Religious Education for Civic Renewal: Challenges and Prospects

Dear Colleagues,

How does religious education influence the moral and civic formation of youth? Do K-12 religious schools create good citizens? Do graduates of religious schools contribute to the collective good of their communities? To the good society? What kind of social capital and civic and political engagement is generated or encouraged within and through religious education? Are religious schools privatizing? The increasing social and political polarization in many societies and the expansion of school choice plans that include religious schools, especially in the United States, makes these questions even more pressing. Some research argues that religious schools foster social and cultural encapsulation and authoritarianism. The inward focus of religious schools may generate homogeneity, reducing opportunities for positive experiences of social diversity, and may fail to generate bridges to civic life. Other work is more sanguine about the prospect of civic renewal through religious education since religious schools have a strong and coherent method for student socialization beyond simply academic or occupational success. Organizational and cultural dimensions of religious schools, such as a communal organization, personalism, extended and caring teacher roles, lack of tracking, etc., may contribute to positive civic outcomes for parents and their children when in school as well as when they become adults. Yet the arguments and evidence for the relationship of religious education and civic formation are inconclusive. This Special Issue will address these questions, seeking to overcome theoretical and empirical obstacles to understanding how and why religious education is related to civic outcomes and social good. It encourages theoretical as well as qualitative and quantitative empirical advances in our understanding of religious education and public life, and, along with case studies, calls for comparative and longitudinal work either across school sectors or societies. Studies of the civic implications at the individual, local, or national level for the religious education of youth, including home education, government-funded schools, youth organizations, etc., are invited.

Dr. David Sikkink
Guest Editor

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• religious education
• civic renewal
• civic implications
• religious education of youth