Presenter C

• In Event: 54.035 - Religion and Public Education in the United States: An Interdisciplinary Symposium

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes. My purpose is to explore the relationship between the freedom of religion as a set of personal beliefs and the presence of objects of study within public schools that potentially challenge those beliefs. Religion has a place in public education (in higher grades at least) as an object of study: as belief systems, sets of cultural values and practices, sites of social connections and communities, etc. No particular religion (or rejection of religion) should be fostered or criticized by public education institutions, of course; this would be unconstitutional (and worse). Students and school personnel should be free to believe as they will, though particular religious beliefs, like all beliefs, should not be above rational scrutiny and criticism. This is especially true in cases in which religious beliefs conflict with scientific course contents.
2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework. I am a philosopher of education and my areas of focus include philosophy of science, epistemology, and philosophy of education. In this presentation I am especially interested in issues concerning rationality, relativism and naturalism, and how these notions inform our understanding of the tension between freedom of belief and formation of habits of rational inquiry and thought inherent to debates on religion’s place in public schools.
3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry. My discipline – philosophy – informs this opinion, insofar as it values clear and cogent reasoning, humane values, and rational scrutiny and evaluation.
4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials. My area of focus is science, both as a discursive practice and as an object of study in the formal curriculum of schools. In my work I examine school curricula, the politics and public discussion of science education.
5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view. My presentation digs into the critical difference between teaching for understanding scientific ideas, principles, and practices, and teaching for belief. Understanding an object of study and the holding of personal belief systems are not the same thing, even in science class. This point, I argue, is often misunderstood, but is critical to navigating the purposes of public education in a religiously pluralistic democracy.
6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work. Philosophical discussions of the place of religion in public education often focus on notions of the public good (i.e. democratic education) without sufficiently examining the critical importance of personal religious belief as a cherished right. My presentation seeks to highlight the latter and to develop better ways to consider public school practices that protect belief without compromising intellectual development.

Author

• Harvey Siegel, University of Miami