Virtually from the outset of the 1978--79 Islamic Revolution in Iran, scholars began to study the event from different social, political and economic angles. Yet, the rapid speed of the Revolution, its predominantly Islamic character, and the numerous changes that have occurred during the last nineteen years remain sources of mystery to many students of this area. The goals and philosophy of education and its relation to the basic foundations of the Revolution is one issue however that has been given less consideration. / This thesis is an attempt to identify and study the cultural foundations and those religious values underlying the educational system of today's Iran. The study examines some of the elementary school textbooks from both the Pahlavi and Islamic Republic eras, contrasting Pahlavi educational policy, which tended towards secularization, Westernization and de-Islamization of the country, with the attempt of the Islamic Republic to Islamize all aspects of society, including schools. The study especially looks at the relation between Islamic culture, religion and the curriculum. The study stresses that school plays a fundamental role in the Islamization of the post-Revolutionary Iranian society. How one defines Islamization, however, is crucial. This concept is clarified through a scrutiny of the process of Islamization visible in textbook reform by focusing on the spiritual, moral, social and political values in some school texts.

<p> Educational leaders have many choices of organizational, curricular, and instructional interventions for academically underprepared high school freshmen. In the past decade, doubled instructional time in core subjects has become an increasingly popular intervention in large public school districts. Results so far have been mixed and there are no studies investigating the effects of this strategy in the private school sector. The purpose of this retrospective, pretest-posttest quasi-experiment with nonequivalent groups was to examine whether significant differences existed in the academic achievement gains of academically underprepared Catholic high school freshmen who received double-dosed mathematics and/or English instruction during ninth grade compared to equally underprepared peers who did not. The study used a dataset of 493 cases from an urban Catholic diocese in the San Francisco Bay Area. Academic achievement data consisted of archived mathematics and reading scores from two standardized, norm-referenced batteries with a published predictive validity metric of <i>r</i> = .83 (pretest: HSPT, posttest: PLAN). Independent <i>t-</i>test, ANCOVA, and ANOVA analyses were conducted to identify differences between group means and variances. Analyses revealed no statistically significant differences in posttest scores in mathematics or reading between the groups, challenging existing assumptions from previous effectiveness findings in the public school sector. The results indicate that, as a stand-alone intervention, doubled instructional time in the core subjects does not accelerate achievement gains for academically underprepared freshmen at urban Catholic high schools.</p>

Many Christian churches incorporate environmental policies as part of their mission while others appear hesitant to embrace ecological concern. I set out to explore the nature of this difference and the possible reasons for it by interviewing 12 clergy from a wide variety of Christian traditions. I also examined the possible role of the Eucharist as a catalyst for environmental mission. A grounded theory approach to my interview data revealed two commonly held clerical beliefs, each with potential ecological implications: Christ‘s redemption extends to all creation, not merely the human soul, and God intends the Earth to be transformed into a new creation—a transformation that began at Christ‘s resurrection. The study concludes with a recommendation for continued research into the effect of frequent Eucharist observance and regular teaching about the biblical mandate of creation care.

To those individuals who felt alienated and disillusioned by traditional Western forms of religion, Alan Watts offered a different way of looking at the world and a new understanding of what it means to be religious. Borrowing heavily from Taoism, Zen Buddhism, Vendanta Hinduism and other Eastern traditions, Watts argues that our widely accepted notion of a person as an active, willing agent existing as a lonely island of consciousness is an illusion rooted in social and linguistic conventions. / In place of the typical Western image of God as an external personal being governing the universe by means of his omnipotent will and omniscient intellect, Watts argues in favour of the Eastern image of God as the mysterious depth and ground of all being. / If education is concerned with the task of enabling a person to grow and mature as a full human being and religion is concerned with fostering the uniquely human capacity to be fully present and open to the mystery and wonder of existence, then it follows that being educated and becoming religious are part of the same process. For Watts, religious education is characterized not according to a specific content but rather an underlying set of values which promote an awareness of humanity's interrelationship and interdependence with the rest of the universe.

The pondok-pesantren is an Islamic educational institution which plays an important role in Indonesia. Being the earliest such institution, it has an effect on the educational field in the Archipelago.

Despite discrimination in mainstream Canadian society, local Muslim communities are a significant resource for immigrants. Recruited by friendship and kin networks, some families chose to educate their children in private full-time Muslim schools which provide academic/economic credentials and social support. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this research depicts a Muslim school in Montreal which both reflects Quebec society and nurtures minority ethnic/religious identity. For many parents, Arabic language classes, academic standards, and behavioral norms were as important as the school's religious affiliation. Rejecting the hypothesis that emphasizing religious and cultural identities distanced children from mainstream society, some felt that the psychological and social effects of affirming a child's background were vital to integration and participation in mainstream society. In addition, the school also provided entry into social networks which offered parents an important support system.

