As part of a larger investigation into the spiritual climate at one Lutheran college, we interviewed Protestant Christian students in order to compare their conceptualizations of spirituality, religion, and faith with biblical notions of those concepts. We found that the students' understandings of those concepts only loosely reflected general…

Researchers assessed through quantitative and qualitative methods the relationships among high school students of different racial/ethnic groups in two high-performing urban high schools, one Evangelical and the other Catholic, and explored with students and staff the effect of the distinctive mission and religious worldview of each school on…

While much has been written on national identity in Northern Ireland, the identity preferences of adults and the young have rarely been compared directly. This paper addresses this omission by examining the relationship between national identity and community relations within both the adult (aged 18 years and above) and the young adult (aged 16…

This article compares experiences of shared schooling in societies with 2 distinctive traits: first, a history of intercommunity conflict and isolation; and second, a segregated school system. Drawing on Parekh's (2006) reconceptualisation of multiculturalism, this article analyses issues arising from experiences of intercommunity contact in…

This paper examines the impact of a school-based intervention entitled "Our Brothers and Sisters in Humanity" on 10th grade female Omani students' religious tolerance. A questionnaire was administered before and after an intervention to a sample of 241 girls, of whom 116 were in the experimental group and 125 in the control group. A…

Based on individual-level data from 2008 Afro-barometer survey, this study explores the relationship between religion (religious affiliation and religious importance) and trust (interpersonal and institutional) among Ghanaians. Employing hierarchical multiple regression technique, our analyses reveal a positive relationship between religious…

The "Whites as victims" motif in conversations about race has been well documented in recent decades. When discussing affirmative action hiring policies, a common belief expressed by Whites is that people of color have been permitted to progress unfairly at the expense of harder working Whites. Whites using this discourse see themselves…

There is a persistent debate over the role of scale of operations in education. Some argue that school franchises offer educational services more effectively than do small independent schools. Skeptics counter that large, centralized operations create hard-to-manage bureaucracies and foster diseconomies of scale and that small schools are more…

Although the past decade has witnessed increased usage of ecological data to map the community-level effects of religion, the vast majority of studies in this body of scholarship continue to be plagued by two key shortcomings. First, ecological research on religion is often conducted in an atheoretical manner, one that privileges the structural…

This article compares marriage patterns by race, education and religion in the United States during the 20th century, using a variety of data sources. The comparative approach allows several general conclusions. First, racial endogamy has declined sharply over the 20th century, but race is still the most powerful division in the marriage market.…

The purpose of this paper is to compare the approach to promoting positive relationships between Catholics and Protestants in two types of integrated primary school in Northern Ireland. Drawing on qualitative interviews with teachers, governors and parents in one transforming school and one grant maintained integrated school, i.e. one…

A comparative case study of integrated schools in two regions of conflict, this study addresses the potential and limitations of education to promote individual and societal processes of change and peace building. In modern societies, education is expected to play a central function in socializing young generations into their culture and the…

Background: Northern Ireland is a province that remains deeply divided between Protestants and Catholics and maintains a segregated system of schools. Purpose: The research builds on a series of studies conducted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to monitor the attitude toward Christianity of males and females educated in Protestant and Catholic…

This study draws together two research traditions: John Greer's pioneering research among pupils in Protestant and Catholic schools in Northern Ireland and Leslie J. Francis's research concerning teenage religion and values in England and Wales. A sample of 1,585 13- to 15-year-old male pupils attending Catholic schools (n = 712) and Protestant…

Switzerland provides an interesting case study for the development of educational policies. As a result of federalism, each state--called a canton--worked out its own school system in relative independence. How can various political and religious environments generate different educational systems according to gender? Which factors promote or…