Prepare yourself - do some background reading

The Context section and Links section on this site are designed to be helpful in exploring the issues.

Four resources to develop your thinking:

Bruce, S, Glendinning, T, Paterson, I and Rosie, M (2004)
Sectarianism in Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

Craig, C (2003) 'More Equal Than Others', Chapter 8 in her book
The Scots' Crisis of Confidence, Edinburgh: Big Thinking

Devine, T (ed) (2000)
Scotland's Shame? Bigotry and Sectarianism in Modern Scotland, Edinburgh: Mainstream

Finn, G P T (2003)
''Sectaranism': A Challenge for Scottish Education' in Bryce, T G K and Humes, W M (eds), Scottish Education, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp 897-907.

There are some key issues which need to be reflected upon:

The nature of sectarianism in Scotland. The most prevalent form is that of anti-Catholic / anti-Protestant. However, the reasons for each of these forms of prejudice are different, e.g. anti-Catholicism is intertwined with anti-Irish racism; anti-Protestanism is intertwined with anti-political power in the British state; and anti-social power in British society (and within that anti-English prejudice).

Both are underpinned by other issues related to class, poverty, economic and social factors affecting Scotland around the time of migration into Scotland from Ireland as a result of the potato famine.

Therefore there is

• a need to understand the historical reasons for different forms of sectarianism. The history of Northern Ireland, the relationship between Britain and Ireland, social class, the role of Scottish intellectuals and the Church particularly in the early 1900s. The link between all of these and the manner in which sectarianism has manifested itself, e.g. through football, territorialism, constitutional arrangements, masculinity in crisis.
• a need to begin to explore how sectarianism is traditionally understood in Scotland is now widening out so that we need to consider sectarianism within our faiths, e.g. Sunni and Shia in Islam, and to consider the whole area of religious intolerance within and between faiths and beliefs.
• a need to take a global perspective and see that there are other complex forms of a mix of race and religion, e.g. anti-semitism - a mix of racism with religious prejudice and discrimination.
• a need to understand the complexities surrounding race and religion. For example, while some faiths and beliefs have been discriminated against, those faiths and beliefs in turn can discriminate against others.

Developing your classroom ethos for anti-sectarian work

http://www.transformconflict.org/

This website will be of interest to teachers and other educational professionals involved in the development of education for citizenship. This is a site that grew out of cross-border work on Human Rights, Conflict and Dialogue and Citizenship Development projects.

It is a useful site to browse through. The section on Creating a Classroom Climate is particularly useful for teachers / youth workers interested in setting up a positive ethos for taking forward anti-sectarian work.