Systems of Indoctrination: Accelerated Christian Education in England

330 Pages·2017·6.68 MB·English

by  Jonny Scaramanga

Systems of Indoctrination:
Accelerated Christian
Education in England

Jonathan Theodore Scaramanga
UCL Institute of Education

Thesis submitted for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Education

17 March 2017

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Abstract
Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) is an individualised curriculum used in
some private schools. It is known for its conservative Protestant stance and
largely literal interpretation of the Bible, and for teaching every academic
subject from a biblical perspective. ACE claims the curriculum is used in more
than 6,000 schools worldwide, but there has so far been minimal academic
research into the curriculum or students’ experiences of it.

I attended an ACE school for some of my secondary education, and this thesis
combines reflections on my experiences and analysis of qualitative interviews
with students who were educated at ACE schools in England. These interviews
give a sense of what it is like to attend an ACE school, students’ perceptions of
their education and its effect on their subsequent lives.

ACE promotional materials have in the past said the system is “designed for
programming the mind to see life from God’s point of view”. From a liberal
perspective, this raises concerns about indoctrination. I conceptualise
indoctrination as education which makes students closed-minded, and argue
that closed-mindedness is linked to cognitive biases and cognitive dissonance. I
then examine ways in which ACE is likely to instill closed-mindedness in its
students through the use of forced compliance, conformity pressures, and
extrinsic rewards.

While some participants found their ACE experience beneficial, the majority
experienced inadequate education, sexism, homophobia, excessive
punishment, and discrimination against those considered ‘ungodly’. Many
participants described continued effects of indoctrination despite their rejection
of ACE’s teachings. Inspection reports from ACE schools do not indicate
awareness of these issues. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the
possible effects of increased regulation on these schools.
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Acknowledgements

My supervisor, Professor Michael Reiss, whose support, advice, humour, and
astonishingly fast email replies made this writing thesis much less of a chore
than it might otherwise have been.

Mum, for (amongst other things) funding this PhD. I hope you will forgive
yourself for sending me to that school now.

Sarah, for supporting me constantly while disconfirming everything I learned in
school about gender roles.

For invaluable feedback: My upgrade examiners John O’Regan and John
Vorhaus; internal reader Judith Suissa; proof readers Katherine Steiner and
Caroline Whitaker; Adam Laats, Martin Poulter, John Tillson, Evie Mylona, Helen
Young, Michael Gallagher, and David Waldock.

Pete Wilson, Jon Stewart, and Neill Thew, whose glowing references and
encouragement in my earlier academic endeavours enabled me to start this
doctorate.

For donating money which enabled me to buy PACEs examined in this thesis:
readers of my blog and members of Winchester Skeptics in the Pub.

Bridget Davey, Cat Givens, Kylie Sturgess, and Lydia Wills, who obtained for me
rare material from Australia and the USA.

Picture credits:
Figure 1.1: Bill Kennedy. Reproduced with permission of Rutherford B. Hayes
Library and Museums.

Figure 1.2: Aram McLean.

Figures 3.1, 8.1, and 8.2: Reproduced with permission from Accelerated
Christian Education.

