University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Inadvertent evangelisms (or not): teachers’ views on religion, religious beliefs, positionality and presence and their influence on their curricular choices in the classroom

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Inadvertent evangelisms (or not): teachers’ views on religion, religious beliefs, positionality and presence and their influence on their curricular choices in the classroom

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Content Running head: RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 1

INADVERTENT EVANGALISMS (OR NOT): TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON RELIGION,
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, POSITIONALITY AND PRESENCE AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON
THEIR CURRICULAR CHOICES IN THE CLASSROOM

By
Sara-Jean Lipmen
__________________________________________________________________________

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

Final Defense April 11, 2017
Degree Conferal August 2017

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 2

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
~ William Butler Yeats

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 3
Acknowledgements
The completed work below has felt like quite feat and a wild ride, academically, professionally
and personally. I cannot thank enough the following people:
• To Dr. Julie Slayton, dissertation chair – I have joked that I want to be you when I grow
up. Your ability to think about the world is inspirational. You knew how to push me in
ways I did not even know I could go and also knew when to pull away when I need time.
Thank you for knowing exactly what to say and for being such a support.
• To Dr. Artineh Samkian, dissertation committee – You were the first one that taught me
about perspective and research. Thank you for your guidance and understanding.
• To Dr. Sandra Kaplan, dissertation committee – I will never look at a curriculum the
same after all that you have taught me. Thank you for your wisdom.
• To Eli – Thank you for being a rock, believing in me and reminding me that I can do this.
You held my hand during the hardest of times, and reminded me of the finish line. I could
not have done this without you.
• To Lucy, Cal and Baby “Skittles”– Thank you for being a bright trying light. You are too
smart for your own good. I am in awe of you each day. You have taught me so much.
Your insights and awareness of the world, joy and simplicity are love.
• To Brian “Guru Sanchez” Mayer – Thank you for being my mentor and sounding board,
for helping me think through my own place in this space.
• To my support group at the Cancer Support Community, Benjamin Center – Thank you
for constantly checking in and for reminding me that sometimes just putting one foot in
front of the other is worthy of celebration.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 4
• To the Head and Neck support group at UCLA, the amazing medical team and Liz –
Thank you for reminding me that I am lucky each day to wake up and have the
opportunities I have. Thank you for teaching me it is also ok to laugh when you want to
cry (and for keeping me alive and making everything possible).
• To my family and friends – Thank you for teaching me and believing that I can do
anything, even if sometimes we don’t understand it.
• To my all the wonderful teachers, professors and educational peers – Thank you for
creating the space for me to question, learn and grow. I hope to follow in your footsteps.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 5
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 3
Abstract 9
CHAPTER ONE: OVERVEIW OF THE STUDY 10
Background 11
Brief History of Religion and Curriculum in the USA 11
Colonial Schools 11
The founders and some revolutionary change 14
The rise of the common school 17
The wall between church and state 20
The Blaine Amendment 20
Continuation of implicit Protestant morality 21
Court challenges 22
Return to Protestant values 23
Moving towards multicultural education 24
History of Teaching Social Sciences/History 24
Separate disciplines and disparity 24
1892: The NEA’s Committee of Ten 25
Rugg’s social science curriculum 26
The Scopes Trial 27
Mid-century 27
1980s and 90s 28
Common Core 28
Statement of the Problem 29
Importance of Understanding Religion 30
Significance for our society 30
Religious education as a human right and legal challenges 30
Purpose 31
Research Question 32
CHAPTER TWO: LITERTURE REVIEW 33
Defining Religion as a Concept 34
Durkheim and Religion 35
Bellah, Civil Religion, and Schools 38
Christian Privilege and Society 42
Positionality, Presence and a Teacher’s Role 52
Positionality 53
Presence 54
Religious Influences in Schools and on Teachers 56
Influence of Teacher Choices on Student Learning 57
The Importance of Understanding Religions in our Modern World
and Understanding Student Resistance 58
Research about Religion in the Classroom 59
Biology Curriculum and Evolution 61
Teachers’ Dispositions about Religion and the Influence on their
Curricular Choices 63
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 6
Anderson et al.: Atheist and Agnostic pre-service teachers 64
Aown: learning and teaching Islam 65
Journell: teacher religious dispositions influence their
discussion of current events 67
Nelson: religious identity influence on classroom climate and
decision-making 70
White: teacher religious identity and the purpose of education,
the social structures and the curricular and pedagogical choices
in the classroom 71
Conceptual Framework 80
CHAPTER THREE: METHODS 84
Research Design 84
Sample and Population 85
Site Selection 86
Criterion 1 86
Criterion 2 87
Challenges in finding a site 87
Participant Selection 88
Criterion 1 88
Criterion 2 88
Criterion 3 89
Challenges in finding a site 89
Instrumentation and Data Collection 90
Data Collection Procedures 91
Interviews 91
Observations 93
Documents and artifacts 93
Data Analysis Procedures 94
Credibility and Trustworthiness 95
Position as a Researcher 95
Time in the Field 96
Triangulation of Data 97
Ethics 98
Limitations 99
Generalizability 99
Self-Selecting Participants 99
Conclusion 99
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS 101
Eisenhower High School 102
Case Study #1: Mr. Kennedy, Tenth Grade Advanced Placement World History 103
Mr. Kennedy’s Academic and Professional Background 103
Mr. Kennedy’s Perspective on the School and Community 104
Mr. Kennedy’s Religious Background, Identification and Positionality 105
Classroom Environment and Student Make Up 108
Research Question: How are Teachers’ Religious Identities, Affinities
and Positionality Revealed in Their Curricular Choices? 109
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 7
Kennedy’s Curricular Emphasis 110
AP Exam and textbook as the guide 111
Trade 113
Western and European emphasis 116
Non-European perspectives 119
Definition of religion 121
Religion as control and maintaining societal status quo 122
Definitions of specific religions 124
What was religion when it is discussed in the classroom? 125
Taking up religion (or not) 127
Major world religions and indigenous faiths 129
Civil Religion 130
Collective stories and myths 131
The American Spirit 132
Christian privilege 133
Affinity towards Christianity 134
Christianity and the context of teaching comparative
religion 136
Christianity as the point of comparison 137
Affinity to take up less controversial topics 138
Reflections on when religion was taken up 141
Religious identities in the classroom 142
Case Study #2: Mr. Johnson, Eleventh Grade United States History 143
Mr. Johnson’s Academic and Professional Background 144
Mr. Johnson’s Perspective on the School and Community 145
Classroom Environment and Student Make Up 145
Teaching style 146
Mr. Johnson’s Religious Background, Identification and Positionality 148
Religious background, identification and positionality and
teaching career 151
Self-identification 153
Research Question: How are Teachers’ Religious Identities, Affinities
and Positionality Revealed in Their Curricular Choices? 154
Curricular Emphasis 154
Political Beliefs 157
Student Service 158
Definition of Religion 159
Religion in the Course of History 153
Civil Religion 162
Christian Privilege 167
Other Religions 167
Students’ religions 168
Cross Case Analysis 172
Positionality and Background 173
Curricular Emphasis 175
Definition of Religion 176
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 8
Religion when Discussed within History 176
Civil Religion 177
Christian Privilege and Religious Hierarchy 179
Conclusion 180
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
IN RELATION TO PRACTICE, POLICY, AND RESEARCH 182
Summary of Findings 182
Implications and Recommendations 185
Practice 185
Policy 187
Research 190
Conclusion 191
References 192
Appendix A: Interview Protocol 200
Appendix B: Observation Protocol 206

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 9
Abstract
There has been very limited research on the possible role religion has in its influence on
teacher choices, especially within a Social Science classroom. The purpose of this study was to
examine how secondary Social Studies teachers explicitly and implicitly treat religion as a factor
in the teaching of history and how their own affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious
institutions influence their curricular choices. The following research question informed the
study: How are teachers’ religious identities, affinities and positionality revealed in their
curricular choices?
Through the use of the multiple case study model using interviews, observations and
artifacts, this dissertation examined how secondary Social Studies teachers explicitly and
implicitly treat religion as a factor in the teaching of history and how their own affinity with/to a
religion and beliefs about religious institutions influence their curricular choices. Using the
lenses of positionality and presence, while explicitly being aware of American Civil Religion,
religious hierarchies and Christian Privilege, this study examined two Atheist/Agnostic teachers
in a comprehensive urban high school settings.
The findings are presented as single case studies with a cross case analysis. The analysis
of findings found that both teachers did not include religion as a significant factor of history and
therefore, did not privilege religion as a topic in their classes. The data showed that both
teachers, despite their religious identifications, had internalized Civil American Religion and its
alignment with Christianity.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 10
CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
The American public school has been the stage on which many cultural battles have
played out (Banks & McGee Banks, 2003; Fraser, 1999; Hartman, 2013; Hoosain & Salili, 2006;
Spring, 2004). One such conflict has been over how much religion should be a part of the public
school environment. On the one hand, objections have been raised to the presence of religious or
quasi-religious activities that are regular parts of public school traditions (e.g., holiday concerts
where Christmas, Hanukkah, and songs representing other religious holidays are sung, the
requirement to say the Pledge of Allegiance). On the other hand, teachers have fought for the
right to decorate their classrooms with religious symbols and teach the curriculum they want to
teach, inclusive of religious content (e.g., creationism). A conflict that has received less attention
has been how to include religion as a part of a multicultural education in general and in the
Social Sciences more specifically. While current trends in education have tried to bring the
voices of historically marginalized groups within our American society into the classroom and
the curriculum, more often than not, the voices of religious minority students who do not fit into
the dominant Christian narrative have often been left out (Bellah, 1967, 2014; Blumenfeld, 2006;
Clark, 2006). Additionally, the friction of freedom from and towards a religion, and the lack of
clarity related to the inclusion of religion or multiple religious perspectives, has left teachers to
decide whether and how to approach religion as part of the content they teach. Social science
teachers have been left to decide when and how to include religion or religion’s influences, or
the lack thereof, on historical events. This study focused on the way that Social Science teachers
addressed religion in the content they taught. This chapter will start by presenting a brief
background to this topic divided into three sections: 1) the history of religion in the curriculum,
2) the history of the teaching of Social Sciences/history, and 3) these two topics together in order
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 11
to give context for the current state of curriculum.
After this brief history, I will examine broadly the current challenges for teachers in
regards to religion in schools and specifically in the curriculum. This chapter will conclude with
an explanation of this study’s significance, purpose and research question.
Background
Brief History of Religion and Curriculum in the USA
Since its inception, America’s experiment with public education created an environment
for religion to be debated (Fraser, 1999). Below is a brief history of how religion has been a part
of the overall curriculum in public schools.
Colonial schools. In early colonial America, there was high demand for employment
(Fraser, 1999). Children would become apprenticed to craftsmen for up to 7 years. Since the
craftsmen had little investment in the child’s religious upbringing and only in the child’s
perfection of craft, pious colonists pressured legislative bodies to ensure religious education.
Within this pressure grew the foundations of public schools. Early colonial education was
engrained with “racial and cultural superiority” (Spring, 2004, p. 5). Early Protestant colonists
believed that they were biblically engrained as a chosen people to protect Protestantism and
bring the beliefs of Christianity to the new world (Spring, 2004). The first schools though were
not created to offer opportunity and diverse education; rather the first colonial schools were
authoritatively created for students to learn a trade, basic skills, and religion (Fraser, 1999).
The colonists believed education would not only create pious Protestant individuals but a
pious Protestant society (Spring, 2004). Colonists left England to practice their religion freely
and to be able to teach their children their beliefs free of persecution (that is not to say that they
offered religious freedom to those they encountered). To maintain their religious values, a form
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 12
of formal education was needed to create a system to pass the Protestant values down to the next
generation. Early educational systems and schools in the New England colonies were based on
Puritan values (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). For example, in 1642, a Massachusetts law was
established to prevent parents and masters of trade from denying their children the education of
religion and laws (as opposed to working all day). This was the first law in the colonies that
imposed reading and literacy as a necessary means of education, rather than only passing on a
trade. Parents and masters had the responsibility to ensure their children had achieved a minimal
reading competency level to understand religion and the laws. This competency was defined as
the ability to “read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of the country”
(Spring, 2004, p. 16). In colonial times, the test of competency was based on knowledge of the
Christian religion (Fraser, 1999; Spring, 2004). Most of this initial institutionalized education
occurred in the home or work place.
In 1647, Massachusetts also passed the Old Deluder Satan Law (Fraser, 1999). John
Winthrop, the Puritan Governor, assured the citizens of the colony that every town with 50 or
more families was to have a formal school, in contrast to leaving the responsibility to parents and
masters. He argued that Satan was influencing the male children because of their lack of
education, which did not include the reading and understanding of scriptures. Therefore, the
colony took the responsibility of guaranteeing that Satan would have no such influence through
the establishment of schools. Similar laws were passed in the next 10 years by Connecticut,
Plymouth, Pennsylvania (Gordon & Gordon, 2003) and New Haven (Fraser, 1999). Once
Harvard College was established in 1636, it became possible to have church-run schools in every
state, as the college was established to make sure there were sufficient clergy-men throughout
the colonies (Fraser, 1999).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 13
During this same era, in Southern colonies, African slaves were not given any
opportunities for education except when it benefited their White masters. One example was the
teachings of Christianity and perspectives of after death. This meant that White masters could
control African slaves’ salvation through their education (Fraser, 1999; Spring, 2004).
There were many variations of schools in the throughout the colonies. Unlike
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, Pennsylvania and New Haven, not all colonies required a
minimum level of education, yet all had a form of schooling, if parents chose to send their
students. Most dominant in this period were dame schools (also known as petty schools in
Virginia) and grammar schools (Fraser, 1999). Dame schools were generally held in a
housewife’s kitchen or parlor. Many children were sent to dame schools when their parents were
illiterate and desired that their children receive a proper education. These family and community
based schools “were clearly tied to the Puritan sense of purpose” (Gordon & Gordon, 2003, p.
12). A college graduate taught grammar schools in a one-room schoolhouse. Both of these were
community ventures, which the community supported. Other schools were reading schools—
private venture schools with schoolmasters whose own education ranged (Fraser, 1999).
Academies, colleges and universities were also created for the elite. Many of these more
prosperous institutions were created to prepare or ordain clergymen (Gordon & Gordon, 2003).
The most basic text used by an overwhelming number of these schools was the New
England Primer (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). This text was an A-Z book for children to
practice their reading and memorization. A is for “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all” and Z is for
“Zacheus he did climb the Tree, Our Lord to see” (Fraser, 1999, p. 10).
During this same period, and contrary to popular notions, colonists had little interest in
bringing European education to Native Americans. Yet, church leaders and criticism from
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 14
England pressured colonists into bringing the Native Americans into Christianity. Boarding
schools were set up for cultural, and religious, conversions (Spring, 2004). Social and
educational reforms for Native Americans took two significant forms; either proselytizing or
genocide (Fraser, 1999)
The founders and some revolutionary change. In the establishment of federal law,
religion was a highly contested yet silenced issue: “Debate at the constitutional convention in
Philadelphia contained few comments on religion” (Fisher, 2003, p. 585). Many different
phrasings were proposed for precedents that would have affected both federal law and state law
acknowledging, supporting or denying differing religious freedoms within public education.
Most of the proposals were quickly dismissed. The only overt mentions of religious notions in
the constitution being the term “blessings” in the preamble and First Amendment stating,
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” (The Constitution of the
United States: A Transcription). Following the constitutional convention, states that overtly
supported individual religions, such as Maryland’s support of Catholicism, were forced to
remove such provision from their laws (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). Fraser (1999), in Between
Church and State, argued that since there was no religious consensus between the colonies,
religious freedom was the accidental default answer to the conglomeration of many religious
minorities. Since no religion could be established, at minimum, they all wanted their religion
protected.
This perspective was proven through the states’ approach to education over the following
50 years. Although the federal government could not establish religious institutions, states and
communities maintained their relationships between educational curriculum and established
religion. Education was a hodgepodge of different systems (Gordon & Gordon, 2003). Primary
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 15
and Secondary education remained disjointed and varied as states adopted different versions of
public education throughout the United States (Fraser, 1999). In Massachusetts, for example,
public funds were set aside to create half-year public schools at no cost. These schools were
inclusive of both White and Black students. In many cases, Black students did not attend due to
fear of prejudice. Black schools were set up in the basements of churches and with a combination
of both public and private funding. Eventually, systemic inequality of the educational system in
Massachusetts became normative and was taken up in the courts. The schools in Boston were
integrated in 1855. Despite racism, in some cases, the decision was applauded as an opportunity
to teach African American students Protestant values and dominant Protestant culture (Spring,
2004).
Within the first 50 years after independence, there were few educational institutions, of
higher or primary education, that lacked religious influence (Fraser, 1999). And despite no
mention of education in the constitution, many states included education in their state
constitutions (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). Communities often combined private and public
funding for schooling. Spring (2014, p. 5) argued “public schools in the nineteenth century were
primarily designed to protect the ideology of Anglo-American Protestant culture.” Christian
Bible reading and prayer were important elements of the public school experience (Pulliam &
Van Patten, 2003). Many states began to create laws for public education for those who would be
willing to take the pauper’s oath or similar pledges that came with negative societal stigmas of
poverty. In Pennsylvania, between 1809 and 1833 for example, all European-descendant children
were allowed to attend a public school if their families were to take a pauper’s oath, yet by 1847
only 42 percent of all children were enrolled in public schools (Fraser, 1999). In New York, both
Protestant and Catholic church schools received public funds until the mid-1820s. Catholic
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 16
schools stopped receiving funding with the establishment of the Public School Society, wanting
to remove “evil” from the schools and teaching only from the King James Bible.
1
The ongoing
battle for school funding within religious institutions continued until the rise of the common
school movement decades later (Fraser, 1999). This gave rise to the separate Catholic School
system. The pauper’s oath, and the stigma that came with it for families who participated in
public schools, was used to keep minority religions socially ostracized if they wanted to
participate in schools that received public funds.
Similar to Catholic schools, yet not as centralized, Black churches in the North were
created to take up the slack of the lack of education of students of African descent. These were
not supported by public funds due to pressure from Whites. In the South, after the slave rebellion
led by Nat Turner, who had extraordinary knowledge of the Bible, it became illegal to teach
reading of the Bible to African Americans (Fraser, 1999).
Thomas Jefferson attempted to fill the void with secular education. Not long after his
election as governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Jefferson introduced a bill in which all
White children could attend a public school, from elementary to grammar school followed by
male-only participation in the university. These schools were independent of the established
church and promoted enlightenment ideals:
Christians questioned the lack of religious instruction in Jefferson’s plan. The curriculum
he proposed reflected the humanist values he had formed as a student […] Jefferson’s
plan did not utilize the clergy, […] dropped Bible stories for the secular histories of
Greece, Rome, England and America [… and paid] special attention …to books of
historical content. (Addis, 2003 p. 15)

