Professor James O'Higgins Norman:

I apologise. I meant to answer that question already. It links with what has been said by my colleague, Dr. Gorman, about schools having hegemonic cultures, in terms of a set of assumptions about everybody and the way people will live their lives. We are in a particular place in our society in which we have become more pluralist. Things have changed and it is no surprise people who practise religion, and maybe practise the Catholic religion, are increasingly in the minority, especially young children and teenagers in schools.

One of the studies we has done recently has shown a concern among religion teachers about what they are observing among students who are practising Catholics and are being targeted for that, more than a concern about kids who are not practising a religion. That is coming through now and sits well with international research on that, in that when a particular world view or religion has had a dominant position in society and that changes, it often results in those who adhere to that being targeted and being seen as old-fashioned or out of the mainstream culture. With bullying, when people are seen to be different, they often stand out and are more likely to be targeted when it comes to bullying.

In terms of addressing that, we need to promote in our schools an idea of the understanding of difference, that difference is the norm, no two people are the same. All our teacher training, continuing professional development, and curricula across the whole school programme must be linked to the understanding of a human being, where we understand that difference is a good thing and that we appreciate that. That calls for the need to look at what we teach, the way we teach and who is teaching in our schools, and the assumptions that underline all of that. Dr. Keating might like to come in on that.