This chapter examines the emotional landscapes of Muslim women teachers from rural Pakistani communities as they employ Islam to construct and perform their identities as educated and empowered women.

This article highlights the fact that certain elements inherent in the act of public teaching have their roots in Christian, particularly Biblical, thinking. The authors illustrate that although teaching is thought of as a secular activity, and although it is often assumed that religion has been expunged from public, including teacher, education, the sediments of religion remain present in how the teacher learns to imagine, construct, and enact his or her work as teacher as savior and martyr.

This article addresses the growing diversity in religious and ethnic backgrounds among students at primary and secondary schools in Western Europe. Presented are the outcomes of international comparative anthropological (qualitative) research on multiculturalism, citizenship, and nation building in schools in Paris, Berlin, London, and Rotterdam.

Using mixed methods data collected for the Immigrant Second Generation in Metropolitan New York Study (ISGMNY), this article investigates how new immigrant and native-born communities use the Catholic system and the benefits they derive from it.

This article focuses on the public and Catholic school discourse that accompanied the introduction of IQ testing in the early 20th century. It analyzes the nature of the discourse among educational researchers, administrators, and teachers in two parallel educational settings and examines the way that public and Catholic school educators responded to IQ testing.

Given human fallibility and mortality, it is striking how Western society generally deals with issues of spirituality and religion: The Scarf Affair described in Chapter Seven exemplifies the efforts of Western democracies to confine such matters to the private realm. Such a strategy, Nel Noddings writes, “reduces contention (and interest) in the classroom and protects schools from . . . complaints. . . . However, it also protects ignorance.” Education for a truly flourishing human life, she argues, must directly confront questions of meaning and worth, not deny them.

This ethnographic account focusing on ceremonial events in integrated Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel questions the potential of multicultural education to support coexistence between conflicting groups.

An account of a peace education program for Jewish and Arab students.

An examination of theories of child rearing espoused by the Christian Right from the perspective of modern psychology.

A historical review of the architecture of The Hebrew University. The authors suggest that architects can attempt to convey the ideals of Plato by building campuses on which spirituality is allowed to thrive. If architects suggest brutalist buildings that dominate the natural surroundings of a campus and dwarf the individual student and teacher, the educators who will reside on that campus should firmly reject the proposal.

This article attempts to emancipate the religious aspect of human existence from its accidental, historical embodiment in religions.

A response to Clive Beck’s, “Religion and Education.” The author focuses on Beck’s functionalist account of religion and some problems he detects in it, and then suggest an alternative account.

A response to Moshman's article, Faith Christian v. Nebraska: Parent, Child, and Community Rights in the Educational Arena. Faith Christian as it stands does not present a rational alternative that calls for First Amendment protection. Faith Christian lacks the kind of epistemic credibility that comes from appropriate evidential backing.

A review is presented of the differences between Matthew Arnold's and Thomas Huxley's views on liberal education.

The recent death of R. Buckminster Fuller was ample cause for students of religious and educational policy to pause and reflect. This man, widely regarded as an inventor, writer, architect, and social planner, had an influential and loyal following. His personal charm and enthusiasm for the potential lurking in the human mind to overcome old obstacles and create bold futures was a needed antidote to the cynicism and moral paralysis characteristic of much of our present age. It is thus with great respect and a tinge of remorse that the following bit of critical commentary is presented in testimony to Fuller’s life and death.

This artice discusses how Progressive views on education were shaped by Protestant ideology. The educational theories of Dewey and Kilpatrick are given as examples of the influence of Protestant religion.

John Dewey's profound influence on Alexander Dushkin's formulation of educational philosophy as it influenced the aims of Jewish education, cultural pluralism, the child-centered approach to education, and functional teaching ethics is examined. Dushkin's definition of Jewish education is developed from psychological, sociological, and religious perspectives.

Although educational efforts have a purported attention to serve the whole child, for many individuals, the separation between “church” and state requires a separation between self and school. Understanding how to balance the constitutional clauses regarding religious separation and free exercise in classrooms and schools within a religiously pluralistic society is an educational, civic, and legal challenge. While there is common ground that non-devotional studies of religion are required components of anti-bias educational approaches and integral to the study of humanities and world history, controversy remains about how to incorporate the personal religious views of students and educators. Given that religion encompasses particular cultural funds of knowledge, how do religious experiences facilitate and challenge learning? How should the personal religious views of students be addressed, if at all, in the teaching and learning process given foci to support the whole child in a culturally sensitive manner? This essay explores a critical and often silenced conversation about the humility and support educators need to help navigate the space between self and school.

This commentary discusses the problem of bullying as it relates to Muslim students. The authors posit that teacher education programs can impact how Muslim students are treated in schools. In doing so, they provide practical avenues teacher educators can use to prepare pre-service teachers to address the problem.

The authors of this commentary raise questions from an educational policy perspective about discrimination against educators in private religious schools.