Showing papers on "Religious education published in 1992"

The Influence of Religion, Gender, and Social Class on Attitudes Toward School Among 11-Year-Olds in England

Abstract: In this study, the influence of religion, gender, and social class on attitudes toward school was explored by having 3,762 11-year-old pupils complete seven semantic differential scales of attitudes toward school, English lessons, math lessons, music lessons, games lessons, religious education lessons, and school assemblies. Religiosity, as indicated by self-reported frequency of church attendance and personal prayer, was found to be a significant predictor of positive attitudes toward school and toward English, music, math, religious education, and assemblies, but not games lessons. This conclusion is consistent with the findings of recent research into the positive attitudinal correlates of religiosity among adults in general and among the elderly in particular. The results also demonstrated that girls held more favorable attitudes toward school itself and toward English, music, religious education, and assemblies, whereas boys held more positive attitudes toward games lessons. No gender differ...

Indigenous African Education as a Means for Understanding the Fullness of Life: Amara Traditional Education.

Abstract: The intention of this article is to prompt a serious interest in indigenous African education in order to forge a new future that builds on (a) the positive aspects of our past and (b) carefully selected and imported ideas and methods. To this end, our discussion will focus on the richness of indigenous education. Indigenous African learning plays a vital role in the transmission of values that Africans consider to be essential in understanding and experiencing the fullness of life. Because it is interwoven in the fabric of African life, indigenous education is inseparable from traditional African religious thought and practices -there is no dichotomy between religious and secular thought or values (Mbiti, 1990). Thus Africans do not speak of education as a process or institution separate from everything else in life. There is no distinction between formal, nonformal, or informal education. In fact, the term education is a Western concept that does not speak to the traditional African reality, in which the entire community is continually engaged in learning and teaching. In traditional Africa, learning begins very early in life, soon after birth, and continues to old age. As Menkiti (1984) describes it, the whole of life is a process of learning to become fully human, to attain personhood:

Fowler's theory of faith development: an evaluative discussion

Abstract: (1992). FOWLER'S THEORY OF FAITH DEVELOPMENT: AN EVALUATIVE DISCUSSION. Religious Education: Vol. 87, No. 1, pp. 74-85.

Religious experience in childhood: A study of adult perspectives on early spiritual awareness

Abstract: (1992). RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN CHILDHOOD: A STUDY OF ADULT PERSPECTIVES ON EARLY SPIRITUAL AWARENESS. Religious Education: Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 259-268.

The Manly Pursuit of a Partnership between the Sexes: The Debate over YMCA Programs for Women and Girls, 1914–1933

Abstract: Throughout the later nineteenth century, the values of mainstream Protestant Christianity found popular, enthusiastic, and active expression in two evangelical Christian organizations, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). Both organizations, or "movements" as they eventually called themselves, arose in the mid-nineteenth century, out of concern for protecting young migrants to the growing cities of North America. Both offered religious instruction, shelter, help in securing employment, and a sense of fellowship and Christian solidarity. Both organizations were also based on, and helped foster, gender solidarity. They based their separate identities in part on the popular nineteenth-century notion that the sphere of activity, influence, and social contribution proper to women differed from that proper to men, that the two spheres, masculine culture and feminine culture, were separate and complementary.' But by the early twentieth century, as middle-class men and women mingled in a widening range of public spaces, the "separate spheres" were beginning to disintegrate. The educated New Woman claimed a new place in the public arena, and young, wage-earning women formed peer subcultures in the new urban frontier, helping to define a new youth culture. Its development accelerated by World War I and the advent of new forms of mass entertainment, the youth culture of the 1910s

An Educated Change in Moral Values: some effects of religious and state schools on their students

Abstract: Research has suggested that schools provide one of the main sources for the moral socialisation of children. This paper analyses the effect of religious schools on the moral education of English secondary school students. Four scales were derived to measure general religious attitudes, specific Catholic beliefs, specific Jewish beliefs and secular morality. These scales were tested for internal consistency and used to compare a Catholic, a Jewish and a state school. The results of this study suggest that religious schools tend to produce students with stronger and more uniform attitudes towards religion and morality than state schools. Further, that there is no evidence of the class and ethnic differences which exist between the schools playing a role in defining religious or secular moral attitudes. Religion still provides an important part in ensuring the transmission of moral values to children in secondary schools. >[1] A version of this paper was first presented at the Fifty‐Second Annual Me...

Open Peer Commentary: Musical Knowledge: the Saga of Music in the National Curriculum

Abstract: In this paper I wish to consider epistemological models that have recently been associated with the development of music teaching in Britain. I shall show how particular views of musical knowledge, or perhaps better, musical knowing, have coloured thinking about the music curriculum and point to the importance of professionalism in curriculum development and formula- tion. Although this article concentrates on developments in the UK, the issues raised are of general importance. In Britain the idea of a National Curriculum replaces a situation where no subject was required by law (except religious education) and where choice of subject content was largely in the hands of teachers. The shift towards national specification is therefore of great consequence and has caused a wide and often heated debate. The essential nature of subjects and the appropriateness or otherwise of cultural content has been an educational and political issue.

