Unit 2: Inclusive Practices – Blog Post 2: Faith, Religion and Belief

Throughout this unit, I have found myself returning to questions about the assumptions that quietly shape educational environments. Much of my own thinking has centred around access, participation and belonging, but this workshop encouraged me to consider how faith, religion and belief intersect with these questions in ways that often remain unseen. As someone who would describe myself as more spiritual than religious, I realised I was approaching these conversations from a particular positionality. Although faith has not been central to my own experience of education, the workshop prompted me to think more carefully about how easily institutions can reflect particular worldviews without consciously recognising that they are doing so.

What stayed with me most was how many of the examples we discussed appeared relatively small in isolation. Prayer spaces, timetabling during Ramadan, alcohol-centred social events, dietary requirements and childcare responsibilities might each seem like practical considerations, yet together they reveal how educational environments are often organised around an assumed norm. These everyday decisions communicate something about who has been considered during the design of an institution and who may instead be required to adapt.

The workshop also prompted me to think more deeply about visibility. Whilst some expressions of faith are immediately recognisable through clothing, symbols or daily practices, many are not. Equally, some students may choose not to disclose aspects of their faith or belief because of previous experiences of stereotyping, prejudice or misunderstanding. Rekis (2023) argues that people of faith can experience epistemic injustice, where their knowledge and lived experiences are misunderstood or afforded less credibility because of assumptions associated with their religious identity. I found this idea particularly powerful because it extends beyond questions of access and into questions of whose knowledge is considered legitimate within higher education.

Whilst the current MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures cohort reflects a range of religious identities, 13% of students chose not to disclose their religion through institutional processes (UAL, 2025). This statistic reminded me that institutional data can never fully capture students’ lived experiences or the reasons why someone may choose not to disclose aspects of their identity. Rather than treating this as missing information, I found myself thinking about what remains invisible within institutional datasets and how much of students’ lives sits beyond what universities are able to record.

Thinking through Kimberlé Crenshaw’s (1990) concept of intersectionality also reinforced to me that faith is never experienced in isolation. Religion intersects with race, gender, culture, migration and class in complex ways, shaping how people move through institutions and how they are perceived by others. The experiences of visibly Muslim women, for example, cannot be separated from wider conversations about gendered Islamophobia, racialisation and public visibility (Ramadan, 2022). These discussions emphasised that institutional policies or practices that appear neutral can still have unequal consequences for different communities.

Appiah’s (2014) suggestion that religion cannot be understood as either wholly good or wholly bad also resonated with me. Instead, he describes it as something deeply entwined with culture, family, history and identity. This felt particularly relevant within art and design education, where students often draw on their lived experiences as a source of creative practice and critical inquiry. If we encourage students to bring themselves into the learning environment, we also need to recognise that faith and belief may be part of that identity, whether visible or not.

This workshop also encouraged me to reflect on practices that I often take for granted within my own teaching. I regularly use embodied activities, reflective exercises and moments of collective dialogue to encourage connection and collaboration. Whilst these approaches are important to me, I have begun asking myself whose cultural, spiritual or religious experiences they might unintentionally privilege, and where greater choice or alternative ways of participating may be needed. This feels less about finding the “right” approach and more about remaining attentive to the assumptions built into the ways I design learning experiences.

I have come away from this workshop asking different questions than the ones I arrived with. Rather than asking whether a space is inclusive, I find myself wondering what has been normalised within it. What practices feel familiar because they reflect my own experiences? Whose beliefs, rituals or ways of understanding the world might already be present in the room, even if they remain unseen? I don’t think these questions have straightforward answers, but they feel important to keep returning to. They remind me that inclusive practice begins with curiosity, careful listening and a willingness to continually question the assumptions we carry into our teaching.

References

Advance HE (2018) Religion and Belief: Student Inclusion, Access, Experience and Learning. York: Advance HE.

Appiah, K.A. (2014) Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). TED. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY (Accessed: 15 July 2026).

Crenshaw, K. (1990) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp. 1241–1299.

Ramadan, T. (2022) When Faith Intersects with Gender: The Challenges and Successes in the Experiences of Muslim Women Academics. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/ (Accessed: 15 July 2026).

Rekis, J. (2023) ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Hypatia, 38, pp. 779–800.

University of the Arts London (2025) Student Profiles – Summary Grids: MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures, 2025/26. Internal student profile dashboard. Accessed: 10 July 2026.