Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / Problem and Limitation. Our society has become increasingly alarmed with what is apparently a weakening of ethical conduct. This result has at least been coincidental with a failure to recognize the significance of religion for daily life. Tbe public school, by its limited handling of religion, has contributed to this situation. Among the various proposals for remedying the condition, while maintaining the American principle of separation of Church and State, teaching about religion is held in high regard. Although there have been several studies advocating teaching about religion in public education, it remained to be seen whether or not a suitable teacher guide could be prepared for this purpose. The need of such a guide has called into being this work. The study under consideration has been curtailed by: (1) other works in the field, (2) limitation of the areas of study, (3) limitation of syllabi, and (4) careful selection of bibliographical entries. Procedure. The body of this study, eliminating the introductory and concluding chapters, may be divided into two sections of three chapters each. The first section lays the context out of which the teacher's guide is developed in the next three chapters. These contextual chapters consist of a historical evaluation of the development of religious liberty, and the public school system, and a description of the various proposals for solving the present difficulty. Those three chapters which make up the teacher's guide deal with criteria for the selection and use of material, creating and maintaining a favorable atmosphere, and a selected syllabus for teaching about religion in American History on the Senior High School level. The first two of these subjects provide a general guide, and the last a specific aid for a given course and age group. The criteria for selection and use of material were developed by the writer, with motivation supplied by a variety of works. These were refined by consultation with the 1954 Seminar in Religion and Public Education at Boston University. Materials for the chapter on creating and maintaining a favorable atmosphere were drawn primarily from (1) group dynamic studies, and (2) inter-cultural works. In this case, as with the chapter on criteria, hypothetical instances were used to illustrate and sharpen the issues involved. The selected syllabus was geared to David Muzzey's widely used text, A History of Our Country. The content of this specific guide was affected by the critical appraisal of Dr. Charles Peltier and certain of his colleagues of the history department of Newton High School (Newton, Massachusetts). However, this should not be construed to mean an endorsement by the staff. Findings and Recommendations. The contextual chapter's have yielded the following conclusions: 1. The United States is deeply rooted in religion in general, and the Hebrew-Christian tradition in particular. It is equally committed to the ideal of freedom of religion, a position not maant to repudiate its religious foundations. 2. Earlier mistrust and controversy which helped usher secularism into the schools, seems to be giving way to a more favorable attitude conducive to increased experimentation in finding a more important role for religion in public education. 3. The approaches for bettering the present educational situation may be divided into those (1) outside, and (2) inside the school system. The proposals outside of the public schools are (1) improving education in the church and home, (2) marginal time education, (3) released time education, and (4) sectarian schools for instruction. The proposals inside the public schools are the (1) common core approach, (2) teaching of moral and spiritual values, (3) use of religious exercises and observances, and (4) teaching about religion approach. 4. That teaching about religion is a live option can be seen from other studies in the field, and the evaluative historical chapter on the development of religious liberty and the public school system. 5. Those who advocate teaching about religion recommend that it be done either (1) in context, or (2) by way of special units. Only the former proposal can break down the illusory dastinction between religious and secular. 6. Religious subject matter appears to have been lacking in the schools, except where teachers have been particularly concerned about and adept at providing for this lack. In any case, the teacher is the key to the success of this approach, and must be properly equipped for the task. 7. The community approach has been advocated as the best way of securing the goals set forth, and in maintaining the relations necessary for the program's continuance. The following findings are drawn from the three chapters constituting a teacher's guide: 1. Six criteria of complex character have been presented, and illustrated by appropriate hypothetical cases. They are (1) student relevance, (2) intelligent understanding, (3) integration, (4) preparation for choice, (5) variety, and (6) community awareness. "Student relevance" means that the material selected must have pertinence for the pupil; his maturity, needs and interest, and training in and for life. "Intelligent understanding" indicates that the material must aid the student in better understanding the subject matter and himself. "Integration" points out the role of religious material in unifying the varied elements in the subject matter and the self. "Preparation for choice" recognizes that life choices are made, and seeks to allow freedom in, show the importance of, and accept as of worth the pupil's religious decisions. "Variety" as a criterion is valid as it reflects upon subject matter and method. "Community awareness" signifies the recognition of one's debt to and responsibility for the community of which he is a part. In the context of this study, the religious community is particularly in view. These criteria are significant whenever relevant to a given area of study, but are contingent on the actual teaching situation. 2. Group-dynamic insights will help provide and maintain a conducive atmosphere for this study. The diverse religious convictions of the pupils can be protected by a democratic process of preparing, sharing, acting, and evaluating together. 3. The teacher must set the example in good personal relations. He must function as a (1) person, (2) learner, (3) research person, and (4) leader. 4. Careful effort must be maintained to guard against emotionally strained situations. Methods of control include prevention, suppression, exhortation, diversion, exemplification, mediation, consideration, consolidation, and visualization. The best of these methods is prevention, but a combination of effective means can be employed. Lines of communication must be kept open between all those affected by the proposal. 5. The history of the United States is rich with materials for teaching about religion, as well as weighted with explosive issues. Religious subject matter must be presented in context, with the objectivity demanded in any other realm of study. 6. History in general, and religion in particular have relevance for daily life. Students should be aware of religious alternatives, with the understanding that decision is their prerogative and that of their religious affiliation. Among the areas demanding further study are the following recommendations: 1. There is a need for extensive work in the realm of semantics. Much misunderstanding is due to lack of clarity at this point. 2. What is the role of the school in religious counseling? It cannot expect to deal with life issues without soon confronting religion in one form or another. 3. The preparation of pamphlets on religious themes and movements, would be most helpful. There is a dearth of religious material suitable for school purposes. 4. Public school text books should be written which will adequately deal with religious factors. 5. Until such books are provided, a multiplication of adequate syllabi is called for. 6. Attempts to deal with religious preparation on the teacher college level is needed. The new Danforth Foundation study is in the spirit of this recommendation. 7. The proposal to teach about religion would benefit from the experience of experimental pioneer communities. This would permit the principles to be put to work, and allow for evaluation. 8. There is need for experimentation with controlled classes dealing with religious themes. This would help clarify the problem of tension control. 9. How can the teacher measure the effectiveness of his efforts? It would be profitable to ascertain effective means of testing.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study traces the tendencies of thought and the institutional processes which culminated in the New Beacon Series in Religious Education, inaugurated by the American Unitarian Association in 1937. This curriculum is still in use in the large majority of Unitarian Universalist churches today. This study is based both on published and manuscript sources and on interviews with the persons most involved in the creation of the series. The study begins with a chapter of historical background, in which the distinctive characteristics of Judaic, Christian, Unitarian, and progressive education are delineated. It is showm that religious and secular education were integrated in Judaism, in the Reformation, and in the moral education movement pioneered by Horace Mann and Horace Bushnell. This integrated approach, whereby the child is regarded as a unity and religion is regarded as indigenous to children's growth, achieved articulation in the twentieth century in the progressive education movement, and is foundational to the New Beacon Series. The immediate precursors of the New Beacon Series, namely the Beacon Series of 1909 and the Beacon Course of 1912, are described. While the innovations contained in these curricula derived primarily from the assumptions and methodology of progressive education, it is shown that the curricula also contained residues of what many Unitarians considered to be outmoded theological, ethical, and psychological worldviews which limited their usefulness. Of the many individuals and groups who contributed to the making of the series, three persons are studied in detail: Angus H. MacLean, who contributed to the climate of ideas out of which the series emerged; Ernest W. Kuebler, who administered the Division of Education of the--American Unitarian Association while the series was in process of creation; and Sophia L. Fahs, who was the prime mover of the series as Children's Editor. It is demonstrated that Mrs. Fahs successively (1) abandoned the concept of the deity of Christ in favor of a more liberal view of his humanity; (2) abandoned the concept that all religious instruction should be Bible-centered in favor of an extra-Biblical orientation including missionary biography and world stories; (3) modified the concept of formal classroom learning in favor of an experimental curriculum, as derived from the educational philosophy of John Dewey; and (4) augmented the life situation approach with a concept of vicarious learning based on the assumed congruity of childhood experience and early racial experience, as derived from the philosophy of G. Stanley Hall. The creation of the New Beacon Series is described book by book, from Beginnings of Earth and Sky in 1937, the initial volume, to Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage in 1952, the definitive theoretical statement of its philosophy. No attempt is made to trace the development of the series after 1952. It is shown that the series evolved from the premise of progressive education that all learning is contingent upon the needs and capacities of the child. The approach to younger children presupposed the principle of growth, and emphasized social and natural experience. The approach to older children presupposed, in addition to the principle of growth, the principle of the equivalence of immediate and vicarious experience, and emphasized world culture and religious biography, drawing heavily upon the Christian Bible. In the New Beacon Series, three basic principles are shown to be operative. First, the child is the arbiter of his own growth; religious instruction conforms to the growth of the child, rather than the reve~se. Secondly, Biblical models are employed not for their inherent superiority but for their power to illustrate religious values. Thirdly, openness, tentativeness, and wonder are prized as evidence of continuing growth, and there is no end to the process of growth save more growth. / 2031-01-01

