Christian beliefs, norms, and practices infuse our society and are embedded in our institutions. These customs keep the "freedom of religion" declared by the Constitution from becoming a reality. Joshi explores how Christian privilege affects the lives of all Americans, shines a light on the inequalities these privileges create and highlights a way forward.
The chapter by Ahmadi, "Engaging Religious Minority Students", explores the context of religious diversity in higher education by discussing: (1) Christianity as the religious majority, (2) the continued prevalence of Christian privilege, (3) experiences of religious minority students, and (4) frameworks for understanding the campus climate. Offers guidance to improve campus climate for religious minority students.
"Through examination, reflection, and case studies across multiple faith traditions and professional fields, this handbook equips scholars and students, as well as policymakers and practitioners, to assess, analyze, and act collaboratively in a world of deep diversity"
Explores the impact of religious identity on pedagogy, educational experiences, and campus climates. Focuses on Intergroup Dialogue as a pedagogical model. While the goal of ID is to increase student understanding of privilege, oppression, and social injustice, cases demonstrate that ID can be easily derailed. Accordingly, Edwards offers guidance to ensure that ID succeeds.
Dr. Hayat discusses religious tolerance, positioning that in tolerance comes the discovery of commonalities between races, ages, religions and backgrounds. She emphasizes that although she will talk about religious tolerance specifically, her message applies to all people, religious or not, and is a universal theme.
TEDxDU's theme of "Radical Collaboration" is personified in Rabbi Ted Falcon, Pastor Don Mackenzie, and Imam Jamal Rahman - collectively known as The Interfaith Amigos. In a time when religion appears to be at the heart of fragmentation, suspicion and conflict, their friendship is a beacon to a wiser, more compassionate, and hopeful path.
Ahmadi, S., Cole, D. G., & Lee, B. (2020). Engaging religious minority students. In Quaye, S. J., Harper, S. R., & Pendakur, S. L. Student engagement in higher education (3rd ed., pp. 221-236). Routledge.
Print book in Bishop Library. Provides an excellent overview of what colleges and faculty may do to engage religious minority students.
Durant, T. J. (2017). Can I talk about that? Factors influencing spiritual and religious identity exploriation in public higher education. Journal of College and Character, 18(2), 136-141.
College students are increasingly interested in spiritual and religious identity exploration. Factors influencing such inquiry at public institutions of higher education include rational empiricism, cultural norms, and faculty and student affairs professionals' uncertainty about what is permissible, as well as their perceived level of preparation to guide such inquiry. Yet, students at public colleges and universities should be provided with opportunities to interrogate issues of purpose, identity, and meaning.
Fosnacht, K. (2020). Religious intolerance on campus: A multi-institution study. Journal of College and Character, 21(4), 244-262.
Incidents of religious intolerance and discrimination have become too familiar in American society, and today's college campuses are not immune to these incidents. Previous research has shown the negative influence of perceived hostile campus cultures on students' overall learning and development. This study investigated bachelor's degree-seeking students' religious and spiritual discrimination experiences. With particular attention paid to students' self-identified religious/spiritual identities, the study found that students who identify with a non-Christian, world faith tradition more frequently experienced discriminatory acts than their Christian peers. Additionally, the results show that more respect for others' spirituality beliefs on campus was negatively correlated with experiencing acts of religious intolerance. In contrast, increased comfort in expressing religious and spiritual beliefs on campus was positively related to more frequent incidents of religious intolerance.
Nielsen, J. C., Small, J. L. (2019). Four pillars for supporting religious, secular, and spiritual student identities. Journal of College and Character, 20(2), 180-186.
In an unpublished national research study, "Religious, Secular, and Spiritual Identities in Higher Education," which evaluated how universities addressed issues of religious diversity on campus, interviews with university professionals, students, and community members revealed that the institutions that were successfully engaging in religious, secular, and spiritual identity work were changing their policies and practices at the administrative level in order to support these worldviews. Institutions at which students and members of the campus community generally articulated a sense of belonging and could pinpoint specific policies and practices to support this belonging were deemed successful at addressing religious, secular, and spiritual identity. These institutions exhibited patterns of policy and practice that coalesced around four emerging themes. These "Four Pillars of Policy and Practice" combined to create institutional climates that were markedly different in comparison to other institutions.
Novis-Deutsch, N., & Lifshitz, C.(2016). When Bible and science interact: Teachers' pedagogic and value challenges in teaching religious minority students in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(5), 487-500.
The integration of highly religious minority students into institutions of higher education poses significant pedagogical and value challenges for students and teachers alike. We offer a framework for analyzing such challenges, distinguishing between practical concerns, identity issues and value conflicts. By contrasting a deficit perspective to "Diversity as resource", we argue that the latter enables teachers to utilize a collaborative knowledge model in class, surmounting some of the value challenges involved. We present the case of ultra-orthodox students in Israel who have recently entered the gates of higher education for the first time in this society's history. We analyze the narratives of 30 lecturers who teach this population. Most of them adopt a deficit perspective and see their role as academic gatekeepers, minimally adjusting content and pedagogy. A smaller group fosters cross-cultural dialog via a "Diversity as resource" perspective. These findings lead to recommendations for successfully teaching highly religious students.