Emergent Parallels Among Orthodoxy, Heresiology, and Education Accountability

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Religion and Education in Public School Contexts: Roundtable Discussions

Abstract

This paper examines parallels between the historical development of Christian orthodoxy and educational accountability. Orthodoxy exists as both process and product; the construction of labels that define doctrine are the result of the acceptance of one perspective to the exclusion of others. The end result is a normative product that overshadows the process, controlling the perception of both orthodoxy and heresy. In terms of education reform, there is a similar desire to control the product of education through accountability. Just as heresiology about defining orthodoxy as it was about naming heresy, the process of standardizing education can be thought of as an attempt to determine what counts as learning (orthodoxy) in order to label what cannot count as learning (heresy).

Author

• Jeffry King, Texas State University