Search

Many public charter schools in the state of Hawaii are explicitly religious. For more than two decades, students at Hawaiian-focused schools have offered chants and prayers to the pantheon of gods who rule over skies, seas, and earth, including to the volcanic god, Pelehonuamea ("she who shapes the sacred land"), popularly known as Madam Pele. But why are students at charter schools reciting traditional prayers in Hawaiian? How did immersion charters emerge? How do their character-building practices, with their morning protocols, shape school culture and functioning? How do they survive in a state governed by a political party better known for its advocacy of strict separation between church and state? One of the authors has studied and worked closely with the charter schools since they were founded. The other brings a mainland perspective enriched by brief visits to two charter schools that immerse students in the Hawaiian language and two that instruct students in English but are nonetheless infused with indigenous cultural traditions. Hawaiian immersion schools make a case for religious practices at school--or at least for charters that emphasize community, character, and commitment rather than academic accomplishment alone. Whether or not the practices are truly religious is open to interpretation.

The United States Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist. held that a local school district violated the First Amendment freedom of religious expression rights when it directed an assistant football coach to stop praying on the fifty-yard line of a high school football field after each game. In finding for the high-school football coach, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly narrowed the use of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution to limit workplace religious activities of public-school teachers, school administrators, and other school district employes. The article argues that the decision will force school districts across the country to reassess their policies regarding the workplace religious activities of their employes including teachers. The article examines how the decision will impact school districts' regulation of workplace prayers by public school teachers and several types of symbolic religious speech. Finally, the article argues that school districts may need to update their policies and practices governing the workplace religious activities of their employes including teachers.

The twin uncertainties of the pandemic and the economic downturn have taken a toll on our Catholic schools. Yet reports across the country are that Catholic schools have been very successful in remote learning. Although there are well-documented efforts to define the values of Catholic schools, these values are not fully known and there is still not a well-crafted national value proposition for Catholic schools. As the context surrounding Catholic schools has changed, it has become imperative that Catholic schools coalesce around a new value proposition during uncertain times. What follows is an attempt by a group of dedicated Catholic school stakeholders determined to change the narrative. As our schools have pivoted to new forms of delivery and connections, this ad hoc group represents the same type of creative efforts to form a community. As a committee, we identified five themes of hope that can continue to guide the work and witness of our Catholic schools: prayer, partnership with families, personalization, persistence, and planning. In the following sections, we provide a rationale and overview of each theme. We also include relevant testimonials of diverse stakeholders to illuminate each theme and give voice to the hope across our school communities.

What are the linguistic resources for teachers who pray in contemporary Catholic school classrooms? This article considers the intersections of prayer and language practice, and makes central two arguments. The first is that educational prayer--a particular type of teacher-led extemporaneous prayer in Catholic schools--is a linguistic phenomenon, a highly-flexible set of linguistic resources, captured within a special interactional frame marked by ambiguous boundaries which contains both prescribed formulaic linguistic properties and those which allow the performer to attend to real time classroom contingencies. Drawing on interactional data from a Catholic school classroom, this article delimits the contextualization of linguistic signs during prayer: how teachers indicate the connection between their words and the sociocultural frameworks which are relevant for that action. The second is that both interactional sociolinguists and Catholic school researchers would greatly benefit from attending to these linguistic features, from seeing prayer unfold in real-time.

This study is related to the perception of Islamic Education teachers on their teaching practices in the Qur'an recitation skills due to the national primary schools under the administration of Education Ministry. A total of 120 Islamic Education teachers were involved as respondents in this study. They were randomly selected from ten districts in Selangor. Data were collected through a set of questionnaires consisting of 32 items. Descriptive statistics consisted of frequency, percentage and mean were used to report the findings. Findings showed that the average means of all four components in teaching practices were high. The component of lesson induction showed mean=4.03, the component of lesson expansion showed mean=4.18, the component of lesson closure showed mean=4.03 and the component of teaching aids showed mean=3.77. In conclusion, teachers should ensure a continuous improvement in their teaching practices especially in Quran recitation skills.

