This article assesses to what extent and how 18 Protestant and Catholic religiously based high schools in Alberta, BritishColumbia, and Washington state prepare students for cultural awareness and engagement. All schools claimed to educate students to make constructive and significant differences in culture and society. While this was evident in most schools, the range, depth, and kind of cultural perception and immersion usually depended on the initiatives of individual teachers rather than on school-wide planning. Almost all schools involved their students in service activities both locally and overseas, but these were seldom well integrated with their curricula. Nevertheless, the results of the study challenge the commonly assumed stereotype that religious schools isolate students from culture and neglect social justice issues.
THE AUTHORS INVESTIGATE secondary Christian schooling in light of a biblical calling to reconciliation. This vision involves learning that transforms, inviting students and teachers into vulnerable, yet exhilarating, positions, with visions of increasing interdependency and reciprocity. Responsible freedom to search for truth in community is touted as a necessary ingredient of transformative learning and teaching in secondary schools. This approach advocates curriculum that investigate issues or problems in an integrative manner rather than teaching everything in separate disciplines. The authors also maintain that assessment is crucial since it is here that we communicate what we truly value. Assessment for reconciliation unfolds as transformative learning happens and includes the articulation of further questions and investigations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.