Religion and belief in community education and learning

Abstract

This chapter studies religion and belief in community education and learning. There has been a long tradition of education and learning in community spaces, both formal and informal. The chapter examines the tensions across three strands of community education: cohesion education, which emphasises skills in multi-faith action; anti-extremism education, which trains community leaders to spot and prevent religion and belief extremism (including non-religious, political extremism) and increasingly addresses anti-Semitism; and citizenship education, which is something of a blend. It also looks at supplementary education in out-of-school settings, the majority of which are faith-based, the curricula of which are largely unknown, and whose very existence has therefore been controversial. This all sits in a context of the widespread absence of forms of adult education focused on politics, power, and inequality, much of which once took place in universities. However, many universities have lost such spaces in the period since around 1980.