THE CHURCH AND THE CITY

Abstract

This article mingles stories and concepts of young Jewish Israeli children about God, with reflections on the roles of faith, memory, imagination, and cognitive development in children's Religious Education. The stories are meant to illustrate, among other things, the purity and innocence of young children's faith, which is largely untroubled by fact. Then, using Vygotsky's notions of children's spontaneous concepts and the development of more mature and accurate conceptions in the “zone of proximal development,” a central dilemma in Religious Education will be explored. How can religious educators help young people acquire accurate historical information, textual skills, and theological methods of inquiry, while at the same time nurturing the precious flame of faith? Can we do better at combining systematic learning with pure faith? Toward this purpose, three complementary goals of Religious Education will be suggested: cognitive, practical/moral, and spiritual.     

The Imperative of Affirming Diverse Voices in the Envisioning of Pedagogies for Peaceful Coexistence

Abstract

Response to the Presidential Address by Professor Hanan A. Alexander from the University of Haifa in Israel, delivered at the 2019 Religious Education Association annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.     

A Willingness to Fail: Reflections on the 2018 Religious Education Association Conference

Abstract

The 2018 Religious Education Association (REA) meeting, Beyond White Normativity: Creating Brave Spaces shed light for many on the failure of the REA to effectively confront the reality of white racial bias within its systemic and structural practices. This essay reflects on four specific ways these challenges emerged during the 2018 session and highlights strategies for how the association might continue the effort to address explicit and implicit racism in its midst.     

Religious Education: Race,Dreams, and the Guild

Abstract

Introducing dreams of new centers for the guild, this article responds to the 2018 Religious Education Association's annual conference, "Beyond White Normativity." After remarks on embedded whiteness within religious education, I ask, "Can people of color be the center of the guild?" There is an opportunity if the guild focuses on love (specifically self-love for people of color) for a radical transformation of its practices, activities, behaviors, and dreams for religious educators of color and the guild. Can the nightmares caused by white systems of power be turned into dreams for scholars of color to experience love and community?     

Religious education in Russia: factors of non-religious parents’ choice

ABSTRACT

It was in 2012, when in Russian schools the subject ‘Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics’ was introduced. Parents of students are given the opportunity to choose from six different modules. Among the modules there are ‘Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture’, ‘Fundamentals of Islamic Culture’, ‘Fundamentals of Jewish Culture’, ‘Fundamentals of Buddhist Culture’, ‘Fundamentals of World Religious Cultures’, ‘Fundamentals of Secular Ethics’. However, the parents’ choice is due to a variety of objective and subjective factors. The purpose of this paper is to elicit the degree of influence of four factors on the choice of modules within the course of ‘Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics.’ To study the case, a polyethnic region of Russia – the Republic of Bashkortostan, has been chosen. In this paper, the influence of four factors will be gradually revealed: the ethnic factor, the religious factor, the urban factor, and the factor of the educational environment. Studying the influence of factors determining the choice of modules demonstrates that the choice of modules is a compromise of many parties of interest: parents, students, teachers, clergy, and educational institutions.     

“Our Divided Society—A Challenge to Religious Education”: REA’s 1969 National Convention and the Opening Up of Brave Conversations about Race and Religion

Abstract

The Religious Education Association (REA) selected as its theme for its 1969 National Convention, “Our Divided Society—A Challenge to Religious Education,” addressing, among other topics, issues of race and racism. Previously, the REA presented a mixed legacy in addressing racial injustice, remaining largely silent on such issues during the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, unlike the National Council of Churches, which had taken a prophetic stance early on. Thus, the 1969 convention’s theme opened up brave new spaces for the REA to address issues of race and racism in American society.     

Worldview in religious education: autobiographical reflections on The Commission on Religious Education in England final report

ABSTRACT

The notion of worldview figures prominently in the recent discourse surrounding Religious Education (RE) in English schools following the publication of the final report of the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) in 2018. This article reflects on the veracity of this initiative. It begins with an autobiographical reflection on the impact of worldview on the author’s development as a scholar. Then, the work of several critics of CoRE is discussed and a more nuanced understanding of worldview is developed as a result. Finally, the pedagogical implications of the shift to worldview are explored by drawing on the personal development approach of Michael Grimmitt and the responsible hermeneutics approach of Anthony Thiselton.     

The Last Step of Reason?

Abstract

Juridical ethics, as they have been called, are not a sufficient foundation of moral education. This has a richer base in visional and character ethics. Moral education requires a shift in focus from reversible thinking to ‘narrative’. Religious education has a necessary contribution to make in terms of integrating vision and of methodology.     

