This study aimed to discover how trust is established during the decision-making processes of boards of trustees at private historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This study also aimed to address if and how board composition and individual board members' value systems play a role in the decision-making process and work of the board.…

The Controlled Schools' sector in Northern Ireland is usually described as de facto Protestant. By examining its history and current context, this article considers the veracity of that statement. In many schools RE is often 'squeezed out' of an already overcrowded timetable. This results in the quantity and quality of RE teaching varying widely,…

Drawing on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey (NCLS), this study was designed to assess peer and parental influence on frequency of church attendance, attitude toward church, and attitude toward Christianity among a sample of 6256 young churchgoers between the ages of eight and 14 years, attending a range of denominations,…

Although there is no consensus among educationalists as to the role schools play as drivers of hostilities in divided societies, there is broad agreement that they can facilitate more positive intergroup relations. In Northern Ireland the promotion of school based intergroup contact has been offered as a means through which this can happen. Until…

International human rights instruments provide a legal basis for an agreed set of human values globally. These 'values' are expected to underpin the purposes and content of education. This paper aims to explore how compliance with human rights instruments and values is balanced by educational leaders in Northern Ireland where diverse…

This paper deals with the disclosure of subaltern thinking in current German-language textbooks for religious education. For the hermeneutical framing of this analysis, the approach of a postcolonial reading is particularly profitable. Obvious hierarchical relationships from clearly up and down can consequently be made visible and their presumed…

I examine the levels of educational emphases that science teachers in Evangelical Protestant (EP) schools place on (i) teaching basic content knowledge, (ii) improving scientific reasoning skills, and (iii) presenting real-world applications of science. Using a nationally representative sample of US ninth-graders, I find differences in these…

This article examines how two Finnish religious education (RE) teachers, one in Islamic and one in Lutheran RE, seek to construct openness when dealing with religious truth claims and religious commitment, the key areas in which indoctrination might take place. It also observes how these constructions work in the classroom and explains them in the…

Professional ideals arise from personal worldviews and specify teachers' professional identities. This study aimed to explore how faith is present in the professional ideals of Christian teachers. The professional ideals of 107 Dutch teachers from conservative Protestant primary and secondary schools were explored using an open-ended…

This article explores commonalities in the lives and work of women head teachers in Malawian secondary schools and women principals in Australian Lutheran schools. In both Australia and Malawi women are under-represented in school leadership and often appointed to complex schools and communities. We commence with a brief discussion of Malawi and…

This article examines social practices within classroom discourse in two different Finnish religious educational contexts. The article critically observes the construction of certain positions and identities as part of the school discourse and the inclusive vs exclusive practices of language. The research material consists of classroom…

The Good Friday Agreement (1998) between the UK and Irish governments, and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, heralded a significant step forward in securing peace and stability for this troubled region of the British Isles. From the new-found stability, the previous fits and starts of education reform were replaced by a…

Drawing on perspectives from sociocultural theory, this article investigates how Christian denominations are represented in Norwegian textbooks of religious education and by young believers. The main finding is that textbooks and young adherents present religion in substantially different ways. While textbooks relate religion to global and…

This paper explores comparatively and historically why Nordic and Continental welfare and education regimes differ in the degree of comprehensiveness of their primary and lower secondary school systems. It analyses how school reforms, reform attempts and coalitions in the post-war decades were shaped by different cleavage structures in Norway and…

This article focuses on the study of where mobile devices and social media tools are taken into consideration in the Finnish confirmation training entity as a new opportunity to work together. The research is based on the ethnographical method. The data was collected by observation in two confirmation training camp periods and interviewing…