Faith, Interfaith and Cohesion: The Education Dimension - a toolkit for practitioners

Overview

This toolkit describes the ten potential roles that faith and interfaith can play in promoting community cohesion; and provides an overarching rationale for the active engagement of schools in prompting interfaith work. It also offers the house that interfaith built as a simple metaphor of the values, processes and structures that might underpin any faith or interfaith activity. In this toolkit, you can find the theoretical and legal backgrounds, useful tips, examples of what works well and relevant websites and information.

This toolkit is based on an extensively researched project, financed by the Department of Communities and Local Government in 2006 and undertaken by the School Development Support Agency (SDSA). In addition to the main report, ten discrete articles were commissioned to explore some of these issues in more depth. Although its primary audience is educationalists, it will be of interest to all those individuals and groups promoting faith and interfaith work. It will be an invaluable aid to all maintained schools as from September 2007 they will have a statutory duty to promote community cohesion, and their effectiveness in this area will become a key part of every OFSTED inspection. The arguments surrounding faith and interfaith can be very complex and those who want to explore them in more depth can download the Interfaith Project full report or you can contact the SDSA to order a printed copy for £15 including postage and packing.

Top tips to promote faith, interfaith and cohesion

1. be clear about the rationale for undertaking such work
2. be clear about the intended outcomes of the activities
3. use the resources provided to save re-inventing the wheel
4. use the 'house that interfaith built' and the PACE criteria to assess both the processes and the outcomes
5. involve young people at the outset and throughout the activities