Some Old Wine and Some New Bottles: Religious and Moral Education in New Zealand

Abstract:

This article briefly describes and accounts for the present resurgence of interest in moral education in New Zealand. The tendency has been for moral education to be equated with sex education or religious instruction and the present debate stems in part from the former and spills over into the latter of these and is further complicated by a suggested merger between Church and State schools. The development of present legislation regarding religious instruction is traced and the current situation outlined. Religious and moral education in schools have, in the past, been matters of generally ineffective compromises which are likely to be perpetuated under a highly centralised situation with debate on a national, political level.     

REALITIES,VISIONS, AND PROMISES OF A MULTICULTURAL FUTURE

Religious education has changed considerably over the 100 years of the Religious Education Association (REA); urgency has increased for human communities to honor diversity. The focus of this article is realities, visions, and promises of cultural diversity. The article includes an overview of REA's recent history, exemplifying its efforts and limitations in diversity. It then turns to five commentaries on a multicultural future, drawing on autobiographical analysis, religious and educational literature, and empirical study. Authors explicate and argue for: engaging in post-colonial analysis, de-centering assumptions, searching for a story to claim, taking time, and entering deep waters.     

A comparative study of how social cohesion is taught in Islamic religious education in Finland and Ireland

Abstract

Based on classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers, parents and students, this comparative study looks at how social cohesion is promoted in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) lessons in Muslim schools in Ireland and non-faith schools in Finland. The study analyses teaching in the following areas: intra-religious cohesion; inter-religious cohesion and commitment to society. The findings reveal that despite differences in the governance of IRE as a subject taught in both types of schools, the IRE classroom emerges as a space, whereby teachers use power as agents for internal governance of religion. The authors conclude with some implications and offer some considerations for future research and practice.     

‘They’re True Stories? Yeah,No They’re Not’ Questions of Authenticity and Authority Raised by the Use of Comic Books to Represent Biblical Narratives in Religious Education

ABSTRACT

The affordances of the comic book medium facilitate individual, interpretive readings of narrative and as such challenge the notion of a single message or meaning. This article explores how secondary school students encounter and re-orientate themselves to personal concepts of religious and educational authority and authenticity as a consequence of reading a comic book biblical narrative in a Religious Education lesson. Through this encounter and dialogue with one another, they negotiate these concepts, the meanings of which are necessarily embedded in the social and are thus enabled to take a stance on competing truth claims. This article also considers the implications of rendering sacred texts as comic books.     

Citizenship,Secularity and the Ethics and Religious Culture Program of Quebec

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on some of the broader complexities of citizenship in Quebec, paying particular attention to the Quiet Revolution and Bill 60 (Charter of Values) in order to understand how these historical events shape contemporary politics. Using a case study of the Ethics and Religious Culture Program (ERC) in Quebec, we seek to highlight how political discourse shapes educational policies. Looking at the ERC’s Program Goals and the required professional posture of neutrality on the part of teachers, we discuss how citizenship in Quebec is currently examined. We conclude by suggesting that there is a continued need to understand what is meant by citizenship in Quebec, and in doing so, recognize which citizens of society are being marginalized and excluded.     

Project-based learning groups of friends and acquaintances: The role of efficacy beliefs

Abstract

This school-based study explored the role of collective and proxy efficacy beliefs in the performances of project-based learning teams comprising friends and acquaintances. Participants were 162 male students in Grade 8 who attended a Catholic high school, located in Sydney, Australia. Students were organized into 20 acquaintance groups and 21 friendship groups. Each group comprised 4 students who were completing project-based learning assignments in Geography, Religious Studies, and English. Data were self-reports and teacher-assessed group performance scores. Data collection occurred three times over a five-week period. Multilevel modeling was used to examine relationships between variables in the study. Statistically significant interactions involving group type, collective efficacy, and proxy efficacy were identified in Geography and Religious Studies. Implications are that it may be advantageous for teachers to assign students to friendship groups, provided they nurture collective efficacy, and that proxy efficacy may negatively affect group performance, depending on the context.     

The Relationship between Theory and Practice in a Dual Reporting Program

Abstract

The experiment wan conducted In an attempt to determine whether differences in personality, as measured by the Omnibus Personality Inventory-Form D, exists 1) among levels of ability; 2) among: levels of achievement; and 3) between male students In a college of business administration and a normative sample of 2,390 students with a wide variety of vocational interests. Two hundred forty-seven males who entered a school of business administration as lower freshmen were given the OPI-D. Of these students, 231 were classified as high, middle, or low ability based on their SAT scores, and as over-achievers, achievers, or under-achievers based on GPA relative to SAT scores.

Analysis of the data indicated that differences existed on the following scales: 1) among levels of ability—Thinking Introversion, Theoretical Orientation, Autonomy, Religious Liberalism, and Response Bias; 2) among levels of achievement—Complexity and Autonomy; and 3) between the business school and normative samples—Thinking Introversion, Theoretical Orientation, Estheticism, Complexity, Religious Liberalism, Impulse Expression, Schizoid Functioning, Social Introversion, Masculinity-Femininity, and Response Bias.

