'Cultural Shift': The case of Jewish religious education in Israel

This study explores the unique situation of the Israeli-Jewish education system in Israel, which has developed different educational streams mainly according to religious differences. It highlights the changes in the status of the cultural stands of secular and religious Jewish groups in the course of the twentieth century. The secular majority has been willing to fund separate autonomous religious schools. Remarkably, the lower state intervention in the schools, the higher the level of funding. Thus, the ultra-orthodox schools have enjoyed full funding together with the greatest autonomy. Moreover, the nonautonomous secular state schools have also practiced religious rituals, without any clear guidance by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The implications of full autonomy and funding of the ultra-orthodox schools is discussed, by way of 'critical sociology of education', with emphasis on the 'cultural shift', the cultural advance of the religious groups, and 'cultural surrender' of the secular group.     

German Schools and Teachers in Nineteenth‐Century South Australia

This article uses the biographies of three German teachers to explore nineteenth century German immigrants' efforts to provide education which upheld their ethnic traditions and prepared their children to take their place in the British colony of South Australia. Lutheran schools, German state schools and private schools initially performed these functions in both rural and urban areas. Once compulsory schooling was introduced in 1875, however, German state schools were marginalised as English became the only language of instruction in the rapidly expanding state school system, and many private schools closed. Rural Lutheran schools maintained their role as nurseries of the church but also accommodated the demand for English language and culture by using state school courses of instruction in many subjects. In essence, by 1900 schools were no longer the key sites for the maintenance of German language and culture in South Australia     

Religious Segregation and the Emergence of Integrated Schools in Northern Ireland

A distinctive characteristic of the education system in Northern Ireland is that most Protestant and Catholic children attend separate schools. Following the partition of Ireland the Protestant Churches transferred their schools to the new state in return for full funding and representation in the management of state controlled schools and non-denominational religious instruction was given a statutory place within such schools. The Catholic Church retained control over its own system of voluntary maintained schools, initially receiving only 65% of capital funding; however all grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland are now eligible for full funding of running costs and capital development. This paper highlights the emergence of a small number of integrated schools since the 1980s. Catholic and Protestant parents have come together as the impetus for these schools and this presents an implicit challenge to the status quo of church involvement in the management and control of schools. In practical terms the integrated schools have had to develop more inclusive arrangements for religious education, and legislation that permits existing schools to 'transform' into integrated schools also presents new challenges for the society as a whole.     

Ethnicity,Religion, and Academic Preparedness: A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Supplementary Secular Schools and Nonsecular Church-Affiliated Schools

Little academic attention has been given to the supplementary education experience of immigrant students in the Canadian research literature, especially in a non-English speaking context such as Quebec. Yet these schools are important for understanding the influence of ethnicity as well as religion on the academic preparedness and social integration of immigrant/minority students in the public school system. From a comparative perspective, this study explores the role that secular Chinese language schools and nonsecular, church-affiliated schools play in responding to the educational needs of Chinese youth in the public schools. Data were collected through ethnographical observation in the two school contexts, as well as through in-depth interviews with Chinese immigrant students, their parents, school personnel, and church ministers. Through a Foucauldian analysis of discourse, the author found that attendance at Chinese supplementary schools benefitted these students’ academic preparedness in a variety of ways, such as the reinforcement and development of ethnic identity. In secular Chinese language schools, ethnicity seems to function through the interaction of cultural attributes and social ethnic structures, whereas in church-affiliated, nonsecular schools, the influence of ethnicity seems to shift to the impact of Christian discipleship. Through this process, church schools actually act as socializing agents that facilitate positive interpersonal relationships among peers and families.     

Private Interests,Public Necessity: Responding to Sexism in Christian Schools

This synthetic review aims to unite a seemingly disjoint collection of studies over the past 3 decades around their shared examination of sexism in an often overlooked U.S. population, namely girls attending private Christian schools. This undertaking reveals substantial harms that I categorize as those of immediacy and potentiality, which are occurring behind the protective wall separating church and state. Contra the majority of philosophers of education and researchers in this area, these studies lead me to argue that the state has the obligation and legal ability to intervene in this private domain. Notably, this study begins to flesh out a notion of educational harm that may be robust enough for state policy making and legal action in private schools. Based on a legalized understanding of sexist harm, I conclude with a detailed analysis of Constitutional provisions and court decisions relative to state intervention and freedom of religious practice.     

Toward A Pragmatic Discourse of Constructivism: Reflections on Lessons from Practice

Although New York's highest court granted children the constitutional right to a meaningful high school education in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York, equitable funding has yet to be implemented. The state of New York continues to stall on revising the funding formula statewide, despite the many indications that this must be done if the state is to satisfy the Court of Appeal's 2003 ruling. Although some factors that affect children's performance in school, such as lead poisoning and poverty, lie beyond the control of the schools, schools are nevertheless required to remediate their effects by providing special education. Equitable funding based on obtaining good educational outcomes for all children would help create conditions under which children could improve their life chances through education. After equitable funding has been obtained, defining the markers of a meaningful high school education will be the next task for school reformers in New York.     