1
The King James English translation of the Christian Bible is widely used by Protestant denominations based in the
traditions of the Church of England (Religion, 2014).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 17
Jefferson’s views were not only to eliminate religion in the curriculum, but also Jefferson desired
a populous who gained moral understanding through the education of historical events and the
Social Sciences yet continued to have a Euro-centric perspective. He hoped for religious equality
for all Christians. As President, Jefferson continued to influence and create educational reforms.
He set aside public lands for the purposes of establishing public secular state universities. In
response, Harvard and other institutions, originally established to ordain ministers, began to
emphasize secular studies such as law. States began to establish public universities, yet,
“[t]hroughout the upper South, even public schools such as the University of North Carolina and
Transylvania University in Kentucky fell under denominational control” (Addis, 2003 p. 3).
Jefferson eventually established the University of Virginia, one of the nation’s first secular
universities (Addis, 2003).
Despite the more secular nature of schools for students of European descendants. This
was not true for Native Americans. Jefferson worked with Protestant groups and missionaries to
establish schools teach English, “civilize” and Christianize (Fraser, 1999). Native Americans,
when not being forcibly removed from their lands and communities being destroyed, were sent
to schools created by missionaries that were using translated versions of the “Bible, hymn books,
moral lectures, and other religious tracts” to teach and defend children against their non-
Christian or “Pagan” upbringing (Spring, 2004, p. 25). The Catholic school system, despite
having been created to counter act the dominant Protestant role in public schools, became the
dominant educational institution for Native Americans, often using federal aid.
The rise of the common school. In the decades preceding the Civil War, radical changes
permeated the American landscape and mentality (Bellah, 1967; Fraser, 1999). The industrial
revolution led to a change in political power and the rise of the ordinary man (Pulliam & Van
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 18
Patten, 2003). With these changes, national identity became the goal of what had previously been
a non-cohesive union. This goal had influences on education as well, with the establishment of
the common school system beginning with Horace Mann (Fraser, 1999).
The new common school, largely conceived and developed by Mann, was to reflect
American society (Fraser, 1999; Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). The common school’s task was to
build “social, political and moral character needed in a democracy [and] was concerned with the
teaching of basic skills” (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003, p. 133). The hope was the children’s
exposure to these different societal disparities would prevent fewer cultural problems from
arising by exposing students to the larger cultural and religious diversity. This diversity only
extended to different denominations of Christianity and Unitarian thought. Mann’s version of
common schools included religion:
Mann knew just what he wanted to have. If the schools of Massachusetts assured that
every student heard the Bible read, “without note or comment,” if all interpretation was
left to “the pulpits, the Sunday schools, the Bible classes, the catechisms, of all
denominations, to be employed according to the preferences of individual parents,” then
a solution to the problem of appropriate religious instruction was at hand […] he was
really proposing to make the public schools of Massachusetts a kind of Unitarian
parochial school system. (Fraser, 1999, p. 26-27)
Mann had many opponents from many sides. Puritan, Roman Catholics, Methodists, Baptists,
Episcopalians and others all disagreed with this plan of education. Many Catholics called public
schools Protestant schools and created a separate system of Catholic schools to counter act the
public school Protestant teachings (Spring, 2004). Many groups argued that they wanted the
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 19
Bible removed all together from schools to promote freethinking. Other groups advocated that
their own interpretation of the Bible to be taught.
Common schools became very successful in the growing mid-west (Fraser, 1999). The
curriculum in common schools was based around the McGuffey Reader. This text reflected the
middle-class Protestant morality of the era. They also used Greek and Roman classics, European
writers and thought, as well as praised the Puritans as early settlers and America’s heroes from
the Revolutionary War (Fraser, 1999). As the curriculum surrounding these Readers flourished,
concern for the various groups not represented, Catholics and African Americans especially,
were ignored. This curriculum solidified and became more unified than ever before in the
American public educational experiment as one steeped in Protestant ethics and morals (Fraser,
1999; Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). McGuffey Readers were not only used in schools with
students of European descent but also were used in missionary schools on Native American
lands. The common school was created to educate students of European descent. During this era,
movements to teach Bible and Christianity in native languages were overcome by the desire to
civilize and acculturate Native Americans from their traditions. This made way for the removal
of native languages altogether and teaching, basic skills and Protestantism was taught only in
English (Spring, 2004).
After the Civil War, before and after the Supreme Court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson,
which established the doctrine of separate but equal, Black schools and churches were closely
aligned, especially in the South. In the North, common schools were established. In
Massachusetts, the successor of Horace Mann commented that even if schools were established
with integration in mind, White students would not attend them. Therefore, a separate system of
Black schools, was created. Despite some public support, in order to succeed financially, these
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 20
Black schools had to align with other institutions, including churches, in order to have some
semblance of a proper public school (Fraser, 1999).
The wall between church and state. Although the term church and state is widely used
today, it was coined by Roger Williams of Rhode Island and repeated in a letter written by
Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to assure religious minorities their rights. Yet, it was not until 1878
that the term was used in a legal forum in Reynolds v. US.
The Blaine Amendment. In 1876, in the midst of the election that ended reconstruction
and in the context of church schools, particularly Catholic schools, receiving public funds, the
Blaine Amendment was introduced in Congress to define further the separation of church and
state. The proposed constitutional amendment stated,
No State shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; and no money raised by taxation in any State, for the support of the
public schools or derived from any public fund therefore, shall ever be under the control
of any religious sect, nor shall any money so raised ever be divided between religious
sects or denominations. (Green, 2012, p. 190)
The amendment was a recognition of the challenges posed by public schooling run by religious
institutions and would have not allowed federal or state monies or lands to be under the control
of religious institutions for that end. The Blaine Amendment was largely viewed as an Anti-
Catholic and other minority religions measure. Despite presidential and Republican support, who
were in the majority, the amendment lacked the two-thirds requirement to pass in the House of
Representatives (Fraser, 1999; Green, 2012). For the next few decades, states and school districts
pushed back on the potential legacy of the Blaine Amendment bringing in more study of the
Bible and other Christian practices. By the middle of the 20
th
century, it is surprising that little
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 21
had been decided legislatively or judicially over the separation of church and state in education
(Fraser, 1999).
During the early 20
th
century, in the shadow of the Blaine Amendment, and with national
fervor towards creating a national identity that was Protestant and White, funding for missionary
schools on Native American lands decreased. With less funding being given, missionary schools
began to be dismantled, yet left a vacuum of education for children of Native Americans wanting
to stay within their communities.
Continuation of implicit Protestant morality. During this same era, compulsory
education for all children became the norm. Additionally, immigration from Asia and non-
Protestant people of European descent, specifically Catholics and Jews, grew (Fraser, 1999) and
schools began to slowly secularize in purpose yet not in terms of curriculum offered. In the post-
World War 2 era, religion remained a significant part of public education’s curriculum. During
the late 1940s and 1950s, the focus of curriculum shifted to meet the needs of the Cold War. The
curriculum’s purpose was to create an educated, diverse and a scientific community. Despite this
shift in purpose, in a post war survey conducted by the National Education Association (NEA)
nearly half of school districts self-identified as having a formal religious education program
including classes offered and curriculum taught by teachers (Schultz, 2007). Overall, “teaching
about religion has long been accepted” (Fraser, 1999, p. 167). During this period, religion in the
curriculum became more implicit than explicit. For example,
Protestants most often sought a bland form of Protestantism, such as the Lord’s Prayer or
the Twenty-third Psalm, which, they hoped, was ecumenical enough not to stir debate.
Many times this hope was misplaced, as a Catholic, Jew, or secularist often opposed it.
(Schultz, 2007, p. 572)
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 22
While the line between church and state was being drawn for students of European
descent, ironically, and at the same time, religion was being used to subjugate, deny educational
access and justify less educational opportunities for students of African, Native American,
Hispanic and other minority groups (Spring, 2006).
In the 1960s, many norms of religion were brought to the forefront of common culture
with the election of the first non-Protestant President, John F. Kennedy (Schultz, 2007). The
Cold War made faith and a belief in God important to contrast with the communists (Fraser,
1999; Schultz, 2007).
During the era of the Civil Rights movements, church leaders, churches and religious
groups, such as Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, and the use of Christian non-violent techniques,
2
gave credibility to desegregation
movements (Spring, 2006).
Court challenges. Supreme court decisions such as Abington v. Schempp, 1963 and
Engel v. Vitale, 1962 ruled that the schools could not sponsor religious practices (Blumenfeld,
2006, p. 206). In 1971, the Lemon Test was developed based on the case of Lemon v. Kurtzman,
in which Alton J. Lemon brought a suit against the Superintendent of Public Instruction in
Pennsylvania based on his view that the public financial assistance being given to church related
educational institutions was out of bounds. The Supreme Court concluded that the
Superintendent of Public Instruction had over stepped his bounds in how the public instruction
funds were used. Out of this decision the Lemon Test was created:
1. The statue must have a secular legislative purpose.
2. Its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion.

2
Inspired by Ghandi, a Hindu (Spring, 2006).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 23
3. It must not foster excessive entanglement with religion. (Fisher, 2003, p. 629)
The decision of Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971, was broad and found that governmental enactments,
such as public education, “must have a secular purpose” (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003, p. 237).
Return to Protestant values. Despite the limitations set forth above, in the Supreme
Court decision of Florey v. Sioux Falls School District, 1980 allowed for the “recognition of
religious holidays may be constitutional when the purpose is to give secular instruction about
religion or religious traditions rather than to promote any specific religious doctrine or practice”
(Blumenfeld, 2006, p. 207). The “secular” purpose of these traditions generally applied to
symbols regularly affiliated with Christian holidays (Bellah, 1967; Blumenfeld, 2006; Clark,
2006).
During the Civil Rights era, legislation was passed to stop the overt Christianizing,
cultural and linguistic educational removal of Native Americans. Yet, the process of
reintroducing the cultural heritage of Native Americans and the development educational
institutions was left up to the reservations and tribes, with little to no systemic support. By the
1980s, the federal government had done little to support this education and instead was left to
implement, with limitations, mainstream dominant narrative education (Spring, 2006).
Since the Reagan era, Protestantism has crept its way back into the public school
classrooms. In March 1982, Regan declared, “We must have one agenda […] to end the
manipulation of school children by utopia planners, and permit the acknowledgement of a
Supreme Being in our classrooms” (as quoted in Fraser, 1999, p. 177). During the Reagan era
and the publication of A Nation at Risk, Protestant values in schools were emphasized as a means
towards national unity. This continued through Clinton’s Presidency. The Religious Freedom
Restoration Act in 1993 was passed
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 24
in an attempt to prevent laws which substantially burden a person’s free exercise of
religion. In July of 1995, President Clinton issued a memo entitled “Religious Expression
in Public Schools.” In it he discussed specific principles that apply to religious expression
in the schools in regard to issues such as student prayer and religious discussion, official
neutrality, teaching about religion, and teaching values. (White, 2007, p. 8)
Moving towards multicultural education. Current debates in schooling continue these
cultural and religious debates. The essential question has been: what is the purpose of public
schooling? The debates now center on multicultural education, with two opposing side arguing
whether education should be reflective of the students’ identities with cultural-centric
curriculum, or create a common culture of the United States. This common culture would be
entered on, what Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. an American history book author, argued as, “A set of
core values derived from white Anglo-American Protestant traditions” (Spring, 2006 p. 121).
These debates are still being played out through discussions around using the Bible as literature
in classes, funding for school vouchers to allow students to choose to attend parochial school
with government funding, continued debate on evolution and creationism, religion being taught
objectively (Fraser, 1999) and, as this dissertation tried to address, how religion influences
curricular choices in the classroom.
History of Teaching Social Sciences/History
Discussed above is the history of how religion has had its influence on the overall
curriculum. This study focuses on teachers of Social Science/history. Below is a brief history of
the Social Science/history curriculum in the USA.
Separate disciplines and disparity. As discussed above, educational curriculum across
the USA in the 18
th
and 19
th
centuries was largely disjointed. In the disciplines of Social
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 25
Sciences/history, the topics were isolated and fragmented (Evans, 2004). Subjects taught in
schools included Geography, Roman and Greek civilizations, the discovery of the new world and
heroes of the American Revolution. These topics were often taught in isolation from one another
with little context for students or oversight of curriculum (Evans, 2004). This curriculum was
Euro- and White centric.
A few schools were established educated historical marginalized, non-White, populations
including Native Americans and African Americans. Despite these schools being established for
educating marginalized populations, the curriculum remained Euro- and White centric. These
schools had very little success due to the misunderstanding and lack of representation of the
cultures they were teaching (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003; Spring, 2004).
1892: The NEA’s Committee of Ten. By the late 19
th
century, public state-run schools
either taught classical, European curriculum for college bound students of terminal, vocational
education. Disparities and disputes about which subjects should be taught arose. Out of concern
of these disparities, organizations such as the NEA were established. In 1892, the NEA
established the Committee of Ten with subgroups in various subjects (Evans, 2004; Pulliam &
Van Patten, 2003). These included “Latin, Greek, English, the modern languages, mathematics,
the physical sciences, the biological sciences, history, and geography” (Pulliam & Van Patten,
2003, p. 165). The subcommittee responsible for looking at history was known as the Madison
Conference or the History Ten.
3
The topics they examined included history, civil government
and political economy (Evans, 2004; Whelan, 1997). Their perspective was elitist, conservative
(Evans, 2004; Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003) and catered to higher socio-economic classes. Their
explicit intention was to align the secondary curriculum to college curriculum and expectations

3
This subcommittee included Woodrow Wilson.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 26
(Evans, 2004; Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003), not to the greater interests and needs of the
population. Their recommendations were distinctly Euro-centric including ancient European
mythology, Greek and Roman history, French history, English history, American history and
civil government. Their recommendations made analogies of history to “chemistry and geology
and emphasized chronology and ‘development of the Anglo-Saxon race’” (Evans, 2004, p. 9).
Other organizations and committees convened around the turn of the century to build and
react to the recommendations of the Committee of Ten. Some of these focused more on
elementary aged students or reorganizing the curriculum. None of the recommendations brought
in additional narratives or histories of other peoples or identities (Evans, 2004; Watras, 2012).
Many of the explicit goals of these committees were to provide curriculum that would
Americanize the immigrants and create a unified narrative of the American identity (Evans,
2004) based in European history.
Rugg’s Social Science curriculum. By World War I, the recommendations of a classical
education put forth by the committees at the turn of the century began to lose favor. In response
the social ills highlighted by the progressive era, “social centered education” and “school
efficiency” became the norm (Evans, 2004, p. 22). The progressive values were reflected in
public schools to solve society’s social ills while also being as efficient as possible. During this
era, the work of both John Dewey and David Snedden were highly influential on curriculum.
Both thinkers rejected the traditional view of history education. They both saw education as
social and a means to an end. The study of the Social Sciences was reframed to develop good
citizens. During the war, the curriculum was largely assimilationist, bringing immigrants into the
USA and making them American (Banks, 2006).
Building on the radical new philosophies at the time, Harold Rugg, a social
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 27
reconstructionist thinker working at Teacher’s College at Colombia University, developed an
integrated Social Science curriculum (including geography, history, civics, etc.). The debate of
having an integrated curriculum for the Social Sciences or a “cluster” of separate disciplines
continued throughout the 20
th
and into the 21
st
centuries (Whelan, 1997, p. 21). For Rugg, Social
Science was to be problem centered (Evans, 2004; Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). The problem
addressed was the “American Problem,” which focused on “problems of contemporary life”
(Evans, 2004, p. 40). Due to the lack of concrete focus of the curriculum, Rugg’s curriculum fell
out of favor by the beginning of the Great Depression. The teaching of events as a chronology to
be memorized returned, yet the concept of integrated Social Studies rather than disparate topics
taught from year to year without connection remained (Evans, 2004).
The Scopes Trial. During this era, the battle over evolution being taught in the within the
biology curriculum was brewing. After Darwin’s publication of the Origin of the Spices in 1854,
biology textbooks began including evolution and contradicted the Western religious notion of
God creating the world in seven days. In 1920, John Scopes’, a biology teacher in Tennessee,
decision to include evolution in his teaching of biology in violation of state law became the test
case that captured national attention. Willian Jennings Bryan, a charismatic national figure and
presidential candidate, worked on behalf of the prosecution and ACLU lawyers fought on the
side of the defense. Scopes was found guilty yet, the decision was overturned on a technicality
by a higher court. The trial did not make it to the supreme court and little precedent was set. The
implication was that culture and religious wars over curriculum would continue (Fraser, 1999).
Mid-century. Through the New Deal, World War II and the beginning of the Cold War,
theoretical education in public schools was abandoned in favor or technical skills to build the
nation and fight the wars (Pulliam & Van Patten, 2003). Until the 1950s, schools were
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 28
segregated. The Social Science curriculum reflected the dominant narratives of White Christian
America. Through the mid to late 1950s and 1960s, schools began to integrate racially, and the
concepts of multicultural education began to emerge (Banks, 1993; Banks, 2006). Through the
1960s and 1970s, multicultural education in the Social Sciences was largely through monoethinic
courses and single group studies. These were token courses and points throughout the curriculum
that historically marginalized peoples would be brought to the forefront as examples (i.e., Black
history month, women’s history course, etc.). These courses and times did not integrate
marginalized voices into the dominant narrative (Banks, 1993; Banks, 2006; Banks & McGee
Banks, 2003).
1980s and 90s. During the 1980s, in response to A Nation at Risk, a national report that
painted a pessimistic view of the current state of education, emphasis returned to local control of
school curriculum and the learning of traditional history topics (Vinovskis, 2009). At the same
time, governors and states began implementing standardized expectations and tests to measure
high school achievement, and minimum competency (Vinovskis, 2009). By the early 1990s, a
movement to create optional national standards in all subjects had taken hold. Many states
adopted the national standards, while others, like California, developed their own standards and
assessments. The 1997 California history standards defined content and skills all students should
learn (Fogo, 2011). The standards were outlined by grade level. In the 1998 California Standards,
Kindergarten through 12
th
grade, religion, religious affiliation and religious institutions as
explicitly stated 11 times (California Department of Education, 2012).
Common Core. Most recently, 45 states, including California, and the District of
Colombia have adopted standards known as Common Core (Rothman, 2014). Under the
Common Core, History/Social Science standards are embedded as a subset of the ELA standards
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 29
largely focused on skills such as pulling information out of a variety of different types of texts
and synthesizing the information (English Language Arts Standards | History/Social Studies |
Introduction, 2012). The current Common Core standards do not explicitly mention religion
other than students having the ability to draw from “myths, traditional stories or religious works
such as the Bible” when analyzing literature in grade 8 standard. No other explicit mention of
religion exists K through 12
th
grade.
Statement of the Problem
The above sections outlined two major timelines: 1) the explicit relationship between
religion and religious institutions and public education and 2) the overall development of history
curriculum in the USA Despite the historical educational trends, and even with the
implementation of unified standards, there are “wide variations in how teachers interpreted and
applied the standards […] Common Core Standards are vulnerable to the same differences in
interpretation that plagued the earlier round of standards reform” (Rothman, 2014).
Unlike the disciplines of hard sciences (math, science, etc.), the Social Sciences, as a
discipline, have a history of subjectivity (Greenwalt, 2008) and interpretation (Martell, 2013).
There are various factors that influence a teacher’s interpretation of history (Martell, 2013) and
in turn how he/she teaches. These factors can include, but are not limited to: the education of the
teacher, including his/her content and teacher education backgrounds (Martell, 2013), his/her
understanding of the content within the context of classroom management and/or context
(Martell, 2013), and his/her subjectivity within the context of the content he/she teaches
(Greenwalt, 2008). The “[t]eaching [of] almost any topic within the Social Studies […] has at its
core issues of human rights and social justice” (Byrd, 2012, p. 1073) and values (King, 1935).
Subjectivity at its core is a power dynamic in the classroom, with the students, the teacher’s
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 30
position in the greater community and the content (Cho & Lewis, 2006; Greenwalt, 2008). A
teacher’s role in a Social Studies classroom is to be interpretative (Martell, 2013). This
interpretive and power dynamics have specific challenges in terms of including religion within
the curricular content.
Importance of Understanding Religion
Many educational theorists and researchers (Bellah, 1967, 2014; Clark, 2006; Hartman,
2012; Housain & Salili, 2006; Rossatto & Hampton, 2006; Talbert & Romanowski, 2002;
Tepperman, 2010) have argued from various perspectives that learning about religion and
religious historical transparency are essential for student learning and living in a pluralistic
society.
Significance for our society. There is a massive gap of knowledge and discussion about
religious diversity in our society. Due to a combination of historical, legal, as discussed above,
and fear (Alters, 2010) teachers and educational institutions have not created the space and
privilege in the classroom for such discussions. Housain and Salili (2006) put it bluntly,
Knowledge goes hand in hand with an inquiring open mind. A person who cannot tell a
Sikh from the Taliban (one is reported to have killed a Sikh in the street, thinking that he
looked like a Taliban…) is unlikely to accept a pluralistic view of culture and religion. (p.
1)
Their assertions were that there was not only a need for religious understanding for the
broadening of education, but also progressive values to continue in USA and for the safety of our
society.
Religious education as a human right and legal challenges. Temperman (2010) argued
that not teaching about religious groups is against the essential human rights of students. The
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 31
understanding of religious groups and their role in both society and history led to further
religious tolerance and the respect for the freedom from and of religion (Temperman, 2010).
Despite his argument that teaching about religion was essential for human rights, Tepperman
(2010), also recognized that the teaching of religion in an unbiased, or objective, way was not
feasible. As discussed briefly above, there were a number of historical factors, laws and court
decisions that have altered religion’s place in public education. Teachers in public school are not
allowed to preach their own beliefs (Bain, 2009; Temperman, 2010). Yet, they are allowed to
discuss the interplay of religious influences on the subjects they teach. The inability to teach
religion in an unbiased way and the lack of knowledge surrounding the legality of teaching the
subject, leads teachers to abondon religion within the context of their classrooms completely
(Bain, 2009).
Despite the human rights and legal issues and fear surrounding religion in the classroom,
teacher subjectivity, as discussed above, remains significant. Personal beliefs and affiliations, or
lack thereof, about religion influence teacher’s subjectivity (Anderson, et al., 2014; Journell,
2011; Nelson, 2010; White, 2007). This subjectivity then leads to curricular content choices
made by teacher in their own classroom.
Purpose
The discussion and history above examined the larger context of religion, curriculum and
schools overall. This study had much more narrow focus. The purpose of this study was to
examine how secondary Social Studies teachers explicitly and implicitly treat religion as a factor
in the teaching of history and how their own affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious
institutions influence their curricular choices.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 32
Research Question
The following research question will inform my study: How are teachers’ religious
identities, affinities and positionality revealed in their curricular choices?

