<p> The Society of Jesus sponsors more colleges and universities than any other religious order in American Catholic Higher Education. At Jesuit institutions, the decline of members of the sponsoring order, challenging admissions markets, and financial pressures are some of the forces that are impacting already existing tensions. These tensions in which American Jesuit schools choose to live generate particular challenges, each shaped by the context of an individual school. This study is focused on the ways that leaders of six Jesuit institutions are thinking about these tensions and responding to the challenges that result from choosing to live in them.</p><p> Research revealed that the declining number of Jesuits, and the increasing number of students who claim to have no religious affiliation, have cracked foundational assumptions on these campuses. This uneasiness, coupled with increased pressure to enroll classes and stabilize financial positions, has created concerns about whether or not the religious mission of the institutions can be sustained long-term. It is clear that presidents play an important role in balancing these tensions, and that their focus or lack of focus on the religious mission sets the tone for a campus. As a result, presidents and mission officers are working more intentionally to interpret the mission, and ways it is promulgated on campus given the current circumstances. This includes practices like hiring for mission, mission programming for faculty and staff, and efforts to educate faculty and staff in the foundational principles of the Jesuits. Leaders are working to build a critical mass of faculty and staff members who are both educated in the foundational mission and who care deeply about preserving it for future generations of students. This critical mass will help address the long term issues presented by current tensions, and prevent future questions about the sustainability of the mission.</p>

<p>Given the frequently observed disconnect between people's learning experiences and their subsequent behavior or practice, this research inquired into the factors that contribute to coherence or congruence between learning and practice as perceived by graduates of ISTEL (Instituto Superior de Teologia Evang&eacute;lica no Lubango), an interdenominational theological college in Angola, Africa. </p><p> Characteristics of African indigenous knowledge systems and general cultural characteristics were taken into consideration when analyzing these findings. Twenty seven graduates of ISTEL who completed their bachelor's degree in theology between 1997 and 2012 were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol. Research questions for this study inquired into graduates' perceptions regarding their learning experiences prior to ISTEL. They were also asked to recount how their learning at ISTEL differed from previous schooling. Finally graduates were asked to recount how their learning experiences were influencing their present ministry practice. It was found that the most frequently mentioned factors that contributed to coherence were: 1. The modeling of qualities of Christian life by faculty; 2. Experience in small group fellowships for spiritual formation; 3. Apprenticeships and "hands on" practical ministry experience; 4. Critical thinking skills. </p>

<p> Christian college environments remain connected to Biblical doctrine that can create a challenge for student affairs practitioners responsible for supporting all students but then instructed to take &ldquo;corrective&rdquo; (e.g., disciplinary) action against LGBTQ students. This study examined experiences of ten student affairs staff at Christian campuses negotiating institutional context, professional relationships, and personal values when interacting with LGBTQ students. Interview data was organized along three themes: campus culture, tensions, and strategies to manage tension. Participants perceived campus culture as familial, but also as silent, fearful, and confusing on LGBTQ issues. Consequently, they experienced tensions between personal beliefs in serving students versus supporting institutional values about LGBTQ identity and behavior. Participants employed cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal strategies to negotiate these tensions and balance service to their institution with advocacy for LGBTQ students. Recommendations provided relate to staff development, graduate level training, and sustainability of the Christian college approach to human sexuality.</p>

<p> This dissertation analyzes and compares the curricula within and across the eight Eastern Orthodox Christian seminaries in the United States of America through the lens of Theological or Pastoral orientation of the seminaries. This dissertation aims to address this deficiency in the literature on religious higher education in the United States of America.</p><p> This comparison of Orthodox seminary curricula is guided by three questions: What are the curricula in use at the eight Orthodox Christian seminaries in the United States of America? What distinctions arise from an analysis of these seminaries&rsquo; course descriptions and curricula? How do these curricula achieve the Assembly of Bishops&rsquo; goals for unity?</p><p> I employed an emergent design methodology to code, analyze, and compare over 400 course descriptions obtained from bulletins and course catalogs of the eight Orthodox Christian seminaries. The course descriptions were compared with other courses of the same institution, other courses offered by comparable institutions, and other courses I designated as similar based upon coding outcomes.</p><p> I found that the seminaries exhibited one of two innate foci: Theological orientation or Pastoral orientation. I compared the seeming orientations with the schools&rsquo; mission statements. I then solicited course syllabi to explore the courses in more depth to determine whether the course descriptions were accurate reflections of what was taught in the courses.</p><p> I surveyed seminary administrators and professors about the Theological or Pastoral orientation of their schools, and the preparedness of their seminary&rsquo;s graduates to fulfill priestly duties. This allowed triangulation of data with the syllabi and course descriptions.</p><p> This dissertation engages the field of comparative and international education, providing a comparative analysis of internationally and ethnically affiliated schools. It aims to explore in more detail the variations in how future religious leaders are educated within one faith group. This dissertation also explores the international and historic diversity of Orthodox Christian groups in the United States of America. These analyses will enrich the field of religious higher education studies by revealing the inner workings of an entire religious community in the United States; a religious community little studied and little understood.</p>