The question at the heart of this dissertation is: “How can Christian religious education help people know the value and importance of a healthy public/common life and further their interest and ability to participate in the public sphere toward the common good?” Care for our public lives must to be a part of our spirituality. It is not enough to know about the importance of the public realm to our well-being, rather, this concern must be part of what matters to us, a dimension of our affect and desire, something we want and care about. Hence the coupling of ‘public’ with ‘spirituality.’ A public spirituality is something that helps us see beyond the interpersonal dimension of life and recognize the wider public context for these relationships. It appreciates the importance of public life, civil society, and the public sphere. It is grounded in the public dimension of Catholic faith and connected to rich sources of wisdom from Christian tradition. This spirituality draws the person or community into the public sphere to participate in sustained, persuasive, respectful, and critical conversations about issues that matter to them. This dissertation argues that the task of religious education is to educate for such a spirituality and using the work of Thomas H. Groome, it outlines a particular way that in which this can happen. Chapter 1 demonstrates the importance of ‘the public’ to our well-being, looking closely at the role of civil society, the public sphere, and secularization. Chapter 2 articulates the public dimension of Catholic faith, with attention to the themes of participation, the common good, and how theology is done in public. Chapter 3 lays the foundation for a public spirituality, focusing on the Trinity, the challenge of the stranger, the mystical-transformational dimension of Christian spirituality, and Christianity as a way of seeing. Chapter 4 offers illustrations of public spirituality at work in three organizations: the Conference of Religious of Ireland Justice, Theos, U.K., and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. Finally, Chapter 5, proposes a shared Christian praxis approach to Christian religious education as a model to nurture and nourish a public spirituality. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

