Religion in Schools in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Rosenblith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between religion and public education has been fraught with misunderstanding, confusion, tension, and hostility. Perhaps more so than other forms of identity, for many, religion evokes a strong sense of exclusivity. Unlike other forms of identity, for many, particularly the religiously orthodox, religious identity is based on a belief in absolute truth. And for some of the orthodox, adherence to this truth is central to their salvation. Further, unlike cultural identity, religion is oftentimes exclusive in its fundamental claims and assertions. In short, matters of religious faith are indeed high stakes. Yet its treatment in public schools is, for the most part, relatively scant. Some of this is because of uncertainty among educators as to what the law permits, and for others it is uncertainty of its rightful place in democratic pluralistic schools.

Sovereignty, citizenship and educating refugees in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 147490412096642
Author(s):  
Jill Koyama
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Refugee Students ◽  
Proposition 203 ◽  
Mexico Border

Public education in the United States acts as a governmental tool of neoliberalism, through which state power and sovereignty are deployed and transformed in daily life. Here, I examine how the divergence of sovereignty is exerted over refugee students and their families in US public education. Drawing on 42 months of ethnographic data collected on refugee and other immigrant networks in Southern Arizona, a US–Mexico border region marked by increasing anti-immigrant policies and practices, I reveal how the everyday practices and policies of one school district reflect and reinforce the government’s control over refugee students. I argue that the ways in which the students are sorted, marginalized, and denied opportunities as learners is inextricable from their positioning as non-citizens by the federal and state governments. Specifically, I demonstrate the linkages between the federal education policy, Every School Succeeds Act, Arizona State’s Proposition 203: English Language Education for the Children in Public Schools, which eliminated bilingual education, and the school district’s approach to teaching refugee students. Finally, I offer recommendations for creating more inclusive, assets-based learning environments for refugee students that push back against the neoliberal favoring of competition and one-size-fits-all solutions in public education.

scholarly journals Sojourner Culture Shock: Assessing the Role of Exposure in Intrapersonal Identity Conflict

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Asfahani
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Culture Shock ◽  
The United States ◽  
Identity Conflict ◽  
Saudi Arabian Students ◽  
Pearson Correlation Test ◽  
The Relationship

This research assesses the relationship between intercultural exposure variables—the length of time spent in the United States, the length of previous experience outside Saudi Arabia, the length of time studying English as a second language, and the frequency and nature of interactions with Americans—and intrapersonal identity conflict. To assess this relationship, the researcher conducted a survey of Saudi Arabian students studying in the United States, which collected information on exposure variables, as well as employing Leong and Ward’s (2000) Ethno-Cultural Identity Conflict Scale (EICS). A Pearson correlation test was conducted to examine the relationship between the Saudi sojourners’ intercultural exposure and their identity conflict scores to conclude that there is not a relationship between exposure and identity conflict.

scholarly journals A laicidade e o “jeitinho brasileiro”: formas diversificadas e improvisadas de regulação do religioso em ambientes laicos e públicos: o caso de escolas municipais de Juiz de Fora/ MG / Secularism and the ‘Brazilian way’:

Numen ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Camurça ◽  
Sueli Martins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Debate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Substantive Issue ◽  
Informal Regulation ◽  
The City

RESUMOA partir de um estudo de caso de escolas municipais na cidade de Juiz de Fora, este artigo visa discutir a questão de fundo da laicidade no Brasil. Tomando a perspectiva do debate internacional atual que analisa este processo de uma forma plural e não como via única que tem como modelo os países europeus e os EUA, busca-se aqui estabelecer uma tipologia - três casos paradigmáticos - que nos aproxime das formas diferenciadas e informais de regulação do religioso no ambiente público escolarPalavras-chave: Chave: Escolas públicas, laicidade, regulação, religiões, BrasilABSTRACTDrawing upon a case study on public schools in the city of Juiz de Fora (MG), this article aims to discuss the substantive issue of secularism in Brazil. The paper builds on the current international debate that analyzes the process of secularization under a plural and multidimensional, rather than one-imensional perspective, which has been modeled on European countries and the United States. We seek to establish a typology based on three paradigmatic cases that may bring us closer to the differing forms and informal regulation of the religious phenomenon in the public education environment.Keywords: Public schools, secularism, regulation, religions, Brazil 

