{"id":79612,"date":"2026-02-13T02:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=79612"},"modified":"2026-02-13T02:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:10:22","slug":"teens-see-social-media-more-than-school-as-the-place-to-learn-about-race-and-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/teens-see-social-media-more-than-school-as-the-place-to-learn-about-race-and-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Teens see social media, more than school, as the place to learn about race and faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

For most young people, learning about social and political issues doesn\u2019t start with a textbook. It starts with a phone.<\/p>\n

While debates intensify about whether to impose a\u00a0social media ban<\/a>\u00a0on under-16s in the UK, it\u2019s important to consider how social media can be a route for learning as well as potential harm.<\/p>\n

Young people aged 14-15 are at a\u00a0crucial stage<\/a>\u00a0in terms of their developing awareness of and engagement with political issues.\u00a0Our research<\/a>\u00a0with more than 3,000 young people in year ten (ages 14 and 15) in schools across England found that 75% said they learned most about social and political issues online, including on social media.<\/p>\n

This is far more than the 47% who (also) said they learned most about this at school. At the same time, though, only 21% said they were comfortable sharing their views on such issues online: 60% don\u2019t share their views online.<\/p>\n

Learning about race and faith equality doesn\u2019t just mean learning about anti-racist movements like Black Lives Matter, for example. It also refers to the ways that young people, including those from diasporic and global majority backgrounds, develop their identities and values as citizens of the UK and the world.<\/p>\n

Young people\u00a0in our study<\/a>\u00a0described various ways they used online spaces to engage around race and faith issues. These included looking things up on established news sources like the BBC, and using news alerts on their phone. Apps like Instagram and TikTok were useful to some for updates from their extended family abroad, or to get direct information. This could include information from Gaza, for instance, where outside journalists have not been allowed in.<\/p>\n

Some were wary of getting information from apps such as TikTok and YouTube, because they were regarded as potentially spreading false information and stereotypes about particular migrant communities, or presenting extremes. This wariness led them to crosscheck what they had seen on social media with news journalism that verifies its sources.<\/p>\n

Further analysis of the survey \u2013 to be published in our forthcoming book \u2013 showed that most were cautious about sharing their views on social issues online. Statistically speaking, girls were also less comfortable than boys, and young people with Black, African and Caribbean backgrounds were less comfortable than their white peers sharing their views online.<\/p>\n

But social media could also act as a sounding board for critically reflecting on, and emotionally processing events. For instance, a south-Asian Muslim girl felt that hearing other people\u2019s opinions on an experience of discrimination can allow one to have multiple perspectives on what happened.<\/p>\n

Learning from social media<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Arguably, the fact that young people are often sceptical about what they see online is a positive outcome of their secondary online and media literacy education. But our research suggests that young people go online because they can\u2019t get the information they need at school. Young people in rural areas, as well as those with Black, African and Caribbean backgrounds,\u00a0raised particular concerns<\/a>\u00a0about school as a place to discuss race and faith issues. Those in lower-income areas also showed lower expectations that such issues would be discussed at school.<\/p>\n

Government policy<\/a>\u00a0has for many years made it hard for schools to teach about race and faith equality in particular. One reason for this is that exam pressure in years ten and eleven (aged 14-16) leads schools to consign direct teaching about equality issues to years seven to nine.<\/p>\n

But more fundamentally, the content of the curriculum, including\u00a0history<\/a>, is heavily geared towards a white British and European worldview.\u00a0Citizenship education<\/a>\u00a0has been neglected in favour of traditional academic subjects, and so equality issues are addressed in occasional Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons.<\/p>\n

More problematically, schools have had to walk a delicate line when it comes to talking about political issues. In recent years, schools have been warned that teaching white privilege as a fact in schools is\u00a0unlawful<\/a>, and that they must ensure they teach topics relating to\u00a0Israel and Palestine<\/a>\u00a0neutrally.<\/p>\n

We found education stakeholders including local authority advisers, teacher unions and community organisations\u00a0are concerned<\/a>\u00a0about the lack of support for teachers to engage these and other issues accurately. This concern is something current policymaking, including the curriculum and assessment review, has\u00a0not meaningfully addressed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising, then, that only 38% of young people felt comfortable sharing their views at school. While this is a higher proportion than shared their views online, we would expect a much higher result from school if obstacles to sharing views there were removed. Such obstacles include concern about peer judgement, being disciplined, or because they felt they had to sideline their feelings, have a \u201cthick skin\u201d and focus on their studies to \u2013 paradoxically \u2013 get ready for \u201cthe real world\u201d.<\/p>\n

We need to carefully consider and balance young people\u2019s rights both to protection and to information in school and online.\u00a0Our recommendations<\/a>\u00a0call for much greater support for schools to negotiate race and faith issues, as taking away under-16s\u2019 access to social media without greater school-based support could be more counterproductive than protective.<\/p>\n

Author Bios:<\/strong> Karl Kitching is Professor of Public Education, Asl\u0131 Kandemir is a Research Fellow, Department of Management and Shajedur Rahman is an Honorary Research Fellow in Education all at the University of Birmingham<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most young people, learning about social and political issues doesn\u2019t start with a textbook. It starts with a phone. While debates intensify about whether to impose a\u00a0social media ban\u00a0on under-16s in the UK, it\u2019s important to consider how social media can be a route for learning as well as potential harm. Young people aged […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[1507],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-79612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTeens see social media, more than school, as the place to learn about race and faith - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/teens-see-social-media-more-than-school-as-the-place-to-learn-about-race-and-faith\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teens see social media, more than school, as the place to learn about race and faith - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For most young people, learning about social and political issues doesn\u2019t start with a textbook. 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