The Temperature on Campus: Capturing the Religious Cultural Profile of Faculty at a Christian University

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Comparative Perspectives on the Contexts and Possibilities of Religious Education (Table 6)

Abstract

Once little known and largely unexamined, the religious culture and identity of higher education faculty has come under greater scrutiny in the last decade. Teaching strategies and pedagogical approaches clearly have significant impact on student learning and development, but so do faculty’s worldviews, ideological beliefs and religious underpinnings. Faculty within a faith-based institution have a particularly unique perspective – occupying the larger sphere of academia, but also holding space for and the responsibility of their religious traditions and culture. Using the Adventist Cultural Index Assessment and the Operationalizing Faith Identity Guide, this study seeks to capture the religious profile of the faculty of a religiously-affiliated, liberal arts university and examine the makeup of their religious and cultural identities.

Author

• Aimee Leukert, La Sierra University