The article explores how employees in the Church of Sweden understand knowledge about the Christian tradition and interprets these reflections through the analytical framework of religious literacy. The study is based on semi-structured group interviews with church employees. The findings show that knowledge is understood both as familiarity with Christian tradition and as interpretive and relational practice. The article argues that, in an ecclesial context, religious literacy involves not only interpreting tradition but also articulating and communicating its meanings in contemporary contexts.
This study interrogates the nexus of education and religions (Christianity and Islam) in Nigeria and the extent to which it contributes to entrepreneurship and poverty reduction. To achieve this, three research questions are formulated and answered; 1. Does religion affect the desire for western education? 2. Does the acquisition of western education promote entrepreneurship? 3. Does western education influence capacity for poverty reduction? The study uses secondary data from across the 36 states of Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Data analysis reveals that with between 80.9% and 87.8% killings in Nigeria in 2020-2022 traced to Islamic insurgency against western education in the North, scolionophobia (the fear of school) has set in, reducing desire for western education. With entrepreneurship included at almost all levels of western education, self-employment and decent paid employment, is promoted in the South that accepts it. Data analysis also reveals that income poverty in 2019 in the South is lower than the national average of 40.1% at 22.57%, which sharply contrasts with 59.76% of the North that antagonises western education. Data on 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) affirms the same position. For the South, the MPI of 0.195 is lower than the national figure of 0.257, implying that South with its western education reduces both income poverty and multidimensional poverty better. This Chapter argues that the nexus of western education and Christianity which has played a strong role in poverty reduction and entrepreneurship in Nigeria’s South is needed in the country’s North, that is characterised by high poverty and business mortality rates. Appropriate recommendations are made to achieve this.
This practitioner action research (AR) study examines how K-12 social studies educators understand and use the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Religious Studies Companion Document for the C3 Framework (RSCD). Survey data from 118 educators indicate uneven familiarity with the framework, selective use of its components, and inconsistent classroom use frequency. Qualitative findings highlight challenges related to facilitating discussion, navigating constitutional and community considerations, assessing student learning, and accessing classroom-ready resources. Findings suggest that strengthening professional learning, differentiated instructional supports, and practical implementation tools may help translate national guidance on religious literacy into more consistent classroom practice.
Whether the school day begins with "prayer," "contemplation," or "meditation" - each word will evoke different reactions. This study delves into the relationship between conceptualizations of spirituality and attitudes toward its assimilation in institutionalized education. The case study is a governmental secular-traditional network of schools in Israel. The research aims to find out what stances do parents and faculty hold on the introduction of various alternative-spiritual practices and contents to elementary schools. The major finding is that all sectors are willing to incorporate spirituality in schools (parents much more than teachers). Terminological issues came up as crucial in the responses.
Religious literacy practices are often written about as a singular, uniform concept within a given religious community. In reality, religious literacy practices can be diverse and contested within their own communities. This article examines two distinct literacy practices in Jewish tradition, both promoted across various sources. It offers an empirical portrait of each as taught in an elementary school Hebrew Bible classroom. This article has two aims: First, to broaden appreciation for diversity within religious traditions. Second, to connect that diversity to literacy pedagogy more broadly.
There is a stereotype that highly religious parents, particularly those from the local majority religion, want their religious values reflected in the local school curriculum. In contrast, less religious parents want a general factual overview of multiple religions. However, no prior qualitative research explored these assumptions. This study interviewed 40 parents of elementary school-aged children via snowball sampling from different religious groups. Findings revealed that highly religious Christian parents residing in religiously homogeneous settings expressed their desire to integrate Christianity formally and informally in public school settings, which was different from almost all respondents from heterogeneous settings like large cities, including similar devout Christians. The results challenge assumptions about the monolithic nature of religious parents, highlighting how geographic and community composition shape educational preferences regarding religion.
In the twenty-first century an ideological and pedagogical shift from confessional Religious Instruction to Religious Studies/General Religious Education is increasingly evident in western schooling systems. From a review of literature and curriculum, we argue that socio-cultural imperatives and historical context significantly impact ways in which students of diverse faiths encounter support for their identities and experience belonging across a variety of school systems in multi-cultural, multi-faith contemporary Australia. We conclude that with attention to contextual, conceptual and pedagogical issues, Worldviews education could contribute to student wellbeing and social cohesion in a multicultural and multifaith society within a secular liberal democracy. (worldviews; religious education; curriculum).
In November 2024, after months of heated public debate, Texas approved new English language arts reading lessons for public elementary schools (kindergarten through fifth grade) that devote notably more attention to the Bible than to other religious texts and to the Christian tradition than to other religions. This article describes the controversy over these lessons and provides examples of the various ways in which they privilege Christianity over other traditions.
This article explores how White evangelical church leaders help secondary school students navigate the college selection process and undergraduate experience in a polarized climate. Discourse analysis of 25 semi-structured interviews conducted in North Carolina and Virginia revealed that participants used strategies and approaches collectively referred to as "getting students plugged in" to evangelicalism. They warned students early about college, leveraged technology to ground them in the "home church," and gave advice ranging from authoritative to authoritarian. I explain these results using ontological security theory, suggesting that as evangelical Protestantism loses its position as a dominant cultural norm-due in part to rapid religious disaffiliation-some leaders experience insecurity around their ostensibly diminished role in public life.
