Reasonable accommodations and security agendas in multicultural societies: Secular and faith-based approaches to citizenship education in Canada, France and England

Abstract

In liberal democracies citizenship education is a form of secular worldviews education that focuses on politics and promotes human rights as universal principles. Canada, a bilingual federal state with connections to both Britain and France, illustrates both a liberal nationalist approach, comparable to Britain, in the Anglophone provinces, and radically secularist policies, comparable to France, in the province of Quebec. In a context of global migration and demographic diversity, Canada was a notable pioneer in developing educational responses to its state policies of multiculturalism and human rights. Canadian scholars Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka developed theories of recognition and reasonable accommodation that accepted religion as both a marker of identity and a set of principles to inform behaviour and decisions. However, national security agendas have also driven education policy in Canada and Europe in response to terrorism motivated by ideological interpretations of religion. Security concerns curtail freedom of religious expression in secularist traditions but also in liberal traditions that recognise the salience of religion. The article argues that education for cosmopolitan citizenship challenges security agendas based on promoting nationalism and that recognition and reasonable accommodation are more likely to promote social cohesion and preserve traditions of democracy and human rights.