Education,Religion, and a Sustainable Planet

Religious pluralism led to the colonies' separation of church and state by 1776, to Mann's campaign for common schooling, and to the complete secularization of public schools by 1900. The dependence of Western theology upon untenable Greek metaphysics justifies an explanation that the evolutionary purpose of religion was to promote personal integration and social cohesion. This also occurs in civic religion, herein explicated as the common faith established by truths from intersubjectively valid inquiries and by experienced qualities (i.e., the goodness) of things in the natural, societal, and lived worlds of the natural and social sciences and humanities. This promotes natural piety and a sustainable planet by grounding education in the child's being in the world. The inclusion of formal religion in the public school curriculum is considered, but unnecessary, because schools already promote individual development and social cohesion through education for citizenship, etc.     

论中世纪巴黎大学社会角色及其冲突

中世纪巴黎大学与社会之间的关系问题在高等教育研究中具有重要意义.引入社会角色概念,分析中世纪巴黎大学可以看到:诞生之初,大学与教会之间存在广泛的互动关系;大学满足了教会对宗教人才与信仰知识的期望;大学在行为模式方面具有极强的宗教性.在随后的发展中,世俗权力对大学控制不断增强;世俗希望大学培养世俗人才以抗衡教会;大学在行为模式上也趋于世俗化.巴黎大学处于宗教角色与世俗角色冲突之中,然而这种冲突却对大学自治、学术自由、组织结构等发挥着积极作用.     

Political Perspectives on Church Schools and Religious Education: A discussion of the period from Thatcher to Blair

Making use of material written by British prime ministers, a case is presented for understanding church schools and religious education in a way distinct from that normally utilised in academic discourse. Politicians in democratic countries depend on attracting votes to assume power. They therefore integrate church schools and religious education within existing political positions. Conservative politicans see church schools as being an example of parental choice and religious education as being an aid to moral education. Labour politicians see church schools as contributing to a pluralistic society and aiding the cultural identity of ethnic groups.     

Teaching Religion in Public Schools: Review of Warren A. Nord,Does God Make A Difference?

In this review of Warren Nord's Does God Make a Difference? Taking Religion Seriously in Our Schools and Universities, Walter Feinberg provides a detailed analysis of Nord's argument that the study of religion should be constitutionally mandated as a corrective to the overwhelmingly secular course of study offered in contemporary public schools and universities. Nord bases his claim on both constitutional and educational grounds. His constitutional argument is that, due to their secular bias, schools fail in their requirement to take a neutral stance toward religion; he contends that this creates a school environment hostile to religion that thus requires a legal remedy. Nord's primary educational argument is that religion courses are needed to counterbalance the secular bias dominant in public schools and universities. Feinberg delineates how Nord's constitutional argument fails and how his educational argument has serious flaws and contradictions. According to Feinberg, a stronger argument for mandating courses on religion in schools would be that because public schools exist in a religiously infused environment, it is important for students to be exposed to alternative understandings that promote reflection on and criticism of one's own beliefs, including religious beliefs. Feinberg concludes that if religion is to be taught in the public schools, it needs to be justified on civic rather than religious grounds.     

The Role of Religious Higher Education in the Training of Teachers of Russian ‘Orthodox Culture’1

This article provides an ethnographic account of the tensions arising from the different ways of building authority as teachers and the role of higher education in establishing teachers' legitimacy in Russia through the specific example of religious education. After state atheism was abandoned in 1991, an unprecedented demand for religious knowledge appeared in Russia, in particular in relation to Russian Orthodoxy. Since the Russian context of Orthodox education lacks shared standards, there is considerable latitude in the criteria determining norms and rules. Seeking to increase its influence, the Russian Orthodox Church aspires to have Orthodox catechism taught in a systematic way both in parishes and in secular schools. In practice, the Church is encouraging professional pedagogues to submit their curriculum proposals that would be suffused with Orthodoxy and at the same time be eligible for adoption in all settings and institutions. Thus, in order to educate teachers of religion, the Church has made available multiple, diverse sources of religious knowledge (self-learning, various courses offered by the eparchies, Spiritual Academies, and other institutions of higher education). But the legitimacy of these sources is often questioned, for instance by asking whether the institution that delivers diplomas of religious higher education has been granted formal state recognition. The teachers' quest for being acknowledged as competent technicians of religious education leads to competing claims for the authenticity of the sources of their training.     

‘Their churches are at home’: the communication and definition of values in four aided Church of England secondary schools

The role of head teachers in the formation and transmission of values within schools has long been viewed as pivotal. At a time when the place of faith schools, as part of state funded educational provision, is openly questioned, this paper reports on a small-scale study of the views that four head teachers have of their place in their school's values framework. Special reference is made to the formation of values and to their communication. The expression of these values is then examined with special reference to their application in the context of school admissions policies. It is then suggested that some critiques of church schools adopt an oversimplistic approach and that there is no one overarching understanding of what it means to be a Church of England school.     