A discussion of these differences led to the following:

1. it was suggested that the higher scores on Thinking Introversion and Theoretical Orientation attained by students of high ability were, to an extent, a function of their ability;

2. academic performance relative to ability was shown to have contributed to the magnitude. If not the direction, of the differences among levels of achievement;

3. It was proposed that the business school sample has relatively little Interest in scientific and artistic problems, and In abstract, reflective, thought. Rather, they tend to utilize practical and immediate application as the criteria for the evaluation of ideas.     

We reap what we sew: perpetuating biblical illiteracy in new English Religious Studies exams and the proof text binary question

ABSTRACT

This article draws on three sources of evidence that together indicate hermeneutical weaknesses in exam courses on Christianity in English Religious Education (RE). It scrutinises a single exam paper and an associated text book from a recent authorised course. It conceptually explores features of a new style of long Religious Studies (RS) exam question that is commonly set for the majority of students studying for a RS qualification at 15–16 years old. It combines these documentary sources with a focus group interview of teachers in the first year of teaching the new GCSE Religious Studies. The findings from the document analysis, conceptual analysis and focus group interview, together concur that there is a problem related to the use of fragmentary texts and the promotion of a particularly propositional conception of religion. These features are structured in by systemic elements. A small proportion of students follow text-based GCSE routes include a more detailed study of Biblical texts but the majority of 15–16-year-old students do not and so are exposed to this problem. These weaknesses could be ‘designed out’ of exams with smarter questions and mitigated against by curriculum content that specified the study of how texts are interpreted, as well as teacher expertise in the teaching and practise of hermeneutics.     

The Effect of the Sunship Earth Program on Knowledge and Attitude Development

ABSTRACT:

The influence of the earth education program, Sunship Earth, on ecological knowledge and environmental attitudes was examined. It was found that students who attended the Sunship Earth program increased their ecological knowledge significantly. Participation in the Sunship Earth program did not result in more positive environmental attitudes. Part of the success of the Sunship Earth program is attributed to the setting in which it occurs and the techniques used to develop ecological concepts. The need for more opportunities for teachers to develop skills in environmental education and to participate in environmental education curriculum development that would link extension education more firmly to the school curriculum is discussed.     

Language matters: gendering Religious Education teaching

Abstract

Taking its point of departure in the idea that language is never neutral but always coded in the masculine or the feminine (Irigaray), the main purpose of the paper is to explore the gendered coding of Religious Education teaching and how this coding interplays in shaping relationships and knowledge in the classroom. As recent research shows, debates about religion are becoming increasingly aggressive in many Western democracies and Religious Education is not unaffected by this. Drawing on Luce Irigaray’s notion of sexual difference the paper argues that RE tends to have a masculine coding in its overemphasis on beliefs, creeds and concepts. This not only positions both girls and boys as feminine in relation to (masculine) religion, it also fails to offer the more nuanced understanding of religious life so well needed today. The paper is divided into three sections. The first outlines briefly, theoretically and methodologically, the larger study of which this paper is part. The second offers an exposition of Irigaray’s thinking on sexual difference, and the third relates her philosophy to three empirical examples. The paper ends with a summary of the main points of the argument and the implications of language matters for Religious Education teaching.     

IX Social Power and the Limitations of Church Education

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this column is to keep religious educators abreast of the relevant significant research in the general field of psychology. Its implications for methods and materials in religious education are clear. Religious educators may well take advantage of every new finding in scientific research.

Each abstract or group is preceded by an ?evaluation and interpretative comment which aims to guide the reader in understanding the research reported.

All of these abstracts are from PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS, and are used by permission of that periodical. The abstract number is Volume 30, Number 2, April 1956.     

SEEING WHAT IS NOT THERE YET: SOPHIA LYON FAHS,ENTELECHY, AND THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

This article offers a brief theological biography of Sophia Lyon Fahs, a religious educator whose life and work unfolded during the first seven decades of the Religious Education Association and reflected many of the identity-bearing modalities that continue to give shape and continuity to the organization. In 1972, Boardman Kathan, the General Secretary of the Religious Education Association, described Fahs as “one of the truly great pioneers of religious education in the 20th century, in the company of Harrison Elliott, Frank McMurry and George Albert Coe.” ^{2 2} Boardman Kathan, “A Pioneer Religious Educator: Sophia Lyon Fahs at 95, an interview,” UU World (February 1, 1972). Fahs anticipated many theological challenges to religious education that were ahead of her time. ^{3 3} Within the text of this article all quotes appear as they were originally written. No attempt has been made by the author to alter the quotes for the purpose of rendering them gender inclusive. Radically inclusive in all aspects of her theology and philosophy, it is evident that Sophia Lyon Fahs was following the literary style of her time and in no way intended gender exclusivity.