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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES 9
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 10
1.1 NEW CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS 17
1.2 NUMBER OF SCHOOLS 19
1.3 STANDARDISATION 20
1.4 ACE AND FUNDAMENTALISM 21
1.5 HOWARD’S VISION FOR EDUCATION 24
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 27
2.1 ACCELERATED CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 27
2.1.1 HISTORIES 30
2.1.2 ACADEMIC REVIEWS 31
2.1.3 INTOLERANCE 33
2.1.4 GENDER 35
2.1.5 POLITICS 35
2.1.6 EMPIRICAL RESEARCH 36
2.2 NEW CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS 40
2.2.1 CURRENT STUDENTS 41
2.2.2 FORMER STUDENTS 43
2.3 INDOCTRINATION 45
2.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 48
CHAPTER 3 CHANGES TO ACE 49
3.1 THIRD EDITION COMPARISONS 51
3.2 FOURTH EDITION COMPARISONS 54
3.2.1 SECOND LEVEL 55
3.2.2 FOURTH LEVEL 55
3.2.3 SEVENTH LEVEL 55
3.2.4 CARTOONS 56
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3.2.5 PEDAGOGY 58
3.3 APARTHEID 59
3.4 CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 61
3.5 NESSIE 64
3.6 DRIVERS OF CHANGE 65
CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY 67
4.1 EPISTEMOLOGY 67
4.1.1 EPISTEMOLOGY OF INTERVIEWS 67
4.2 OBJECTIVITY 70
4.3 ANALYTIC AUTOETHNOGRAPHY 74
4.4 INTERVIEWS 76
4.4.1 QUESTIONNAIRES 76
4.4.2 QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWING 77
4.5 RECRUITMENT 78
4.6 ETHICS 83
4.6.1 ANONYMITY 84
4.7 INTERVIEW GUIDE 84
4.8 THEMATIC ANALYSIS 89
CHAPTER 5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 93
5.1 INDOCTRINATION 93
5.2 SYSTEMS OF INDOCTRINATION 98
5.3 WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE 100
5.3.1 SOCIAL PROOF 100
5.3.2 COMMITMENT AND CONSISTENCY 103
5.4 SOCIAL IDENTITY 108
5.5 POWER 109
5.5.1 HEGEMONY 111
5.6 INDOCTRINATION IN ACE SCHOOLS 112
5.6.1 BIBLICAL INERRANCY 112
5.6.2 DEFENCE MECHANISMS 113
5.6.3 HELL 114
5.6.4 PEDAGOGY 115
5.6.5 INDUCED COMPLIANCE 117
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5.6.6 REWARDS 118
5.6.7 INDOCTRINATORY SYSTEMS 119
CHAPTER 6 ACE’S STRENGTHS 122
6.1 PRO-ACE PARTICIPANTS 124
6.2 CHRISTIAN DISTINCTIVENESS 127
6.3 ACE DISTINCTIVENESS 129
6.4 DRAWBACKS 130
CHAPTER 7 PERCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 133
7.1 POSITIVE EXPERIENCES 137
7.2 TRANSITIONS TO UNIVERSITY 140
7.3 TRANSITIONS TO OTHER SCHOOLS 142
CHAPTER 8 GENDER 147
8.1 BENEVOLENT, HOSTILE, AND AMBIVALENT SEXISM 147
8.1.1 AMBIVALENT SEXISM IN PACES 148
8.2 MODESTY 152
8.3 SEXUAL PURITY 162
8.4 SEX EDUCATION 166
8.5 GENDER AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION 170
CHAPTER 9 PUNISHMENT 179
9.1 OTHER PUNISHMENTS 184
9.2 SHAMING 186
9.3 VERBAL PUNISHMENTS 187
9.4 JEREMIAH 188
CHAPTER 10 CHARISMATIC WORSHIP 191
10.1 PROPHECIES 193
10.2 SPEAKING IN TONGUES 195
10.3 HEALING 195
10.4 DEMONS 196
10.5 RISKS 199
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CHAPTER 11 MENTAL HEALTH 200
CHAPTER 12 SOCIALISATION 206
12.1 RULES ABOUT EXTERNAL CONDUCT 210
12.2 SUBSEQUENT EFFECTS 211
12.3 CHRISTOCENTRISM 214
12.4 SAFEGUARDING 221
CHAPTER 13 INDOCTRINATION 224
13.1 AFTER-EFFECTS OF INDOCTRINATION 230
CHAPTER 14 LABELLING 236
CHAPTER 15 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION 247
15.1 WHAT IS IT LIKE TO ATTEND AN ACE SCHOOL? 247
15.2 WHAT EFFECTS HAS ACE HAD ON STUDENTS’ SUBSEQUENT LIVES? 251
15.3 HOW DO FORMER ACE STUDENTS PERCEIVE THE QUALITY OF THEIR EDUCATION? 254
15.4 INDOCTRINATION 255
15.5 ACCOUNTS AS EVIDENCE 256
15.6 DISCUSSION 258
15.6.1 ETHICAL DILEMMAS 258
15.6.2 EDUCATIONAL CONCERNS 259
15.6.3 SATISFIED STUDENTS 261
15.6.4 POSITIVES 264
15.6.5 APPLICABILITY TO OTHER KINDS OF SCHOOL 264
15.6.6 REGULATION 265
15.7 INSPECTION 267
15.8 FUNDING 270
15.9 RECOMMENDATIONS 271
15.10 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 273
REFERENCES 275
APPENDIX 1 GUIDE TO ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY 295
APPENDIX 2 TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS 297
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APPENDIX 3 INFORMATION LETTER GIVEN TO PARTICIPANTS 298
APPENDIX 4 VALIDITY OF THE ICCE 300
APPENDIX 5 PACES REFERENCED 325

List of figures and tables

Figure 1.1 ‘Offices’ in an ACE learning centre 11

Figure 1.2 Student marking work at an ACE score station 12

Table 2.1 New Christian School Students’ Attitudes to Christianity 41

Table 2.2 Boys in New Christian Schools vs non-denominational 42

Table 3.1 Science PACE changes between revisions 52

Table 3.2 Social Studies PACE changes between revisions 52

Table 3.3 English PACE changes between revisions 53

Table 3.4 Lengths of PACEs 53

Figure 3.1 ACE ‘character strip’ 57

Table 4.1 Participants in order interviewed 83

Table 4.2 Categories of analysis 90

Table 8.1 Cartoon representations of gender by subject 149

Table 8.2 Cartoons featuring one or more of each gender by subject 149

Figure 8.1 ACE character strip depicting wife’s submission 150

Figure 8.2 ACE character strip depicting modest dress 154
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Chapter 1 Introduction
In 1996, I was 11 years old and preparing to go to secondary school. My
brother, six years older and attending the local comprehensive, told my parents
he did not think I would survive there. Where he had coped by keeping quiet
about his Christian faith, I was possessed of an evangelical fervour. He thought I
would be bullied. My parents felt I was getting “a hard attitude” to my mum,
answering back and showing early signs of teenage rebellion. They wanted to
put me in a safe, Christian environment where these tendencies would be
corrected.

Some of my dad’s university friends had started an Accelerated Christian
Education (ACE) school almost ten years earlier that I had attended as a pre-
schooler. My parents had never seriously considered it for my primary and
secondary schooling because it did not follow the National Curriculum or offer
recognised qualifications, but after my brother raised his concerns, they took
me to view the ACE school.

ACE schools are not like conventional schools. Even those aspects which are
similar have different names. This school had two ‘learning centres’
(classrooms), one for those under 12 and one for those above. Around the
perimeter of each learning centre were rows of ‘offices’ (desks), each separated
by vertical dividers (Figure 1.1). When I visited, the children were already at
work. The room was silent apart from soft panpipe music. The children
completed self-instructional ‘PACEs’ (workbooks). Every one of these was
written from a biblical perspective, so that Bible memorisation and spiritual
lessons were incorporated into the core subjects: English, maths, science, social
studies1, and word building (spelling).

1 A combination of history and geography, as well as some politics and
economics.
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