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Full-Text Articles in Education

Amazing Grace, How Sweet The Sound: A Journey In Four Verses, Anita L. Bright Oct 2016

Amazing Grace, How Sweet The Sound: A Journey In Four Verses, Anita L. Bright

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Although for some people, faith or membership in a faith community is a life-long, unwavering endeavor, for others, such as this author, initial belief systems can crack and crumble into dust, leaving behind complicated memories that are overlaid with what feel like clearer and more real, contemporary understandings, although at times threaded with sorrow at loss of affiliation (Smith, 2011). This shift from believer to non-believer is nuanced and disquieting, and in many settings, may leave the new non-believer in a dangerous or vulnerable position (Berger, 2013) as an apostate. Informed by an unintentional, un-sought-after outsider, non-believer status, this autoethnographic …


Breaking Stone Tablets, Rejecting Binaries: A Culturally Affirming Approach To Embracing Differentiated Aspects Of Identity, James A. Gambrell Oct 2016

Breaking Stone Tablets, Rejecting Binaries: A Culturally Affirming Approach To Embracing Differentiated Aspects Of Identity, James A. Gambrell

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Many individuals daily navigate among seemingly contradicting aspects of self, creating a sense of both inclusion and “othering” simultaneously (Johnson-Bailey, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to tease out the complexities I experienced in the past, when I was both a religious educator in an exclusively Latter-day Saint (LDS) work environment, and a social justice-oriented graduate student. Next, I discuss why binary thinking is often harmful for students. Lastly, I recount a biblical metaphor to describe how “right” vs. “wrong” binary thinking often results in teacher saviorism and call on educators to embrace social pluralism. Throughout this paper, I …


Breaking The Taboo: What My Mother’S Recent Suicide Might Teach Us In Critical Social Justice And Faith Work, And Perhaps Beyond, Gail Sue Kasun Oct 2016

Breaking The Taboo: What My Mother’S Recent Suicide Might Teach Us In Critical Social Justice And Faith Work, And Perhaps Beyond, Gail Sue Kasun

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Suicide is taboo, as is sexual abuse. In this reflective essay, I consider my mother’s final choice, to end her life, inviting the reader to sit with me, to recognize the self in the other. I discuss my mother’s narcissism, her suicide, and the sexual abuse she endured as a child—all taboo. These taboo subjects naturally had massive impacts on my life, and I demonstrate fissures and impacts in this re-storying, as I call it, as I have begun to reframe my life in a post-suicide lens. I invite the reader to consider how breaking the taboo might create a …


Negotiating The Baptist Influence In East Texas: Examining ‘Multiple Reflections’ To Disrupt The Local Sociopolitical Stage, Brandon L. Fox Oct 2016

Negotiating The Baptist Influence In East Texas: Examining ‘Multiple Reflections’ To Disrupt The Local Sociopolitical Stage, Brandon L. Fox

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

The purpose of this paper is to examine multiple reflections (Ronai, 1995) of a White, southern male navigating through and of the influence of the Missionary Baptist church in rural East Texas. While East Texas continues to engage in social struggle through economics and identity politics, the author desires to examine the role of the Missionary Baptist church in maintaining certain power structures and borders (Anzaldúa, 2012). The author critically reflects on intersections of culture, religion, and power to engage in naming (Freire, 1970) covert means that influence the sociopolitical complex (Conquergood, 2002). Themes across autoethnographic reflections are identified and …


Religion In Schools? The Importance Of Recognizing The Impact Of Religious Experiences, Kimberly K. Ilosvay Edd Oct 2016

Religion In Schools? The Importance Of Recognizing The Impact Of Religious Experiences, Kimberly K. Ilosvay Edd

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

The school environment is a place of forced contact between diverse peoples. It is the perfect environment to nurture the diverse identities present. The influences on identity (i.e., language, ethnicity, religion, etc.) shape how students perceive information and learn. Some educators use these influences to help them instruct students. However, often overlooked is the influence of religious practices on language use and behavior in classrooms. This paper argues that the significance of understanding the religious practices of students is equally as important for planning instruction as knowing any other aspect of their culture, (i.e., the students’ native language(s)). Framed by …


The Shifting Wholeness Of Our Beings: Intersections Of Faith In Education: An Introduction, Anita L. Bright Oct 2016

The Shifting Wholeness Of Our Beings: Intersections Of Faith In Education: An Introduction, Anita L. Bright

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

This is the introduction to a special edition of the Journal of Faith, Education, and Community which examines the ways membership in faith communities and spiritual belief systems play into our professional practices as educators and illuminates how the shifting wholeness of our beings can intersect with our work.