Jewish day schools offer many experiences meant to foster the Jewish development of students. However, these experiences are at risk of being disconnected from one another, complicating a comprehensive approach to addressing issues of identity. This article uses a constructivist approach to identity development to frame the challenges posed by…

Richard Komer's paper helpfully and carefully shows that, after the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, a formidable obstacle to choice-based educational reform has been removed, and also that other, no-less-formidable obstacles remain, in the form of anti-aid provisions contained in various states' own constitutions. This…

Recognition is the main word attached to multicultural perspectives. The multicultural call for recognition, the one calling for the recognition of cultural minorities and identities, the one now voiced by liberal states all over and also in Israel was a more difficult one. It took the author some time to realize that calling for the recognition…

Edward Greenstein's article reminds us of the important contributions that academic scholars of subject matter can make to the discourse of Jewish education. This response highlights some of Greenstein's argument and explores an area that his article does not examine in depth: the role of teachers' beliefs in the pedagogic decisions that they…

A key concept in contemporary Catholic educational discourse makes a distinction between religious education and catechesis. This distinction is based on the assumptions of faith commitment on the part of catechesis and the focus on cognitive outcomes on the part of religious education. Many official documents on Canadian Catholic school…

Although widespread consensus exists that the integration of Christian worldview, faith and learning lies at the heart of effective Christian education, such an aspiration has not always resulted in the embodiment of worldview principles within Christian educational contexts. In response to this dissonance, an alternative approach to integration…

This article responds to three articles in the most recent issue of "The Journal of Jewish Education" (74:1) in which a variety of researchers examined Bible teaching that employed an approach to Bible pedagogy that had been characterized by the present author as "the Contextual orientation" in his previously published book, "Textual Knowledge:…

In this article, the author makes some further remarks on the legacy of Ninian Smart and related issues in reply to L. Philip Barnes. In his judgement, the exchange between them is worth following up. Substantial issues are raised that are not resolved. In the Editorial of the issue of this journal in which Barnes' response appears, Vivienne…

"Saved!" is the first Hollywood movie to focus on private religious education and is therefore a significant milestone in popular culture. The movie is critical of the school along the very dimensions of concern to Brighouse (2006): undermining personal autonomy, fostering social divisiveness, and promoting anti-democratic values. This article is…

This article responds to Andrew Wright's critique of my views on the representation of religions. Using various literary devices--associating my work closely with that of others whose views are in some ways different from my own, referring very selectively to published texts and exaggerating, and sometimes misrepresenting, what I actually…

This article takes as its starting point the conviction that high quality Jewish education depends heavily on high quality teaching. Grounded in this idea and in a multileveled exploration--one indebted to recent Jewish thought--of the nature of excellence in teaching and its defining characteristics, the article proceeds to try to understand…

This essay reviews the Geographical section of the "International Handbook of Jewish Education" published in 2011. The differences between countries, their unique histories and cultures, are important, but their similarities are arguably more revealing. Indeed, on occasions when similar phenomena are examined in different places by different…

The author believes that the future of learning religion and religiously learning does not primary depend on new methods or medias transferring faith or religiosity to people's lives. It depends more on a change of theological awareness and of people's ways of theologizing in the midst of cultural flow in order to get a deeper understanding of the…

In this article, the author shares how his dissatisfaction with religion textbooks led him to use novels as texts for his religion classes. Among the novels that he used were "To A God Unknown" by John Steinbeck, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, "A Burnt-Out Case" by Graham Greene, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller, Jr., and "Franny…

Although he shares many of Professor Roger Trigg's views about the logical character and human significance of religion and religious discourse, including the view that religious claims are matters for rational understanding and appraisal, the author expresses difficulties with key points in Trigg's diagnosis and critique of what he takes to be…