Overview
Since September 11, 2001, the profile of religion's role in our global society has increased significantly. Religion has long been a force in people's lives as numerous studies and polls show, yet we continue to struggle with understanding differing religious traditions and what they mean for our common life. There are few places where Americans can meet together to learn about each other and to share in the common construction of our futures. One such place for many is public education. The purpose of this book is to illustrate the complexity of the social, cultural, and legal milieu of schooling in the United States in which the improvement of religious literacy and understanding must take place. Public education is the new commons. We must negotiate this commons in two meanings of that term: first, we must come to mutual understandings and agreement about how to proceed toward a common horizon of a religiously plural America; second, we must work our way through the obstacles in these settings in practical ways to achieve results that work.
Full Product Details
Author: Michael D. Waggoner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield Education
Dimensions:
Width: 15.30cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 22.50cm
Weight: 0.277kg
ISBN: 9781475801620
ISBN 10: 1475801629
Pages: 204
Publication Date: 10 April 2013
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Finally, here is a book that not only presents a compelling case for teaching about religion in the public schools, but also offers concrete methods for doing so. Michael D. Waggoner has edited a volume that speaks both to the challenges of free expression in public education as well to actual classroom approaches for furthering the ideal of religious literacy. No issue is too controversial for this volume. The contributors are clear, practical, and pluralistic in their prescriptions for negotiating the New Commons. As someone who, for a number of years, has been teaching a graduate-level course for public school teachers and administrators on the whys, whats, and hows of religious pluralism, I most certainly will make this book a required reading. -- Robert J. Nash, professor, The University of Vermont, author of Teaching Adolescents Religious Literacy in a Post-9/11 World (2010)
Author Information
Michael D. Waggoner is professor of education at the University of Northern Iowa and Editor of the journal, Religion & Education. His previous book Sacred and Secular Tensions in Higher Education: Connecting Parallel Universities was published in 2011.
