Freedom Train: The Underground Railroad as a Model of Christian Education,Antiracism, and Human Rights Advocacy

Abstract

The Underground Railroad is the first racially integrated civil/human rights movement in the United States. The basic concepts of escape and travel that undergird the movement offer a way of envisioning the teaching/learning exchange as leaving behind unhealthy ideologies, and as journeying with students from one place of understanding to another. The primary participants and select aspects of the movement also offer a way of understanding teaching/learning in the classroom. Benefits of religious educational programming utilizing the proposed model include: developing awareness of the interrelatedness of race/racism/religion/power and a countercultural, counterhegemonic perspective that is informed by faith and evidenced by praxis.     

The core as an education for a democratic citizenry

J. Rufus Fears is professor of classics, chairman of the Department of Classical Studies, and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Boston University, Boston, MA 02215. He is also director of the Boston University Humanities Foundation.     

Socialization and pre-career development of public relations professionals via the undergraduate curriculum

We interviewed racially/ethnically diverse, early career public relations practitioners. By asking participants to reflect on their collegiate social and educational development, we unearth contributing factors to these individuals’ success both in college and in their professions to date. Respondents desired much more in-school training and technical skill acquisition than they were provided. Respondents also alluded to ways that the female/male composition of the undergraduate classroom affected their educational environment and student learning experiences. Findings are used to address the extent to which the educational/prepare-students-for-industry dialectic should be addressed by communication faculty and administrators.     

Countering the Colorblind Rhetoric

To be colorblind suggests a race-neutral perspective whereby no theological anthropological meaning is attached to one’s physical embodiment. Colorblind ideology benefits the hegemony and negates the imago Dei of people of color and their long history with individual and institutional racism. This article advocates for the use of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a critical pedagogy to counter the colorblind rhetoric in spiritual identity formation and praxis, specifically using CRT theories racial realism and whiteness as property for the purpose of faith formation, faith transformation, and meaning-making in the current theo-political U.S. context.     

Letter writing instruction for children: Case-sensitive letter frequencies in children’s handwriting workbooks

Reading and Writing - Children’s ability to write letters automatically has been linked to academic achievement. Despite the importance of handwriting, handwriting instruction is often...