclusive for all.




Reference List.

Ackers, P. (2019). ‘Protestant Sectarianism in Twentieth-Century British Labour History: From Free and Labour Churches to Pentecostalism and the Churches of Christ’. International Review of Social History, 64 (2019) 129-142, p. 129.

‘Dashboards, Enrolment and Profiles, Student Profiles’, (2024). Available at https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=5c6bb274-7645-4500-bb75-7e334f68ff24&dashcontextid=638573471260687090 . Last accessed 15^th July 2024.

Kenny, D, L. (2024). ‘Young Adults Around the World Are Atheist. Why?’. Glimpse from Around the Globe. Available at https://www.glimpsefromtheglobe.com/regions-and-religions/young-adults-around-the-world-are-atheist-why/#:~:text=Some%20become%20more%20religious%2C%20but,younger%20generations%20away%20from%20religion. Last accessed 15^th July 2024.

‘Students by HE provider, level, mode and domicile, 2015’  (2015). Higher Education Statistics Authority. Available at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/pressOffice/sfr224/061046_student_sfr224_1415_table_3.xlsx  Last accessed 15^th July 2024.

‘Religion by Housing, Health, Employment, and Education, England and Wales Census 2021’. (2021). Office for National Statistics. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religionbyhousinghealthemploymentandeducationenglandandwales/census2021 . Last accessed 15^th July 2024.

‘Religion, Education and Work in England and Wales February 2020’. (2020). Office for National Statistics. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religioneducationandworkinenglandandwales/february2020#:~:text=Employees%20who%20identified%20as%20Jewish,2018%2C%20this%20was%20%C2%A313.80. . Last accessed 15^th July 2024.

‘Religion, England and Wales February 2021’ (2021). Office for National Statistics. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021 . Last accessed 15^th July 2024.