The purpose of this study was to assess developmental and social determinants of the age at which children become aware that the social environment can be marked by categorization into religious groups and that those groups are associated with different religious beliefs. The results show that middle childhood is a critical period for this…

Using a life history approach, this paper explores spirituality in the life and work of Muslim teachers employed in state schools of England. Background for discussion includes a rationale for the methodology and its advantages. The findings highlight their conceptualisation of God and purpose of life, and draw attention to their views and…

Multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity have assumed the status of the most charged signs characterizing social contingencies and resultant violence in the increasingly glocalized world today. Minoritization continually interrupts and interrogates the homogeneous, horizontal claim of the projected democratic liberal society. Solidarity turns out to…

The study explores the possibilities of gender, ethnicity, and religion differences on attributions (locus of control, stability, personal and external control), motivational goals (learning, performance approach, performance avoidance, and work avoidance), self-efficacy, intelligence beliefs, religiosity, racial/ethnic identity, and academic…

This essay is excerpted from the author's book "Divisions within Islam," part of a 10-volume series for middle and high school students on the World of Islam. It provides information on the religious practices and beliefs of Shiism, and its differences with Sunni Islam. It mentions that Shiism is the second-largest denomination of Islam,…

The purpose of this article is to discuss the ways in which the social, political and cultural foundation of the headscarf as a symbol affects the nature and practice of educational life. It will examine the ways in which the headscarf practice is constructed in the public sphere. In order to understand the headscarf practice in Turkey the nature…

The purpose of this case study is to analyze a Turkish Student Association's (TSA) extracurricular activities involving interfaith dialog with respect to their contributions to students' academic and social development in a predominantly white, Catholic, liberal arts college located in the Northeastern United States. The study aims to explain how…

This study explores the bereavement process and continuing bond in Pakistani Muslims with the focus on how culture and religion influence these processes. Ten participants were interviewed and their transcribed interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Three main domains were identified from the narratives expressed by the…

Following 9/11 and the growth of religiously legitimated violence in Islamic countries, the focus of public discussion moved to imams and teachers of religion as actors supporting Muslim isolation and the lack of willingness to integrate--imams became central figures in the debate on Islam. With great enthusiasm, politicians discovered them to be…

This article reports part of a wider investigation which is still being developed and analyzes in depth the lives of female university students who are both Spanish and Muslim. The first part of this research was published in the "Revista Espanola de Educacion Comparada," where the results of the study in Madrid are presented. Here, the…

The Belief Diversity Scale (BDS) was administered to 89 male Canadian offenders of different religious backgrounds. The BDS is a 33-item, six-subscale instrument designed to quantitatively measure the religious attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies of Middle Eastern extremists on risk areas described in the literature. Results indicated that the…

This paper seeks to understand different religions and cultures by comparing and contrasting the similarities, differences, and opinions found within two religious/cultural groups. This case study uses the Social Learning Theory of communication to illustrate how perceptions of others are formed in a community with a growing Muslim population. It…

This qualitative study examines the impact of the Turkish higher education headscarf ban policy on the plural self-identities (i.e., as Turkish citizens, as Muslims, and as females) of part-time unveilers, female students who cover their hair in their private life but who remove the headscarf (or conceal it to appear unveiled) while at a Turkish…

This paper uses individual-level data and a differences-in-differences estimation strategy to test whether the education gender gap of Muslims is different from that of Christians. In particular, the paper uses data for young Lebanese and shows that, other things equal, girls (both Muslim and Christian) tend to receive more education than boys and…

Between recent threats by a Florida pastor to burn the Quran, the nation's ongoing presence in Afghanistan, and protests at the planned site for Park 51, an Islamic community center and mosque set to be built two blocks from the World Trade Center site, the topic of Islam is a tricky one, especially in K-12 schools, say many educators. For…