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 33
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
As discussed in Chapter One, very little research examines the interplay between a
teacher’s own religion and her or his treatment of religion in the Social Science curriculum. To
answer the questions for this study—How do high school Social Studies teachers treat religion in
the course of historical events? and, In what ways do high school Social Studies teachers
perceive their own affinity with/to a religion and religious institutions to influence their
curricular choices?—three bodies of literature were examined: 1) The ways in which religion has
been defined and socially constructed/understood in our everyday discourse 2) Positionality, and
3) The relationship between teachers’ religious, or non-religious, beliefs and their curricular
choices.
In order to explore the questions of teachers’ treatment of religion and the role their
personal beliefs about religion play in that experience, it was necessary to have examined the
way in which religion played itself out in the everyday discourse of citizens in the U.S. To this
end, I present various definitions and everyday constructions of religion within the context of the
post-scientific revolution Western society and, specifically, in the United States. These
explanations include a broad definition put forth by Durkheim (year), the way in which the
concept of Civil Religion has been defined and how Civil Religion has been expressed in the
U.S., and conclude with an examination of the dominant narrative of religion in the U.S.,
Christianity, and Christian privilege.
Second, I present teacher positionality and presence, defining the concepts and then
placing them in the context of implicit and explicit curricular choices. Following the discussion
on positionality in the larger societal context, I present presence and the context of the teacher in
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 34
her or his classroom. After offering both concepts, I present a limited examination of studies that
have taken up these conceptions.
Third, I examine how teachers’ religious beliefs influence their curricular choices
including: explaining why teacher curricular choices based on religious influences and
positionality or presence influence students’ learning. Since little research has been conducted on
teacher choices in the Social Sciences, I turn to a discipline that has been examined. There are a
number of studies that examine the choices of teachers in context of evolution and creationism in
the biology curriculum. After examining the research on teachers’ religion and its relationship to
the biology curriculum, I will present six studies that either paralleled or helped frame my
research question about the relationship of religion in teacher curricular choices.
Finally, I will conclude this chapter with my conceptual framework in which I
demonstrate how I brought concepts from these three bodies together to answer my research
question. I assert that these questions could not have been answered using the ideas and concepts
that emerged from one of these bodies alone and instead, that each only contributed partially to
my ability to answer my research questions.
Defining Religion as a Concept
In order to examine the way a teacher’s religious beliefs influence her or his implicit and
explicit decision-making process in the portrayal of history in a classroom context, I begin by
exploring the way religion has been defined and contextualized in our societal common
discourse. As I investigated the ways in which a teacher’s personal experience, or definition, of
religion played a role in the way a teacher approached religion in the curriculum, it was essential
that I have a clear understanding of religion. This understanding allowed me to frame what
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 35
religion was from both my perspective as the researcher as well as informed my approach to
exploring a teacher’s understanding of and relationship to religion.
While there are many different voices in this arena, I focused primarily on the work of
three authors: Durkheim (2001), Bellah (1967, 2014), and Clark (2006). I work from a broad to a
more specific context to ground one concept within another. First, Durkheim, who developed a
comprehensive definition of religion to ground his own work, expanded the definition of the
religion from a traditional definition
4
to one that has its context in a post-scientific revolution
age. Following the presentation of Durkheim’s definition and concepts, I examine two works by
Bellah (1967), whose earliest work presents the concept of “American Civil Religion” and the
idea that—despite the U.S. doctrine of separation of church and state—various rituals and shared
beliefs in the United States are grounded in Christian Theology. Bellah’s (2014) more
contemporary work looked to patterns in both Western and Eastern religions to explain that all
education is itself a religious and ritualized experience. Finally, I turn my attention to Clark
(2006) and other thinkers, who argued that the Christianity is a dominant narrative in the U.S.
how Christian privilege influences our classrooms.
Durkheim and Religion
Sociologist Emile Durkheim (2001), writing in Pre-World War II France, in his seminal
work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), set out to explain and describe the
religious nature of man by focusing on primitive religion (Jones, 1986). To accomplish his end,
he first identified how others had defined the term “religion.” He argued that he needed to
address all preconceived notions of the term to then focus on what was common across religions
in order to construct a definition of religion (Jones, 1986). Thus, drawing from education,

4
The traditional definition prior to Durkheim included only organized and primitive religions (Durkheim, 2001).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 36
sociology, and religion, Durkheim identified two dominant explanations of religion that existed
prior to the early 20
th
century: the supernatural and divine. He suggested that when religion was
defined as being supernatural, it was used to explain what occurred in the world that could not
otherwise be explained. On the other hand, when religion was connected to the existence of a
divine being, it was presented as an understanding that a God existed and what God was. Next
Durkheim (2001) examined the supernatural and divine within the context of the purposes of the
world’s major religions. He found that the existing explanations of the concepts of supernatural
and divine left out mainstream religions. For example, post-scientific revolution Christianity’s
purpose was not to understand the supernatural; and Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, did not
attempt to define God. He therefore broadened the definition of religion beyond simply the
understanding of the supernatural and divine.
Durkheim (2001) argued that religion was a complex interplay of two elements: beliefs
and rites. Beliefs were the division of the world into a duality: sacred and profane. Durkheim
(2001) described the religious understanding of the world as a dichotomy of the sacred and
profane; everything existed on the spectrum of sacredness and profanity. Things, people, and
ideas that were sacred were valued, considered important, were to be kept close and were viewed
overall good. In contrast, the profane is not important; something to be distanced from and
considered bad. Rites were the manner in which people behaved within the sacred. For religion
to exist, he asserted, a community must agree on a common understanding of those beliefs and
rites. Durkheim (2001) argued religion’s purpose was to make the individuals of a community
act and live within those rites and beliefs moving towards the sacred. As a result of his
examination, Durkheim established the following preliminary definition:
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 37
A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to
say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single
moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. (Jones, 1986, para. 18)
Religion both informed the community and was influenced and informed by the
community. Religion, in turn, enabled the individual and the community to find their places in
the world, their collective myths. Myths were defined by Durkheim (2001) as the collective
stories that explained how things came to be.
5
All societies, therefore, found their moral
grounding in their community’s beliefs and myths. Durkheim (2001) argued that even an
individual who did not identify with an established, organized religion and believed only in
scientific explanations for phenomena fall under his definition of religion.
Science is thus religious in its origins; but if religion is itself only the apotheosis of
society, then all logical, scientific thought originates in society […] All logical thought,
Durkheim explained, is made up of concepts—generalized ideas […] Since concepts are
held in common and bear the mark of no individual mind, they are clearly the products of
the collective mind […]—Indeed, of stable, impersonal “truth” altogether; and this
explains why the "correct" manipulation of such concepts carries a moral authority
unknown to mere personal opinion and private experience (Jones, 1986, para. 71)
Durkheim (2001) argued that a belief in science belonged to a community with collective myths,
rites and an understanding of what was sacred (Durkheim, 2001).
The purpose of the above explanation was to enable me to explore how a teacher might
accept or reject, implicitly or explicitly, what he/she viewed for him/herself as something that
was “religious.” And, therefore, the nature of that relationship or identification with religion,

5
For the purposes of this study, in my conceptual framework below, I used the terms collective stories and myths
interchangably.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 38
within the context of religion as explained above, as defined by the individual might have
influenced her or his choices in the classroom.
Bellah, Civil Religion, and Schools
An implicit source of religion in society, that a teacher might or might not accept,
consciously or unconsciously, was its Civil Religion. The American sociologist Robert Neelly
Bellah (1967) argued that the U.S. had an identifiable and unique Civil Religion. Bellah drew on
Rousseau’s The Social Contract to explain the concept of Civil Religion as the “simple dogmas”
(1967, p. 5) of common understanding in a society.
6
Below is an explanation of the concept of
the “Civil Religion” of the U.S. as well as an explanation of some of the rituals, rites, collective
myths and things that we, in the U.S. held sacred, according to Bellah (1967).
Bellah (1967) analyzed documents and speeches from the Founding Fathers through the
Civil War and included more contemporary political leaders to defined American Civil Religion.
A crucial concept to American Civil Religion was the belief in a central God or deity (Bellah,
1967). Bellah argued that within American Civil Religion, God’s purpose was utilitarian,
providing, as Hamilton stated, “dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
Religion and Morality” (as cited in Bellah, 1967, p. 6). Bellah pointed out that in early American
thought, the tone of American Civil Religion was Christian, although it did not explicitly include
the distinctive feature of Christianity—Christ. The basis of the early Civil Religion was
therefore, distinctly Unitarian.
7
Unitarian religion was uniquely American, with a deist belief of

6
Rousseau does not use the term Civil Religion, but he is credited by Bellah (1967) for creating the foundation for
the concept.
7
Unitarian faith was developed in the late 16
th
century in Eastern Europe in the light of the Reformation. Despite
having origins in Eastern Europe, is spread West. The largest population of Unitarian Universalists is in North
America. In the U.S., it was also highly influenced by transcendental thought of Emerson and Thoreau. The basic
beliefs include: a belief in a God, or higher being, and rejection of the Christian Trinity, the importance of reason in
understanding the Bible, God as loving, with a rejection of original sin and an examination of human nature. Many
of the Founding Fathers in the U.S. were adherents of Unitarian beliefs. Due to the emphasis on love and an
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 39
God as a “watchmaker” who does not interfere directly with life. Yet, as Bellah (1967) pointed
out, there were aspects of the basis of American Civil Religion that were Christian. Early on, the
Europeans who colonized America compared and believed in the new colonies and country as a
new Zion in the world, a city upon a hill, and had an understanding of the U.S. as a promised
land: “Europe is Egypt; America, the promised land. God has led his people to establish a new
sort of social order that shall be a light unto all the nations” (Bellah, 1967, p. 8). This belief, of
the U.S. as a beacon of light unto the world and a new promised land, continued to be apparent
as the U.S. developed as a nation.
Through the Civil War, an additional Christian theme of “death, sacrifice, and rebirth”
(Bellah, 1967, p. 10) arose out of American thought. This theme of a country that had died,
sacrificed and reemerged through the schism of the Civil War, was a paralleled to the Christian
belief of Jesus dying, God’s sacrifice of his only Son on earth and resurrection. Bellah (1967)
compared the post-Civil War era of the U.S. to the Christian New Testament. Memorial Day
arose out of the Civil War, to remember the sacrifice of the soldiers and the nation. The
sacrament
8
of Memorial Day is recreated each year in the U.S. Bellah, writing in 1967, pointed
to similar themes that arose around President Kennedy—his idealism, assassination, funeral and
the aftermath of Johnson’s Great Society.
In addition to the rituals of Memorial Day, Bellah (1967) pointed to the less overtly
religious Fourth of July and the more minor celebrations of Veterans Day and the birthdays of
Washington and Lincoln, these two holidays provided an annual ritual calendar for the Civil
Union. Bellah (1967) argued that despite the unifying nature of Civil Religion including national

examination of human nature, some modern Unitarians do not identify with the concept of God, but believe that
there is some connection of all human beings (Religion, 2014).
8
The definition of sacrament here is a re-living or re-creation of a holy event, rather than the Christian/Catholic
Sacraments of the Eucharist, etc.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 40
solidarity and “to mobilize deep levels of personal motivation for the attainment of national
goals” (p. 13), it has various negative implications on American society that indoctrinate children
into Civil Religion at a young age.
In addition to civil holidays that serve as civil rituals yet, with Christian undertones,
Bellah (1967) examined the complexities of controversies surrounding Civil Religion in a nation
with the legal precedent of separation of church and state. These controversies were not against
the Civil Religion itself, but rather the Christian undertones and influences underlying the rites
surrounding those rituals. Bellah (1967) went further to explain that Civil Religion, as it exists in
the U.S., was not against other established religions, instead, it existed as a common
consciousness taught since an early age. Our Civil Religion created a dichotomous world of us
and them (i.e., communists vs. free peoples), and while based in Christianity, but not overtly
Christian, God is the central figure. Bellah (1967) pointed to the various narratives in American
history that parallel
biblical archetypes: Exodus, Chosen People, Promised Land, New Jerusalem, Sacrificial
Death and Rebirth. But it is also genuinely American and genuinely new. It has its own
prophets and its own martyrs, its own sacred events and sacred places, its own solemn
rituals and symbols. (Bellah, 1967, p. 18)
Bellah (1967) argued that American schools had been the stage on which Civil Religion
had been practiced. He stated, “The public-school system serves particularly important context
for the cultic celebration of the civil rituals” (Bellah, 1967, p. 12). This concept was expanded
upon in his later works.
More recently, Bellah’s (2014) theories of Civil Religion combined both Eastern and
Western philosophical perspectives to argue that, in a modern context, education in itself—even
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 41
secular education—is religious in nature. Education was an initiation into the values and
knowledge of society. As the scientific revolution’s ideas became more mainstream, secularism
and its values became the knowledge passed on (Bellah, 2014). Educational institutions, since
Plato and Confucius, initiated the individuals of the society into the rituals, which enact the
beliefs, or Civil Religion, of the society. Bellah (2014) offered that “Traditionally education was
not a relationship between a closed subject and an alien object, but the development of a
transformed person [...] included his society [...] (p. 112). Bellah (2014) drew on new movements
of thought in the post scientific age, including Nietzsche, Marx, Freud and other counter-cultural
movements. Bringing these thinkers into our modern Civil Religion, Bellah (2014) showed that
these philosophies, despite not being a part of traditional religion, had been integrated into the
larger system and became a part of educational institutions, and had become dogmatic and
therefore ritualistic and religious in nature. Therefore, Bellah (2014) paralleled Durkheim’s
assertion that even logical and scientific thought, as these concepts became a part of common
culture and dogmatic, also became religious in nature.
Bellah (1967, 2014) was included in this study to explore, the common language, national
narrative and social norms of Civil Religion. He showed that there were various religious aspects
to our society that were implicit. These aspects, if accepted or rejected by a teacher could
influence how they perceive and include religion in their curricular choices.
Christian Privilege and Society
The United States has no established state religion. This fact is the result of the language
of the First Amendment of the Constitution that prohibits the establishment of a religion and
simultaneously protects citizens’ rights to practice the religion of their choice (U.S. Const.
amend. II). As Bellah (1967, 2014) argued, there is a Civil Religion that engages in rituals that
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 42
are accepted and normative and exist in our common national narrative. The section below
examines Christianity and Christian privilege’s place in those commonly accepted rituals. As
with Bellah (1967, 2014) these commonly accepted rituals and norms, as a teacher implicitly
and/or explicitly accepts or rejects them, influences the choices a teacher makes in the classroom.
The section below will examine three authors, Clark (2006) considered one of the
foundational voices in the field of Christian privilege, Blumenfield (2006) who extended Clark’s
concepts and applies them to examples both inside and outside of schools and MacDonald-
Dennis (2006), one of the few peer-reviewed scholarly empirical articles in this field.
Clark (2006) referred to various aspects of American culture that have an implicit and
explicit veil of Christian dominance. Examples of Christian dominance include: The Federal
holiday of Christmas, terms like “in God we trust” and “under God” on U.S. currency, and
government military educational institutions requiring students to participate in religious
activities.
Clark (2006) described the definition of Christianity, as defined by Christians, to be two
basic tenets: 1) the belief in the Trinity and 2) an inseparable context of evangelism and
proselytizing. For Christians, Christianity was defined, not only by the belief in Christ, but also
in having a responsibility of expanding the Christian faith. Clark argued that throughout
American history, and especially post 9/11, Jews, Muslims and other established religions have
been placed by the larger society, the Christian majority, as an “other group” not just in terms of
religion but also racialized as the “other” as well.
9

Clark (2006) argued there was an Us/them (p. 171) thinking by Christians, especially
those whom identified as fundamentalist, which pushed out alternate opinions, beliefs, and

9
Clark (2006) argues that the Judeo-Christian link further marginalizes Muslims and other religious groups.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 43
questions. She argued the slight opening towards non-fundamentalist thought, such as sex
education and curricular debates around evolution and creationism, created an other-ing Us/them
binary. When debates around such curricular and educational subjects have arisen, dichotomous
rhetoric of Christian and non-Christian, religious and non-religious became the points of
reference, rather than other points of reference. Clark (2006) also examined the religious
references and prayer in school from the perspective of the student. Speaking up against the
status quo, she asserted, further marginalized students who did not identify with the dominant
Christian practices in school. Just raising the issue and discussing challenging the status quo by
non-Christians further marginalized and “other-ed” groups out of the mainstream Christian
narrative.
Clark (2006) focused part of her chapter on the discussion of multicultural and social
justice education and studies. She points out that more often than not, religious privilege, unlike
white, male, and heterosexual privilege, was not considered. Clark (2006) examined the initial
assumptions of multicultural and social justice education and studies. Clark (2006) argued that
the common assumptions made by those writing about multicultural education, made it difficult
for religion and spirituality to find space within the context of multicultural and social justice
education. Clark (2006) pointed to three specific assumptions of multicultural education that
showed—despite efforts of educational institutions to be inclusive of the diversity of gender,
including sexual orientation, race, class, and disability—that being inclusive religiously,
spiritually and secularity
10
was a challenge and a new concept within the thinking of
multicultural and social justice education.

10
Religiously, spiritually and secularity are terms I use intending to be all inclusive of all religious, faiths,
individuals who have a variety of beliefs that are both affiliated and non-affiliated with established religions,
Atheists, Agnostics, non-practicing and non-believers.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 44
The first assumption/theory of multicultural and social justice education was the
hierarchy of oppressions (Clark, 2006). The hierarchy of oppressions theory stated that
historically marginalized groups must confront discrimination directly, which, in turn,
empowered those, marginalized groups (Clark, 2006, p. 187). One limitation of the theory of
hierarchy of oppressions was that it created a backlash and confrontation between the oppressor
and those being oppressed, which perpetuated the Us/them dichotomy.
The second assumption of multicultural and social justice education was that while
individuals were often “called” to their work or actions based on their faith, the same rarely can
be said about their race, class or gender.
The third assumption was that, in many cases, Christianity was intermingled with the
narrative of oppression. The pervasiveness of Christianity throughout various different racial
groups, in the United States, especially those who have been historically marginalized including
Black- and Latino-Americans, enabled these groups to identify with a dominant, White, narrative
(Clark, 2006). For example, being Black and having experienced suffering was paralleled to the
suffering of Jesus and being saved. Many people of minority populations who identified and
believed in Christianity view this identification (of being Christian) as a privilege, or Whitening,
of themselves. This made the conversation of complex identities—
including gender, sexual orientation, race, class, and disability—with religion challenging.
These three assumptions made it difficult to parallel Christian privilege with other societal norms
of privilege.
Clark (2006) also placed Christian privilege in the context of separation of church and
state. Clark examined the secularization of Christianity as a way for inclusivity of the non-
spiritual, religious, or faith based aspects of Christianity to be included in secular spaces. For
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 45
example, a holiday party in December was a “Christmas party by another name” (Clark, 2006, p.
205). Clark (2006) observed the secularization of Christianity, such as the celebrating of
Christmas as a secular holiday rather than a Christian one, furthers the privilege. Clark (2006)
argued this secularization violated the separation of church and state, and furthered the
marginalization of individuals who do not have the tradition of Christmas, especially those that
consider themselves Atheist or Agnostic. These secularizations furthered prejudice and
discriminated against those who do not observe these holidays and faiths. Many public
universities have a chapel and chaplain (which may be a Christian priest or reverend, Muslim
imam, Jewish rabbi or other religious leaders) on campus, often used by various religious groups;
and yet the terms chapel and chaplain were both Christian terms.
Based on the above examples, Clark (2006) argued that the United States was an
unacknowledged and uncontested Christian State (p. 209). The lack of discussion about religious
diversity and the erosion of the separation of church and state through the secularization of
Christian symbols and traditions furthered the subtext of Christian privilege in our society. This
was evident and apparent from an outsider looking in, but unapparent to those who are
complacent in this perpetuation (p. 209). Therefore, in order to understand the effect this had on
our classrooms, the conversation had to become one that was explicit and transparent (Clark,
2006 p. 210).
Blumenfield (2006) extended Clark’s (2006) definition and examples of Christian
privilege and applied Young’s five categories, or “faces,” of oppression (p. 196) in order to
understand the patterns of domination and subordination. Blumenfield (2006) applied Young’s
faces of oppression not only as they related to Christianity and other religious, spiritual and
secular identifications, but also to the hierarchy of Christian denominations in and of themselves.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 46
This hierarchy, or hegemony of the dominant groups, existed due to political, social, and
historical factors beginning with colonialism. Protestant Christianity was at the top of the
religious hierarchy. Other denominations, or religions that identified as Christian, including
“African American and Latino/a churches, Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, Seventh-Day
Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, adherents to Christian Science, and to the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, and in some quarters, [. . . ] Catholics”
11
(Blumenfeld, 2006, p. 196)
have had less privilege within our society. Young’s five faces of oppression that have been
present in the U.S. were 1) powerlessness, 2) exploitation, 3) marginalization, 4) cultural
imperialism and 5) violence. He cited examples throughout American history as examples of the
faces of oppression. All five of these faces of oppression in terms of Christian privilege had their
origins on colonial America yet, continue to exist in today’s society (Blumenfeld, 2006).
Blumenfield’s examples were merely to point out various instances in American history when
the five faces of oppression have been present. They were by no means an exhaustive list.
For example, Blumenfield (2006) offered that powerlessness has been used against non-
Christians in the United States by 1) forcing other religious faiths out of the Massachusetts
colony from the Puritans and 2) interring Japanese Buddhists without cause during World War II
(Blumenfeld, 2006, p. 197).
Additionally, exploitation of non-Protestant Christians was used as a tool to oppress
others as early as slavery in the America, which was justified through religious means by
believing the slaves to be “‘heathen’ Black Africans” (Blumenfield, 2006, p. 198). Other
moments in U.S. history where exploitation served to oppress others took place during the
settling of the West, and through the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the legitimizing of