Introduction

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Hochschild ◽  
Nathan Scovronick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
American Dream ◽  
School Funding ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
The Individual

THE AMERICAN DREAM IS A POWERFUL CONCEPT. It encourages each person who lives in the United States to pursue success, and it creates the framework within which everyone can do it. It holds each person responsible for achieving his or her own dreams, while generating shared values and behaviors needed to persuade Americans that they have a real chance to achieve them. It holds out a vision of both individual success and the collective good of all. From the perspective of the individual, the ideology is as compelling as it is simple. “I am an American, so I have the freedom and opportunity to make whatever I want of my life. I can succeed by working hard and using my talents; if I fail, it will be my own fault. Success is honorable, and failure is not. In order to make sure that my children and grandchildren have the same freedom and opportunities that I do, I have a responsibility to be a good citizen— to respect those whose vision of success is different from my own, to help make sure that everyone has an equal chance to succeed, to participate in the democratic process, and to teach my children to be proud of this country.” Not all residents of the United States believe all of those things, of course, and some believe none of them. Nevertheless, this American dream is surprisingly close to what most Americans have believed through most of recent American history. Public schools are where it is all supposed to start—they are the central institutions for bringing both parts of the dream into practice. Americans expect schools not only to help students reach their potential as individuals but also to make them good citizens who will maintain the nation’s values and institutions, help them flourish, and pass them on to the next generation. The American public widely endorses both of these broad goals, values public education, and supports it with an extraordinary level of resources. Despite this consensus Americans disagree intensely about the education policies that will best help us achieve this dual goal. In recent years disputes over educational issues have involved all the branches and levels of government and have affected millions of students. The controversies—over matters like school funding, vouchers, bilingual education, high-stakes testing, desegregation, and creationism—seem, at first glance, to be separate problems.

Literacy and Cultural Identity

1990 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Ferdman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Literacy Education ◽  
Literacy Acquisition ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Relationship

In this article, Bernardo Ferdman argues that cultural diversity has significant implications for the processes of becoming and being literate. He explores these connections by analyzing the relationship between literacy and cultural identity in a multiethnic society such as the United States. Ferdman asserts that literacy is culturally framed and defined; therefore,members of different cultures will differ in what they view as literate behavior. This, in turn, can influence how individuals engage in literacy acquisition and activity. He further argues that the type and content of literacy education that individuals receive can influence their cultural identity. He concludes by arguing that the connections between literacy and culture must be fully acknowledged and better understood in order to achieve the goal of literacy acquisition for all.

Public Schooling and Democracy in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Stitzlein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Schooling ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Important Relationship ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Relationship

Public schools are intricately connected to the stability and vitality of our democracy in the United States. The important relationship between public schooling and democracy began as a foundational idea in our fledgling republic, and it grew slowly over the course of our country’s history. Along the way, the relationship has been tested and challenged, encountering significant problems and limitations over time, including some that continue today. Despite these struggles and the many ways in which we’ve failed to fully fulfill the relationship, it has become a key one for maintaining the strength of our society and our political system. Unlike a monarchy and other forms of government, it is difficult to maintain a democracy. Democracies take work; they rely upon the ongoing effort of elected officials and citizens, because they cannot run themselves or rely on just one person to lead. While democracy may be a highly desirable political system, its benefits are not always self-evident to children, and the pursuant skills and work it requires do not come naturally to most people. This is the rather precarious position of democracy; in order to maintain it, we have to educate children about its benefits and rationale while also equipping them with the skills and dispositions they need in order to for them to perpetuate it well. This is why we must link education and democracy. Democracy requires informed and active voters who seek information to make wise decisions on behalf of themselves and the common good. Such voters must understand their own rights and freedoms, as well as those of others, as they deliberate together to reach mutually agreeable policies and practices. They must be equipped to engage in free and critical inquiry about the world and the problems surrounding them. And, they need the imagination and creativity to construct, revise, add to, and share the story of democracy with others, including the next generation. The relationship between public schooling and democracy is best understood and fulfilled when it is not just a unidirectional one, where public schools support democracy, but rather when it moves in both directions, with the formal and cultural elements of democracy shaping the governance, content, and practices of schools. In this way, democracy is not just the end of public schooling, but also the means by which we achieve it.

