Religion & Education Collaborative Presentation

Examining Religious Commitments and Beliefs about Schooling

Callid Keefe-Perry, Boston University

Wednesday, October 14, 4pm (ET)

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. 

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