11
In many cases, some of these denominations are not considered Christian by mainstream Protestant Catholics
(Religion, 2014).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 47
removing Indian nations from their land by exposing them to unhealthy and often lethal living
conditions.
The act of marginalization has continued to be common, even today, through
curricular materials (curricular hegemony), which focus upon heroes, holidays, traditions,
accomplishments, and the importance of a European- heritage, Christian experience […]
school structures, policies, curricula, instructional materials, and even pedagogical
strategies (comprising hegemonic discourses) are primarily representative of only the
dominant religious culture. (Blumenfeld, 2006, p. 198)
Students of minority religious, spiritual, and secular identifications had often been left out of the
classroom discourse. Additionally, these minority students often had to provide documentation to
participate in their own religious observances (such as holy days that occur during the school
year) and had not been provided appropriate prayer spaces when, religiously, these students were
required to pray regularly (such as Muslim students observing the Pillar of salat, praying five
times a day). Blumenfield (2006) argued
[t]his marginalization can have very serious implications on individuals’ sense of self and
on their identity development, for they begin to view themselves through the lens of the
dominant group. [They] are susceptible to the effects of internalized oppression, whereby
they internalize, consciously or unconsciously, attitudes of inferiority or “otherness.” (p.
199)
12

Blumenfeld (2006) examined modern schools and the push back against Christianity’s
underlying presence in schools: Christains legitimized the use of various symbols by

12
This concept of internalized oppression and seeing self through the power structure lens of the dominant group is
addressed below through the concepts of positionality and presence.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 48
asserting that these celebrations and decorations have nothing to do with religion per se
and that the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, garlands, wreaths, the colors red
and green during December, and songs like “Here Comes Peter Cottontail,” or “Rudolph
the Red Nosed Reindeer” do not represent Christianity. They argue that these are largely
seasonal reminders and, as such, are part of “American culture.” (Blumenfeld, 2006, p.
206)
Blumenfeld (2006) further explained that many Christains excused the usage of these symbols as
being Pagan or a secularization of religion and not Christain in origin. These celebrations and
symbols, despite Christians having argued that they are not Christian in nature, further
marginalized those that are not a part of the dominant group that do not observe or believe in
them. Marginalization often led to individuals of minority religious identifications to abandon
parts or all of their religious identification to be a part of the dominant narratives.
According to Blumenfield (2006), the fourth face, cultural imperialism of Christian
privilage, has been common. One of the most damaging examples of the use of this tool was the
“Civilizing” of American Indians during the 18th and 19th centuries (Blumenfeld, 2006; Spring,
2004). Additional examples of the use of this tool of oppression that date back and continue to be
a part of our modern culture included the way that the school year and various other agencies and
organizations’ calendars and holidays are set based on Christian observances of Christmas and
Easter. The usage of B.C., before Christ, and A.D., anno Domini, in the year of our Lord, are
also based in Christian theology. Even when the more neutral terms of C.E. and B.C.E., common
era and before common era, were used, the turning point of the era in question is a Christian
event (Blumenfeld, 2006). Other examples included: requiring Muslim students to participate in
class activities, such as lunch during Ramadan, the usage of “under God” in the pledge of
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 49
allegance, the teaching of Intelligent Design in some school districts, and the hanging of holiday
decorations at tax payer expense in public spaces during Christmas time (Blumenfeld, 2006, pp.
200-201).
The final face of oppression tool that Blumenfield (2006) explored was the violence and
fear of violence towards religious minorities. This violence has been a persistent threat in
American history, since the time of the colonies. Blumenfield (2006) began by discussing the
violent reactions the Puritans had against “non-conformists” such as Quakers, Roger Williams
and Anne Hutchinson in the early colonial era (p. 201). Other examples of violence were the
historical anti-immigration laws, beginning in the late 18th century through the mid-20th century
in the U.S., that had often favored immigrants from countries that are predominatly Christian. He
examined the transition of Jewish identity from a race to a religion and extensively cited various
examples, post 9/11, of violence and hate crimes against Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Jews
(Blumenfeld, 2006, pp. 201-203).
One of the few peer-reviewed empirical studies that have overtly looked at Chrsitian
privilage and the internalization of social norms was that of MacDonald-Dennis (2006)
13
. He
studied one of the minority religions, Judaism, and how those who identify with Judaism
understood Christian hegemony, privilage, and anti-semitism. The study sought to understand
the unique racial, ethnic, and ethnoreligious positionality of Jewish undergraduates, [and]
examines the developmental processes that Jewish undergraduates go through as they
begin to understand and, hopefully, overcome anti-Semitism. (MacDonald-Dennis, 2006,
p. 267)

13
This study was chosen specifically because of the aspect of taking the implicit internalization of Christian
privilege and making that internalization explicit.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 50
MacDonald-Dennis (2006) identified 15 Jewish participants for his study. How these 15
participants were chosen was not discussed in the article. All 15 self identified as Jews of
Ashkenazi—Central and Eastern European—origin and were enrolled in a social justice program
at a Mid-Western University. Ten of the participants had been raised in predominately Jewish
neighborhoods, five in predominately Christian neighborhoods. Seven participated in Jewish
fraternities or sororities on campus. The study’s method used triangulation of a demographic
intake, individual interviews, and group interviews.
MacDonald-Dennis (2006) initially found two emerging groups: 1) those who saw anti-
Semitism as a reoccurring pattern and 2) those who had not “thought about these issues
previously said as much in their interview” (p. 271). Through the process of interviews
McDonald-Dennis identified five potential stages which the respondents went through in
examining their target ethnoreligious identity: The first stage was ethnoreligious awareness.
During this stage respondents began connecting their environment to their identity. For example,
they began to feel like an outsider in an environment that was not predominantly Jewish (p. 271).
The second stage, was Acceptance/minimization, where the respondent experienced a realization
of stereotypes and the internalizing of external messages, and minimizing anti-Semitism when in
environments that were predominantly Jewish (p. 272). The third stage was an awakening to
historical and political consciousness to anti-Semitism. Participants became aware of patterns of
anti-Semitism and connected historical events to society’s perspective on Jews (pp. 272-274).
Stage four was the rejection of Christian hegemony. At this stage participants experienced anger
at Christian Hegemony and privileged status and felt a desire to not want to be amassed into the
normative narrative of society (pp. 274-275). And finally, the fifth stage was Redefinition: in
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 51
which participant expressed a desire to challenge the anti-Semitism and Christian Hegemony
they encounter. MacDonald-Dennis (2006) stated that
[i]n this stage the individual person seeks to find her or his own sense of self outside of
her or his relationship to Christian hegemony and anti-Semitism. The individual would
seek to establish a sense of self not in agreement with or in opposition to Christian
hegemony and anti-Semitism, but rather instead of that ideology. (p. 257)
They expressed wanting to establish a sense of self through a “healthy, constructive manner’ (p.
257), rather than with the anger expressed in stage four.
MacDonald-Dennis’s (2006) qualititive study examined a religious minority group’s
possible path through defining its identification within Christian privilage and how, once made
aware of this privilage the stages that enabled them to navigate their non-privilaged status
14
.
Similar to MacDonald-Dennis, my study examined teachers making the curricular
choices a teacher as related to religion, both consciously and unconciously, explict. This also
shed light on how the teachers’ own relationship with religion influences these choices, if at all.
The discussion on religion above looks at the broader context, or macro level, of
societies’ discourse about religion, and examines the common language and dominant narratives
of religion in American culture. These informed my framework below and created a lens through
which the research question of this study can be answered. As discussed above, the common
conceptions of religion, Civil Religion and Christian privilege have implications on the sense of
self within the larger narratives of our society. The next body of literature relates teachers’ sense
of self to the choices they make. The following section on positionality and presence and the

