Connecting Religion and Teacher Identity: The Unexplored Relationship Between Teachers and Religion in Public Schools

I chose the article "Connecting Religion and Teacher Identity:  The Unexplored Relationship Between Teachers and Religion in Public Schools" by Kimberly R. White.  Published in the Teaching and Teacher Education Journal, I assume she is speaking to educators and those involved in educational policy.  Basically this article discusses how religious orientation may influence teaching  in public schools... How many choices a teacher makes are influenced by their own orientation as religious, unreligious, or anti-religious.  The author discusses the irony of multiculturalism which is defined in relation to one's ethnic or cultural group, gender, social class, religion, language, ability, and sexual orientation yet in relation to education, religion is omitted.  The author then discusses a series of research based questions including, how does the educational research community position the relationship between teachers' own conceptions of religion and the development and enhancement of their professional teaching identities?  Does this topic warrant investigation making it a potential area of contribution in the future? And, how might the study of religion and teacher identity, the interaction of private and public, be conceptualized?  Ultimately, the article was a lot of research based on these questions including what educational literature tells us about the topics of religion and education, what multiculturalism tells us, what government has historically told us, what media tells us?  All that said, I was hoping for an answer... as a Christian and soon to be teacher, how do I maintain that identity and not cross a boundary?  Am I crossing a boundary as long as I don't enforce my beliefs onto my students? Based on my beliefs, what if that boundary is something I perceive as an issue to one's salvation?  For instance, in the article it mentioned how previous Educational Secretary, Rod Paige had warned school officials that they may not, "compel students to participate in prayer or other religious activities.  Nor may teachers, school administrators and other school employees, when acting in their official capacities as representatives of the state, encourage or discourage prayer, or participate in such activities with students."... Does this mean I cant pray during the moment of silence?

Unit 3, Chapter 3 QTC

Unit 3, Chapter 3 QTC

(3.1)       Personal and social development can have a major influence on both the individual student learning and the learning environment as a whole.  Identify a case form the CSEL guidelines* that you would like to address in your paper.  Then, examine the possible developmental factors that could be influencing your target student(s) or classroom in the case study.  Consider all dimensions of personal and social development, including cognitive, language, social, emotional, and moral development.     

My elementary education case study involves the following scenario:

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks.  You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members.  Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.

                In examining the developmental factors influential to Lisa’s behavior, I assume that according to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, Lisa is in the preoperational stage.  Lisa exhibits preoperational egocentrism in which she is unable to consider the perspectives of her peers.  Lisa also doesn’t have the language development necessary for “social exchange” to address ideas that would enable her to “think less egocentrically and more logically” (p. 49).  Due to this developmental delay, Lisa acts out and gets angry with her peers.  This type of behavior is evident with a lack of socialization skills.  These necessary skills would enable Lisa to respond and behave more appropriately.  I think given Lisa’s delays in cognitive, linguistic and social development, she doesn’t have the emotional development to be self-motivated based on the expectations of her peers.  Furthermore, she is unable to control her emotions and impulses needed to behave in an acceptable manner with her small group.  Finally, with regard to Lisa’s moral development and according to Kohlberg’s three levels of moral reasoning, Lisa is in the preconventional level in which her decisions are “based primarily on what seems best” for herself because she is unable to recognize the needs of those in her group (p. 94).

(3.2)       Check the tables 3.1 (p. 75), 3.2 (p. 83) and 3.3 (p. 91) with particular attention to the age ranges you are interested in teaching.  Identify your personal favorite ways that an educator can promote a child’s sense of self, perspective taking, and moral reasoning skills.

                To promote a sense of self in elementary aged students, I would “focus students’ attention on their improvement overtime” (p. 75).  This strategy would provide a history of successes and failures to hopefully lead students to self-efficacy in which they believe they are capable of achieving certain goals.

                To promote perspective taking, I would ask students “questions about thoughts, feelings, and motives during storybook readings, and encourage students to share and compare diverse perspectives and inferences” (p. 83).  This would allow students to think about other people’s viewpoints.  By having these types of discussions, it demonstrates to students the importance of considering perspectives, other than their own.

                To promote moral reasoning skills, I would “encourage students to comfort others in times of distress (p. 91).  This strategy fosters Kohlberg’s stage 2 of moral reasoning in which students recognize that others also have needs.  It also promotes perspective taking by allowing students to recognize the feelings and perspectives of others.

Holly's Chapter 10 QTC

Unit 2 QTC- Chapter 10

Lower-Order Thinking (Knowledge & Understanding):

Describe self-regulated behavior and discuss the six key components.

Higher-Order Thinking (Analysis):

Compare and contrast the three perspectives of learning including cognitive psychology, behaviorism and social cognitive theory.

Holly's Chapter 9 QTC

Unit 2 QTC- Chapter 9

Lower-Order Thinking (Knowledge & Application):

List the basic assumptions of behaviorism and give 2 examples of how these assumptions may apply to your future classroom.

Higher-Order Thinking (Analysis):

Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between classical and instrumental conditioning.