Empirical research in Jewish education has found almost exclusive use of "transmission" pedagogy among Jewish studies teachers. This study hoped to fill out the empirical landscape by studying Jewish studies teachers who prioritize student-driven interpretation. It followed six Jewish studies teachers in four different Jewish elementary…

Studies of the human mirror neuron system demonstrate how mental mimicking of one's social environment affects learning. The mirror neuron system also has implications for intercultural encounters. This article explores the common ground between the mirror neuron system and theological principles from the Tower of Babel narrative and applies them…

In the project "Learning for Life" we developed a hermeneutical--communicative model for worldview education that answers the European challenges of worldview diversity and worldview illiteracy. We implemented the model in a participatory action research project at nine schools for primary education in the Netherlands and monitored the…

Some of the Gospel passages proposed for Disability Awareness Sunday raise challenges as well as opportunities for preachers. This paper reports findings from an educational exercise, drawing on insights from the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, in which 23 Anglican clergy studied Mark 2: 1-12 and Mark 10: 46-52 in groups structured…

St. Augustine of Hippos' writing on education offers a fresh lens through which the conceptual framework of religious education in the Catholic school can be understood. Recent teaching of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church on the distinctive nature of religious education and catechesis has challenged religious educators to find an alternative…

Research Topic: The majority of Christian schools in the United States exclude children who have disabilities from their learning communities. This study examines the practices of 11 Christian schools throughout the United States, through conversations with a top leader in each school, that provide access to and/or inclusion in their schools.…

Anglican school inspectors will usually be Christian. Is it possible that their beliefs might compromise their inspection judgements? Neutrality is impossible when holding opinions or making judgements about matters of signal importance. Religious beliefs are strongly held. Using the concept of "ordinary theology" I argue that religious beliefs…

Jesus's blessing of the "poor in spirit," who recognize their dependence on God, suggests that an awareness of human limitation is necessary for wise living. How can the Christian educator teach for spiritual poverty? Both Parker Palmer and Richard Kearney, from their different disciplinary and denominational perspectives, argue for the central…

At the November 2008 meeting of the American Academy of Religion, the History of Christianity section sponsored a panel around the question: "What are the key challenges, opportunities, and goals in the History of Christianity classroom today and how best should teachers respond to them?" Beginning with brief sketches of institutional context and…

Contemporary connotations of "teacher" don't do justice to Jesus' educating activity. "Worldview" understood as a comprehensive social environment helps us to perceive the scale of Jesus' struggle in his society and also Christian teachers' struggle in their settings. Jesus is Israel's teacher in a deeper way than we hear by…

This study examines the production of religious collective memory at a fundamentalist Christian school. By depicting in rich detail what happened on September 11, 2001, in one eighth-grade classroom and how the events of that day were discussed in the weeks that followed, the article reveals the processes wherein the attacks were subsumed into an…