scholarly journals Shari‘a Consciousness: Law and Lived Religion among California Muslims

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 787-817
Author(s):  
Mark Fathi Massoud ◽  
Kathleen M. Moore
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Mobilization ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
The Relationship

Shari‘a (commonly translated as Islamic law) is at the epicenter of anti-Muslim discourses in the United States. How do Muslims in the United States understand and experience shari‘a in the context of virulent attacks on it and on Islam and Muslims more generally? This article explores the meanings Californian Muslims give to and the intentions they derive from shari‘a when dominant discourses represent shari‘a as a cause for concern in American life. Drawing from fieldwork and interviews with Muslims across California, as well as scholarship on legal consciousness and lived religion, we document three interrelated stages of shari‘a consciousness: perceiving shari‘a and discriminatory depictions of it; educating oneself about shari‘a’s social and political relevance; and forming an intention for social action. Documenting these interrelated stages and theorizing the relationship between legal consciousness, religion, and inequality, this article reveals how religious identity formation is a significant precursor of legal mobilization and how nonstate normative orders provide interpretive frames for understanding human rights and social justice. Ultimately, legal consciousness may stem from sacred sensibilities and the desire to be a more ethical servant of God and not merely to be a more ethical subject of the state.

Negotiating the Slippery Slope: School Change and Literacy Achievement

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn H. Au
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Literacy Achievement ◽  
Academic Expectations ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
High Stakes Tests ◽  
Education Today

Newspaper headlines from across the United States reflect the turmoil in public education today, with some states protesting federal requirements for testing, some states lowering proficiency requirements, other states raising proficiency requirements, and even kindergarten and preschool children facing higher academic expectations. These headlines, reflecting the accountability pressures of higher standards and high-stakes tests, are having predictable effects upon educators in schools. My home state of Hawaii is no exception. “Teachers say they're the ones being left behind,” stated a headline in the Honolulu Advertiser, while the line below read, “Morale low, frustration high among many” (DePledge, 2004).

Abusive Men's Use of Children to Control Their Partners and Ex-Partners

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa L. Beeble ◽  
Deborah Bybee ◽  
Cris M. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Emotional Abuse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
Multiple Variables ◽  
The Relationship

While research has found that millions of children in the United States are exposed to their mothers being battered, and that many are themselves abused as well, little is known about the ways in which children are used by abusers to manipulate or harm their mothers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that perpetrators use children in a variety of ways to control and harm women; however, no studies to date have empirically examined the extent of this occurring. Therefore, the current study examined the extent to which survivors of abuse experienced this, as well as the conditions under which it occurred. Interviews were conducted with 156 women who had experienced recent intimate partner violence. Each of these women had at least one child between the ages of 5 and 12. Most women (88%) reported that their assailants had used their children against them in varying ways. Multiple variables were found to be related to this occurring, including the relationship between the assailant and the children, the extent of physical and emotional abuse used by the abuser against the woman, and the assailant's court-ordered visitation status. Findings point toward the complex situational conditions by which assailants use the children of their partners or ex-partners to continue the abuse, and the need for a great deal more research in this area.

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