ABSTRACT — This research explores the relationship between individuals (a) orientations toward religion and spirituality with (b) their sense of the purpose of public schooling. Evidence suggests that there are a number of areas where there is a statistically significant relationship between a person’s spirituality and what they think about what schools should be accomplishing. These relationships are separate from topics regularly associated with tensions between public school and religious views (e.g. prayer in school, the teaching of evolution, the use of voucher systems, etc.), suggesting that how education itself is conceived of is somehow related to an individual’s internal religious and/or spiritual orientation. The research is the result of a mixed-method qualitative and quantitative pilot study based on a small national survey (N=125) in the US.
Monday, March 21, 2022 — Bryan Kelley will discuss education policy at the state level in general, introduce some organizations and resources that provide helpful information on state education policy, and provide some examples and trends on legislative actions regarding religion seen in state education policy in recent years.
Thursday, June 9 — Hear from participants in the 2022 Public Education, Religious Studies, and Public Scholarship Seminar.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 — Gayle Pagnoni, Program Director at the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance at Rice University will discuss the expansion of her professional development program to include English Language Arts.