Xenophobic, racist, and linguistically hegemonic discourses undermine the common good in our pluralistic communities. This article focuses on how these discourses adversely affect one subset of the population in the United States -- those who are culturally and linguistically diverse -- and how schools can disrupt this. Specifically, it explores how a culture of critical spirituality can spur systemic reform of schools to embrace cultural and linguistic diversity.

Anecdotal evidence implies that students use library spaces for spiritual practices at many colleges and universities. Using focus groups, the authors investigated students' prayer behaviors on four regional campuses of a large research university, asking questions about students' frequency of prayer, campus areas used for devotions, and students' ideal campus prayer space. Students at all four campuses used library spaces for religious or spiritual observances. However, they indicated that a room designated for such activities would be ideal. In selecting a campus location for daily prayer, students reported using whatever space was available and convenient at the time.

Studies suggest that between one-fourth and one-third of localities elect their leaders on partisan ballots. Does the presence of a party label on the ballot affect the level of partisanship in local office? I leverage the fact that within select states, school boards vary as to whether their members are elected on partisan or nonpartisan ballots. Do the differences in policy preferences between Democrats and Republicans differ across these ballot contexts? Does a party cue treatment, where respondents are reminded of the general policy positions of both parties, differentially affect elected officials in different ballot contexts? Evidence from the survey reveals a group of "polarized nonpartisans" who tend to express more partisan views about public policy than their co-partisans elected in an explicitly partisan system. At the same time, providing party cues in policy debates disproportionately moves those elected on partisan ballots as opposed to nonpartisan ones. That partisan-elected officials are more influenced by party cues appears to validate the motivations of nonpartisan reformers, yet the "polarized nonpartisans" found in the control group should give those reformers pause and reveals the need for continued research into the behavioral consequences of nonpartisan ballots. [At time of submission to ERIC, this article was in press with "Political Research Quarterly."]

A meta-analysis, including 13 studies, was undertaken on the relationship between the exercise of student prayer and academic and behavioral outcomes in urban schools. Analyses both with and without sophisticated controls (e.g., socioeconomic status, race, and gender) were used. Additional analyses were done to determine whether the effects of prayer differed by the quality of the study. The results indicated that the exercise of prayer is associated with better levels of student outcomes. Moreover, the effects of prayer were greater for high-quality studies. The significance of these results is discussed.

Many Americans are familiar with the First Amendment, but its application to prayer and religious activities in public schools is often misunderstood. Religious beliefs are increasingly diverse in the United States. Therefore, it seems imperative that school personnel are aware of the law and sensitive to an array of religious practices. We conducted two studies that explored school personnel's (a) understanding of laws on religious expression in public schools; (b) attitudes toward religious expression in public schools; and (c) tolerance for different religions. Key Study 1 findings were that school personnel with more service years had less accurate knowledge of religious expression laws than school personnel with fewer service years, and more knowledge was related to increased sensitivity to religious practices in schools. Study 2 conceptually replicated these relations with a sample of pre-service teachers and found that Right-wing Authoritarianism mediated the relation between knowledge of the law and religious sensitivity, presenting an avenue for interventions to increase religious sensitivity.

Student and teacher wellbeing are now a prominent concern within education systems internationally. Meditation and mindfulness programs form part of the response to addressing this. Research and practice to date has focused on the benefits of such interventions for students "or" teachers, despite considerable evidence of connections between student "and" teacher wellbeing. This paper draws on data from a recent study of a meditation program in Australian primary school classrooms. The findings suggest that the practice supported the emotional and social wellbeing of both students "and" their teachers, and that these benefits presented in multiple, accumulative and often reciprocal ways.

Past U.S. Supreme Court rulings have held that schools and school employees must be careful to engage in religious activities while at school that could appear to endorse a particular religion above others or coerce students to engage in religious activities. However, the June 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton School District opinion suggests that the current Court is far more concerned about violating school employees' free exercise rights. In this case, the Court found that not allowing a football coach to pray, often with students, on the 50-yard line immediately following public school football games violated the coach's religious free exercise rights. Robert Kim discusses the Court's history with cases involving religious practice in schools and the potential implications of the Kennedy decision.

