Lessons Learned from Teaching Teachers how to Teach About World Religions

Derek Anderson, Holly Mathys, Joe Lubig

Abstract


Thepurpose of this study was to compare how 22 elementary pre-service teachers(PSTs) from one cohort taught lessons on world religions to 7th-gradestudents with 26 PSTs from another cohort. The PSTs from Cohort 1 received noinstruction or course readings related to teaching about world religions;whereas, the PSTs from Cohort 2 were assigned six articles to read and spentone hour of in-class time learning about teaching world religions. Lessonplans, teaching observations, focus group interviews, and reflection journalsserved as data sources. PSTs from Cohort 1 exhibited greater lack of knowledgeand awareness of world religious revealed in several ways from biased language,lack of solemnity and sensitivity, assumption-making and generalizing, and evensome instances of overt promotion of Christianity.  This study suggests that elementary socialstudies teacher educators, by spending only an hour of methods class time onthe topic, can help their PSTs to avoid common missteps in their teaching aboutworld religions.

Keywords


World Religions, Teacher Education, Field Experiences, Elementary Education

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References


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