Syncretism as a Creative Act of Mind: The Narratives of Children from Four Faith Communities in London

In this paper, we illustrate how young children from four faith communities (Tamil Hindu/Saiva, Bangladeshi Muslim, Polish Catholic and Ghanaian Pentecostal) new to London bring together and juxtapose an array of different languages, literacies, learning and discourse styles, communicative resources and experience to create unique personal narratives. We draw on the concepts of syncretism and syncretic literacy to examine and interpret the creative and transformative processes in which children engage, and to show how children combine and ultimately make sense of faith and everyday experiences.