Disciplines
• Education
• Teaching
• Special Education
Historical roles:
Religion has played a key role in the formation
of educational institutions in the United
States. Our oldest and most prestigious
universities were initially schools for
religious study, and they have evolved along
the path of the Enlightenment and the Great
Awakening. Early elementary schools taught
reading by way of religious text, and often
the first words read by a school-age child
in the 18th and 19th centuries were from
the Bible. Understanding these foundational
roles helps one understand some of the current
debates in society related to issues such
as the teaching of evolution, the use of
intelligent design in the classroom, prayer
in schools and other issues of debate. There
is a religious undertone to these discussions
that goes beyond mere belief; some of it
is based on tradition and how religion and
education were once combined more tightly
in the United States.
In addition, the spread
of religion throughout the world is highly
linked to education. Seminaries have handed
down the Christian faith for centuries,
as those studying other faiths such as Islam,
Buddhism and Judaism have received instruction
firsthand from the top minds within those
belief systems. But it was not only religion
that was taught. Monasteries were centers
for study on topics such as astronomy, science
and geography. The spread of Christianity
can often be tracked as a side-by-side surge
along with non-religious ideas based on
study done in religious institutions. These
models and teaching structures help us understand
education as we know it today, and it also
offers glimpses in to how we can better
teach and train students to have open and
thoughtful minds.
Higher education:
The rise of religious universities in terms
of attendance and prestige has been an oft-covered
topic in the news media in recent years.
The schools offer a liberal arts education
with a religious emphasis, and it is useful
to study the trends to examine why students
are sometimes choosing these schools over
elite schools such as Harvard. Also, the
issue of education vs. indoctrination is
worth examining at these schools, both in
terms of understanding as well as whether
these are religious reactions to what is
seen as a similar secular model in public
institutions. Another issue facing higher
education is how to encourage religious
diversity at schools without promoting it
or discriminating against particular religions.
Research that attempts to identify the core
issues in this debate would fit well with
the Center's mission to help religious understanding
become more integrated within a diverse
public.
Public schools:
No issue related to religion and education
has received more media coverage in the
past 20 years than the debate over prayer
in public schools. But public schools have
also seen clashes over topics such as abstinence
education, intelligent design, evolution,
religious clubs and the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Center's mission can help those going
into public school education in two ways.
First, teachers will be interacting with
students of religious background every day,
and learning more about these debates will
also help the instructor understand the
diversity of the students they teach. Secondly,
the Center's focus on the specific interaction
of religion and public life is useful to
the educator attempting to navigate the
intersection of those two worlds.
Government and parochial
schools: The issue of funding private
and parochial schools is one that has been
debated for years. The educator faces two
questions in this public debate. The first
is over how to respond to possible changes
that could occur in their own classroom
in terms of diversity if school voucher
initiatives are allowed. Secondly, it is
an issue of public funding and equal opportunity
for those students who choose to remain
in public schools. It is important for educators
and education researchers to be familiar
with such issues, which could change the
landscape of the field very quickly.
Religion & Public
Education
Religion
& Education
Journal
of Beliefs and Values Studies in Religion
& Education
Journal of Education & Religious Belief
Journal
of Education & Christian Belief
Teaching
Theology & Religion
Religious
Education
American
Academy of Religion Syllabi Search
Religion
and Education
Eric Michael Mazur
Bucknell University
American Academy of Religion
American Association of Christian Schools
Association of Christian Teachers
Association of Classical & Christian Schools
Association of Jewish Teachers
Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America
Christian Academics
Christian Educators Association International
Faculty Commons
Jewish Early Childhood Association
Jewish Educators Assembly
National Catholic Educational Association
Society for Classical Learning
Society for Values in Higher Education
• See a full list of professional associations and resources here.
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