Crucifixes and Snowflakes: Exploring entanglements between music and religion in diverse schools

This article foregrounds children of migrant backgrounds attending Irish schools and discusses their experiences of the entanglements between music and religion as realised in intercultural school settings. Considering the pivotal role that religion has played in official and vernacular discourses, as well as heated debates around migration, the article focuses on individual agency in negotiating and navigating diverse learning settings, while asserting personal identity and accommodating multiple other’s identities. The article situates the discussion within the resonances of European sonic and cultural politics that shape public space and carve identities deemed appropriate, as well as the realities of the Irish school system and its religious legacies. The discussion revolves around ethnographic vignettes that illustrate the tangible and implicit entanglements of religion with musicking and learning in diverse school settings. It discusses the delicate dynamics among all participants and elaborates particularly on childrens’ experiences of them. The analysis of the examples considers the particular ways in which music may be experienced and thus mediate the entanglements between religion and education, informing children’s experiences of their diverse and intercultural learning settings, as shaped by people’s migratory trajectories and institutional policies.