<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>

This study is an exploration of the experience of faith from a psychodynamic perspective. The main purpose of this study is to provide a coherent and convincing account of the roots and characteristics of Christian women’s faith experience which will complement and, in some respects correct, existing accounts. Attachment theory is mainly employed as a conceptual framework for the research and the study pursues attachment as an important key factor for faith development. Examining the patterns of God-attachment in relation to human attachments, this study employs a qualitative methodological approach, focusing analysis on linguistic meanings, and using open-ended and unforced autobiographical narrative in-depth interviews with a group of 10 Korean Christian women. The main findings indicate what the key characteristics in women’s faithing are: the language, means and context with or in which women practice their faith; the relational and affective understanding of faith within the women’s accounts and the interaction of attachment issues in their experience of faith. Three major patterns are identified in which the women’s faithing strategies and their representations of self and God are presented: these are Distance/Avoidance, Anxiety/Ambivalence and Security/Interdependence. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are identified for Christian education, pastoral care and counselling for women.

This thesis aims to determine whether the teaching of Tajwid science in the UK is of a sufficient standard. This stems from the author’s experience in professional studies and teaching experiments performed in Britain in this field, which have indicated that current instruction is substandard. The research aim is to contribute to developing Tajwid teaching in Britain. To conduct this research, the author evaluated Tajwid teaching using a series of methods. A pedagogical study was applied; specifically, a questionnaire with Tajwid students from different UK Islamic organisations. She then engaged in two group meetings with Tajwid teachers, conducted close-ended telephone interviews with Islamic organisations based in the UK, reviewed five English-language resources, and suggested alternative sources for Tajwid instruction that explain the subject through al-Shāṭibiyyah, which features the most well-known form of recitation among Muslims. Finally, she hosted a series of free Tajwid classes to examine research-recommended sources and their effects on learners’ attitudes. The findings proved that different approaches are required to develop Tajwid teaching in the UK; furthermore, they helped to establish the criteria required to develop effective Tajwid teaching, and clarified the importance of incorporating new sources that use topics comprehensibly and provide solutions to related problems.

