What to do if assignment is against student's religion?

Question

What is the proper course of action if while teaching an undergraduate or even secondary school course an assignment violates the religious beliefs of a student?

For a more concrete example of where this might happen, let us consider an art class with a Muslim student (Disclamer: I am not an adherent to, or scholar of, Islam; please forgive me for any misunderstandings this post might contain):

Within Islam it is considered haram (forbidden by God) [1] to produce images of non-plant living creatures (including humans), this is called tasweer.[2]

Now if I were to assign a portrait of a person to the class as an assignment, what would be the most ethical option, should a student raise a concern to me about this? Would it be appropriate to assign an alternate assignment?

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[1]: Similar to a christian sin, but with a stronger connotation from what I can tell; literally: taboo.

[2]: I believe this is from a hadith, but one that is deemed to be the most accurate/reliable.

Answer 1

If you can make an accommodation that allows the student to participate

• without violating his religious observance, and
• without compromising the educational goals of the class, and
• without requiring an extreme amount of effort on your part,

then it is reasonable to make the accommodation.

I regularly miss classes and exams due to religious observance. My school has a very clear policy on the matter:

• If students have to miss a class session, exam, or are otherwise unable to participate in a course requirement due to religious observance, they must notify the professor and a certain dean in a timely manner (the definition of "a timely manner" is further specified in the policy)
• If said student follows the above requirement, they cannot be penalized for their religious observance and the professor must offer a fair alternative (e.g., makeup exam or assignment)

If your university has no policy on the matter, feel free to adopt mine, and specify it in your syllabus at the beginning of the semester.

However, I would not take a class where I know the main requirement of a class would violate my religious observance. Indeed, I know people who have refrained from pursuing a career because a non-negotiable required class for that field would require something that violates their religious observance. *

So, if the course is Figure Drawing and someone registers knowing that he cannot draw the human figure... I don't think you are required to let him pass the class by doing still lives instead. If the course is Introduction to Art for Non-Majors, it may be possible to offer an alternative to the portrait assignment.

This applies more generally as well. If a student in good faith (i.e., not to get out of doing work) considers an assignment

• illegal,
• unethical,
• compromising to his health/safety,
• etc.

it seems reasonable to offer an alternative assignment if it does not compromise the educational goals of the course.

* See: Can a Kohen become a doctor?

Answer 2

It's not the job of places of learning to give way to superstition. Indeed, quite the reverse: the whole Enlightenment Project was about bringing light into darkness, and all the Academia I'm familiar with puts itself broadly in the Enlightenment tradition.

So yes, this answer will read as uncompromising. Because, from experience, I've found that rigorous education is incompatible with compromising that rigour in favour of molly-coddling someone's religious beliefs.

There is no sane middle ground. If you're going to start compromising the quality of your teaching to avoid offending someone's belief, you'll quickly find yourself running out of space. Someone's going to get offended that you're teaching males and females at the same time, sat next to each other. Someone's going to get offended that anyone's drawing the human figure, let alone that they have to. Someone's going to get offended that you don't mention their pet crank theory alongside science as if they were somehow of equal merit.

If a particular course's actions are in contradiction to a student's religion, then there are two routes here. If the student is legally a child, then the student completes the actions - they are under the school's guardianship when in school. If the student is legally an adult, then they have the problem, and it's not fair on any of the other students that they should make their problem, the institution's problem. They can either fail that part of the course, or they can do the work.

If a student's beliefs contradict knowledge, science or art, that's not the problem of the place of learning. That's the problem of the student.

If this is about children, then the responsible adults are guilty of abuse, for bringing that state of affairs about, and the school should do as much as it reasonably can to make amends for that failure. Note that I am not saying that a religious upbringing is necessarily abuse. I am saying that teaching children nonsense such as creationism is abuse, because it can cripple that child's future opportunities.

If this is about adults, then they've taken responsibility for failing that part of their education, and should be marked down accordingly.

This has been something of a hot topic in Britain recently, where the teaching of creationism and other ignorances is on the rise, where state-funded schools have been breaking equality laws by selecting staff on the basis of gender, sexuality and religion, and where pressure has been put on educational establishments to subvert the teaching of several branches of knowledge, including the censoring of some exam questions on evolution, and the censoring of two university atheist society's display of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and of "Jesus and Mo" t-shirts, because these were inconsistent with some extremist religous interpretations.

