particularly relevant to—and particularly well demonstrated by—the case of Scottish multiculturalist education policy. This is true as a result of the broad societal shift in Scotland from sometimes- violent sectarianism in the mold of Northern Ireland to secularism more like in the southern countries of Great Britain. With regard to state-funded religious schools, the education system remains a vestige of the Scottish society before that change: Scottish non-denominational state schools are largely Protestant in posture, and state-funded religious community schools are often Roman Catholic. Indeed, of the home countries, Scotland is a particularly useful case study because Scottish non-denominational schools are considered “more truly accommodating to diverse faiths than their Northern Irish equivalents,” and yet there still remains controversy over this division of education along religious lines.15 The second policy requiring all schools to include a daily period of religious observance applies uniformly throughout the United Kingdom, but here will be considered in the context of Scotland’s societal shift.
III. SCOTTISH EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
VVIn her survey article, Davie notes, “the debates concerning religious education in this country [United Kingdom] have to be seen in an historical perspective.”16 As such, this paper will consider both the development of and modern Scottish education policy in light of societal changes. This is consistent with Raz’s notion of society as the man aware of where he has been, cognizant of how he arrived to this point, and yet unable to predict where a road might take him next. Where this conception, however, would lead Raz to desire greater flexibility in political philosophy, it leads this paper more precisely to wariness about the adequacy of multiculturalist education policies that have been imposed on a changing Scottish society.
88815. Julian Rivers, “From Toleration to Pluralism: Religious Liberty and Religious Establishment under the United Kingdom’s Human Rights Act,” in Law and Religion, ed. Rex J. Ahdar (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2000), 145.
88816.Grace Davie “Religion in Modern Britain,” in Religion and Politics: East-West Contrasts from Contemporary Europe, ed. Tom Inglis, Zdzislaw Mach, Rafal Mazanek (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2000), 145.
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