Survival for public school teachers goes beyond curriculum design, discipline and other skills. School law is critical for teachers to face the areas of challenge that are currently present. There are two types of common legal mistakes made by teachers: a) failing to take disciplinary action when they should, and b) unintentionally violating students rights. Social media, religion, the rights of transgender students and the possibility of teachers right to carry a weapon are all within the realm of rapidly changing public school law. Teachers should stay well-informed, so they are ready to protect students and their own constitutional freedoms.

This article draws on a survey conducted with primary school trainee teachers in a university in England. The survey set out to investigate their knowledge, understanding and their view about the role that Collective Worship (CW) plays in schools. A sample of 125 participants contributed to the findings of this inquiry by completing a questionnaire. The results demonstrate that these students think that CW makes a significant contribution to the spiritual, moral, social, cultural (SMSC), and emotional and intellectual development of pupils. The most significant finding is that they think worship should be retained. Their views are important as they provide further insights for the debates currently taking place about the status and nature of worship in schools. The research has implications for further studies and to develop the overall knowledge about CW among trainee teachers.

This article provides an overview of the socio-political, cultural, and historical characteristics of the relationship between conservative Christians and the American system of public education; describes the influence of fundamentalist views on contemporary conservative Christians; and recounts the historical relationship between the Religious Right and American public schools. Specifically, the article examines several policy issues advanced by conservative Christians, analyzes developments in legal strategies employed by the Religious Right to influence public school curricula over the past century, and considers how vestiges of the Judeo-Christian roots of American public education continue to influence school policy and discourse despite claims to the contrary by contemporary fundamentalist Christians. The article concludes with a critique of the fundamentalist approach to education and an argument for taking seriously the need to defend democratic aims of public education against fundamentalist challenges.

This study explores how a group of Caucasian pre-service teachers responded to Muslim immigrant parents' accounts of the marginalization of their faith practices in Canadian public schools. Data were collected through interviews with parents, dialogues between parents and pre-service teachers, online reflections, and focus groups among pre-service teachers. Results indicate that the parents expected recognition of religious symbolic clothing, exemptions from certain classes, and accommodation of prayer in the public schools their children attended. The pre-service teachers recognized educators' misconceptions about Muslim women, expressed concerns that exemptions from dancing and swimming classes and gender segregation may hinder students' learning opportunities, and rejected parents' requests of prayer in the name of secularism. Implications for structural change and teacher practice are discussed.

The aim of this qualitative study is to describe teachers' perceptions and roles in prayer education in TALI day schools in Israel, using in-depth oral Interviews, written questionnaires and written materials of the schools' network. Two educational ideologies were identified: Belonging to the Jewish collective and Personal-spiritual ideology. While participants perceive the aim of Jewish education as enhancing students' belonging to the Jewish collective, prayer education introduces a personal-spiritual aspect that was not typically a part of teachers' discourse on Jewish education.

Sport and religion have been linked in many societies and are still a part of many traditions today. In recent years, the topic of prayer in interscholastic sport has received public attention due to many high-profile court cases. "Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe" (2000) was the landmark case that prohibited school officials, administrators, and employees from initiating, leading, sponsoring, or promoting prayer at interscholastic athletic events. Unfortunately, the practice still continues today and is most prevalent in the sport of football in the Southern states. Public school administrators and coaches need to be aware of the current laws regarding prayer and interscholastic sport. This article highlights key court cases and includes several steps that administrators and coaches can take so that religious controversy is minimized at interscholastic athletic events.

Contradictions abound in remedial higher education. While 40% of American undergraduate students take remedial coursework (Attewell et al., 2006), remediation represents just one percent of the national higher education budget (Handel & Williams, 2011). Furthermore, the status quo in remedial teaching and learning in American higher education does not appear to be successful at actually remediating students and aiding in their completion of degrees (Attewell et al., 2006). This essay argues for a more holistic approach to working with underprepared students than the all-too-common deficit-based approach allows for and presents a first-person practitioner's account of a reflective-thinking classroom ritual based on the spiritual discipline of the Ignatian Examen as a paradigmatic example of a holistic approach that accounts for the developmental as well as the sociopolitical realities of under-prepared students. The essay also identifies an amicable confluence of ideals and methods among Ignatian pedagogy, critical pedagogy, and liberation theology. (Contains 2 notes.)

