This critical policy analysis investigates the opinions and activities of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs) in England. It uses a critical approach to educational policy to examine the diffuse power structure of SACREs and give voice to those local councils. Using data gathered in an online survey of SACREs, conducted…

Established in the 1920s, Furen University was a private Catholic university in China. Just as in the case of other Christian colleges in modern China, Furen was taken over by the communist government soon after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and incorporated into the new state-controlled higher education system.…

Conceptualizing religious literacy as the processes used to construct meaning of sacred texts, this article focuses on how three religious educators read scripture. Data were generated through verbal protocols in which participants read scripture and verbalized their thinking. Inductive thematic analysis yielded a selection of scripture-reading…

This research explains that heredity affects the formation of personality. However, it is not the only one absolute factor which can't be changed. In fact, personality can be supple and the tool to change is the environment. The purpose of this study is to show that heredity and environment are important in determining the quality of individual…

B'nai mitzvah is a significant motivation for engagement in Jewish education. Professionals and families devote resources in aiding young people in becoming b'nai mitzvah. This article examines the adolescent narratives of b'nai mitzvah and the ways in which adults feature in their stories. Their accounts surface a belief that adults support them…

As a consequence of the 1944 Education Act church schools were given the choice of opting for voluntary controlled status or for voluntary aided status. In voluntary aided status the Church had more control but carried greater costs. Within England and Wales this distinction is still maintained. This study measures the attitude toward Christianity…

Indonesian Buddhist religious teachers face various problems related to the limitation of learning infrastructure and the availability teacher training program that affects their self-confidence. This research aims to analyse the factors and the indicators of self-confidence of Buddhist religious teachers as the basis for the development of…

This article reflects on the experience of teaching a course called "Sacred Sound in World Religions" at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. I claim that the nature of music and music-making has profound implications for teaching and pedagogical theory in an interreligious setting. Drawing upon scholars including Lisa M. Hess,…

This study analyzes the correlation between required years of Bible courses and academic rigor at select private Christian schools. These findings, derived from the author's doctoral research, show a threshold of under 4 years of required Bible courses for optimal academic perception among these schools. This threshold correlates with a medium to…

In this paper, I argue that Spinoza's political theory gives us a model for how he might have approached a treatise on moral education. Indeed, his account of the method and aims of politics resembles Renaissance humanist rhetorical approaches to pedagogy -- particularly, the work of sixteenth century Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives -- so…

This qualitative study investigates the knowledge about the Bible and the skills required for biblical interpretation as imparted by three textbooks for Norwegian upper secondary religious education (RE). The multidimensional theoretical framework combines models from biblical hermeneutics and RE. One model distinguishes between the worlds behind,…

Despite myriad benefits of higher education to communities and the public at large, a commonplace perception these days is that the most important benefit of higher education centers on what accrues to individual degree earners. Institutions can inadvertently encourage this narrower perception in various ways. The purpose of this article is to…

Being religious person is absolute for everyone, including the students of Islamic University. That's why PTKI (Islamic University) does some efforts to strengthen the student's religiousness. This research is intended to assess the quality of Islamic Education learning and the religiousness of PTKI students and also to observe the implication of…

This article discusses the recent report of the Commission on Religious Education on "Religion and Worldviews". While it praises the report for its honest critical evaluation of the current situation of Religious Education in England as well as for the effort of improving this situation by suggesting far-reaching amendments at a systemic…

This article responds to Liam Gearon's reply to my article "Misrepresenting Religious Education's Past and Present in Looking Forward: Gearon Using Kuhn's Concepts of Paradigm, Paradigm Shift and Incommensurability." In maintaining my critique of Gearon's use of Kuhn's terminology, I question his claim that 'incommensurability' does not…