A developmental model for stages of growth in christian formation

Abstract: (1992). A DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL FOR STAGES OF GROWTH IN CHRISTIAN FORMATION. Religious Education: Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 283-298.

Priorities in religious education : a model for the 1990s and beyond

Abstract: Introduction - the need for priorities, Brenda Watson. Part 1 Religious education as experience: first steps in religious education, John Wilson Whitehead revisited religion and education - an organic whole, Jack Priestley "Heaven in Ordinarie" - the imagination, spirituality and the art in religious education, Nicole Slee. Part 2 Faith - perspectives on religious education: identify the educators, Richard Wilkins the religious approach to religious education - the methodology of awakening and disciplining the religious sensibility, Syed Ali Ashraf a look at the Christian Schools Movement, Bernadette O'Keeffe roots in religious education, Kevin Nichols unity and diversity - the search for common identity, Edward Hulmes. Part 3 Focus on the classroom: teaching about issues of science and religion, Michael Poole the junior school child developing the concept of God, Elizabeth Ashton teaching discernment, an overview of the book as a whole from the perspective of the secondary school classroom, Michael Donley.

The Teaching of Religion in Government Funded Schools in Israel

Abstract: Religious education in Israel is inextricably linked with the more general aspects of the complex role of religion in Israel, which in turn cannot be understood without a basic understanding of Israel as a Jewish state, as well as that of the traditional status of religious-ethnic-national groups in the Middle East.A comprehensive discussion of these complex issues would take us well beyond the confines of this paper. Thus, we will discuss them only briefly herein, thereby necessarily dealing in generalizations which may, at times, be overly simplistic.

World Religions and Educational Practice

Abstract: Religious education in schools religion - education and national identity Islam meeting the challenge Judaism Hinduism the moral teaching of Confucianism and society religion and the State Catholicism and its educational mission Protestantism fundamentalism and education.

Education in New France

Abstract: The first priority of French missionaries was the conversion of the native population. Education was an important tool in the evangelization campaign because they believed that conversion was best secured when preceded and underscored by religious instruction. As Canada evolved into a French colony the religious orders increasingly turned their attention to the education of the children of French settlers. The period saw the establishment of a number of petites ecoles (elementary schools), a Jesuit college for boys, and several trade schools. As Magnuson demonstrates, provision for education in the colony declined during the eighteenth century. First, membership in religious orders dwindled, reducing their capacity to serve the educational needs of an expanding population. Second, as the population of the colony grew, with more inhabitants born in Canada than in France, different values and priorities developed. The written word, notes Magnuson, held less attraction for the Canadian, who preferred the active life of the frontier.

The diversity of experience in the religious upbringing of children from Christian families in Britain

Abstract: Unlike the 1944 Education Act, the 1988 Education Reform Act permits the study of different Christian denominations. The research reported gives information on aspects of Christianity in the experience of a group of eight to thirteen year old children from different denominational and ethnic backgrounds in Coventry. Using ethnographic field data, the article outlines some children's perceptions of the Holy Spirit, Baptism, Holy Communion and Saints, the responses illustrating a diversity of practices and belief, but showing a unity of belief in ‘God and Jesus’ and a general involvement in public worship. Each child's particular experience of Christian upbringing could be plotted on the four axes of ethnicity, denomination, belief and ritual practice. It is suggested that curriculum material based on Christian children's experience could be included in studies of Christianity forming part of religious education programmes in schools.

Values Assessment at Three Consortium Colleges: A Longitudinal Followup Study.

Abstract: A longitudinal study investigated developmental changes in moral and ethical decision-making among college students at three Christian, evangelical, liberal arts colleges. The three colleges had an "ethics across the curriculum" emphasis in place during the period of the study. The study began in 1987 with 99 freshmen from a total incoming class of 1400, of whom 37 percent were male and 63 percent were female. A follow-up study was done in 1991 with the 75 students still enrolled in school. The study used both qualitative and quantitative instruments that included measurement of demographic characteristics, survey of major social issues, a defining issues test, a value survey, a learning context . questionnaire, a test of religious problem solving styles, and an interview. Findings indicated that subjects were generally similar to one another and to the college population as a whole and that the students made significant advances in moral reasoning, openness and tolerance, and religious identity. Elements needed to induce more students to take advantage of growth opportunities during their college years are discussed. Included are appendixes containing 22 tables and 56 references. (4.7B) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** Values Assessment at Three Consortium Colleges: A Longitudinal Follow%) Study Ron Snows 11 Rich Batman John Van Wick lin

‘When You Pray, Go To Your Private Room’ A Reply to Adrian Thatcher

Abstract: In a previous issue of BJRE the experiential approach in religious education was attacked as ‘deeply flawed’. This article responds by showing that the author has radically misunderstood the methodology. Experiential education does not have dualistic assumptions; unlike most other approaches to education it gives particular prominence to embodiment in learning. Its use of the metaphor of ‘inwardness’ points towards depth; it also echoes an emphasis found throughout the western religious tradition. Finally, the alleged link with privatized and quietistic religion is shown to be false. The methodology is in fact a powerful and educationally responsible way of responding to the requirements of the Education Reform Act

Implementing the Right to Education in England

Abstract: This chapter analyses the right to education as enshrined in the International Bill of Rights and other human rights treaties adhered to by the United Kingdom. It then assesses how the UK, particularly England, has implemented the international norms.

