BERA Bites 15

EDUCATING FOR ALL

Reforming religious education in Northern Ireland: Moving beyond epistemic injustice

REBECCA LOADER 1 , JOANNE HUGHES 2 , ERIKA JIMÉNEZ 2 & AISLING O'BOYLE 2 1 UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 2 QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST

Questions of what constitutes ‘important’ knowledge, whose epistemologies we value, and how we manage competing knowledge claims are central to the design of curricula in plural democracies. 1 In Northern Ireland (NI), the recent Supreme Court judgment on religious education (RE), 2 issued in November 2025, illustrates the importance of these considerations, as well as the risks that can arise where curriculum development does not reflect or engage with non- dominant perspectives. The Court judgment ruled that the primary RE curriculum in state-controlled schools, with its exclusively Christian and confessional focus, did not fulfil principles of objectivity, criticality or plurality, and was therefore indoctrinatory. Consequently, it was found to breach parents’ rights to education that conforms with their own religious and philosophical convictions (Article 2(i) of the First Protocol (read with Article 9) of the European Convention on Human Rights). 3 In our chapter for the BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum (Loader et al., 2024), we consider the epistemic harm that the existing primary RE curriculum perpetuates in a society increasingly characterised by a diversity of faiths and worldviews. We argue that, through its focus on Christian instruction, the current 1 Original blog post, published 20 May 2026: https://www. bera.ac.uk/blog/reforming-religious-education-in-northern- ireland-moving-beyond-epistemic-injustice 2 https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2024-0095 3 https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/d/echr/convention_eng

syllabus establishes Christianity as normative in NI and tacitly communicates that other worldviews are inferior or less valid. 4 If other religious traditions are acknowledged within the classroom, this is typically in fragmentary or superficial terms that – often contrary to educators’ intentions – can reaffirm their lower status. 5 Applying the lens of epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007), we suggest that these arrangements may perpetuate harm in two ways. Forms of epistemic injustice First, by marginalising information about traditions other than Christianity, the curriculum denies pupils access to the interpretive resources that can help them make sense of their encounters with faiths or belief systems of which they are not members. As children lack influence over the curriculum that withholds this knowledge, this may constitute an injustice against them as knowers (McNulty & Henning, 2019). Furthermore, in the absence of critical and objective information, children may be forced to rely on other, less desirable resources to appraise other religious beliefs, including populist discourses and biased news sources. Where this contributes to the development of prejudicial attitudes, the curriculum itself may be implicated – through its omissions – in perpetuating hostility. 4 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S2590291123003042?via%3Dihub 5 https://www.qub.ac.uk/Filestore/rwe-report-december-2025. pdf

BERA BITES 15 | EDUCATING FOR ALL