@ReligionAndEd Consortium

The @ReligionAndEd Consortium is a network of prominent organizations that advance the academic study of religion and education in the United States and around the world. It was founded in 2019 by Dr. Michael D. Waggoner and Nathan C. Walker, the coeditors of The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Education.

The Problem

In drawing upon our direct experiences with many of your organizations, we have learned that we often try to reach similar audiences. We individually build our own social media campaigns, drawing on our own distinct followings of people who may or may not have awareness of—but may benefit from learning about—one another’s programs.

The Plan

In this context, we are proposing the formation of the @ReligionAndEd Consortium. The purpose is to use shared social media accounts on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ReligionAndEd) to cross promote the work of the following proposed member organizations.

Member Organizations

  1. American Academy of Religion’s Committee on the Public Understanding of Religion
  2. American Academy of Religion’s unit on Religion and Public Schools: Int’l Perspectives
  3. American Educational Research Association’s Religion and Education special interest group
  4. Centre for Civic Religious Literacy, Canada
  5. The Foundation for Religious Literacy
  6. Naperville Central High School, Naperville, Illinois
  7. National Council for the Social Studies
  8. Prospect High School, Mt. Prospect, Illinois
  9. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Education (Oxford University Press)
  10. Religion and Education Collaborative
  11. Religion & Education, peer-reviewed journal of Taylor & Francis
  12. ReligionAndPublicLife.com (1791 Delegates)
  13. Religion for Breakfast (YouTube)
  14. Religious Education Association
  15. Religious Education, peer-reviewed journal of the Religious Education Association
  16. Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute
  17. Routledge Research in Religion and Education book series
  18. Society of Biblical Literature, Educational Resources and Review Committee
  19. Stone Ridge School, Bethesda, Maryland
  20. Walter Johnson High School, Bethesda, Maryland
  21. West Hartford Public Schools, Connecticut

Roles and Responsibilities

Moderator: To launch this initiative, Nate Walker, managing director of The Foundation for Religious Literacy, serves as moderator of the social media accounts for the @ReligionAndEd Consortium for a one-year term. In this capacity, the moderator will, first, ensure that all privacy policies required by Twitter are upheld; to monitor the content to ensure member organization’s alliance with the Consortium’s guidelines (see below); and third, facilitate quarterly meetings to discuss best practices for building and maintaining a social media presence.

Content Creators: Each member organization of the @ReligionAndEd Consortium assigns one leader to serve as a content creator for their institution. In this role, they sync the @ReligionAndEd Twitter accounts with their own accounts to help generate an initial following of the consortium’s social media feeds while preserving the privacy of their contact lists. Second, the content creators regularly post to the shared account, advertising their organization’s activities. Third, the content creators will participate in quarterly meetings facilitated by the moderator.

Finances

There is no official budget for this consortium, as this is a voluntary enterprise. There is no financial obligation for participation in the @ReligionAndEd Consortium. Members may, however, use the Consortium’s account to purchase Twitter advertisements at that organization’s expense.

Guidelines

All social media postings to the Consortium accounts must be nonpartisan and uphold the nondiscrimination, privacy, and copyright policies of Twitter. Breaches may result in the member organization’s suspension of posting privileges. The member organizations may or may not decide to sync their contact lists with the Consortium account to help build an initial following. However, in order to maintain privacy, member organizations may not have access to one another contact lists or send emails to one another’s stakeholders without the consent of the owners of those emails.

Join the Consortium

To join the Consortium, please contact the moderator. Provide information about your organization and how you intend to use the Consortium’s social media account.

A project of The Foundation for Religious Literacy and 1791 Delegates.

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