To those who teach at Christian colleges

Abstract: A viable future for Christian colleges depends on the faculty having a powerful sense of vocation concerning an educational and scholarly ministry aimed at bringing the life of learning into a vital relationship with the central values of Christian faith.

Impelled toward Multicultural Religious Education.

Abstract: (1992). IMPELLED TOWARD MULTICULTURAL RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. Religious Education: Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 192-202.

Christian and Hindu Children

Abstract: This article reports the views which groups of Hindu and Christian children who attend places of worship in Coventry expressed about their own religious traditions and other people's. Some observations were common to both groups. However the Christian children showed less sign of relating their faith to any other and tended to be more negative in their assumptions than Hindus were about Christianity. By the Hindu children, unlike most of the Christians, religion was generally closely associated with their ethnic background. The article concludes with discussion of whether such differences in attitude are inherent in Christian and Hindu world views. Attention is focused on Britain's particular situation in which members of traditions other than Christianity are in many cases also members of ethnic minorities whose roots are in areas previously subjected to Britain's imperial rule and Christian missionary activity. The part played by religious education in schools is also considered. The wider context is that of identity-formation in a plural society.

Assimilatory processes amongst the Cape Muslims in South Africa during the 19th century

Abstract: The Muslims who arrived in the Cape Colony during the 17th to 19th centuries consisted of a large number of diverse national-origin groups. By virtue of the interplay of a variety of dynamic assimilatory processes at the Cape especially during the 19th century, these diverse groups were welded into a socially recognisable community by the latter half of that century. These processes included, inter alia, the location of the majority of Muslims to the urban area of Cape Town, active Muslim participation in the common labour market of this area, a common religion and certain special organisational structures associated with the religion itself, the existence of common languages amongst the groups, and a local system of predominantly religious education.

Religiosity, Subjective Norms, and Educational Attitudes in the Choice of Religious Education by Israeli Parents*

Abstract: This field study deals with considerations underlying parents' choices of religious vs. secular elementary public education for their children. The contributions of parental religiosity, religious educational attitudes, subjective norms, and a variety of sociodemographic characteristics were examined within the context of a structural model suggested by reasoned action theory and its critics. Questionnaires dealing with these variables were administered to 710 parents of children completing kindergarten and about to enter elementary school. As expected, choice of school sector was related primarily to level of parental religiosity. LISREL analyses revealed that the parental decision was also influenced by such school characteristics as educational level and geographical location, as well as by perceived social norms. The specific weight of the variable shifted as a function of parental educational level and ethnicity. Social implications are discussed regarding the potential for social cleavage and separatism between religious and nonreligious Israeli Jews.

Church-Related Colleges and Academics.

Abstract: Although problematic pressures and movements face academics who desire to integrate Christian faith and higher learning, professionals at church-related colleges can pursue distinctive educational approaches to faith and learning in faculty development, curriculum design, teaching content, and other academic tasks.

Delivering the National Curriculum : subjects for secondary schooling

Abstract: Subjects, subject departments and the National Curriculum the National Curriculum - context and critique science maths English theology religious education history geography physical education modern languages art and music personal and social education subjects, subject departments and assessment and education.

Multiculturalism and religious education

Abstract: (1992). MULTICULTURALISM AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. Religious Education: Vol. 87, No. 1, pp. 62-73.

Pluralism in Christianity and its Consequences for Religious Education

Abstract: This article looks at the plurality of Christianity but not from a sectarian or denominational perspective. In religious education today there are many Christian voices. Some are on Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education and work hard with other Christians, other faiths and other people to produce good syllabuses for pupils in the classroom. They do this in full awareness that teachers and pupils may be of any faith and none. There is a plurality of attitude. Christians are often simplistically polarised as evangelical or liberal, fundamentalist or catholic, yet most Christians have attitudes which stretch across and beyond these name‐tags. As a result this article looks at the theological naivety which underlies the visual and literal images of Jesus often found in schools, especially primary schools. It argues for greater theological awareness of the plurality within Christianity and encourages those who teach, those who draw up syllabuses and those who complain about them to recognise and e...

Secularity, Agape and Religious Education ‐‐ A Critical Appreciation of the Work of J. W. D. Smith

Abstract: J. W. D. Smith (1899‐1987), was one of the leading religious educationists in Britain in the post‐Second World War period. His early interest in psychology and his work in ecumenical and missionary education during the ‘thirties convinced him of the vital role of religion in personal development. His most influential book, ‘Religious Education in a Secular Setting’ (1969) advocated an approach to religious education in state schools which aimed to assist children and young people to achieve mature personal development through knowledge and experience of Christian love. Although the biblical orientation and apologetic character of the book's curriculum suggestions made it out of tune with the times, it remains an important contribution to the philosophy of religious education