'Just leave it blank' non-religious children and their negotiation of prayer in school. Issue 4 (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shillitoe, Rachael; Strhan, Anna
• Is Part Of: Religion. Volume 50:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 615
• Page End: 635
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: Childhood -- agency -- secular -- prayer -- non-religion; Religion -- Periodicals; Religions -- Periodicals; Theology -- Periodicals; Religion -- Périodiques; Théologie -- Périodiques; Religion; Religions; Theology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 200.5
• DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2020.1758230
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0048-721X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines how non-religious children experience acts of collective worship and prayer in primary school settings and analyses how they negotiate religion and their non-religious identities in these events. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork examining non-religious childhoods and collective worship in three English primary schools, the authors explore how non-religious children demonstrate their agency when confronted with particular boundaries and concepts related to religion and non-religion in school contexts. Attending to the experiences, perspectives, and practices of non-religious children adds to our understanding of the varieties of non-religion, which has to date largely focused on elite, adult populations. Focusing on non-religious children's experiences of prayer reveals how these children did not experience tensions between praying to God and their non-religious identities and articulated their own interpretations of these practices, deepening understanding of the lived realities of non-religious cultures and identities.