This study utilizes a systematic review method to assess literature about the Protestant Christian tradition to enhance theological education in the African context. It explores the development and transformation of African theological education in the period 1910 to 2012. A ‘follow the money trail method of investigation’ was utilized to expose the theological issues that African theologians fundraised for African theological education through the Theological Education Fund/Ecumenical Theological Education of World Council of Churches. These were perceived as crucial in developing an African theological education that promotes the principles of a just and equitable African Christian community. The primary data was extracted by utilizing an approach that demanded searching various media sources which included electronic databases. The search strategy for electronic databases was developed from the key words and phrases of the research question. The search yielded about 10, 821 results and having carefully perused through them, 169 primary sources were included in this study. This was significant as it helped make sense of a large body of literature and was a means of isolating and synthesising the main theories and pragmatics of African theological education. The insights gained from this study are significant as a contribution to the current search for a vision of African theological education that promotes the principles of a just and equitable African Christian community in the twenty-first century. The study makes two unique contributions in the search and vision for African theological education. The contribution lies in constructing an example of an African pedagogy of community of life which is based on education for life-giving. This pedagogy is based on the Bemba understanding of insaka which is a process of life-giving-learning methodology. This theme is as relevant for global Christianity as it is to the Bemba people in their quest for life-giving theological education. Another critical contribution lies in the understanding that through Africanization, African theological education has been in a process of acquiring its own unique character or theological identity. African theological education has shifted from a merely dogmatic orientation to praxis orientation. This is based on a theological pedagogy that recognises that doing theological education involves critical engagement in a missional process of liberation—of seeking fullness of life in its interpenetrative dimensions as spiritual-material starting with the least of the community, but embracing the whole of God’s creation. To achieve this, theological education has to cut across denominational allegiances, privileging of academic disciplines, and embracing the insaka pedagogy of life through ecumenical and trans-disciplinary approaches. The viability of African theological education resides in its critical engagement with the concrete societal challenges of the African peoples. As a result, this study argues that creating a just and equitable African Christian community to a large extent depends on embracing the life-giving pedagogy as an imperative in African theological education. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1994.

<p> The purpose of this exploratory research study was to investigate leadership experiences of teacher leaders in American PK-12 Christian schools. An overarching research question guided the study: How do principal-identified teacher leaders in PK-12 faith-based Christian schools experience leadership in a distributed leadership environment, as told from the teacher leaders' perspectives? As researcher, I chose a distributed leadership practice conceptual framework as the lens for the research study. The literature review focused on three areas: (a) Christian school structure and culture, (b) teacher leaders, and (c) distributed leadership. The research design consisted of purposeful sampling using semistructured interviews and a constructivist epistemology (Merriam, 2009). The research study involved 24 participants from PK-12 American Christian schools; 16 were principal-identified teacher leaders and 8 were heads of school or principals. Through the data analysis, six intangible themes emerged from the teacher leaders that proved to be central tenets of the research. The emergent themes constituted (a) an unconditional love for the school community, (b) a global school perspective, (c) an influencer, (d) a leader by example, (e) a mentor to other teachers, and (f) a desire to improve their schools. Then, using a comparative analysis, four themes emerged from the heads of school and principals. The themes converged with those of the teacher leaders, with two exceptions. First, a dichotomy occurred in the definition of <i>teacher leader</i> among the teacher leader participants; respectively, this dichotomy occurred between the teacher leader participants and the heads of school and principal participants. Second, with regard to human capital, a talent management and leadership succession theme for identifying and developing teacher leaders emerged from the heads of school and principals. Interestingly, the data analysis revealed that the study's findings have implications for PK-12 public and private schools in theory, practice, and policy.</p>

This is a study of the teaching of other faiths at a traditionally oriented Muslim independent school in Britain. Traditional Muslim schools have gained a high profile for two reasons: Firstly they are founded upon the most traditional and orthodox of Islamic teachings which some fear may promote extremism and separatism. Secondly they provide the training for the next generation of religious leaders so the understanding and attitudes that are inculcated in their students can be expected to influence many in the Muslim community. The background to the study uncovered medieval scholarship that is rich in examples of the objective study of other faiths but also highlighted a contraction of the traditional syllabuses in the post-colonial period that has left traditional scholarship narrow and devoid of critical enquiry. The case study used semi-structured interviews with the staff and management to reveal the current curriculum and examine the attitudes of the staff and management towards the teaching of other faiths. The findings were that while the school’s ethos is very positive, the school is currently not engaged in any explicit teaching of other faiths. The root cause of this was found to be the failure of the school to establish any policies relating to either curriculum or pedagogy for the teaching of RE. This failing was then compounded by the appointment of an unqualified and inexperienced teacher for RE who did not share the positive vision of the management. The study also highlighted the lack of any established pedagogy for religious education rooted in orthodox Islam.