14
The study did not specify when and if the participants went through all of these stages.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 52
teacher’s role will help me explore how the individual teacher, in micro level of the classroom, is
influenced by the macro level in her or his choices in the classroom.
Positionality, Presence and a Teacher’s Role
In answering the research question, it was essential to understand how the teacher’s own
background influences her or his perspective and, in turn, her or his choices in the classroom.
Peshkin (1988) argued that many educators and researchers are aware of the concept of
subjectivity as “an amalgam of the persuasions that stem from the circumstances of one’s class,
statues and values” (p. 17). Peshkin (1988) went further, arguing that researchers and educators
are also aware that subjectivity is always present. The missing piece, argued Peshkin (1988), was
the self-awareness of the subjectivity. “Subjectivity can be seen as virtuous, […] one that results
from unique configuration of their personal qualities” (Peshkin, 1988, p. 18). Below, is literature
which frames and examines how one can be reflective upon their own subjectivity.
In the section of the literature review, in order to examine how teachers’ subjectivity—or
their perception of their own affinity—influences their choices, I will examine positionality and
presence. Alcoff (1988) coined the term positionality as a self-understanding of the conceptions
of hierarchical power within society and its influences on a person’s choices. Next, I examine
Rodgers and Raider-Roth’s (2006) usage of the term “presence” in relation to the teacher-student
relationship. I focus on Rodgers and Raider-Roth’s (2006) purpose, as related to benefits of
presence in the classroom and its place not just in the classroom but the larger societal context.
This section will examine how the teacher’s perceptions of himself or herself within the macro
level of society influence their choices on the micro level of the classroom.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 53
Positionality
The concept of positionality, first developed by Linda Alcoff (Thompson Tetreault,
2012), combined the concepts of power (as defined by Foucault), metaphysics, and subjectivity
(as defined by Lauretis) (Alcoff, 1988). Simply put, Alcoff's (1988) definition of positionality
was a power relationship within the narrative of the individual’s view of society. Alcoff (1988)
cited Foucault’s argument that power was context dependent, and that one’s power changes
depending on one’s context. Moreover, Foucault argued that one’s power is also the product of
one’s own understanding of the social and historical context within which that individual exists.
One could not separate her or him self from those social and historical contexts. The elements of
metaphysics were elements of reason through ontological study and a focus of language (Alcoff,
1988). Alcoff (1988) asserted that the language used by society implies metaphysical beliefs and
relationships of power. Once examined, the language used can bring to light societal hierarchies.
Alcoff used Lauretis’ definition of subjectivity as a continuous and iterative process of
making meaning of the world based on apparent factors. Subjectivity was, “produced not by
external ideas, values, or material causes, but by one’s personal, subjective engagement in the
practices, discourses, and institutions that lend significance (value, meaning, and affect) to the
events of the world” (as cited in Alcoff, 1988, p. 423).
Alcoff merged these theories to create the concept of positionality. She asserted that
positionality was the hierarchical construction of self-identity based on transparent identifiers.
One’s understanding of her or his positionality, as described by Alcoff (1988) was continually
constructed within social and historical constructs that the individual knows. Positionality
included
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 54
two points: first, [it] is a relational term identifiable only within a (constantly moving)
context; but, second, that the position that [individuals] find themselves in can be actively
utilized (rather than transcended) as a location for the construction of meaning, a place
from where meaning is constructed, rather than simply the place where a meaning can be
discovered. (Alcoff, 1988, p. 434)
Positionality, therefore, was significant in the individual’s understanding of her or his own
choices within the context of power in our society.
Presence
In examining the research question of this study, presence was one factor that can lead to
the understanding of a teacher’s decision-making process and what factors influence their
curriculum. Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) provided the basis for understanding “presence” in
the classroom. Presence was significant because it was based on the teacher’s ability to be aware
and authentically present in the classroom. Presence was significant not just in the teacher-
student relationship, but also in the classroom, school, and larger societal environment. Presence
was defined by Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) as
a state of alert awareness, receptivity and connectedness to the mental, emotional and
physical workings of both the individual and the group in the context of their learning
environments and the ability to respond with a considered and compassionate best next
step. (p. 266)
Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) drew upon the disciplines of education, philosophy,
psychology, religion, and art to examine presence. They argued that presence was similar to the
concepts of awareness awakening, mindfulness and care (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006 pp. 268-
270). Being present was an evolving and iterative process based on the context and knowledge of
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 55
the individual. In examining presence, Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) examined it in four
parts: “presence as self-awareness, presence as connection to students, and presence as
connection to subject matter and pedagogical knowledge” (p. 265).
Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) argued that presence of self focuses on the dichotomy of
the real self and the professional self. A tension existed between who the teacher truly was and
“who they ‘should’ [have] be[en]” as teachers (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p. 272). The
“should” was influenced by society’s emotional rules and by the type of teacher education
programs (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p. 271). The disconnect between her real self and her
teacher/professional self could cause a lack of trust, disintegration, disconnection, and a lack of
integrity between the teacher and her students (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006). The ability for a
teacher to be authentic enabled “relationship authenticity” (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p.
274) and connected to teaching in that both the teacher and student are seen, accepted, and
created an environment of trust to understand one another’s perspective. When the authentic/real
self was not present, an environment lacking trust, and communication soon developed.
Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) showed that teaching required vastly differing types of
knowledge. These types of knowledge included: knowledge of subject matter (not just the
subject itself, but also the how and why the subject matter is the way it is); knowledge of
children, learning and pedagogical skills; the ability to observe, understanding and attending to
the group of students and individuals at the same time; understanding of context, how the
learning and the relationship of the teacher and student exists in the larger picture (including the
school); and societal factors at large which enable to the students to develop a “complex picture”
of their learning (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p. 282).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 56
Positionality and presence enabled the contextualizing of the teacher in the research
question: How are teachers’ religious identities, affinities and positionality revealed in their
curricular choices? The understanding of positionality allowed a teacher to be aware of her or his
own context within her or his perceived hierarchical power structure of the greater society.
Presence enabled a teacher to create connections between both their professional and
personal/private, authentic/real, selves.
Religious Influences in Schools and on Teachers
Overall, the field of religion and curricular choices has not been studied extensively. Out
of the limited research the field that has been examined the most was within the choices teachers
of biology, and specifically evolution, make when the content was contradictory to their beliefs
or about Christian fundamentalists and secular humanists disagree on the broader content to be
taught (i.e. sex education). In this section, I will examine the research on teacher religion and
general curricular choices in order to examine the purpose, frameworks, methodology, and
findings and the way they inform this study.
The debates about religion in schools were a reflection of the culture clashes in the
United States (Hartman, 2012). Much of the focus in the debates on curriculum was on what
content should be presented. The two opposing views that are most focused on are evangelical
Christians, and the dominant narrative of the U.S., versus secular humanists or Atheists
(Hartman, 2012; Noddings, 2008).
This review of literature will begin with an examination of how secularism is framed
within curricular debates. This will be followed by arguments in favor of the importance of
understanding religion, as a subject not as doctrine, by both students and teachers, and some
possible reasons why there is resistance for proper integration of religious knowledge in schools.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 57
Next, will be a brief look at the literature on biology and teacher curricular choices. This section
will conclude with empirical studies that have been conducted that examine teachers and their
choices in the classroom in either elementary or high school humanities settings.
Influence of Teacher Choices on Student Learning
Noddings (2008) examined the trends in debates about education and educational
institutions with regards to religion. She asserted that the arguments dominating the debate were
a didactic polarization between Atheist and mostly fundamentalist Christian religious adherents.
These dichotomous and opposing arguments left students without a nuanced understanding of
religion and its context within many educational disciplines. Noddings (2008) pointed out that
many of the current debates on religion in curriculum often focus on arguments disenfranchising
students who do not ascribe to the opposing, Atheist/secular identifications or fundamentalist
Christian religious faiths.
Noddings (2008) focused on the discussions and assertions made by those who are
Atheist or against organized religion. She argued that Atheist claims for the removal of religion
in schools were just as detrimental to student learning as opposing fundamentalist Christian
views. Atheists often used intemperate language, which further polarized their audience, their
students, through their language. The didactic and polarizing language at each end of the
oppositional argument, Atheists and Fundamentalist Christians had been loudest in the national
conversation about religion in schools. This was often drowned out other voices in the
conversation. Noddings (2008) also examined the movements to bring into the mainstream
various Eastern philosophies and religions. She was critical that many modern Atheists embraced
non-Western religions as being spiritual, yet the Eastern religions had gone un-criticized. Finally,
Noddings (2008) criticized Atheists’ insistence of removal of all religion from schools because it
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 58
makes poor and uneducated students vulnerable to impressionable extremist rhetoric due to a
lack of religious knowledge (Noddings, 2008).
The Importance of Understanding Religions in our Modern World and Understanding
Student Resistance
Noddings examined how Atheists are often pushed out of, or dominate, the conversation
about religion in classrooms. She asserted that these arguments leave out nuance and end with
students who are not receiving a full education. Temperman (2010) argued in favor of the
importance of students understanding all religions as a human right. Talbert and Romanowski
(2002) argued the importance of contextualizing religion within the history curriculum and found
that, despite the right and importance of understanding religion, resistance often exists not only
from teachers, but from students as well.
Temperman (2010) brought together the concepts of state neutrality on religion with
human rights and education to argue that a well-rounded understanding of religion was not only
good for the global future, but also a necessary human right in itself. He theoretically examined
legal and educational practices to find positive and negative examples of religious rights and
educations within the context of the Conventions of Human Rights of the Child. As discussed in
Chapter One, despite the ability and, as Temperman (2010) argued, the right to understanding
religion as a subject, there are various barriers that existed.
Talbert and Romanowski (2002) asserted that the resistance from students to learn about
religious themes in American history was often reflected in teachers’ attitudes towards the
subject. Various educational and professional organizations, including the Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development and the National Council of Social Studies, have shed
light on the need for religious understanding in the teaching of historical events. Despite these
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 59
organizations having encouraged the understanding of religion in classrooms and curricular
development, the omission of such topics was the norm (Talbert and Romanowski, 2002).
Talbert and Romanowski (2002) stated in their very limited article, that “through their
observations” (p. 37) and “experience” (p. 38) they came to their findings, yet, their specific
methods were not discussed further. Talbert and Romanowski’s (2002) first pointed to the
resistance by teachers in teaching American History to include religion as a factor was the lack
of legal and subject matter knowledge. Secondly, regardless of whether teachers included it in
the curriculum, textbooks left out religious factors, which students often trusted more than
teachers. It was not just teachers who have resistance, but students also had a resistance to
learning about religious themes in American history. Their resistance reflected that of teachers.
Students struggled with understanding relevance, how the Establishment Clause of the
Constitution was applicable, and how they understood the relationship between religion and
behavior. The lack of discussion of religion as a theme and factor in American history
“reinforce[s] the view that religion is irrelevant and unimportant” (Talbert & Romanowski, 2002
p. 38).
Research about Religion in the Classroom
Talbert and Romanowski (2002) pointed to the importance of including religion as one
aspect of understanding history to fully engage students in subject matter. White (2009)
conducted an overall literature review of religion and education to find:
How does the educational research community position the relationship between
teachers’ own conceptions of religion and the development and enactment of their
professional teaching identities? … [and] … how might the study of religion and teacher
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 60
identity, the interaction of private and public, be conceptualized? (White, 2009, pp. 857-
858)
The literature review was of scholarly educational literature that examined both religion and
public education. Looking at literature over a 12-year span around the turn of the millennium,
1994-2006, White (2009) examined over 75 works and categorized them for themes. The eight
themes were identified as follows: Importance, Inclusion/Omission, Implementation, Law,
Policy, Personal Characteristics, Spirituality and Pre-Service Education. The body of literature
that was most found to be represented in the study was on Inclusion/Omission. White (2009)
found that the articles that were categorized Inclusion/Omission changed in tone before and after
2000. The articles published prior to 2000 were about whether or not, and how much, religion
should be included in order for students to understand historical and current events. In contrast,
after 2000, the literature emphasized why and how the implementation and incorporation or
religion should be included in schools. White (2009) also found that the number of articles
referencing religion and public education decreased over her time frame.
White (2009), like Clark (2006) above, also discussed the recent rise of multicultural
education and the lack of religion in that discussion:
Educational research explores religion in schools, but it has not yet adequately addressed
teacher identity and religion; multicultural research connects teacher identity to
classroom instruction, but it also has not yet adequately addressed teacher identity and
religion in public schools. (White, 2009, p. 859)
Through White’s (2009) review of the literature, there was little discussion of teacher choices in
curriculum. Based on White’s literature review, she found a void in the literature in terms of
religion as a topic within multicultural education or teacher identity within public schools. She
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 61
recommended this topic for further research. My study will engage with White’s (2009)
recommendations as a study of teacher identity to connect with a teacher’s own awareness of
their identity.
Biology Curriculum and Evolution
The most researched aspect of religion and its influence on teacher decisions in specific
curriculum was in the Biology curriculum, and most often the debates surrounding Evolution and
Creationism, or Intelligent Design.
In Alters’ (2010) reflective piece on his experiences training hundreds of teacher
candidates at both McGill and Harvard, considered on the oft-antagonistic relationship between
evolution education and student religion in the context of teacher choices and apprehension.
Alters (2010) reflected on the apprehensions of teachers to teach evolution. Alters (2010) stated
that teachers often have apprehension about teaching evolution due to two factors: 1) The
teachers’ concern that the curriculum would influence students’ religious ideas and 2) possible
backlash from community members, parents, and school administration. For the first concern,
teachers worried about the double or unintended effect that learning about evolution would
unintentionally change students’ religious beliefs. Alters (2010) pointed to various factors,
including developmental stages and increased exposure to religious literacy to show that this
concern was misleading and that exposing students to scientific knowledge would not, in itself,
change a student’s religious beliefs. In addition, Alters (2010) pointed to parents as the genesis
of the problem. Alters (2010) stated that administrators have bent to the will and pressure of the
parents and were not to be blamed. Finally, he pointed to various pedagogical, professional, and
legal resources that teachers should use to support the teaching of evolution as an essential part
and basis of the biology curriculum (Alters, 2010).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 62
Meadows, Doster, and Jackson (2000) studied 17 science teachers, science teacher
educators, and science teacher candidates who also identified as orthodox or fundamentalist
Christian to find how they navigate the conflicts between evolution and creationism. The 17
teachers included in the study were identified to be a diverse group (age, gender, and
professional status) of science educators who were “deeply devoted” (p. 102) to both science and
their religious beliefs. All 17 teachers were White. The researchers conducted open-ended,
informal interviews and coded to find patterns and categories. Despite having different levels of
faith, the researchers were transparent in their belief that evolution was the origin of life and
should be taught in biology classes, not creationism. The researchers found that there were four
categories of responses to the conflict between the respondents Christian belief in creationism,
and the contradictions of evolution: 1) unaware of the conflict (the participants’ beliefs are
situational and change based on circumstances), 2) avoid the conflict (participants unwilling to
confront the contradictions), 3) disturbed by the conflict (participants feel a painful rift within the
conflict and 4) manage the conflict (participants create mental models that enable both evolution
and creationism to exists side-by-side). Meadows et al. (2000) found that the majority of
participants were in the fourth category and the fewest participants were in the third category. In
their implications for teaching, the researchers recommended recognizing that students may or
may not also have conflicts between their personal beliefs and evolution. The teachers should be
made aware of this conflict and it should be made transparent when it occurs. They
recommended creating an environment for the fourth category; opening the door for managing
the conflict. If teachers were to create a classroom environment where students could manage the
conflict, students would be better supported in their learning rather than having students avoid or
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 63
be disturbed by the conflict. This type of environment, in turn, may lead to students rejecting the
learning of evolution (Meadows et al., 2000).
Meadows et al.’s (2000) recommended that the implicit conflict find a safe space to be
made explicit in the classroom. This is supported by, and similar to, the concept of presence
above.
Teachers’ Dispositions about Religion and the Influence on their Curricular Choices
Below I unpack five studies that examine similar topics to my research question.
Anderson, Mathys, and Cook (2014) examined the choices and awareness of Agnostic and
Atheist pre-service teachers while teaching about world religions as related to their own
awareness of their identity and the identity of their peers. Aown (2011) examined how a teacher
learning about another religion influences her interactions and teaching style with students of
that religion. Journell (2011) studied how teacher position on religion influences their discussion
of current events, specifically the unique aspects of the 2008 presidential election. Nelson (2010)
looked at two teachers who identified as Christian and uncovers how their Christian beliefs and
identity influenced their classroom climate and decision-making. And finally, White (2007)
studied six teachers, Jewish and Christian, to show how a teacher’s religious identity shapes her
or his belief in the purpose of education, the social structures in their classroom and the
curricular and pedagogical choices in the classroom.
These five studies all shed light on religious identity and/or knowledge and the
constructions, choices and decisions teachers make in their classrooms influenced by their
religious identities and/or knowledge. These five studies bring out the implicit, subconscious
identities and narratives of teachers to show explicitly how these subconscious identities and
narratives influence these choices.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 64
Anderson et al.: Atheist and Agnostic pre-service teachers. Anderson et al. (2014)
sought to understand how Agnostic and Atheist pre-service teachers found their place within the
context of teaching a comparative religion lesson. They investigated how four American
Atheist/Agnostic elementary pre-service teachers planned, taught, and reflected on a world
religions field experience with seventh grade students, as well as examine the role of self within
their professional-identity. This study was conducted within a larger study of 22 pre-service
teachers. All teachers were a part of a teacher education cohort at a four-year university. The four
Agnostic/Atheist teachers were identified through the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith
Questionnaire (SCSRFQ), a 10-question self-report measure designed to assess respondents’
strength of religious faith. All 22 completed a lesson as a part of a comparative religion
curriculum in groups as a weeklong field experience. In this article, Anderson et al. (2014)
focused on the Atheist and Agonistic teachers. Two of the pre-service teachers identified as
Agnostic and two as Atheist. The two teachers who identified as Agnostic expressed that they
might have identified as Atheist if the term did not have such a negative connotation in society.
Three interviews of each teacher, lesson observations, observations of in class group processes,
and document analyses of lesson plans and reflections journals were all used to triangulate the
findings of the study.
Anderson et al. (2014) found the four nonreligious pre-service teachers had experienced
being discriminated against for identifying as nonreligious. The four pre-service teachers were
all working in differing groups of five or five. The Atheist/Agnostic pre-service teachers were all
religious minorities within their groups. All of them were also aware and warned their groups of
possibly offending students of minority religions based on possible biases that might arise while
the teaching the lessons on religion. When planning the lessons with their groups, all four of
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 65
them sought to focus less on facts and more on the complexities of world religions. Each of them
also expressed to their groups a desire for all the religions to be taught similarly but were often
out voted or silenced in their opinion by the larger group. All four hoped that the lesson on
comparative religion would result in the students becoming better critical thinkers and being
more open-minded about others’ beliefs. All four were disappointed with the outcomes of their
group planning and presentations of their lessons. Anderson et al. case studies showed examples
of Atheist/Agnostic pre-service teachers who, despite their vocal attempts to influence their
groups decision making and hopes to include minority religious opinions, the Atheist/Agnostic
pre-service teachers felt they were not heard and we disappointed by the results of their group.
Aown: learning and teaching Islam. Aown (2011) conducted a single case study of a
non-Muslim teacher to explore how one teacher of world religions learned about the religions
that she taught. Aown addressed the following research question: “How did the experienced
teacher come to her interest in learning about religion?” “What learning activities did the
experienced teacher report to have engaged in during her learning about Islam?” and “What
learning outcomes did the experienced teacher report to have resulted from her learning
activities?” (p. 1256).
Aown (2011) was “referred . . . to an experienced non-Muslim teacher . . . of a world’s
religions class in one suburban Michigan high school” (p. 1257). The school site was chosen for
its commitment to being an “inspirational environment” for students to be a part of “a diverse,
ever changing society” (Aown, 2011, p. 1258). The school offered a World’s Religions course to
its upper classmen with parental permission. After an initial interview to confirm a good match
for the case study and to obtain consent, a teacher was selected. The teacher had no pre-service
training or professional development for teaching the world’s religions and had taught about
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 66
world religion for 12 years; she was recognized by administrators, other teachers, and parents at
the school as committed and exemplary; and she had worked in a bookstore section of religion
for a long time.
The teacher was interviewed by Aown (2011) several times, each interview was audio
taped and lasted between 40 and 60 minutes. The purposes of the interviews were to gain insight
into the teacher’s educational background, learn about her informal learning process about Islam
and her knowledge gained about Islam. The interviews were structured with open-ended
questions and follow-ups.
Through the interviews, Aown (2011) found the teacher—Ms. White—identified herself
as Christian. Ms. White found value in learning about other religions, creating connection
between religion and other disciplines, and asking reflective questions about these religions. The
teacher’s beliefs were evident in her desire to study religion informally outside of Aown’s (2011)
case study, which paralleled the school’s goals. Aown found that Ms. White placed herself
within her own belief that she
endorse[d] a multicultural view of the study of religion…she regard[ed] the need to
educate young students ‘the citizens of the world’, as she called the about others’
religions as essentially necessary to interact and understand all people. (Aown, 2011, p.
1259)
Aown (2011) found the teacher not only wanted to learn and teach religion to promote
understanding of all people but also “in the interpersonal realm” (p. 1261) create connections
with the local Muslim community and Mosque. She found that the teacher’s “multicultural and
feminist stance towards religious literacy encouraged her to propose teaching a world religions
class in her first year at her school” (p. 1260). Mrs. White selected readings on Muslim feminists
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 67
(connected to her initial stance) because, “we all chose to read books and to research topics that
interest us. However, in learning about religion, to focus on topics of interest means to leave out
other topics for understanding a religion” (Aown, 2011 p. 1261).
Aown’s study showed two significant findings that will impact the lens of this study 1)
the teacher in the case study found it valuable to learn about and reflect back to her students their
own religious identities and 2) despite stepping outside of herself to learn about another religion,
Ms. White still emphasized aspects of her learning that aligned with her own interests and
positionality.
Journell: teacher religious dispositions influence their discussion of current events.
Journell (2011) studied the relationship between teachers’ beliefs, including religious beliefs, and
their curricular choices. He used a multiple case study model to identify how teachers discussed
race, gender, and religion in U.S. Government courses during the 2008 election cycle. The study
was conducted as a part of a larger project that Journell researched on teaching politics in the
context of the 2008 Presidential election. The following research question guided the study:
1. Generally, was the diversity present in the election discussed as an “open”
controversial issue? The specific issues present in this election were: […]
c. Should a person with a non-Christian upbringing be elected president of the
United States?
2. How did the teachers disclose their own views on issues related to race, gender, and
religion as they pertained to the candidates running in the election?
3. How did the teachers and students generally discuss race, gender, and religion within
the context of the election? (Journell, 2011, p. 360)
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 68
He selected six teachers and their students in three schools. The schools were selected
intentionally to have a diversity of school environments, student demographics, and political
leanings in Southwest Chicago. Additionally, the schools were selected due to the responses and
cooperation of the schools’ principals and geographic proximity to each other in order to
minimize travel time. The teachers and their classes were selected to have a diversity of
experience and political leanings. Five of the six teachers were White and one was African
American. Two of the teachers were female. Three of the classes are all White; the other three
were more diverse with a slight Latino majority. Two of the teachers considered themselves
devoutly religious Christian, while the other four did not identify as being religious. Additional
information about the demographic makeup of the students and teachers were not discussed.
Three of the teachers taught in a comprehensive urban public school, two in a small Catholic
school and one in a smaller rural public school. All of the classes were titled either
“Government” or “Civics.” The Presidential election was not a formal part of the curriculum, but
was discussed in each class. All of the teachers discussed the election in their classrooms,
however the amount of time spent on the election varied.
Journell (2011) took field notes while conducting participant-observations three-to-four
times per week in each classroom during instructional time over the period of August through
November preceding the 2008 Presidential election. Formal interviews of each teacher were
conducted twice: once prior to the observations beginning and once after the election. Semi-
structured and informal interviews and check-ins with both teachers and students were conducted
on average once a week when questions arose. After the election, Journell (2011) asked students
to volunteer to be interviewed and reflect on their teacher’s coverage of the election in class.
These interviews reflected the diversity within the classes.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 69
While Journell (2011) examined the topics of race, gender, and religion for his study, my
focus is only on his findings related to religion. Of the three topics, religion was the topic
discussed the least in classes. Journell (2011) observed that of the six teachers—the two teachers
who described themselves as devoutly religious—openly degraded and questioned then
Candidate Obama. Both teachers indicated that they would not vote for him because they
doubted his Christian faith and/or because he had a Muslim father. For example, in one
observation, a teacher said that he would not want a non-Christian, such as a Muslim or
Buddhist, as president. In another observation, a student yelled out, “Terrorist” after the teacher
points out that Obama had Muslim roots. Another student corrected the student saying, “Just
because he is a Muslim doesn’t mean he is a terrorist.” The teacher responded, “Well, you can
tell a whole bunch about people based on their friends. I think it is reasonable to question his
Muslim faith because I don’t care if he is Black or whatever, if he is a terrorist, that would be bad
for the United States.” This exchange led to an informal interview of a female African American
student. The student shared that although the teacher believed that Obama was Muslim, she did
not. In this case, the teacher did not take into account the student’s context or enable her to share
her views in class. Journell (2011) did not observe the other four teachers in the study address the
issue of religion as a factor in the election other than confirming Obama as a practicing Christian
(Journell, 2011).
Nelson: religious identity influence on classroom climate and decision-making. Nelson
(2010) conducted two ethnographic case studies to identify:
How have [teachers] enacted their religious identity in their approach to teaching? [...]
what has been their motivation to do so?; and what have they hoped to achieve for the
betterment of their students and their school culture and their community? (p. 336)
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 70
The purpose was to examine teacher religiosity and its influence in their working lives as public
school teachers.
The two study participants were identified through their participation in a larger study on
religious identity. One of the study’s participants, Jada, identified as African American and the
other, Gwen, identified as White. Both teachers taught at the same K-8 predominately African-
American public school and attended the same Black Baptist church. During the study, the
church split, with one of the pastors leaving to establish a new, younger church. Both participants
identified with the new church and joined (Nelson, 2010).
Nelson (2010) conducted semi-structured pre-interviews to understand the participants’
life history and identity formation. The pre-interview was followed by a number of written
reflections by the participants including a “life map” and then a post-interview. The researcher
also conducted a variety of observations during class time. Axial coding was then applied to the
data to highlight themes.
Nelson (2010) found one of the teachers, Jada, viewed her religious faith as having
influenced her by being “called” to teaching, especially at a school of great need. She attempted
to create an open environment in her classroom yet valued Christianity explicitly with her
students and was critical or passive about other religions. Jada found it important to pray for
students during exams. Jada also emphasized the importance of Christianity being connected to
her African-American heritage and historical connection to African-American religion, and
viewed these two identifiers—Christian and African-American—as inseparable. Jada also openly
spoke with peers and students about her Christian faith during class time (Nelson, 2010).
Gwen, in contrast, spoke about various instances that bothered her in which she observed
Christian privilege or dominance, or instances in which Christian themes and music had become
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 71
secularized. Gwen believed that the values taught by the church espoused living in a pluralistic
society where everyone should be respected and included. She worked at not including Christian
rituals in the classroom, such as grace before a meal. The removal of Christian rituals, as Gwen
explained it, was not only for inclusion, but also due to the legal requirements. She believed that
she enacts her Baptist values through kindness and teaching kindness in the classroom without
overtly discussing her Christian faith (Nelson, 2010).
Nelson (2010) found that despite the intentional demographic similarities between Jada
and Gwen, both women’s awareness and incorporation of their religious identity were evident in
dramatically different behaviors in the classroom and on their school site.
White: teacher religious identity and the purpose of education, the social structures and
the curricular and pedagogical choices in the classroom. White’s (2007) qualitative
dissertation examined a similar overlap with my study of teacher religious orientation and the
classroom White’s research question and sub-questions were:
“How do elementary teachers’ religious orientations affect their classroom practices in public
schools? […]
- How does a teacher’s religious identity shape his or her belief in the purpose of
education?
- How does a teacher’s religious identity affect how he or she structures social relations
in the classroom?
- How do these philosophical beliefs and relationships affect the curricular and
pedagogical choices in the classroom?” (pp. 96-97)
White (2007) intentionally chose and studied six public school teachers in elementary
school because of the longer continued daily exposure time to their students as compared to
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 72
secondary teachers with their students. White’s (2007) participants included three Jewish and
three Christian teachers. Within each religious tradition the participants represented a continuum
from liberal to conservative. One of the Jewish teachers identified as reform, another was
affiliated with a reform synagogue but considers herself more conservative and one considered
himself orthodox yet belongs to a conservative synagogue. The Christian teachers included a
Quaker, a Catholic, and a non-denominational Evangelical. All of the teachers—except the
Evangelical Christian—taught in the same mid-western urban school district. The Evangelical
Christian taught in a suburban school district nearby.
With each participant, White (2007) conducted a minimum of four interviews and four
observations, and then collected documents and artifacts. The primary data collection source was
the semi-structured, informal interviews. The observations, documents, and artifacts were used to
develop questions for the interviews, recall events and emotions, and to triangulate findings.
White’s (2007) first interview and observation were conducted at the end of the school year,
allowing for a more in-depth interview over the summer, including a life history interview using
a timeline method. The timelines served as a visual construction of the participants’ personal
history and are fluidly updated, as needed. Three or four observations were conducted at the
beginning of the following school year until the point of saturation. Each participant was treated
as an individual case study using a constant comparative method, transcribing the previous data
prior to conducting the next interview or observation. Each participant was paid $50 for his or
her time. All of the interviews and observations were recorded and then transcribed. After the
completion of the fieldwork, all of the transcriptions and field notes were coded beginning with
deductive themes, and then with inductive themes as they arose. Once the themes were
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 73
identified, she represented each participant individually and as a case study, and then conducted
a cross case analysis of the three participants of each of the two religions.
White’s (2007) first participant, Sarah, represented the liberal Jewish end of the
continuum as Reform Cultural Jew by conversion. Sarah emphasized the aspects of Judaism that
value knowledge and questioning. Sarah believed that questions do not have one right answer,
but rather many answers are possible and the process of questioning was more important than a
particular answer. These values were apparent in her curricular choices—inquiry and critical
thinking based. The curriculum included FOSS science, literature circles and Investigations math
units. White (2007) observed Sarah’s deep questioning style when she sat with a group of
students during a literature circle and asked probing questions of the students about the meaning
of the death of one of the characters in the text. Sarah saw part of her Jewish identity as being an
outsider and, therefore, believes she was keenly aware of discrimination and worked to not have
discrimination in her classroom. Because of this awareness, she tried to see each student as an
individual rather than lump her or him together as a group. She enacted this by giving students
unique responsibilities in the classroom and by treating each student as an individual by basing
student growth on her or his prior work. For example, her expectations of each student were
unique to that student; when she asked students to complete a writing assignment, some may
have completed a whole paragraph while others may have just written a sentence or two based on
their ability.
Chelsea, White’s (2007) second participant, was also affiliated with a Reform
congregation yet had grown up in the Conservative Movement and continued to identify with
various aspects of Conservative Judaism. Chelsea’s favorite moments growing up as a Jew were
at the Jewish camp she attended. In these experiences, she saw her Jewish identity enacted by
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 74
community building at camp. She believes one of the most important elements of a classroom
was the feeling of community. For this reason, she made choices in her classroom that enhance
the classroom community, including group work and giving the students classroom
responsibilities. Chelsea viewed Judaism as a minority race, as opposed to a religion. Her
paternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Chelsea had started her career in special
education. Chelsea viewed a special link between the historical experiences of those classified as
special education and those that experienced the Holocaust. She worked to advocate for the
marginalized population of special education students in her mainstreamed classroom.
Jacob was White’s (2007) third participant and represented the most traditional of the
Jewish participants. His family was affiliated with a Conservative synagogue and he often
attended services at a nearby orthodox community. Jacob emphasized Kevah—Hebrew for
rituals. He believed that the systematized format of the rituals was important and helped him
maintain his Judaism. This emphasis on systemization and accuracy was apparent in his
classroom in various ways. He emphasized rigor and has high expectations for his students—for
example he only laminated and displayed student work of a high standard. Jacob placed high
emphasis on his Judaism in his everyday life through his choices. He was fearful that later
generations would lose their Jewish culture. Similarly, he wanted his students to maintain their
culture. He worried about the potential loss of both his and their culture. This was mirrored in his
classroom choices; for example, he developed units of study that mirrored his perception of his
students’ culture. He had many students from Latin America, so he developed a unit of study
about Oaxaca (he even travelled to Oaxaca to learn more about the culture). Jacob wanted his
students to make choices that were aligned with their own values and cultural norms, similar to
the daily rituals he engaged in as a Jew. For example, he does not say the pledge of allegiance
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 75
because he believed Judaism forbade him from taking vows. Jacob allowed his students to make
the same choice without questioning their choice. Jacob viewed the Hebrew language as an
essential part of Judaism. Similarly, he believed that the native languages of his students were an
important part of their culture. He tried to respect the home languages of his students, including
having the word “Welcome” on the wall in multiple languages. Since many of his students were
from Latin America, Jacob also was learning Spanish and spoke Spanish to his Spanish-speaking
students.
White’s fourth participant, Jenny represented the most liberal of the Christian affiliated
participants. She believed in spirituality and had become involved in a Quaker community after
the attacks of 9/11. Prior to officially joining a Community of Friends, she had been exposed to
the Quaker religion through her mother’s activities in the anti-war movement and pacifism
during the 1960s and 1970s. She did not believe in an omnipotent God, or in Jesus as the messiah
or the Son of God. She connected with a divine concept as a living stream metaphor, meaning
everyone is a part of a community and we all have connections. Jenny’s pacifist upbringing,
early exposure to Quaker religion, joining a Community of Friends, and belief in the divine
living stream all contributed to her strong egalitarianism. She viewed teaching as a “spiritual
extension of her activism” (p. 291). Jenny often discussed how she struggled with the ever-
increasing mandated curriculum and diminishing support and resources. She was suspicious of
curriculum that was mandated from the top down, rather than organically generated from the
individuals in the classroom. Jenny believed that most of teaching was in the teaching of the self
rather than the content. Despite mandated and prescribed curriculum, she strived to “come to life
from a place of love" (p. 292) in her teaching. This place of love was directly connected to her
connection to the Quaker faith. Jenny did not believe in absolutes such as God or Heaven and
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 76
Hell. She believed in fluidity and that correct behavior was situational. In her classroom, she did
not have set rules, consequence structure, expectations and lacked external incentives (p. 304).
Rather, she believed that behavioral expectations were specific to the situation.
Ruth, White’s (2007) fifth participant, was a practicing Catholic. She stated that love was
her guiding principle. She believed that Jesus Christ saw her with love and therefore she tried to
act as he would with her students. Similar to Jesus’s love being a model, she pedagogically chose
to model this for her students. At the beginning of the year, she modeled and taught mostly by
example and little by little entrusted her students to behave and learn on their own. Ruth
continually had student teachers in her classroom. She believed if she were able to model love
for her students then the student teachers would also treat their students with love. Similar to
Chelsea, Ruth’s background was in Special Education. She believed the children in her
classroom are the Kingdom of God and God doesn’t make “junk” (pp. 310 & 330) therefore, all
children should be valued and have the ability to learn and have a purpose. She worked to fully
integrate and mainstream her students labeled “special education.” Ruth believed holidays, such
as Christmas, were religious in nature and have been co-opted by commercialism. Since holidays
were religious and religion should not be in the classroom, she did not observe holidays in the
classroom. Ruth viewed herself as an instrument of God on earth. She believed in Heaven and
Hell. These beliefs translated to her belief in extrinsic rewards and consequences for behavior in
the classroom. She also believed that Jesus eternally forgave. She believed that mistakes were an
opportunity to start over, which enabled her to enact her belief in forgiveness, embodied by
Jesus. Prayer was an important part of Ruth’s life:
Ruth privately prays for students and their families according to the needs that they may
have. She also prays about situations that students may be having in the classroom. She
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asks God for guidance in how to deal with particular situations. In this way, prayer may
also serve as a type of reflection for Ruth. (p. 335)
Ruth allowed her students to pray in class. White (2007) noted,
[s]he may say something to the effect of: “If you are a praying person, this is a time that
you might want to say some prayers for this person or this situation, because this is really
hard. And if you’re not a praying person, or don’t attend church, that’s fine; just use your
good thinking. Think good thoughts for this person because that will make them feel
good about that.” (p. 336)
Scott was White’s (2007) sixth participant and represented the most traditional of the
Christian participants. He was an Evangelical Christian and is the only teacher to teach in
suburban context. Scott sought Jesus’ guidance through prayer. White (2007) stated that, “Like
Ruth, Scott also support[ed] student-led prayer in the classroom. He joked that he remind[ed]
students that they may pray before a test, but that studying for tests is certainly a good idea” (p.
380). White (2007) noted that Scott’s environment—a suburban school with less than 10% of his
students being students of color and all identifying as Christian—likely give him leeway about
his openness about his faith:
[h]e also told students that prayer was one action in which they can engage to help them
deal with difficult life circumstances that they encounter. Scott was very aware of what
was acceptable and unacceptable in relation to religion and public education according to
various national, state, and district guidelines. With this knowledge in mind, he does not
endorse religion per se in the classroom, but maintains an atmosphere where it can be a
part of learning and student development (p. 380)
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and, “He ke[pt] copies of religion and public education policies and guidelines in his desk” (p.
379). Similar to Ruth, he wanted to model his relationship with God to his relationship with his
students. White (2007) observed, “And through God’s word Scott lives by ‘The Golden Rule’”
(p. 375). Scott’s only rule in his classroom was the Golden Rule, to treat others as you would
want to be treated, and not to treat others as you would not want to be treated. He modeled the
Golden Rule and forgiveness by trying to mirror God’s love for his students, just as he believed
Jesus did his followers. Scott expressed concern over the extraordinary political correctness of
modern society. He believed the Christian basis and historical relevancy in the U.S. is getting
lost through politically correct mandated curriculum. He combated political correctness by using
authors who are known Christians, such as C.S. Lewis, using Christian values in their writings
within the state mandated curriculum. In the teaching of U.S. history prior to the Civil War—part
of the state mandated Social Science curriculum—he emphasized the Christian and religious
contexts of historical events. He expressed concern that the political correctness led to only one
viewpoint being expressed:
Examples he discussed include cases of debate surrounding homosexuality and evolution
versus creationism. He fe[lt] that the Christian viewpoint [wa]s often discredited or even
silenced. Thus, as a Christian he fe[lt] it [wa]s important for him to be able to present his
opinion and make an argument in a respectful manner (White, 2007, p. 377).
White conducted two cross case analyses of each of the religions and completed her study
with some overall findings. For the cross case analysis of the Jewish participants, she found three
themes arose: 1) All of the participants connect their identity as a teacher to the value of Tikkun
Olam (“repairing the world”), which appeared in their classroom through their emphasis on
diversity education; 2) Judaism was a religion that emphasizes knowledge, “All three of these
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 79
Jewish teachers agree[d] that Judaism [wa]s a religion of knowledge [...] they actively
promote[d] learning for understanding. They also foster[ed] critical thinking skills. They
want[ed] students to be able to apply their knowledge to new contexts.” (p. 255); and 3) All three
teachers identified as a minority and feel that they understood discrimination based on their
status as Jews. This led all three to emphasize equity in their classroom. For the cross case
analysis of the Christian participants, two major themes arose: 1) All of the teachers modeled the
tenets that are emphasized in their religious identity and affiliation, and their belief in a divinity
in the way they acted towards their students; and 2) The three teachers emphasized that they
came from a place of love in their treatment of their students, just as the living stream, God or
Jesus does for them.
Overall, White found numerous overarching conclusions; first, religion matters. Second,
that despite the differences in the religion, “these private meanings interact in the public space of
classrooms” (p. 388). Third, that these teachers’ religious identities influenced their teaching
practice. Fourth, that the teachers in the study wanted their students to think critically, create a
space where mistakes were accepted, but should be learned from, and where equity was a goal.
Finally, for each of these teachers these outcomes were enacted very differently based on their
religious identities.
While White’s (2007) research and analysis provided a needed basis for my research
question, it differs from this study in three significant ways: 1) her research question were
broader—examining not just curricular choices but the classroom climate, beliefs about public
education, the relationship of the teachers with the students and pedagogical style, 2) her study
subjects were elementary school teachers, and 3) her focus was on people who identified
strongly with a particular religious tradition.
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The above studies show teacher religion and religious knowledge influence teachers’
choices. As examined by the various studies above, there are various factors, not just religious
identification, that influence those choices. Each of the bodies of literature above addresses
various aspects of my research question. Below is my conceptual framework of the various
factors that influence the choices a teacher makes for this study. The conceptual framework will
bring together the bodies of literature in order to create a “paradigm” (Corbin & Strauss, 2008, p.
89) for this study.
Conceptual Framework
Using the literature above, in this section I set forth my conceptual framework for this
study. The conceptual framework is “the actual ideas and beliefs that [I] hold about the
phenomena […] it is primarily a conception or model of what is out there that [I] plan to study”
(Maxwell, 2013, p. 39). Figure A below shows a visual understanding of my conceptual
framework. Followed by the figure, I define each of the concepts in the conceptual framework:
the definition of religion, the view of religion in U.S. society, Civil Religion, Christian privilege,
understanding and value of religion in the classroom, presence, positionality, and how I
understand them as related to each other within the context of this study.
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Figure A. Conceptual Framework.
The center of my conceptual framework was a statement based on the research question:
Teachers’ religious identities, affinities and positionality and their curricular choices.
I first had to develop a working definition of religion as a basis or lens from which to
understand what religion in this context means. This working definition had to be applicable to
how teachers define it for themselves, their students and their classroom curriculum. For this, I
used a slightly edited version of Durkheim’s (2001) definition as a series of rituals that reflect the
beliefs and myths, or collective stories, the teacher identifies with and society. The definition of
religion above would be reflected in the teacher’s view of religion.
Moving around the circle, drawing on Journell (2011), White (2007), and Nelson (2010),
I argued that underlying the teacher’s view of religion and then place their society was her or his
personal religious beliefs and identification, their positionality. This relationship between
Teachers’
religious
identities,
affinities and
positionality and
their curricular
choices.
Presence
Positionality
• Personal religious
beliefs and
identification
View of
Religion
Define
Religion
Civil Religion
• View of Religion
in U.S. Society
Religious
Hierarchy
• Understanding of
Christian Privilege
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 82
personal religious beliefs and identification and overall view of religion was iterative. Moreover,
I asserted that these religious beliefs will influence the teacher’s choices in the classroom.
The examination of a teacher’s own beliefs, how she/he valued and understood religion
and the interplay of her or his positionality was exposed in the choices a teacher made in
privileging religion in her or his teaching of historical events and how she/he perceived her or his
own religious affinities and affiliations having influenced her or his curricular choices.
I argued that a teacher’s presence, as defined by Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006), would
explain how self-aware and connected a teacher was to her or his students, him/herself and to the
content in the classroom. This presence included the reconciliation of personal and professional
self, awareness, types and competencies of knowledge and being able to bring all of these
elements together to create an authentic larger picture for the students. This awareness,
connectedness and knowledge ware influenced by the teacher’s positionality as coined by Alcoff
(1988). Thus, the interplay of the teacher’s presence combined with her or his perception of her
or his positionality influenced her or his choices of how she/he authentically interacted with her
or his students and the choices she/he made in curriculum and the students’ learning.
Blumenfield (2006) discussed the hierarchy of religions in U.S. society. Clark (2006)
discussed the Whitening of other races and cultures by identifying with the Christian faith and
Anderson et al. (2014) found pre-service teachers who wanted to identify as Atheist did not
because of the negative connotation. All three of these articles show there are societal
perceptions of religions as a valued aspect of religious self-identification.
Bellah (1967) argued Civil Religion in the U.S. is implicitly based in a religion that
believed in God and has parallels of narrative between the historical events of the U.S. and
Christianity. The Christian parallels within the narrative of the U.S. were also evident within the
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 83
Christian privilege discussed by both Clark (2006) and Blumenfield (2006) and studied by
MacDonald-Dennis (2006). How the teacher responded to this Civil Religion and Christian
privilage influence the overall understanding of a teacher’s view of religion on society. This
view, combined with their definition of religion overall create a teacher’s view of religion.