This thesis concerns the ethics of faith schooling. More precisely, it asks whether faith schools constitute legitimate (that is, morally permissible) institutions for liberal democratic societies. I begin by examining five senses in which the term ‘faith school’ might be used and the possible objections that each of these might motivate. Since, as traditionally conceived, faith schools teach for religious belief, I pay particular attention to the criticism that such institutions are indoctrinatory. Via an examination of recent work in the philosophy of psychiatry, I illuminate the concept of indoctrination and propose two reasons why it is morally unacceptable: first, it results in a mind-set where, like delusion, beliefs are held separate from reason and, second, it involves a violation of autonomy. Drawing on a conception of autonomy proposed by Ben Colburn (2010), I go on to argue that, because the development of autonomy is a fundamental aim of the educational enterprise, this gives us strong grounds to avoid both indoctrination and other autonomy violating practices (particularly “Comprehensive Enrolment” (Clayton, 2006)). However, while traditional accounts of the legitimacy of faith schooling have correctly identified that confessional faith schools are indoctrinatory, much less has been said about religiously distinctive pedagogies which fall short of indoctrination. For this reason, the final part of the thesis addresses these ‘priming pedagogies’ and suggests ways in which they may be adapted to provide a morally permissible form of liberal faith-based schooling.

This dissertation examines two educational piety projects competing for control over popular conceptualizations of piety and what it means to be a good Muslim, as presented by Al Azhar 31 Islamic Primary School and Luqman al Hakim Integrated Islamic Primary School in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Al Azhar 31 promotes an Indonesian Islam, pluralistic and inclusive of multi-tradition approaches to Islam that is flexible in regards to acceptable forms of worship. Luqman al Hakim SIT promotes a transnational Islam, inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and linked to the Indonesian Islamic political party, Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejatera, PKS). The school's purificationist approach pushes for the removal of local customs and traditions from mainstream Islam and promotes exacting observance of standardized practices. These two schools' disparate approaches to Islam are emblematic of the larger polarizing trends in approaching Islam in Indonesia today. This dissertation has particular significance for understanding the intersection of Islamic movements, Islamic education, and the religious middle class. Based on 15 months of ethnographic research, this dissertation demonstrates how schooling can be a tool for shaping socio-religious and political climates of a community and country. It adds to the growing literature on the educational spaces developing alongside Islamic piety movements throughout the Muslim world. Additionally, this dissertation provides a rare example of the influence on Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood ideologies on education, rather than politics. It also illustrates how the schools' disparate approaches to Islam shape distinct religious subjectivities within their students. The documentation of the innovation of the extended-day Islamic school model and integrated Islam ideology employed by both schools adds to the rich history of Indonesia's Islamic schooling traditions. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates how middle class parents' classed aspirations and anxieties regarding education, wealth, morality, and corruption coalesce to create ready consumers for a particular type of Islamic school: one that provides a longer school day, strong academics, and a robust religious curriculum focused on Islamic morals and values.

This analysis aims to examinate, with a comparative method, how the religions of Judaism and Islam are portrayed within three Swedish textbooks from 1979, 1998 and 2015 for use in upper secondary school. The three curriculums for upper secondary school from 1970, 1994 and 2011, will be used as to determined how appropriate the contents are in the textbooks. The three textbooks have all been used at different times and places in the Swedish upper secondary school’s subject of Religionskunskap (Religious education). This paper has three research questions: (1) How does the textbooks depict Judaism and Islam, (2) how are the believers and practitioners displayed in the contents and (3) to what extent does the textbooks correlate to the curriculums. The analysis showed that there are great differences between each textbook and how detailed the depictions are about the religions. Some of the depictions were negative stereotypes which did not fit the guidelines within the responding curriculum. / <p>Uppsats av didaktisk karaktär i Religionshistoria C</p>

This study addresses the question of church schools’ compatibility with the tradition of liberal education and the extent to which these schools contribute to intolerance in society. Critics of church schools argue that the religious foundation of church schools contributes little to their academic success and that any school with a similar pupil intake will be academically successful. Critics therefore advocate removal of church schools from the English education system. However, using the evidence in the relevant literature, research studies, and eighty Church of England and Roman Catholic schools’ prospectuses, this study argues that church schools understand and express their nature as: (i) denominational; (ii) voluntary-aided; and (iii) comprehensive. This understanding is crucial to the schools’ approach to their role of providing pupils with skills necessary to live in all forms of society. The skills provided in church schools stem from the Christian understanding of Man as made in the image of God to share in, and provide stewardship for, the created order. In conclusion, this study rejects the argument that church schools: (i) contribute to intolerance in society; (ii) indoctrinate pupils; and (iii) undermine pupils’ autonomy for the following reasons: 1. The schools provide Christian education which accepts differences in human nature and prepares individuals to live in diverse communities. 2. Christian education is incompatible with coercion and manipulation. 3. Christian education provides opportunity for pupils either to accept or to reject the Christian faith or teaching.