K-12 Christian school teachers’ perspectives on faith and learning

Abstract

Relationships between faith and learning are central to Christian education. However, few large studies have examined grade-school teachers’ faith-learning perspectives, especially the influence of academic discipline and theological tradition. I investigated these among 1,059 teachers certified by the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI). Academic discipline showed a relationship to the responses of secondary (7–12) teachers but not to those of elementary (K-6) teachers. Theological tradition showed no significant relationship to either group’s perspectives. Both groups reported a stronger influence of faith on course content than on instructional strategies. These results have implications for teacher training and evaluation.

K-12 Christian school teachers’ open responses regarding faith and learning

“…All members of the population were sent an invitation to participate and a link to the study instrument. 1059 teachers completed all required portions of the instrument and were described in Witwer (2023). 655 of these teachers also provided at least one useful optional open response; this group comprises the research sample for the present paper.…”

“…The purpose of this research was to analyze open responses from Witwer’s (2018, 2019, 2023) study of teachers in Christian grade schools to address two research questions. The questions were:1.…”

“…Even some Reformed scholars consider IFL’s focus on the content of instruction to be necessary but not sufficient for Christian formation because it tends to neglect the formative power of practices (Smith, 2009, 2016, 2018). Witwer (2023) contains a more extensive discussion of this background.…”

“…Glanzer and Alleman (2019: 212) gathered data from over 1500 professors in 37 schools affiliated with the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Witwer (2023) gathered data from 1059 Christian-school teachers of grades kindergarten (K) through 12 who had been certified by the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) in approximately the previous 5 years.…”

“…Witwer (2023) reported results from an analysis of K-12 teachers’ responses to 14 Likert-type items on an instrument modified from the one used in Glanzer and Alleman’s CCCU study. Six of the items related to faith’s influence on course content ( what students learn; corresponding to course objectives in the CCCU study) and eight to faith’s influence on instructional strategies ( how students learn; corresponding to teaching methods in the CCCU study).…”