Academia is the bulwark against ignorance and superstition.

I'm not saying that religion = ignorance and superstition. Creationism = ignorance and superstition. Refusing to draw the human figure = ignorance and superstition. Avoiding listening to or playing music = ignorance and superstition. Preventing females from being educated = ignorance and superstition.

Answer 3

If the student chooses, or sucumbs to parental directives to refuse some components of education, then the student or their parents have to accept that they can't achieve so much in that realm. One day the student will have to make A PERSONAL CHOICE as to their direction. Offering them a free ride is not appropriate to that choice. If they persist with their choice, to not participate in some aspects of the multicultural society they live in, then they surely will be happy that they are not 'infected' with whatever perceived ill they deem to spring from the offensive activities.

Why do they want to be seen as masters (ie high grade scorers) of a system they partially or wholly reject? Do we really want to teach children to lie to themselves and others like this?

Make your choices (yes, even as a child) and take the consequences.

Answer 4

You really cannot expect that the assignment should be counted as done just because of your religion. However, if you are a student,

• Try to ask the professor to adapt the assignment. If picturing humans is not allowed, maybe picturing geometric figures is ok.
• Ask representative of your religion if the activity is really disallowed in your context. Most of religious restrictions are about actions, not about studying (may be exceptions of course).
• If you know you should drop studies but are too weak to do this, the representative of your religion may just forgive you.

If you are the person teaching, you may think about adapting course (is the disallowed activity essential?) and still check with representative of religion if the students do not interpret restrictions unnecessarily broadly. Additionally, you may discuss with your administration the possibility to suggest the alternative but equally serious and difficult course for such students. Some universities like Zurich ETH allow to choose between many alternative courses, with only small percent being mandatory.

Still, if there are many assignments contradicting the religion, this probably shows that it may be lots more problems at work later. If you are not allowed to kill, that is the point of attempting the carrier of the jet fighter pilot? Even if you can actually study, saying nobody is killed in flight simulator or during bombing tests, this may not make much sense.

Answer 5

I think this depends on what level you are teaching at. Below college-level I think you may need to find an alternative (but just as difficult or more difficult) assignment.

It is a slippery-slope when people institute their private beliefs on a teacher's assignment. It is not like the assignment was for them to go to a Sunday mass. If the assignment was hitting a lot of religious notes, you as the teacher should have a plan. Have the students/parents sign-off on the topics/assignments or offer them another assignment to do.

If we are talking college level courses the assignments and tests should be on your syllabus. If they don't want to do them then they can drop out of your class or they can get an F on the assignment.

As a teacher you are trying to teach them a skillset. If that includes something that is against their beliefs they shouldn't get to pass the class because they don't have the knowledge/skill. There is just too much grey area here and obviously the students could tell you whatever they want and it allows for animosity from students that have to do the assignments.

Answer 6

As an educator, the most appropriate response is to immediately escalate the matter in a neutral way - present only the facts. The educational institution has staff and lawyers to interpret scenarios like this and provide recommendations to the teacher. I would not recommend making any immediate compromises or snap-judgements with the student. Educating students is stressful enough. Let those who specialize in this type of issue resolve it, and you can focus on the education of your students.

Answer 7

I'm going to have to disagree with the majority on this post that you should adapt your assessment for the student if this is a college level or university level course.

Absolutely students who miss exams/class/need extensions due to religious observance should be accommodated. But at a college or university level, if a student disagrees or does not feel they can complete a particular assessment due to religious observance they shouldn't take the class. Assessments and topics are laid out in the beginning of the course, plenty of time for that student to switch classes. There's a difference regarding the style of assessment which can be altered (i.e. an exam to an essay) and the content being assessed, which is generally what would be the controversial subject.

