This paper argues for the need to better understand the role of mothers and schooling in shaping modern conservative cultural politics. Arguing that 1970s-1980s was a critical period for anti-progressive politics surrounding schooling, the paper examines the activism of Australian Christian morals campaigner Rona Joyner. Joyner's successful…

This article examines Martha Finley's immensely popular, postbellum Elsie Dinsmore series. As a teacher, Finley was concerned with the best methodology to educate young American women, a topic much debated in the nineteenth century because of the proliferation of conduct books like the Elsie series and the simultaneous advent of common schools.…

Moral philosophy in early American collegiate education founded its understanding and pursuit of virtue on the theological truth that humans are made in God's image. Therefore, to fulfill our purpose, we need to acquire creaturely analogues of God's virtues. Later American moral philosophy scholars and texts, however, began to use a different…

This article explores the nature, strengths and limitations of Roman, Christian, Kantian and utilitarian ethics and their legacy in some modern theories of educative leadership that are educative in intent and outcome. It is shown that Roman, Christian, Kantian, and utilitarian ethics have profoundly shaped transformational, instructional,…

This article discusses the extent to which middle-class Christians, many of whom were progressive liberals, involved themselves in the Moral Instruction League (MIL) to intervene in 'improving' the moral character of the English working class. It considers how they reconciled their motivations and underlying theology with secular goals that sought…

With nationwide concerns about the declines in youth voting turnout across the United States, increased attention has focused on schools to promote "civic education," a broad curricular approach aimed at facilitating students' development of key civic knowledge, skills, and behaviors. However, less is known about how civic education…

"The Soul of the American University" is a classic and much discussed account of the changing roles of Christianity in shaping American higher education, presented here in a newly revised edition to offer insights for a modern era. As late as the World War II era, it was not unusual even for state schools to offer chapel services or for…

The aim of this paper is to explore the history of Finnish religious education (RE) from the perspective of civic education. The research is based on a historical and content analysis of the data, which consist of written pedagogical and curricular material on Lutheran RE from the last 150 years. The analysis, which employs the Foucauldian concept…

Moral education is a responsibility of home, state, and Church. This study used Dewey's conceptualization of moral education as aiding students to strive for, choose, and act in accordance with the common good. Historically, the Catholic Church and its schools have been dedicated to this end. The Catholic Church has depended greatly upon its…

With particular reference to religious education, this article provides an account of the campaigns of Secularists and Humanists in England in the 1960s and 1970s and locates them within their broader religious context. These campaigns, which have been both underplayed and overstated in the existing historiography, failed to garner the levels of…

The aim of this paper is to provide a positive case for increasing the role and importance of religious morality within the subject of religious education in British schools. The argument is structured in the following way. First, attention is given to the diminished role accorded to moral education within religious education that followed the…

This article examines the key tenets of contemporary education philosophy and compares it to the principles of the Adventist educational philosophy. The intent is to determine whether Adventist educational philosophy aligns with the demands of contemporary education. In this vein, 10 key principles of contemporary education are first described.…

This paper develops out of research concerning the place of white teachers and social constructions of "white good" in South Australia's Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands. Here I focus on an era known as the Ernabella "mission days" (1937-1971), a time when Presbyterian missionaries are typically thought to have…

Since prayer was banned from the public school systems in 1962 and all religious references have been censored, the American Public School System has become completely secular in nature. Children today face a great deal of peer pressure especially when bad behavior is constantly glamorized in both the media and the press. Because of the lack of…

This article traces the development of moral education (ME) in Botswana from pre-colonial times to the present day. It shows how during this time ME has undergone three distinct phases of development, each emphasising a particular ideology. In pre-colonial times ME was offered as part of indigenous education in the home and community, both…