Christianity and its legacy in education

Abstract

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 JudeoChristian 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.

American Evangelical Biblicism as Literate Practice: A Critical Review

“…In U.S. public schools, a wall of separation (at most) or an ethical neutrality (at minimum) has been thought to prevail (Kunzman, ) with respect to religion, although recent scholarship documents how legacies of Christianity and Biblicism continue to pervade the calendar, language, and everyday life of U.S. schooling (Burke & Segall, ; Segall & Burke, ). The scholarship reviewed herein points to questions of if or how public school teachers could productively imagine evangelical students as engaging in complex, dialogically accomplished textual practices surrounding the Bible, along the same lines described by Sarroub () in her study of Muslim girls engaging with the Koran in and beyond U.S. public schools.…”

The Religion of American Public Schooling: Standards, Fidelity, and Cardinal Principles

“…Burke & Segall, 2011Segall & Burke, 2013), analyzed the language that has outlined the religious character of words and phrases that make up a great deal of our linguistic resources around education (e.g., dean, colloquy, retreat, office, mission) in this space we choose to focus in on the notion of anchor standards. It is important to note, too, that [s]imilar to our previous engagement with these issues, our intent in this article is not to delineate a direct causal relationship between religion and current educational thinking.…”

What Does Faith Got to Do with It? Influences on Preservice Teachers’ Racial Identity Development

“…38 Although some research exists between human development and religion, it has been inconsistent. And surprisingly, the impact of religion on educational practices has been neglected in the literature 39 with scholars arguing for further investigation of this phenomenon. 40 Burke and corresponding authors 41 have emphasized exploration between the connection of human development (i.e., cognitive, psychosocial, moral, etc.)…”