I teach a number of controversial subjects because I'm situated in gender studies/sociology. A number of the courses I teach have controversial material and assessment tasks that are not well-suited for everyone. Many students find the material confronting, and yes, I have absolutely encountered students who find it too uncomfortable. My response? I am sympathetic to their issues, but their only option is to drop the class. A subject such as gender studies is a controversial subject, and when we delve into critical examinations of things like women and pornography, or men's aggression and violence, I cannot 'water it down' so it's accessible for those who find said material confronting. Otherwise, there's no point in teaching it.

Any student who does have a particular religious observance needs to take the time to review the course syllabus and get in contact with the unit coordinator before the start of the course. If the syllabus is not available prior to enrolling, they should still get in contact to discuss their concerns and determine whether or not the course is a valid option for them.

At some point, students have to take responsibility for their own choices regarding what classes they will take. They cannot expect to be accommodated to the point of completing a completely different assessment task to everyone else because the material is too confronting or is in direct violation to their religious observance. While the style of assessment can change (i.e. a student with a disability might prefer a take-home exam over a traditional sit-in exam) the content needs to remain the same.

Your example of an art class is a tricky one though. It would depend as to whether figure drawing is the main purpose of the course (in which perhaps the drawing of a naked figure makes up a huge portion of the assessment task/overall grade?) or if it's a relatively small component (like 5-10%?). If relatively small, they can skip it and forfeit the grade if they are able to complete everything else.

Answer 8

I think the solution depends on wether the method used to reach the education objective is problematic or if it's the actual education objective itself.

I have observed this kind of situation as fellow student. We have here a religious branch that forbids watching television. On a course about topic A, we had an exercise where we were supposed to watch several episodes from a TV series and observe topic A related things from characters. In this kind of case where the topic A itself has nothing to do with the problematic method, I think it's reasonable to accommodate student, if possible. In this case student was allowed to do the exercise from book instead of TV-series, and observe topic A related things from those characters.

Had the course topic been related to media or cinematography, and the method (watching TV-series) itself would have been important to reach the education objective (such as observing how lights or cuts or positioning was done in the TV-series), then I don't think accommodation has to be made. It is up to the student to realize that the course topic itself causes problems and either decide not to take it, or just do the exercises anyway.

Answer 9

I really do not believe religious beliefs should be THAT much considered. Islam also suggests that you should not be in the same classroom with opposite sex (also haram). Then why is that student studying in university?

Another question is, what if I believe in HurdyGurdyism and the letter F is very much sin in my religion? Then should you not give me an F?

Every belief is of course deserve respect, but I don't believe the purpose of conducting science is much more holier. All and all, the place is where you conduct science, not a sanctuary.

Answer 10

Educational institutions are not there to reaffirm religious beliefs. Anyone with a drivers license has already violated this belief. My heartless opinion on the matter is you do the assignment (or come up with the closest possible alternative) or you fail. How is not doing it for religious reasons different than just not doing it? Its also an insult to all those that did do it, particularly the ones that struggled through it.

Answer 11

The most important thing first: it is not your job to know every religion, belief or variation of it, it is up to the student or his/her parents to tell you beforehand what they cannot accept in class. Even between two of the same religion, no one can tell how direct one rule is taken by the one or the other. That said, your responsibility however is to give your students and their parents enough time in advance to notify you of potential issues.

If you work with a class where this can be an issue, a good idea would be to write down the topics for the upcoming course and hand it over to your students, and then explain why you are doing this. Depending on the age of your students, they might misunderstand this as cheating away from class. In addition you should give your students the chance for a fair alternative. If such alternative is not obvious, you should talk to the student or the parents in question to find one. If drawing an animated object is considered a sin, you could hand out a picture of someone to draw. Whether or not this complies to the religion, I however cannot tell.

Religion is nothing you can come by with logic, people believe the strangest things. For some of them compromises can be found, for others probably not. It is a good thing to try to find a compromise but in strange cases also valid to refuse them. If one's religion for example expects that boys and girls are taught in separate rooms, the only thing you can offer to the parents is for their child to change school.

Also you need to keep in mind how the other students will treat a kid, which is the reason why they can't do something they want, cannot watch a certain movie or must skip topics they would have been interested in. Some things they can accept if it is explained properly, others probably not. And in the later case it might be for the better of the kid in question to not give into the believes, as the "torture" following that would be much worse.