Premises,Promises: Connection,community, and communion in online education

This paper is an essay on the discursive politics of education. Data from a small study, combined with a review of the related literature, suggest that the overarching concept “community” lacks coherence when used in online education. At least three contrasting forms of connection can be discerned: communion among participants, exchange between participants, and attachment to an ideal. In turn, we believe that this incoherence is not a trivial semantic problem, but rather a central concern in current efforts to remodel, reform and globalize distance education.     

A strong commitment: conforming a school identity at one compulsory faith school in a disadvantaged area

The focus of the present study is on how educators and students create a ‘sense of belonging’ and school identity. The ethnography was carried out at an independent Christian school with children and students aged six to sixteen years. This study’s aim is to contribute knowledge about how the identity of a school has become an important factor in the context of the marketisation of education. The identity of the school is articulated as a school with a Christian profile. Further, the results show how diversity and multiculturalism were downplayed. The school can thereby be interpreted as a way to avoid categorisation as an immigrant school. The identity as a Christian school symbolically lifts it from its socio-economic position in the urban geography. This identity becomes central to how the school is presented in an economic market of free school choice.     

REPORT OF THE INVESTIGATION OF CURRICULUM AND VOLUNTARY BIBLE STUDY IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

This article reviews the challenges provided by a plural condition toward doing religious education in the Philippines. The problem of Philippine religious education hinges on the fact that the growing plural condition in the educational system remains until now “un-discussed” or integrated in many schools. Not much is heard about proposing a platform of dialogue within religious education. Dialogue is more often associated with inter-faith initiatives beyond the learning environment. If religious education should be an instrument in the formation of the right Christian attitudes among the young, dialogue must be an urgent Christian agenda in Philippine religious education.