"Keeping Up with the Steins" (2006) is the first Hollywood film to focus on the Bar Mitzvah ceremony in its family, congregational, and Jewish community context. The film demonstrates how popular culture reflects community values, but may also shape them. The hero is alienated both from the synagogue service and his mega-Bar Mitzvah party. In line…

This paper examines Catholic girlhood, womanhood and the mother-daughter relationship, and its socio-historical construction within a range of disparate discourses. The aim of the paper is to deconstruct dominant patriarchal constructions and images of femininity, particularly those embedded within the doctrine of Catholicism. Moreover, the paper…

Critical pedagogy is a by product of postmodernism, which argues that reality is always subjective, and truth is identified through each person's experiences and environment. Can critical pedagogy be applied to faith-based education? The authors claim that it can. First, the theories and practices of critical pedagogy have strengthened faith-based…

Background/Context: Educational historians have given a great deal of attention to the early-twentieth-century growth, development, and implementation of liberal progressive educational theories and techniques. However, with the exception of a few scholars, they have devoted far less attention to the religious dimensions of liberal progressive…

This article argues that educators should be aware of the way that Christian beliefs interact with the structure and practices of secular education policies and that established secular social theory can help them to do this. Drawing on an example from empirical research, the author models how concepts associated with Bourdieu's social theory can…

In this article, the emerging field of youth ministry research is presented and interpreted through the lens of practical theology. International developments are described and compared as local responses to the ongoing global dynamics of youth culture. After an overview of four different contexts in which youth ministry research can be situated,…

This article proposes a postcolonial intercultural pedagogy, one that can create Liberating Interdependence among communities and across boundaries. First, the author examines conflicting ways that the Exodus is told in different communities: as a story of the God of the oppressed and as a story about an unjust God. Second, after analyzing the…

In his article "Skepticism, truth as coherence, and constructivist epistemology: grounds for resolving the discord between science and religion?", John Staver identifies what he considers to be the source of the conflicts between science and religion: the establishment of the relationship between truth and knowledge, from the perspective of those…

The population of students with limited English proficiency--a disproportionate number of whom are urban Latinos living in low-income neighborhoods--is increasing rapidly. School districts serving these populations must meet escalating academic benchmarks, as stipulated by No Child Left Behind, or incur sanctions. This pressure has led many…

Educational institutions across America face growing pressure to accommodate the religious practices of Muslim students. One of the biggest hot spots in this respect may seem unlikely--the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in America's heartland. In Minnesota, controversies about religious accommodations have arisen at a number of public…

REDCo findings question the ideal of neutrality of the teacher on ethical, epistemological and didactical grounds showing in particular that the exposure of the teacher's personal commitments and beliefs stimulates students to participate in dialogue. The findings support hermeneutical approaches to the empirical studies in education showing that…

In this study, twelve expert teachers of Jewish Thought in Israeli high schools were observed and interviewed, in order to examine their ideas regarding the proper way to approach and teach Jewish canonical texts. Using qualitative analysis, I identified a central component of these teachers' Pedagogic Content Knowledge and named it their…

As the nation's Catholic universities and colleges continually clarify their identity, this article examines academic freedom in classroom speech, offering a heuristic model for use as board members, academic administrators, and faculty leaders discuss, evaluate, and judge allegations of misconduct in classroom speech. Focusing upon the practice…

While William W. Brickman has been acknowledged as an erudite scholar, prolific writer, and pioneer of comparative education, his substantial contribution to Jewish education is largely unknown. This article seeks to redress this shortcoming by examining his work in training aspiring Jewish educators, his efforts for the accreditation of fledgling…

From its inception in 1922 the BBC pioneered a new medium in the education of children. This article traces the origins and development of a particular broadcast, "Children's Hour Prayers," a short worship time for children (appended to "Children's Hour") which began in wartime, and ended, along with the host programme itself,…