ABSTRACT
In courtrooms around the world, judges are increasingly being asked to decide upon issues of religion and belief in schooling, and these proceedings are often fraught because key human rights principles are at stake, and these can clash with strong opinions about education and schooling. This introductory chapter will explain the book’s background and main themes, and give an outline of the subsequent chapters. It opens with a vignette, based on one decision of the European Court of Human Rights, Dojan et al. v. Germany, in 2011. The case concerned Evangelical Christian parents who wanted to remove their children from sex and relationships education in a primary school, as well as from the school’s celebrations of Fastnacht (Carnival, on Shrove Tuesday). The case illustrates the entanglement of educational and legal issues around religion and belief. Next, the chapter sets out my research interest in the area. Having previously worked as a lawyer and then as a religious education teacher in England, this academic study is positioned within my own professional autobiography. The remaining nine chapters are set out to give a sense of the overall line of argument.
