GOD IN OUR FLESH: BODY THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Abstract This article examines the theological perspective known as Body Theology in order to reflect on its implications for how we do religious education. Part one provides a summary of the viewpoint s basic arguments and part two both suggests broad pedagogical implications and offers examples of specific instructional practices directly generated from these new, theologically-based aims. Though several theologians have written what could be called body theologies in recent years, my summary of Body Theology is based on a reading of James B. Nelson s (1992) landmark book, Body Theology, and more specifically the third chapter entitled Doing Body Theology.     

REFLECTION IN EDUCATION: A KANTIAN EPISTEMOLOGY

A bstract .  As even its defenders admit, reflection in education suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity. In this essay, Henk Procee provides a philosophical analysis of the central concepts in this domain. In the current literature, these concepts are usually taken from the pragmatic school of John Dewey and from critical social theory associated with Jürgen Habermas. In contrast, Procee argues that Kant's philosophy incorporates ideas better suited to understanding reflection in education — particularly through his distinction between understanding ("Verstand") and judgment ("Urteilskraft"), a distinction that supports an epistemology that accepts the special nature of reflection as judgment as opposed to formal learning (which, in Kant's analysis, is part of understanding). In addition, Procee discusses some consequences for the aims and methods of reflection in education.     

DEWEYAN DARWINISM FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: TOWARD AN EDUCATIONAL METHOD FOR CRITICAL DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT IN THE ERA OF THE INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES

A bstract .  Our society's preoccupation with making educational policy and practice "scientific" is attested to by the stated mission of the Institute of Education Sciences: "to provide rigorous evidence on which to ground education practice and policy." Early in the twentieth century, John Dewey also advocated for a vision of education guided by science, and more recent scholarship has validated many of his ideas. However, as Deborah Seltzer-Kelly argues in this essay, Dewey's vision of a scientifically based system of education was very different from that envisioned by the IES, and also very different from that implied by the progenitor of contemporary evolutionary thought, Donald Campbell. Seltzer-Kelly proposes a Deweyan Darwinist model of educational method as a genuinely scientific alternative to the scientism that pervades current official efforts to imbue education with science. The implications of this model are profound, highlighting the difference between education as preparation for consent to authoritarian structures and education as preparation for genuinely democratic participation.     

DEVELOPING A BLACK CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF LIBERATION FOR THE BRITISH CONTEXT

This article details the work of the Birmingham Initiative, a Methodist inspired, ecumenical research project that operated in Birmingham, in the West Midlands of the United Kingdom between 1995 and 1999. As the Christian Education Development Officer employed by this project, the author undertook doctoral research among twenty-six inner-city, Black majority churches from Methodist, Baptist Anglican, and Reformed Church traditions. One of the central aims of the research was to create the first African-centered Black Christian Education of Liberation for the British context. The major outcome of this research was the creation of the first practical Black Christian education curriculum in Britain, entitled Growing into Hope.     

FUNDAMENTALIST EDUCATION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A comparison is made of the contents and contributors to the British Journal of Religious Education (UK) and Religious Education (North America). A content analysis of each journal was conducted for a 10-year period between 1992–2002. A total of 20 volumes were analyzed, with attention given to types of research published, composition of review boards, authors' gender, affiliation, religious identity, position, geographic location, and number of contributions. The question of what each journal can learn from the other is addressed, and implications for the field are drawn.     

MARGINALIZATION AND RENEWAL: EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract This article addresses three periods of evangelical Christian education development in the twentieth century. The early part of the century was a time of loss of influence and marginalization within the broader religious education movement. The middle part of the century saw an explosion of parachurch educational ministry efforts to assist the evangelical movement and renewed efforts to develop professional organizations and curricular resources for the church. The last part of the century has seen a growth of influence of evangelical educational writers, publishers, schools, and megachurches on the shape of Christian education today. Current assessment, hopes for the future, and gifts to the broader religious education community are reviewed.     

LINKING MARXISM, GLOBALIZATION, AND CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION: TOWARD A COMPARATIVE AND CRITICAL PEDAGOGY POST 9/11

Abstract In a post‐9/11 world, where the politics of “us” versus “them” has reemerged under the umbrella of “terrorism,” especially in the United States, can we still envision an éducation sans frontières: a globalized and critical praxis of citizenship education in which there are no borders? If it is possible to conceive it, what might it look like? In this review essay, Awad Ibrahim looks at how these multilayered and complex questions have been addressed in three books: Peter McLaren and Ramin Farahmandpur’s Teaching Against Global Capitalism and the New Imperialism, Nel Noddings’s Educating Citizens for Global Awareness, and Gita Steiner‐Khamsi’s The Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending. Ibrahim concludes that, through creating a liminal, dialogical space between humanism, environmentalism, materialism, philosophy, and comparative education, the authors in these books offer a critical pedagogy in which éducation sans frontières is possible — a project that is as visionary as it is hopeful.     

APPLYING BAKHTIN SCHOLARSHIP ON DISCOURSE IN EDUCATION: A CRITICAL REVIEW ESSAY

A bstract .  Recently, Bakhtinian philologists have charged scholars of education with misapplying Bakhtin's scholarship in their field. In this critical essay, Eugene Matusov reviews two recent edited collections relevant to this issue: Arnetha F. Ball and Sarah Warshauer Freedman's Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Learning and Bonny Norton and Kelleen Toohey's Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning . He uses these texts to consider whether Bakhtin has been misapplied in education, how and whether Bakhtin's literary scholarship can be useful for education, and how education can inform Bakhtinian scholarship. Matusov shows that the philologists' critique of educational scholars is grounded but unjustifiably all-encompassing. Finally, he problematizes whether Bakhtin's notions of dialogism and internally persuasive discourse are compatible with institutionalized education.     

教育中的民主概念:一种批判性考察

促进教育的民主化被看做是现代教育变革的一项重要任务。教育民主化包涵着非常丰富的内容,既包括教育机会的扩大和均等,也包括教育组织、活动和关系本身的民主化。在教育民主化理念的支配下,民主成为适用于并支配学校事务的一项基本价值原则。然而,人们仔细审视民主概念在教育场域中的应用情况,也发现存在不少值得严肃讨论的具体问题。这些具体问题指向一个更为基本的问题:学校是一个可以被民主化的场所吗?本文提出,由于学校组织的教育性特征,诞生于政治领域中的民主原则并不能完全无条件地适用于教育场域;在教育事务的处理上,民主原则的应用应该考虑与教育性原则以及传统、权威、道德、自主性等诸多影响因素相协调,从而建构更为良好的教育关系或教育秩序,防止现代社会以一种单一的民主逻辑来改造学校,防止现代教育陷入民主的迷思。这可以看做是对我国教育学界一直以来所倡导的教育民主化理论的一个补充或修正。     

SEARCHING FOR THE SOUL OF ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES: AN EXPLORATION AND ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ENGLAND

ABSTRACT:  Although church-related universities in England gradually became more secular throughout the twentieth century, a group of nine teacher education colleges with church foundations have recently developed into full fledged universities. This article draws upon documentary and site-based research to evaluate the relevance of the Christian identity for these institutions in light of recent scholarship on the subject.