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8:2 Editorial |
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Written by John Shortt & David Smith
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IN THE FIRST article in this issue, Jason Morris, Richard Beck and Albert Smith report on their study looking at the role of spiritual integration in student/institution fit at a Christian university. They found that spiritual
integration was an important factor in student retention and they make several recommendations for practice on the basis of this finding. These include the suggestion that faculty should be encouraged and supported in their efforts to
incorporate spiritual development into their instructional methods. |
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Read more...
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8:2 Is compulsory Religious Education justified? A dialogue |
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Written by Michael Hand & John White
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (RE) currently enjoys the status of a compulsory curriculum subject in state schools in England and Wales. There is, at present, a broad consensus among policy-makers on two distinct justifications for compulsory RE: (i) that an understanding of religious individuals and communities better equips pupils for life in a multicultural society; and (ii) that the study of religion is morally educative. The authors of the present paper agree that neither of these justifications is adequate. In his contribution to a recent volume on the school curriculum, Hand sets out an alternative rationale for the study of religion in schools, which he calls the possibility-of-truth case (Hand, 2003). The following dialogue explores the adequacy of Hand's argument. |
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8:2 Art Education Needs No Justification! |
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Written by Tanya Weber
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A RECENT SURVEY of Christian school administrators in British Columbia reveals problems in their reliance on secularized foundations for educational theory, an unbiblical or narrow understanding of the nature of knowledge and experience, and a suspicion of the arts by the Protestant Christian community. In spite of the vast body of apologetics arguing for maintaining the visual arts in schools, there is surprisingly little literature addressing why Christian schools, in particular, might question the hierarchy of a curriculum that suppresses the visual arts entirely or limits its access to a small group of "talented" students. |
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8:2 Indifference and Essentialism in Religious Education |
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Written by Penny Thompson
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THIS PAPER ARGUES that religious education in England and Wales has fallen into the twin traps of indifferentism and essentialism as a direct result of moving away from the committed teaching of Christianity in the early 1970s. The two attainment targets for RE set by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) are considered. The first results in indifference and the second in essentialism. It is argued that the solution is to recover, in the main, the committed teaching of Christianity which can be done in a way that preserves an element of openness and debate in the teaching. Surveys of parental opinion are quoted in support. |
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8:2 Examining Student/Institution Fit at a Christian University: The Role of Spiritual Integration |
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Written by Jason M. Morris, Richard Beck & Albert B. Smith
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THE PURPOSE OF this study was to test three core constructs of Tinto's (1993) Model of Student Departure and a Spiritual Integration construct in a Christian university of higher education. This was done in order to examine the relationship between a student's spiritual integration and Tinto's constructs of academic integration, social integration, and goal and institutional commitment. In addition, this study attempted to determine the level of importance of spiritual integration and Tinto?s constructs in accessing student persistence. Survey research and quantitative data analysis were utilized. This study found that spiritual integration functioned in isolation as a significant and robust predictor of retention with the population of students tested. |
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Volume 8 (2004) 