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CHAPTER THREE: METHODS
The research question: How are teachers’ religious identities, affinities and positionality
revealed in their curricular choices? and the conceptual framework explained above led to a
qualitative approach for this study. Corbin and Strauss (2008) stated “qualitative research allows
researchers to get at an inner experience of participants, [and] to determine how meanings are
formed through and in culture” (p. 12). The purpose of this study was to examine how secondary
Social Studies teachers explicitly and implicitly treated religion as a factor in the teaching of
history and how their own affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious institutions
influence their curricular choices. The chapter below will outline the research design, sample,
population and participant selection, instrumentation and data analysis procedure of the approach
to be taken in this study.
Research Design
The design of this dissertation was a qualitative case study approach. The case study
approach described, analyzed and “explore[d] in depth a program, event, activity, process, or one
or more individuals” (Creswell, 2009, p. 13). Merriam (2009) explained that case studies must
occur within a bounded system. The bounded system should have had specific identifiable
boundaries in which the phenomenon took place. These boundaries could have included “a
program, a group, an institution, a community, […] specific policy” (Merriam, 2009, p. 40) of
other identifiable confines. For this study, the boundaries were specified within the research
question: teachers who teach Social Sciences at the high school level. The specifics of how the
sample was selected are discussed below.
Merriam (2009) explained various types of case studies; historical and observational,
intrinsic and instrumental and multisite case studies. Based on the limitations of time for this
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 85
study, I was unable to implement a historical and observational case study, which would have
seen a change over time. Unlike Aown’s (2011) study above, whose purpose was to study a
specific teacher’s experience, this study intended to understand the phenomenon, therefore it was
not intrinsic and instrumental. This was a multisite case study. Each teacher was a bounded
system and constituted a separate case. I studied two teachers to gain deep insight into how their
affinity to/with religion and their beliefs about religious institutions influenced their curricular
choices.
Case studies, based on Merriam’s (2009) description, is defined by three characteristics.
Case studies are particularistic, descriptive and heuristic. “Particularistic means that case studies
focus on a particular situation, event, program, or phenomena” (Merriam, 2009, p. 43). The
particularistic element of the case studies in this dissertation was bounded by the individuals
within their classrooms. The particularistic element of the qualitative case study led to the
limitation of the lack of generalizability to a greater population (Maxwell, 2013). Thick
description was an essential element, based in the discipline of anthropology, of case studies.
The description emphasized the exploratory nature of the study, which brought to life the
findings of the study (Merriam, 2009). The heuristic nature of a case study uncovered the
meaning behind the descriptions. This case study tried to bring to light the implicit and explicit
choices teachers make in privileging, or not, religion in the curriculum.
Sample and Population
Due to the nature of a case study, with such a small sample size, intentional, or
purposeful, sampling based on specific criteria was needed in order to best meet the demands of
this study (Merriam, 2009). The section below will first outline the intended process for the
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 86
selection criteria for this study. The process eventually was slightly altered, as discussed below,
due to the sensitivity and nature of the topics addressed in this study.
Site Selection
To find an appropriate site for this study, the school site needed to fit into the legal and
historical contexts discussed in chapters one and two above. Therefore, the site needed be a
mainstream public high school with the following criteria discussed below. There were two
major criteria for the site selection: 1) curriculum and 2) diversity. In order to find a site, I
attempted to use network sampling. Purposeful network sampling “involve[d] locating a few key
[locations that] easily meet the criteria […] established by the study” (Merriam, 2009, p. 79).
Criterion 1. In order to find a school that had a context where curriculum was not
directly dictated, the first criterion for site selection was a school that had either already
transitioned, or was in the midst of transitioning, to the Common Core Standards. As discussed
in chapter one, many schools were making the transition to Common Core curriculum. Thus far,
the Common Core curriculum standards had been published for Math and English Language
Arts, ELA. Within the ELA standards there were standards set fourth for Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects 6-12. No other standards for
History/Social Science had been published or implemented (California Common Core State
Standards English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical
Subjects, 2013) since 1998 in California (Department of Education, California State Board of
Education, 1998). The design of the Common Core Standards as skills—rather than
knowledge—based and the lack of history/Social Studies standards left an opening for teacher
choice being a determining factor in how and what curriculum was being taught in the
classroom. Many teachers, based on the delayed publication of the Social Science Common Core
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Standards, had still be relying on the 1998 Social Studies standards for their curricular choices
(Department of Education, California State Board of Education, 1998). For this reason, the
school site selected should have already transitioned or was in the process of transitioning to the
Common Core Standards for ELA and Math, yet still could be relying the 1998 standards for
Social Science as a guide.
Criterion 2. Diversity was an important factor in selecting the site as well. Based on the
conceptual framework outlined above, the participants had to be able to speak to the student
populations of their school context and how their classes fit into and reflected, or not, the broader
school community. Schools and districts collect data on race and gender in their schools yet, not
on religious background. As discussed above, in most racial identifications within the USA,
Christianity was the dominant religion. This led to a significant challenge in creating a context
for the issue. Finding a school with a diverse population that which was representative of the
greater community’s racial and socio-economic make up should have reflected the diverse
religious population of the broader community. This was intended to enable the teacher to more
authentically align and explicitly explore their positionality and how it influenced their choices. I
chose a school that had a diverse population based on their public and published school report
card.
Challenges in finding a site. As discussed, I attempted to use network sampling to find
school sites to conduct this study. I contacted the research department of the large urban school
district in which I knew people in order to get approval to conduct research within those schools.
After the application process, I was rejected and not permitted to conduct the research within any
school of the district. I was told that the study would create a legal liability risk to the district,
with no benefit to the school(s), if I found that teachers’ religious views were affecting their
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 88
teaching. I was also given a similar excuse from a large local charter school organization.
I had to blindly contact other schools and districts, in hopes that someone would be
willing to let me conduct the study in their school site(s). I finally received approval from two
independent charter schools and one suburban school district. Despite getting the approval from
these school sites, finding participants proved to also be a challenge.
Participant Selection
In selecting the participants, I intended to use both network and unique sampling. The
goal of network sampling, as discussed above, was to find participants through networking and
recommendations of my peers. This intention to use network and unique sampling of my own
peers and their recommendations, did not have the outcomes intended, as discussed in more
detail below. The research question lent itself to a very specific population of teachers based on
three criteria: the teachers’ years of experience, their professional ability to be self-aware, and
their religious backgrounds. The narrowing down of potential participants within the criteria
outlined was done through a short pre-interview process. This led to unique sampling, “based on
unique, atypical, perhaps rare attributes or occurrences of the phenomenon of interest” (Merriam,
2009, p. 78) as discussed below.
Criterion 1. The teachers in this case study were fully credentialed with more than 2
years of experience. I chose 2 years as a minimum threshold as to not limit the pool of teachers,
while at the same time included only teachers that have found footing and a routine in their
classrooms. The teachers who were finally selected to be the case studies for this dissertation
both were career teachers and had over 15 years of teaching experience.
Criterion 2. The teachers should have had a reputation for being self-aware. This self-
awareness was significant in two ways: 1) the teachers needed to be able to self-examine their
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 89
presence and positionality, as discussed in the framework above and 2) the teachers had to have
both pedagogical and subject matter knowledge and language to be able to explicitly examine
their choices. In order to have found explicit influences of a teacher’s religious affinity and
beliefs on her/his choices, the teacher must also have had a self-awareness of himself or herself
both personally and professionally. All potential participants were identified through pre-
interview protocol which had been developed to identify and narrow down the strongest
participants that are “self-aware” as teachers.
Criterion 3. In looking at the literature in Chapter 2, I hoped to find participants who
were outside of mainstream religious identity. My assumption was that they would either be
examples of internalized dominant civil religious, and possibly even Christian religious
narratives, and/or be able to explain their process and thinking in pushing back against those
narratives. Therefore, the teachers in this study were narrowed down by their religious self-
identification. They were to identify as one or more of the following: non-practicing, non-
religious, secular, Atheist or Agnostic. The intention behind conducting the case studies of
people who were self-identified as non-practicing, non-religious, secular, Atheist or Agnostic
meant that they fell far out of the dominant Christian and civil narrative of the USA (Anderson et
al. 2014; Bellah, 1967, 2014; Blumenfeld, 2006; Clark, 2006; MacDonald-Dennis, 2006; Spring,
2004). Non-practicing, non-religious, secular, Atheist or Agnostic individuals have a religious
construction furthest outside the normative Christian and Civil Religion.
Challenges in finding participants. As discussed, I intended to use networking and
unique sampling. Since I was outside of my own network of peers in the large urban school
district, I originally intended to complete the study in, and had exhausted my charter school
contacts, I relied on administrator recommendations and, again, blindly contacted teachers to
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 90
conduct the initial short pre-interview. After sending out hundreds of emails explaining the
purpose of the study, commitment, and three criteria for participants, eight potential pre-
interviews were conducted. All eight had enough teaching experience, five potentially had
enough self-awareness yet only three considered themselves non-practicing, non-religious,
secular, Atheist or Agnostic. The three continued on with a more extensive pre-interview. One of
the participants eventually said she was uncomfortable with the topic of the study and time
commitment. Therefore, she chose not to participate. I proceeded with the other two.
After a break from observations and interviews, to be discussed in more detail below, I
intended to return to both classrooms to continue the field work. One of the two teachers
contacted me that he and his students were uncomfortable with me continuing to observe in his
classroom.
I returned to the intention of network sampling and asked the last participant if he knew
of anyone who might fit the criteria, he referred me to a colleague in the classroom next door. I
conducted the entire study in their two classrooms.
The challenges of finding a site and participants meant that those participating were
uniquely self-selecting. They were willing to discuss a topic that other districts, schools and
participants found uncomfortable or challenging. This also meant that the data only includes such
participants, and not others who showed more reticence.
Instrumentation and Data Collection
The purpose of this study was to examine how secondary Social Studies teachers
explicitly and implicitly treated religion as a factor in the teaching of history and how their own
affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious institutions influence their curricular
choices. The conceptual framework outlined above points to how the teacher defined or
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 91
understood religion within the context of the modern world, their view of religion in USA
society, and American Civil Religion, Christian privilege, their understanding and value of
religion in the classroom, their ability to define and engage in presence in the classroom, and
view, their positionality were all needed to fully understand teacher treatment, privileging and
choices made in the context of religion in the curriculum. Since this was a qualitative study, I, as
the researcher, was the primary instrument of data collection and analysis (Creswell, 2009;
Merriam, 2009, p. 15). Below are the procedures that were followed for data collection.
Data Collection Procedures
I collected data from teacher pre-interviews, direct classroom observations, interviews
after every few observations, based on availability and time, documents and artifacts. The
research question was answered primarily through the observations and interviews. In order to
gain insight into teachers’ own affinities and beliefs and their influences on their choices I
interviewed the teachers. To understand the choices and time and/or privilege that teachers give
in regards to religion in their teaching of curriculum, I observed the teachers as they taught.
These two data collection procedures, along with the collection of documents and artifacts were
triangulated to inform further interview questions, observational details and eventually, findings.
Interviews. For this study, as discussed above, I pre-interviewed a number of teachers,
eventually finding two teachers that fit the criteria and were willing to participate in the study. I
conducted pre-interviews first in order to build a rapport with the teachers and to understand and
gain evidence the teacher’s own religious affiliation, perspectives and beliefs. After the shorter,
25 minute pre-interviews, more detailed one hour interviews were conducted. The second pre-
interview established the case study participants’ positionalities, views on religion, personally,
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 92
within their school communities and in the broader society. The second interviews also furthered
a relationship of trust and rapport before I observed their classes.
Follow up or post-interviews were conducted after every three to five observations, as
time allowed, for the teachers to be able to remember the details of their lessons, reflect on their
choices within the context of the class and give broader contexts of their positionality. The
interviews were semi-structured. A predetermined interview guide was used to frame and inform
the semi-structured interviews. Despite having an interview guide (Appendix A), the questions
were open-ended, flexible, and edited and amended based on observational data, and improvised
with follow up, probe questions (Merriam, 2009). These interviews were conducted to
understand their curricular choices in the lesson observed and how their positionality and
religious perspectives influenced those choices as they perceived them. These choices, as
discussed above in the conceptual framework were influenced by three factors: 1) view of
religion, 2) personal religious beliefs and 3) understanding of their own positionality and
presence. Through the interview process, I looked to find evidence of the teachers’ own beliefs
in each of these.
Due to the need to stop observations and then return, I had nearly twice as much
interview data of the first participant than with the second. With the first participant, I conducted
a total of seven interviews ranging from one hour to nearly two and a half hours long. For the
second participant, I conducted a total of five interviews ranging from 45 minutes to 1 hour and
15 minutes long. These interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. In addition to the
interviews that were scheduled, I conducted informal 2-3 minute check-ins with the teachers
after each lesson during the passing periods to answer any quick questions either of us had.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 93
Observations. Each teacher was observed for at least two units of study, as defined by
the teacher. Through triangulation of the data, observations were stopped once the point of
saturation was reached. Each observation was guided by a loose protocol (Appendix B) which
emphasized teacher and student inputs. The teachers were observed in the middle of the school
year, when routines and expectations are already set. There were various factors that were
observed including the physical setting, participants, actions and interactions, conversations,
subtle factors and my own behavior (Merriam, 2009, pp. 120-121). If there were overt religious
symbols or other physical features in the classroom environment, I made a note of them. I
focused on the actions and interactions, conversations and subtle factors of classroom
interactions and the teacher to observe how the teacher treated and privileged, or not, religion in
the curriculum or as it came up in classroom conversations.
For the first participant, I had two sets of observational data. The first in October of the
school year. This data set was from everyday for three weeks observing his period one class. The
second data set was in February of the same school year and included every day for 3 and a half
weeks. For the second participant, I conducted the observations in March of the school year and
had every day for three and a half weeks of observational data.
Through the observations, I sought evidence that supported or contradicted the teachers’
view of religion, personal religious beliefs and look to their actions in the classroom to evidence
their positionality and presence. Based on the conceptual framework above, each of these
informed the evidence of the curricular choices made by the teacher in terms of religion.
Documents and artifacts. Documents and artifacts were used to triangulate data as well
as ask questions during the interviews following the observations. The documents and artifacts
that were collected include course syllabi, class handouts, seating charts, copies digital media
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 94
and videos used during lessons, the textbooks and photos of the classroom environment. I used
the documents and artifacts to understand how the teacher planned and framed their lessons. I
also used the documents and artifacts as evidence of the teachers’ assertions of their classroom
content and how religion was, or was not, privileged during lessons.
Data Analysis Procedures
Each interview was recorded and transcribed. Informal analysis of data began after the
first interview was transcribed. What a teacher said during an interview influenced what I saw in
the class I observed, and the class I observe influenced and informed the questions I asked in the
follow up interviews. Once all the data was collected and transcribed, the transcriptions of the
interviews combined with the field notes and the documents and artifacts were coded for broad
themes. These codes were initially predetermined and emerged from my conceptual framework
such as personal religious beliefs, civil religious engagement, views of religion, teacher choosing
to take up religion curricular choices explicitly, view of other religions and positionality within
the understanding of religious context. Eventually, inductive and comparative themes and codes
emerged such as awareness of student religions, as individual religions emerged each received a
code, and willingness to take up agency. As new codes, themes and patterns emerged, I returned
to previously coded data and recoded using the new codes. Each case was treated as a single
separate case. The coding and analysis was an ongoing (Merriam, 2009, p. 175) process using a
constant comparative method. Once the data was coded into categories, the information was
organized to find patterns that heuristically gave meaning to the phenomena observed.
Throughout the analysis process three different types of analytical memos were
generated: 1) Analytical narrative memos, which was how the data was creating a broader
narrative and whether or not that narrative was being reinforced or weakened through further
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 95
analysis, 2) Analysis with literature, which was where connections to the literature were
appearing and 3) Analytical reflective notes, which were what I was aware of feeling,
experiencing and believing within my own positionality as I went through the analysis process.
Finally, once both cases were individually understood, I conducted a cross-case analysis
to see the similarities, differences and themes that arose with both participants.
Credibility and Trustworthiness
There were various factors that influenced the credibility and trustworthiness of this
study. One factor was that as a qualitative study, I, as the researcher was the primary instrument
for collecting data and analysis. As a qualitative research, credibility, otherwise known as
validity, was not the “objective truth” (Maxwell, 2013, p. 122) but rather it was the “holistic,
multidimensional, and ever-changing; it is not a single fixed, objective phenomenon waiting to
be discovered, observed and measured” (Merriam, 2009, p. 213). I tried to be aware of my own
biases, feelings and subjectivity. During the observations, I included analytic notes to ensure my
biases were made as explicit as possible. After interviews, I noted my own subjectivity. I also
made notes of my own behavior, an introspective record (Merriam, 2009, p. 136) and possible
influences my own experiences have on the interpretation of the data collected. This was an
evolving process. In addition to documenting and reflecting on my own biases, I worked with
others, both formally and informally to talk out the data I was uncovering including the chair of
my dissertation, my husband and a peer who was also public high school classroom teacher and
has a similar interest in the topic of religion and teacher biases.
Position as a Researcher
As a qualitative study, I, as the researcher, was the primary instrument of data collection
and analysis (Creswell, 2009; Merriam, 2009, p. 15). My positionality, and my awareness of my
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 96
positionality, influenced the credibility and trustworthiness of this study. At the beginning of the
study, I was aware that I identify as a liberal, cultural, often Agnostic, ethnic Jew. A religious
identification that society perceives as a religious minority. As a Jew of mostly Mexican
heritage, I have been taught, and believe, that Judaism is an ethnicity, not a religion. These
identifications led me to fall out of the mainstream dialogue of Jewish identity in the USA. I
identify as a Latina,
15
with familial roots in both Mexico and Guatemala, am from an immigrant
family and am the first citizen of the USA in my immediate family. Additionally, English was
my second language. The combination of these identities, by common usage in the USA, placed
me as a minority religious affiliation within a historically marginalized culture. Additionally, I
have an affinity towards learning, experiencing, talking about and teaching religion based on my
own educational exposure, previous interests and travels. I also am a former classroom teacher.
This affinity and my teaching experience meant that I often needed to check my bias of how I
would have taught a topic differently in class when I was a classroom teacher. During the course
of dissertation, as with many studies, I had to make many life changes, including battling a life-
threatening illness, and therefore, I had to pause my data collection and then return to the field.
This awareness, hopefully, enabled me to be transparent and aware of my own biases through the
data collection and analysis process. Despite my attempts at being as unbiased as possible, my
position and beliefs influenced my data, analysis and findings.
Time in the Field
Another way I increased the credibility of the study was through staying in the field until
the point of saturation. I became aware that themes and patterns were repeating themselves. Both
participants expressed that they enjoyed having me in their classrooms. One participant