美国州政府对义务教育阶段私立学校的资助：原则、内容及特点

美国州政府遵从“政教分离”和“儿童受益”原则,对义务教育阶段私立学校进行资助。其内容包括以提供交通服务、教科书为主的服务性资助和以减税、发放教育券为主的鼓励教育选择的资助。政府资助私立学校以服务性资助为主,但鼓励教育选择的资助逐渐增加;实行分类资助,但主要资助非营利性私立学校;在资助的同时加强对私立学校的管理。     

Education in Europe and Muslim Demands for Competitive and Moral Education

While European education systems fundamentally rest on a rather monolithic world-view, some of them are explicitly oriented towards Christianity and others are comparatively secular. Apart from this, they differ in the way that they offer opportunities for Muslim minorities to enjoy a modern and competitive as well as religious-moral education. Principally, there are three approaches. The first allows private Muslim schools which are neither subsidized nor controlled or regulated by the state. Other countries require Muslim schools to apply for approval, and such schools are then subsidized and regulated; but they do not have to teach a national curriculum. In a third group of countries, only schools that teach the national curriculum are permitted, and they are subsidized and controlled by the state. In the latter case, because Islamic matters are not taught in these schools, many Muslim parents send their children to non-formal Qur’anic schools in the evening or during weekends. This study examines some typical arrangements in a number of countries.     

The religious–secular interface and representations of Islam in phenomenological religious education

Abstract

Alongside community-based education, a principal agency which has contributed to defining multi-faith identities in England and Wales over the past five decades has been the subject of religious education in state maintained schools. Over this period, formulations of the social category of ‘Muslims’ and the curricular concept of ‘Islam’ in religious education have been significantly influenced by the application of the phenomenology of religion, a methodology derived from religious studies that has come under question for its decontextualised readings of religion. Drawing upon critiques of this approach, this article seeks to examine representations of Islam and Muslims in religious education based on the phenomenological model, with particular reference to the interface between the religious and the secular. Looking ahead, the article considers proposals on intercultural education which aim at preparing the young for a contributive role in society.     

新教与山西近代教育

近代山西的天主教、新教均将教育作为一种传教手段,积极创办教会学校。但由于意识形态的追求、历史经验及对教育重视程度的不同,决定了天主教与新教在山西不同的教育实践活动。新教教育凭借其在办学时间、数量、质量等诸多方面所具有的明显优势,成为近代山西教会教育的主要成分,奠定了山西近代教育的基础。     

Regarding art and regarding future teachers regarding art

The 2011 Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector presented Ireland with an opportunity to rethink the issue of patronage in Irish primary schools, as well as to consider how ‘religious education’ might be approached in such schools in the future. This paper suggests that, for the first time since 1831, Ireland had an opportunity to provide ‘state schooling’ for all children, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. The paper proposes educating all children in the state in non-denominational secular settings, leaving faith formation to the private domain of parents and communities. Although the concept of ‘secularism’ has negative connotations for those who belong to a religious community, this paper suggests that it provides a framework for inclusive and egalitarian education, offering children and young people the opportunity to learn alongside their peers, irrespective of religious backgrounds.     

震旦大学与近代中法教育交流

上海震旦大学是与圣约翰大学齐名的西方教会大学。在发展演变过程中,震旦大学从天主教大学逐步转变为一所世俗性的高等教育机构,而且具有鲜明的法国教育特色,反映了法兰西民族对文化教育事业的一贯重视。震旦大学在学科设置上与法国传统学科的呼应、对本国语言的重视,政府和工商界对文化活动的参与和支持,是法国从古至今一以贯之的传统,充分体现了植根于法兰西民族的一种文化禀性。震旦大学是近代中法教育交流史上的一项重要合作案例。     

Harassment Issues in Sport Organizations: Utilitarian,Justice, Kantian,and Existential Approaches to Moral Ontology

The Education Reform Act (ERA) 1988 represents the most significant piece of legislation to have entered the education system in postwar Britain. Although all its “effects” have yet to materialize, this paper argues that aspects of ERA legislation will have a very damaging impact upon both the level and quality of PE provision in some state schools. The tone of this paper is necessarily speculative; but the analysis, based on the authors' ongoing research in primary and secondary schools, will suggest that ERA may exacerbate social and educational divisions within the education system and make it very difficult for some teachers to provide a quality “PE for all.”     

传教士的教师角色对洋务教育的影响

晚清时期大批传教士以学兴教,开办教会学校、参与中国新式学堂的教育教学工作,并通过他们的教师角色将西方近代教育传入到中国,促进了洋务教育的深化和中国教育的近代化。