<p> As Christian faith-based institutions of higher education strive to uphold Christian values, there is a need to be intentional in identifying and developing future leaders. This study was viewed through the lens that women are underrepresented in senior-level positions in Christian institutions, they have unique leadership attributes to offer, and learning more from their lived experiences might increase the number of women in senior-level roles in Christian institutions of higher education. </p><p> This study utilized a qualitative phenomenological research design. The researcher interviewed 8 Christian women leaders who serve as Deans in institutions that are full members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. The interviews were conducted face-to- face and virtually using a semi-structured interview protocol comprising of 11 questions. The questions explored the lived experiences and perceptions of these Christian women leaders. </p><p> Three conclusions resulted from this study. First, prayer, study, and meditation were the most influential of the 12 spiritual disciplines. Second, spiritual disciplines may have a transformative effect on the character and leadership practices of women leaders in Christian higher education. Third, faith was integrated into the identity and daily practices of these Christian women leaders. </p><p> The researcher recommended that Christian women leaders in higher education must prioritize, or &ldquo;make time,&rdquo; for regular practice of the spiritual disciplines, particularly prayer, study, and meditation. The practice of spiritual disciplines, or the Christian way of life, should be incorporated into professional development and mentorship opportunities for Christian women leaders.</p><p>

<p> Test anxiety is problem that affects college students. Explanatory mixed methods research was completed with the objective of understanding the interrelationship of prayer and test anxiety as well as the potential therapeutic effects of Christian prayer on test anxiety. It was hypothesized that Christian prayer would have significant effects on the reduction of physiological test anxiety biomarkers of salivary cortisol (SC), salivary alpha amylase (SAA), and heart rate (HR). The framework of the cognitive attentional theory (CAT) of test anxiety was used as a lens to gain insight into the phenomena of test anxiety and the use of prayer as a hypothesized alleviating agent. Undergraduates among four different majors of study from a university in the Northwest United States were volunteer participants in the study. Forty-eight participants were put into three 20-minute experimental groups to determine if a relationship existed between concentrated Christian prayer and test anxiety. The experimental groups were: Focused Christian Prayer, Guided Meditation, and Study Guide. In order to further understand the relationship of prayer and test anxiety, students were also grouped and analyzed by their scores on the Westside Test Anxiety Scale (WTAS) and their value of prayer in their lives. The mean age of the sample was 20.02 yrs old. SC and SAA were measured with Assay kits ordered from Salimetrics Company, and HR was measured using Gurin Santamedical SM-110 finger pulse oximeters. Two focus groups were conducted to help explain the quantitative data gathered. Results from the quantitative research did not clearly show that prayer is more effective than meditation or a study guide to alleviate biomarkers of test anxiety. Quantitative results did suggest that students who valued prayer higher in their lives experienced less biomarkers of test anxiety. Nine qualitative themes from the two focus groups emerged to help shed light on the findings of the quantitative data. The unique interrelationship of prayer and test anxiety is discussed. More studies on the phenomena of prayer and test anxiety are supported.</p>

<p> The U.S. higher education system faces an unprecedented convergence of financial challenges that have the potential to negatively affect the operations of smaller institutions (Denneen &amp; Dretler, 2012; Eide, 2018). These forces have increased the expectation for institutions to adopt innovative educational models that will ensure the financial sustainability of the institution. One such innovation is the church-based extension site program at a private, Christian university in the southeastern region of the United States. The extension site program provides affordable pathways to baccalaureate degrees through a combination of experiential learning and classroom experiences within a local church context. The Christian university that was the focus of this study has experienced dramatic enrollment growth since the program's inception, with more than 2,400 students enrolled at 112 locations across the United States. Given the growth of this educational modality, this study evaluated whether the church-based extension site program is an effective alternative to the traditional campus experience. The <i>Thriving Quotient,</i> a reliable and valid instrument that measures students' academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal well-being (Schreiner, 2016), was utilized to examine the differences in thriving levels and pathways to thriving among extension site and traditional students at the target university. After matching students through propensity score analysis, the results of the univariate and multivariate analyses of variance indicated that extension site students (<i>M</i> = 5.12, <i>SD</i> = .45) reported significantly higher thriving scores than their matched counterparts on the traditional campus (<i> M</i> = 4.82, <i>SD</i> = .49, <i>F</i>[1, 616] = 62.871, <i>p</i> &lt; .001, &eta;² = .093). Structural equation modeling with multiple-group analysis further indicated significant differences in the pathways to thriving among extension site and traditional students, with each model accounting for 73% and 62% of the variation in college student thriving, respectively. Spirituality, faculty commitment to diverse students, and psychological sense of community represented the largest contributors to extension site student thriving. The study recommends the expansion of the extension site model at Christian institutions as an effective alternative to the traditional experience for a particular group of students and offers implications for practice that will support student thriving within the extension site context.</p><p>

As a result of the increasing interest of the Saudi government in developing its people by education, it has begun in its projects and vision statements to promote a culture of dialogue; hence educators are now expected to make dialogue a routine practice in their work, particularly in the religious education curricula at Saudi universities. The present research makes both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to understanding the Saudi understanding of the concept of dialogue and in relation to one particular context through studying understandings of dialogue and its practices in an Islamic community. Theoretical understandings of dialogue include a consideration of the writings of Buber, Bakhtin, and Freire, and how understandings of dialogue are refracted differently when understood within the context of an ongoing tradition of inquiry, through the writings of MacIntyre and specifically Islamic traditions of inquiry, as investigated by Asad. Within the Islamic tradition, the significance of dialogue is analysed through the works of al-Ghazali. This study also investigated the practices of dialogue in religious education courses at a university and their relation to Saudi educational policy, the aims of establishing a center for national dialogue, and the current understanding and present practices of dialogue within the Saudi community and between university teachers and their students. The empirical research applied a case study methodology and took a sociocultural approach: data were collected via interviews, classroom observations and textual analysis. The findings indicate that, while Islam and the Saudi government are obviously interested in dialogue – with some restrictions – those concerned are unclear about the concept of dialogue and its practicing. This implies that the Saudi people need enough spaces to practice dialogue. The findings illustrate the value of higher education, its teachers, classrooms and activities which need to be improved in order to increase opportunities to practice dialogue.