15
Please note that I appear White.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 97
especially expressed on multiple occasions that he wished he had peers, systems and bandwidth
to engage in a reflective teaching practice. Since this was not the case, he felt that I was
providing that for him. He expressed that he did not want me to leave. There seemed to be
palpable sadness when I completed the data collection in his class. The other participant
expressed that he appreciated having another “historian” in the room. This meant that he double
checked his facts prior to lessons.
Due to the necessity of taking a break in data collection, I spent nearly twice as much
time with the first participant than with the second. This was advantageous in that I was able to
increase my own skills, as a novice researcher, as I was collecting rich data. I also had developed
a rapport with both of them since they were peers. I became aware that I enjoyed speaking with
the first participant in interviews and liked both of them, as people. It was also possible that the
data was richer, and uncovered more complexity for the first participant than the second.
Triangulation of Data
To increase the trustworthiness of this study, I used “rich data” (Maxwell, 2013, p. 126)
which was triangulated (Merriam, 2009, p. 215; Maxwell, 2013, p. 128) through the usage of
three modes of data collection: interviews, observations and collecting documents and artifacts.
One way I triangulated the data was through clarifying questions in the interviews. In each
interview, we reviewed through the various steps of the teachers’ lessons. I asked questions that
tried to uncover the thought process, purpose and goals of each part of the lesson, including why
topics were or were not taken up by the teacher. Another form of triangulation was through
reviewing the literature contained in chapter 2 and staying current with emerging literature that
would support or weaken the themes that were emerging through the data collection and analysis
processes.
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Ethics
Ethical research was significant throughout this study. Creswell (2009) explains,
Researchers need to protect their research participants; develop trust with them; promote
integrity of research; guard against misconduct and impropriety that might reflect on their
organizations or institutions; and cope with new challenging problems. (p. 87)
In order to collect and analyze the data in an ethical manner, I participated and was approved
through the university’s Institutional Review Board. All the teachers, prior to their first pre-
interview, were explained their roles as volunteers, spending time for interviews, opening up
their classrooms to observations and providing artifacts, and signed informed consent forms. In
addition, the potential teacher participants were explained the criterion required for being
participants of the study. They could ask for their participation to end at any time. Participants in
the study consented to all interviews being recorded. School administration also approved to my
presence on the school campus. The participants were notified that there were no foreseeable
potential risks in participating in the study nor were there any anticipated direct benefits. The
participants received no compensation other than a coffee-type drink when interviews were
conducted off-site in public locations.
The students were not participants in the study, nor did they inform the data collection or
data analysis. All information about students was provided by the teachers and through the
teachers’ perspective. I was cautious to maintain confidentiality and protect the identities of the
teachers and school sites.

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Limitations
The method of this study was a qualitative case study using interviews, observations,
documents and artifacts. Below is an explanation of the limitations of generalizability and self-
selection of this study.
Generalizability
One limitation of the usage of these qualitative methods was generalizability.
Generalizability “refers to extending research results, conclusions or other accounts that are
based on a study of particular individuals, settings, times, or institutions to other[s that were not]
directly studied” (Maxwell, 2013, p. 136). The particular system and participants in the study
bound this study and limited its generalizability.
Self-Selecting Participants
Due to the nature of the topic of religion and the challenges of finding sites and teachers
to participate, another limitation was the sample was self-selecting. This meant that the site and
participants were unique unto themselves by virtue of their falling within the criteria and their
willingness to participate. The limitation was that I was unable to study teachers at sites that
placed limitations on my ability to study religious influences in their classroom and the
participants who felt uncomfortable with the study.
Conclusion
My research pursued the understanding of curricular choices of secondary Social Studies
teachers in regards to religion. Additionally, I hoped to understand how a teacher’s own religious
beliefs and affinities, or lack thereof, influenced those choices. I included two experienced,
credentialed, self-aware, non-practicing, non-religious, secular, Atheist or Agnostic teachers as
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 100
participants in this study. Guided by my conceptual framework, I interviewed, observed and
collected documents and artifacts to triangulate my findings and analyze my data.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 101
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS
The purpose of this dissertation was to examine how secondary Social Studies teachers
explicitly and implicitly treated religion as a factor in the teaching of history and how their own
affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious institutions influenced their curricular
choices. The first two chapters of this dissertation discussed the background of the interplay of
religion and public education in the USA, examined the relevant bodies of literature including
broadly defining religion (Durkheim, 2001), examining religion in the context of the modern
USA (Bellah, 1967, 2014; Clark 2006), our collective stories (Bellah, 1967, 2014; Durkheim,
2001), Christian privilege and, in turn religious marginalization (Blumenfield, 2006; Clark
2006), teacher presence and positionality (Alcoff, 1988), their classroom choices (Alters, 2010;
Meadows et al., 2000; Talbert & Romanowski, 2002) and presence (Rodgers & Raider-Roth,
2006). These bodies of literature were utilized to create a theoretical framework to understand
the case studies below and answer the following research question: How are teachers’ religious
identities, affinities and positionality revealed in their curricular choices?
This dissertation was a qualitative study. The multiple case study method was used. Data
was collected through interviews, observations and artifacts. Data was collected from two high
school Social Studies teachers at the same school site. Observations were conducted for a
minimum of two units of study, as defined by the teachers, until the point of saturation. Semi
structured interviews began before the first observation and continued after every few
observations, as time allowed. Artifacts were collected throughout, including class handouts,
copies of digital material (powerpoint presentations, videos, etc.) and seating charts. Interviews,
observations and data were coded and triangulated for inductive and comparative themes.
Below is a discussion of the findings from the process discussed above. Since both
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 102
participants were at the same school site, the findings will begin with a discussion of the school
itself. Following the discussion of the school, each case study will be treated discussed
separately. Each case study will begin with a discussion of the participants academic and
professional background, their view of the school environment, their religious background, and a
description of the class observed. These factors together will contextualize the teacher’s
positionality. For each case study after contextualizing the teachers’ positionality, the research
question will be addressed directly with the following themes: curricular emphasis, definition of
religion, how religion was discussed in the classroom, how religion was taken up, or not,
inclusion of Civil Religion, religious hierarchy, including Christian Privilege and the teacher
viewed students’ religious identities in the classroom. This chapter will conclude with a cross-
case analysis of these themes.
Eisenhower
16
High School
Both teachers in this case study taught at Eisenhower High School in neighboring
classrooms. Eisenhower High School was a comprehensive high school for 9th through 12th
grade in a medium sized school district in suburban California. In recent years, it had seen
declining enrollment. It had lost over 15% of the students, at approximately 2000 students in the
past 10 years prior to this study. The school hosted advanced classes for eighth graders from a
nearby middle school during the first period of the day. The school was 40% Latinx, 25% Asian,
13% White, 9% African American and less than 5% American Indian, Pacific Islander or
Filipino. Over a third, 38%, of students had English as their second language with 9% enrolled in
the English Learner program. Eisenhower High School had over 45% of students on free or
reduced meals, yet not the 50% requirement to qualify the school as a Title I (DataQuest, n.d.).

16
All names, organizations, and locations are identified with pseudonyms but all case study setting, biographical
information, observations and interview related data are real.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 103
The school had recently undergone a significant remodel and therefore was clean; signs around
the school were uniform and streamlined and had an open organized and atmosphere.
Case Study #1: Mr. Kennedy, Tenth Grade Advanced Placement World History
Mr. Kennedy grew up in the area around Eisenhower High School. His family moved to a
neighboring more affluent area for “better schools.” He was a tall, White, middle-aged man of
German and Northern European heritage. His father had worked in Aerospace. He was married
with two daughters in the same school district, which Eisenhower High School was in. Many of
the members of his family were teachers, including his wife, who taught at the same school. He
referred to himself as a socialist, and clarified that he did not want revolution, but simply wanted
people to share things. This study took place during the primary season of the 2016 presidential
election. Mr. Kennedy hoped that Hilary Clinton would win the presidency. To his students, he
defined himself in one observation as “a 45-year-old male of European descent. I’m a father, I
am a teacher, I’m progressive not bound by tradition.”
Mr. Kennedy’s Academic and Professional Background
For a short time, Mr. Kennedy attended schools in the same school district in which he
taught. He moved, attended and graduated from a more affluent school in a neighboring school
district. He remembered taking and enjoying AP classes during high school. The essentialist and
Great Books philosophy was the cornerstone of his higher education experience; he described the
college he attended as a “small liberal arts college” where he “read all original works in order to
learn stuff” and “there was this so called Great Books program.” The original works included
and emphasized various works from European thinkers. He commented that he and his family
sometimes wished he had pursued graduate level studies.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 104
At the time of the study, Mr. Kennedy had been teaching for 17 years, all at Eisenhower
High School. He had taught a variety of subjects. While participating in this case study, he taught
9
th
grade Geography, Advance Placement World History and Academic Decathlon. These three
classes were all curricula he brought to the school. He was the only teacher who had ever taught
these class and continued to do so. He viewed himself as unique in other ways; he had served in
various positions of leadership at the school including having been a former department chair
and was, at the time, on a task force working towards strengthening the Professional Learning
Communities. He took pride in having been the teacher sponsor of the Muslim club, when one
existed on campus a few years prior.
As a teacher, Mr. Kennedy stated that he hoped to continue to challenge himself year
after year and got along best with those who hoped to do the same. He was disappointed that not
all of his colleagues challenged themselves. And although he taught the same subjects year after
year, he liked to “fine tune” the lessons. He stated that he viewed his role in the classroom as the
“expert” and the holder of knowledge and facts. He worked towards the goal of ensuring his
students’ success on the AP exam. He viewed himself as a distinct figure and teacher, liberal and
pushing boundaries, yet had little agency to that end. For example, when choosing topics to
emphasize in the curriculum, he often said that he chose to defer to the AP test’s emphasis on
topics. He also indicated in interviews that he hoped that his students would discuss controversial
topics, yet if the students did not bring such topics up, he did not want to push them into it.
Mr. Kennedy’s Perspective on the School and Community
Mr. Kennedy identified a number of demographic shifts in the school community. Most
notably, he commented on the school shifting from predominately White and East Asian to
largely immigrant, Latino and multi-race students. He expressed concern that the families within
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 105
the school community could no longer live as single income families and were dual income with
significant financial pressures.
Mr. Kennedy identified the school as having a rough reputation in the area. He said the
stigma was “horrible […] and kind of embarrassing.” He explained that the school had not
received the same credit as other high schools in the district or neighboring district for its
academic and athletic accomplishments. For example, when a nearby high school’s academic
decathlon coach won a recognition award for her efforts, an article was written about it in the
local paper, yet when he won the same award a few years prior there was no press.
Despite this reputation, Mr. Kennedy recognized that the school was better than the ones
nearby in another urban district. He cited the lack of shootings and metal detectors at Eisenhower
High School. He also noted that when there are shootings in the closest school from the other
district, the phones at Eisenhower High School rang and enrollment went up.
Mr. Kennedy’s Religious Background, Identification and Positionality
Mr. Kennedy grew up in a home with Northern European Protestant traditions. He
explained that his parents made an effort to expose him to many of the world’s religions. His
wife was Protestant and attended a Christian biblically centered university. Both of his daughters
regularly attended weekday fellowship at their church. His daughters and wife attended services
on Sundays when they did not have other extra-curricular activities. Mr. Kennedy knew about
Christianity from both a personal and academic background. His knowledge of other world
religions was mostly from academic exposure. He explained to the class, “I am less confident in
my knowledge of Quran, I have read it, I did my senior thesis on it, but I’m less confident.”
Mr. Kennedy saw himself as an outsider within his own family. He identified himself as a
“non-believer” or a “true small ‘a’ Agnostic of not knowing.” He was cynical about beliefs in
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 106
higher powers yet seemed to admire those with faith and had a desire to want to be connected to
something larger and finding comfort in that connection. When discussing religion broadly, he
said about religion:
none of this is anything other than a way of keeping order in a place that’s chaos. It’s not
necessarily mean; it’s recognition of things get out of control pretty quickly. You got to
have some control. On the other hand, that nomads sitting on the side of the hills got
questions. They look up and they see things and they’ve got questions. A conversation
that starts, one person seems wiser about it, somehow in tune with it better. That’s the
beginnings of a philosophy or a religion whatever. That’s not necessarily bad either if it
brings comfort.
While Mr. Kennedy participated in various civic and Christian rituals, he indicated that he put
his own spin on them. For example, he participated in family rituals that surrounded Christmas
and said, “Christmas is great” but preferred when his family chose to give charity rather than
gifts. He did not dress up for Halloween, yet he and his family made the costumes for his
daughters. He preferred to observe Armed Forces Day instead of Memorial Day in May.
He was not open about being Atheist or Agnostic with the larger school community. He
remembered a faculty mixer, a few years prior, when the teachers were asked to identify their
religious views, when Atheist was said, he did not stand up. Only one teacher stood. After the
exercise, he spoke with the teacher who did openly identify as Atheist and expressed admiration.
He often referred to himself as Pagan and being a part of a quiet “Pagan Coalition” of teachers at
the school. He believed the group of Pagans was actually larger than those he knew of. Despite
its negative connotation, Mr. Kennedy used the term, Pagan, in a desire to “cleanse” the term of
its historical negative connotation. He defined Pagan using a quotation from the Australian film
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 107
Breaker Morant, “Somebody who doesn’t believe that there is a God, and just wants some divine
justice in the universe.” Despite not being open about his theological perspective, he hinted at
them, for example, in class he said during one observation sarcastically, “Good thing we have a
God in charge here so the impossible can happen.” He also recited the pledge of allegiance daily
with the school community yet omitted the words “under God.”
Mr. Kennedy had challenges within his own presence of self, as described by Rodgers
and Raider-Roth (2006). His identity as presented to his school community and students was one
of dominant narrative, white, male, middle class, heterosexual and educated. Despite identifying
as distinct and unique, and expressed hope that other saw him similarly, his most unique
identifier, outside the dominant narrative, as Agnostic, was kept from the school community and
his students, this showed a tension of presence and disconnection of his authentic self and
professional self.
In interviews, Mr. Kennedy often discussed his role as the teacher as someone who holds
the knowledge and skills. He viewed his role as the teacher to transfer his knowledge and skills
of analysis to his students. He viewed his role as the teacher as one of expert. He shared his
knowledge and experience with his students. He was unwilling to share his own view and doubts
of God and emphasized Christianity. This lack of sharing his personal beliefs and emphasis on
Christianity was an example of how he emphasized narratives from his own education. His
curricular choices reflected his own indoctrination through his participation in rituals and
education were consistent with Bellah’s (1967) assertion that our civil religion aligned with
Christianity and early indoctrination were ingrained and perpetuated.
Mr. Kennedy emphasized only some aspects of the types of knowledge that Rodgers and
Raider-Roth (2006) said were required in teaching and therefore, was unable to be fully present
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 108
with his class. He emphasized his knowledge in the subject matter
17
and to some extent the
knowledge of his students, as discussed in the next section. He de-emphasized the authenticity
and the ability to observe, understanding and attend to the group of students and individuals at
the same time; understanding of context, how the learning and the relationship of the teacher and
student exists in the larger picture and societal factors at large through the exclusion of his own
religious, or non-religious, identity and emphasis on Christianity.
Classroom Environment and Student Make Up
The observations for this case study occurred in Mr. Kennedy’s first period 10
th
grade
Advanced Placement World History class. Before the class began, Mr. Kennedy would stand at
the doorway and gave each student a fist bump as they walked in.
The students in the class were not reflective of the school’s population. There were 29
students enrolled in the class; over 30% of the class was East Asian, not including the four
students who were ethnically mixed Asian and White. Only five students were Latinx. The only
two students in the class who were Black were also female. The class was closely divided evenly
by gender. Mr. Kennedy identified one student as having an aboriginal Australian heritage. Mr.
Kennedy identified only three students as having English as their second language.
The classroom was set up in rows divided into two sections facing toward the center of
the classroom where there was a wide aisle. Photographs of the American presidents encircled
half of the room above the white boards. There was a built in overhead projector hanging from
the ceiling. On the wall opposite the entrance on the white boards were written the bell schedule
and the Essential Questions for the unit. Opposite the door was an old brown couch. At the
opposite end of where the projector was facing were the teacher desk and podium. Behind the

