The primary curriculum for religious education in Northern Ireland: making a case for epistemic justice

Religious Education (RE) in Northern Ireland is taught according to the Core Syllabus produced by representatives of the region’s four main Christian Churches and, at primary level, is exclusively Christian in content. In this chapter, we apply the lens of epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007) to examine the implications of this given an increasingly diverse society and pupil population. Drawing on a recent study of educational experiences among minority ethnic and migrant groups, we suggest that the primary RE curriculum may perpetuate epistemic injustice in three ways: by impeding children from minority faith traditions from sharing their experiences in a way meaningful to their peers; by reducing the resources available to children to make sense of encounters with other religious traditions; and through a lack of appropriate alternative arrangements for pupils whose parents withdraw their children from RE. We conclude with recommendations to increase epistemic justice within the primary RE curriculum.