Much of the discussion regarding religion and schooling in the US has been limited to ideological clashes surrounding the role of the courts and, ostensibly, the much litigated issue of prayer in schools. This comes at the expense of an examination of deeper curricular issues rooted in language and school mechanisms borne of historical consequences. The authors seek to reframe the discussion of religion and schooling, arguing that to suggest that the removal of explicit prayerfulness equates to the cleansing of US public education of its religious character is facile and ahistorical. They suggest, instead, that religion remains in the language, practices, and routines of schooling but also in conceptions of the "child" and assumptions about the role of schools emanating from such conceptions. Evoking the notion of pentimento, the piece seeks to elucidate the Judeo-Christian character of schooling in the US as a way of re-imagining discussions regarding the relationship between religion and/as curriculum. The piece concludes with a discussion of the implications of such an examination for curriculum studies and teacher education. (Contains 9 notes.)

Theological education typically includes classroom worship, a practice of great pedagogical power and curricular import. As pedagogy, classroom worship does four things. It focuses teaching and learning on God, and fosters theological dispositions necessary for sustaining that attention. Second, it rightly positions the entire class in dialogical relation to the divine Thou, in communal relation to each other, the larger church and the wider world, and in personal relations that risk transformation. Third, it frames theological education as an integrative practice of faith and learning. Finally, it invites teachers to know their students as whole persons and students to trust their teachers as spiritual guides. As curriculum, classroom worship may have greater significance than chapel worship for many students and at particular schools. It should be moved from implicit curriculum to explicit, with careful attention to the null curriculum and to the matrices of relationship within which worship has meaning.

This paper addresses the sensitive issue of the teaching of religions and beliefs in schools by analysing two recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. In these cases, the Court asserts that students should be exempted from compulsory courses on religion or from courses that are not conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralist manner in order to protect the rights of parents to raise their children in accordance with their beliefs and to protect the child's religious freedom. What emerges from both decisions are sound principles about how to implement and teach these kind of courses without violating the freedom of religion and belief or undermining the state competences on education. (Contains 4 notes.)

Employing the Advocacy Coalition Framework to ground the analysis, this article begins with an historical overview of the US Protestant Right and its involvement with the politics of public schooling. It then moves to a discussion of a few current legal and policy issues (intelligent design, evolution, the Kansas state board of education, school prayer, and prayers offered at commencement), and how Protestant Right groups, at the local, state, and national levels, have played key roles in shaping the debates, and in some cases, the litigation. The article then turns to a brief discussion of the role of Protestant Right in the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominees John Roberts, Harriet Miers, and Samuel Alito. This article concludes with a discussion of the Protestant Right, the changing religious demography of the US, advocacy coalitions and where the politics of religion and public schooling may be moving. (Contains 1 note.)

Religion plays an important role in social studies content and is difficult to ignore, especially because of current world events. In our global society, it is more important than ever to know about and understand the religious beliefs of others. The social studies curriculum is infused with religion, but teachers circumvent the issue, mistakenly citing the separation of church and state as an obstacle. This article examines assumptions and causes of our nation's confusion over the role of religion in schools. The authors conclude with suggestions for returning the study of religion to social studies classrooms.

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution sets forth the separation of church and state required in public schools. That clause has been interpreted in a lengthy history of U. S. Supreme Court decisions. Nevertheless, accommodating one person's right of religious expression while not infringing on another person's right to be free from religious coercion in our nation's public schools continues to be a source of spirited debate. In this article, the authors summarize relevant decisions of the Supreme Court and extend the discussion to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in "Doe v. Duncanville Independent School District" in which a public school coach led team members in prayer prior to a school-sponsored athletic contest.

Public school leaders often find themselves caught between groups with passionately held--but widely varying--views regarding the appropriate role for religion in public schools. Tensions are heightened by the growth of well-funded special interest groups inclined to litigate anywhere a test case arises. By reviewing the most recent judicial reasoning in defining the First Amendment's Establishment Clause applications to public schools, educational leaders can navigate effectively and appropriately around the divisive issues of church and state. (Contains 1 table.)