Children’s Beliefs and Belonging: A Schools and Families Report from the ‘Making Communion’ study

This report provides an overview of a research study of childhood and social change in the Republic of Ireland. The study is called ‘Making Communion: Disappearing and Emerging Forms of Childhood in Ireland’. Most of the fieldwork was carried out over six weeks in early 2013. The study focused on four school communities in Ireland of varying sizes and histories of formation. A major part of the study involved examining children’s beliefs, values and the forms of belonging available to them in both religious and non-religious terms. This report explores this part ofthe study.