Naming the Elephant in the Room: Considering Multiple Frameworks for Researching Religions in Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Despite its ubiquitous influence in American public spaces, religion remains the “elephant in the room” in educational research and has therefore been largely under-theorized. This symposium provides space for seasoned, junior and forthcoming educational researchers of religion and education to engage in in-depth dialogue around the affordances and limitations of a variety of theoretical frameworks used for culling deeply rooted religious assumptions to the suface of educational research. The theories introduced and explored in this session include: cultural relevance, critical Whiteness studies, dialogic theory, post-structuralism, and prophecy. By explicitly addressing “the elephant in the room,” we hope to unearth core (and often silenced) assumptions about religion’s relationship to “power,” “possibility,” and “public good” in educational research.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Religion and Education

Chair

• Denise Davila, The University of Texas at Austin

Papers

• Expanding the Bounds of Culturally Relevant Education - Judson Crandall Laughter, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville

• Critical Whiteness Studies and the Role of Religion in Antiracist Education - Rhianna K. Thomas, New Mexico State University

• Theorizing Dialogic Christianities in Teacher Identity - Christopher Alan Olshefski, Winchester Thurston School

• Welcoming in the Other: Derridean Hospitality and Evangelical Teachers - Heidi L Hadley, Missouri State University

• Thinking Through Evil: Prophetic Indictment and Its Educational Discontents - Kevin J Burke, University of Georgia - Athens; Cathryn van Kessel, University of Alberta

Discussant

• Simone Schweber, University of Wisconsin - Madison