« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
The Report of the Religious Observance Review Group
three: the consultative process
Review group meetings
The members of the review group represented a considerable range of educational experiences and perspectives and these provided a valuable resource in its deliberations. Members were encouraged to maintain a dialogue during the consultation period with the various groups and organisations with which they were involved.
At its first meeting, the review group was presented with correspondence from individuals and organisations with an interest in the review, a reflection of the interest which the review had generated.
Discussion was informed by insights from key national reports which have explored the issue of religious observance over the last forty years. These offered an invaluable historical perspective. The reports are listed in Appendix 1.
Consultation paper
The development of a consultation paper was a very useful exercise for crystallising the views of the group and providing a focus for discussion and debate. The paper was also used as the foundation for a questionnaire on which the more formal consultation process was based.
Website and mailbox
The review group developed a dedicated website, hosted and maintained by Learning and Teaching Scotland, to provide information on the background to the review, the review group's progress and the consultation procedures which had been developed. The website also contained an electronic version of the questionnaire developed by the group.
A dedicated mailbox, which offered another way of submitting views to the group, was also set up.
Around 3,500 visits had been made to the website between November 2002 and September 2003.
Focus group meetings
Focus group meetings were held in a range of venues which reflected different aspects of Scotland's cultural landscape. The meetings provided a very useful and informative insight into a range of perspectives and experiences.
Meetings were held in Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness, Edinburgh and Dumfries. These were well attended by people from surrounding areas. The review group is grateful to the local education departments and religious organisations who helped to promote and co-ordinate these events. Teachers, pupils, parents, chaplains and representatives from religious and humanist organisations were among those who attended the meetings and shared their insights and experiences with the review group. Around 400 people attended these meetings.
Reports of the meetings were discussed by the review group and fed into the formal consultation process.
Questionnaire
The Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) was commissioned to work with the review group on the development and distribution of a questionnaire and to manage the consultation exercise. The questionnaire was issued to 153 organisations and was also available on the website.
Particular care was taken to elicit as wide a range of perspectives as possible in the consultation process. Over 1600 responses to the questionnaire were received, a reflection of the interest in the area of religious observance. This provided a wide range of views on the issues raised by the consultation paper. In addition to the professional analysis carried out by SCRE, contained in its consultation report, the review group dedicated a meeting to the scrutiny of the responses.
How the review group used the consultation feedback
The outcomes of the consultation were discussed in great detail and analysed by the group. The issues raised and the review group's responses are set out in the following section.
« Previous | Contents | Next »