17
Mr. Kennedy’s emphasis and knowledge of subject matter are discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 109
teacher desk, hanging from the bulletin board, were three different maps of the world, a desk
calendar and samples of Mr. Kennedy’s daughters’ artwork. On a small desk near the doorway
was a statue of a Zulu warrior. The only overt religious symbol in the class was a small cross on
a necklace that hung from the young female that Mr. Kennedy identified as having Aboriginal
Australian heritage.
Below I will examine Mr. Kennedy within the context of the research question of this
dissertation. I will discuss Mr. Kennedy in light of the contexts presented above and both his
explicit and implicit perceptions and choices as related to religion and his curricular choices.
Research Question: How are Teachers’ Religious Identities, Affinities and Positionality
Revealed in Their Curricular Choices?
Mr. Kennedy’s choices of curriculum revealed his complex affinity towards Christianity,
and European narratives, and his own internal struggle with respect to his positionality, presence
and his own identity. His curricular choices revealed not only an affinity towards American Civil
Religion as discussed by Bellah (1967), positioned within the Christian rituals, but also an
extension of American Civil Religion and American narratives as a continuation of Western
European history. These choices reflected his own education and the Euro-centric, Christian and
Civil Religious dominant narratives in society and not how he perceived or described himself as
liberal, Agnostic and pushing against traditional boundaries. While Mr. Kennedy considered
himself to be Agnostic or Pagan, his approach to the history content he taught was based in his
own education and religious indoctrination. His affinity towards Christian narratives came out
when he identified historical reference points and in what he expected from his students in terms
of their prior knowledge. The privileging of European narratives, despite not always explicitly
connecting these narratives with Christianity, implicitly added to the dominate religious narrative
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 110
of Christianity through their historical alignment and exclusion of other historical regions. His
identity in the classroom, contradicting his own explanation of his personal beliefs, showed that
his positionality was relative to his environment and context dependent. Additionally, his
presence as an authentic self was challenged by his choice of curricular emphasis. He explained
himself in one way in interviews, yet showed himself differently to his students in the classroom.
This reluctance came out in subtle comments in the classroom and emphasis on Christianity.
The section below will examine Mr. Kennedy’s curricular emphasis, and his explanations
of these choices to understand how and why those choices were made, including the choice to
largely not include religion as a dominant factor in the history he taught.
Mr. Kennedy’s Curricular Emphasis. Mr. Kennedy’s complex situational religious, or
non-religious, identity led him to choose themes and narratives that he viewed as neutral, despite
defining himself as “liberal and unbound by tradition.” He explained in interviews that he
wanted to create a space where students could be analytical themselves without being given bias.
He justified his curricular choices by explaining that it was a set curriculum provided by the
college board for the AP test. In choosing and aligning himself with what he viewed as neutral
narratives, which historically have been the dominant narratives, he also placed the agency of
curricular choices outside of himself. As explained above, Mr. Kennedy was the only teacher at
Eisenhower High School who taught Advanced Placement World history. In the sections below,
I will unpack three major themes he emphasized as guiding his curricular choices: 1) Mr.
Kennedy’s use of the AP guidelines and textbook as the foundation of his curricular choices. He
said that he saw the textbook and AP guidelines as neutral narratives of history. He said he
agreed with the emphasis and narratives of the AP guidelines and textbook. 2) His focus on
themes he perceived as neutral: trade and economics. By emphasizing themes, narratives and
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 111
topics he perceived as neutral, he pushed aside other factors that he perceived to be more
controversial. 3) His use of European history as the dominant historical connection. Although
Mr. Kennedy had units about various civilizations around the world, he regularly returned to
Europe’s interactions with the rest of the world. This emphasis marginalized other narratives and
when discussed, led to Euro-centric narratives and therefore, Christianity being the religion most
discussed.
AP Exam and textbook as the guide. Mr. Kennedy used tools that reflected his own
essentialist education and placed agency outside of himself for the curricular emphasis and
choices. The tools he emphasized were the AP exam, textbook and his own knowledge. He used
the Advanced Placement exam along with the class textbook as a guide for his pacing and
curriculum choices. By using these as his classroom curricular guides, he abdicated
responsibility for his curricular choices. Mr. Kennedy explained that he agreed with ideas and
emphasis of the AP test. His alignment with the test and usage of the textbook as a pacing guide
enabled him to emphasize trade and European narratives and de-emphasize what he perceived to
be controversial topics, such as culture and religion. While he was able to use the AP Exam and
textbook to justify his choices, these choices were also tightly aligned with his own educational
background.
Mr. Kennedy emphasized AP test and supporting curricular materials when explaining
his own curricular choices. When reflecting on his choices of using the AP Exam and College
Board materials as the guides, he made two significant points: first, he viewed the AP exam as a
“neutral” test, and therefore devoid of biases and second, his own education aligned with the test.
As an Advanced Placement class, the culmination of the class was an exam published by the
College Board, and the teacher did not see or have knowledge of what is on the exam. The
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 112
College Board published a curriculum framework. Mr. Kennedy also asked the students to report
back after the Advanced Placement exam each year as to what topics they believed were
emphasized and what they believed was not included.
At times, Mr. Kennedy chose to de-emphasize topics that he found historically significant
or influential and important due to his deference to the exam topics and themes. He did this
based on the historical topics students reported back on and his knowledge of the exam. For
example, he explained in interviews that the American and French Revolutions, events he said
were significant in world history, were discussed in class as context and background for the
Mexican, Russian and Chinese Revolution and he did not teach them at any point throughout the
year in detail. He explained his reasoning through placing the agency of curricular choices on the
AP test; the French Revolution “won’t be an essay question. It could be part of one, but it
won’t ... That’s the crazy thing.” Despite seeing the French Revolution as a “huge moment” in
history, he did not include it as a major event in his teaching of history because, based on the
feedback he had received from students over the years, it was not significant on the exam.
Despite not agreeing with some of the way the College Board’s choices with respect to which
major moments to de-emphasized, Mr. Kennedy still deferred to the AP curricular guides and
knowledge he had received over the years of the test’s topics. He was able to place responsibility
for his choices to the AP guidelines and test.
By justifying his choices through the use of the AP Guide, Mr. Kennedy was able to
avoid focusing on what he perceived to be more controversial topics, such as religion. Instead, he
was able to underscore the transference of skills rather than knowledge. Mr. Kennedy explained
that the AP test used a variety of documents that students should be able to analyze or use to find
the answers even if the student has no knowledge of the subject matter. He explained that he
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 113
liked the Advance Placement exam because he saw it as a neutral test of analytic skill. He saw
the “AP feeling” as “confidence” that the students would use evidence to back up their analyses.
Since the test emphasized analysis and skills, rather than rote knowledge, he saw the exam as
devoid of cultural bias. The emphasis on skill, therefore, enabled Mr. Kennedy to choose what he
perceived as less controversial themes to directly teach, as discussed below.
Mr. Kennedy’s class’s use of the textbook as the main source of information (outside of
Mr. Kennedy himself) aligned with Mr. Kennedy’s affinity for European, Western and, therefore
Christian, narratives as the de facto perception of historical events. The textbook’s structure
enabled him to spend nearly half the year explicitly in European narratives. Mr. Kennedy
explained that the students read as homework a “chapter a week because there are 36 chapters
and 35 weeks to the exam. That math was easy.” For the textbook, he, for the most part, followed
the chapters in order yet, had the students skip the chapters on Latin America and Russia in the
first semester and returned to these in the second semester to have the first semester be
chronologically ordered and centered on Europe. Based on his explanation of his curriculum in
interviews and my ability to observe him both in the the Fall and Spring terms, I was able to
extrapolate that this, in-turn, meant that the first semester of the school year was mostly about
European history, with the exception of a short peer-taught unit on African civilizations. The
second semester then became about other parts of the world and as the world globalized, how
these non-Western cultures interacted with the West,
18
continuing his affinity to maintain the
West as the dominant narrative.
Trade. Mr. Kennedy privileged trade as the main historic theme of his class, which
enabled him to stay away from religion. Discussing religion would have forced him to reveal his

18
The emphasis toward Europe and the West is discussed in more detail below.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 114
own ambivalence towards faith to his students. Mr. Kennedy explained that he emphasized trade
and economic history because of his desire to frame his class as neutral and devoid of bias. For
example, in class, he used documentary films based on Jared Diamond’s books, which he
explained to the class were on geographical determinism to explain to the students why,
eventually, geographical determinism led over time to the rise of European dominance and
power throughout the world. Mr. Kennedy implied with his students, and stated explicitly in
interviews, that he agreed with Jared Diamond’s thesis. He believed that geographical
determinism was the driving force for Europeans to conquer other civilizations and the root
cause was of the conquests was trade. He explained,
I ask them [the students], what do you guys think and that sort of thing [geographical
determinism]… I sort of got a sense that there was somehow the attitude that Europeans
were supposed to win and this is a way of pointing out that some of that may have been a
geographical accident, and it could have went a different way. Also that Diamond's
theory doesn't pick a winner for all time, that other cultures can adapt to this.
Mr. Kennedy made the point that the Europeans, based on this theory, were “winning”
but that it could change based on choices the culture could make. He also pointed out to the
class , through the emphasis on Diamond’s theory and his own ideas that he did not see trade in
itself as neutral, that often it was unfair from culture to culture and nation-to-nation. He
explained in interviews that the discussion of trade and economic history did not leave room for
cultural, social, and, in turn, religious, biases and interpretation.
As a reflection of his own education and ambivalence towards religious topics, Mr.
Kennedy saw the desire for competition, trade, natural resources and expansion as the drivers of
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 115
history. Therefore, and in contrast, culture and religion were merely by-products of trade.
Religion was most often isolated and not tied to other historical factors.
Continuing his own essentialist and Great Books education, Mr. Kennedy proudly
discussed on various occasions that he read modern and contemporary bestselling books about
history. In the pre-interview, when discussing topics and themes he was partial to, he pointed to
trade and explained that he enjoyed books such as Salt and Cod by Mark Kurlansky. Mr.
Kennedy summarized Kurlansky’s books as explaining how a single commodity was traded
around the world. Mr. Kennedy did not discuss reading texts that emphasized cultural or
religious factors in history. The thematic privileging of trade reflected his continued educational
choices and emphasized what Mr. Kennedy viewed as safe and dominant factors in history.
Again, this led and enabled him to down play other aspects, such as cultural, social and religious
factors of history.
Mr. Kennedy’s perspective of trade, as the main driver of history and uncontroversial, led
him to underprivilege other topics, including religion in history. For example, he explained to the
students that the spread of Christianity was used as an excuse and to justify European
imperialism during the 19
th
century, but Christianity in and of itself was not the cause of
imperialism. He saw religion as a justification for action but not a cause, therefore it did not need
to be emphasized in class as a dominant factor. He introduced the students to a chapter from a
book entitled Sweet Nexus: Sugar and the Origins of the Modern World to explain the drivers of
imperialism. After reading the chapter, he led a class discussion on sugar and its impact on the
world as it became a commodity. One of the students asserted that trade became a “drug
product.” Mr. Kennedy picked up the term from the student. He continued to use it throughout
the discussion. This showed that he was willing to pick up on students’ observations and
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 116
conversations as long as they aligned with his own focus on trade and economic narratives. As
discussed below, he did not pick up on religion when brought up by students.
Western and European emphasis. Mr. Kennedy’s curriculum focused on Western and
European narratives, which led him to also teach more about Christianity than any other religion.
As described above, a significant part of the first semester focused on the European narrative
through colonialism, and the second semester pushed through various other world cultures and
eventually addressed how these cultures were interacting towards modern globalization. He
compared the current offering of World History to the education he received in high school as:
in my day, you didn’t have a world history program. You had European history and just
coming out of the Renaissance into the Enlightenment period, that 200-year period, 300-
year period, it’s fascinating. That’s my period.
He emphasized history from a European perspective in his own classroom, aligned with his own
educational background, perpetuated the dominant narrative of European history, and was
geographically aligned with the significant events in the history of Christianity. Based on the
observations of how he discussed American and European history and similar to Bellah (1967)’s
explination of civil religious identity in America being derived from biblical and European roots,
he understood European history as a natural historical extension of American identity. He
explained in an interview,
Since we are a derived European culture, what does that mean and what assumptions do
we make about the world and America's role in it and were some of these things an
accident? America was lucky to be derived from Europeans and certain types of
Europeans so that makes for a certain type of history.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 117
Therefore, for Mr. Kennedy, it is essential to learn and emphasize European history as a part of
American Civil Religion and identity.
Another way in which Mr. Kennedy’s curricular choices privileged a European and
Western (Christian) perspectives was through his inclusion of mostly European documents from
outside of the textbook. By relying on these types of texts, Mr. Kennedy did not give voice to
those who had been colonized, and therefore he similarly silenced them. His choice and approach
was consistent with Bellah’s (1967) theories of internalizing American Civil Religion aligned
with Christianity. Mr. Kennedy’s choice perpetuated and indoctrinated the students into
understanding history from a Western perspective.
For example, during the unit on imperialism, Mr. Kennedy used a variety of texts
representing a European perspective. He had the students read these silently with parts read out
loud and then pulled out aspects of the reading for the class to respond to. He used two poems by
Rudyard Kipling—White Man’s Burden (1899) and We and They (“A Friend of the Family”)
(1988). Kipling was a British author writing for British and American audiences about the
challenges of imperialism. After reading the poems, the students were given a homework
assignment in which they were expected to analyze whether they believed Kipling was an
Imperialist. During a follow-up interview, I asked Mr. Kennedy if he thought Kipling was an
Imperialist and he said yes. He also pointed out that he himself did not believe in imperialism:
You can’t invade a place and expect it to go well. I mean, you can barely send them a
movie and expect it to go well. The exchanges have to be without constraints, without
force. I don't know how to do it… It has to be people to people. It has to be free. It has to
also be we go there, they come here sort of thing. Because they have to make their own
judgments about it, and then sit down and talk about it somehow.
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He also said in class as the students were rushing to finish up an essay on British imperialism in
India, “And the British are horrible people. The end.” Despite disagreeing with Kipling and
imperialism, Mr. Kennedy said he loved Kipling, especially his writing styleand their family cat
was even named after him. By relying on the perspective of an Imperialist to portray this period
of history, Mr. Kennedy provided the students with only one way of understanding this period of
history. He also placed the emphasis on the Western perspective. In addition, he did not appear
to recognize the way in which his privileging of the Western perspective was an extension of his
own affinity for the dominant perspective.
Mr. Kennedy also used the introduction of a book entitled King Leopold’s Ghost
(Hochschild, 1999) written by an American author. The text explained the life of Edmund Dene
Morel who was a British writer and activist. In a class discussion, Mr. Kennedy emphasized that
Morel did not have the “polish of Eton and Oxford” and his “clothes were not from Bond Street.”
Mr. Kennedy highlighted that Morel had gone from working for the shipping company
exploiting the Belgian Congo to establishing an organization that became the pre-cursor to
Amnesty International. When asked why he emphasized that part of poem, he responded that he
wanted the students to connect with Morel, who was like them, “Because they [the students] are
not [from Eton or Oxford and do not have the clothes from Bond Street] either…yet they can
make a difference.” Mr. Kennedy’s choice revealed that he hoped to inspire the students and help
them connect to their own experiences. Yet his choice also had two significant limitations. He 1)
expected the students to understand the British cultural terms such as “Bond Street,” “Eton” and
“Oxford,” and 2) indicated that the responsiveness to the students’ lives was limited to the
narratives and themes he was willing to emphasize, whether they were relevant to the students’
actual background knowledge or experiences.
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In the same unit on imperialism, Mr. Kennedy used the term “White Dominion.”
19
When
asked about the term, he said in an interview when explaining his use of the term in class,
That’s a book term… I didn’t know it. I mean, I understood that there were some colonies
that were different from others, but I had never heard the term White Dominion…It’s the
place where the settlers are going to vastly outnumber the local population.
When asked about how this phenomenon occurred and whether it was discussed with the
students, Mr. Kennedy responded,
Not in that chapter. I don’t think it does. No, it doesn’t. It talks about mass immigration.
It does talk about sending all sorts of English folks to Canada, and to Australia and New
Zealand, but it doesn’t talk about the disease factor in some of these places, or the
warfare. It just happened, I think, basically, is how the book talks about it.
In talking about the term in class, he left out the causes of White Dominion and aspects that
might make him or the students uncomfortable, including disease and religious imperialism. The
concepts of religious imperialism as addressed in Mr. Kennedy’s class is discussed further
below. In this choice, he still nodded to the concept of “White Dominion,” yet showed that he
did not want to spend class time disparaging the European colonizers.
Non-European perspectives. Grounded in his own education and emphasis on European
narratives, Mr. Kennedy did little to include documents from a non-European perspective. The
only time students were exposed to documents from the colonized, non-European perspective,
rather than European colonizers’, was during the end of unit document-based essay exam. The
students were given seven documents from various African leaders’ perspectives, a legal charter
and an article from the German military weekly newspaper from 1886 to 1904 and asked to

19
This term is used to encompass the colonies where people of European descent outnumbered those who were the
original inhabitants of the region such as Canada and Australia.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 120
“analyze African actions and reactions in response to the European Scramble for Africa” (2009
AP world history free-response questions, 2009, p. 2). The students were expected to transfer the
skills of previous document analysis to this essay. When asked how the students did on the exam,
Mr. Kennedy responded that most of the students had done well except for about a third of the
students:
the biggest failure was they didn’t answer the question which was, “What was the
response by Africans.” They continued to look for what the Europeans were doing rather
than how the Africans were responding…They couldn’t figure out, well these documents
are by the Europeans, and these documents by the Africans. There was no understanding
of how this group particularly, the ones that, how the Africans are responding to it was
changing… European rivalry was intensifying in the 1880's and the 1890's and that's why
you're seeing just this brutality in the documents…Another failure though was, the very
first document was a form that the British Niger Company used that was blank and they
filled in the information and basically it turned over all sovereignty, the place to the
British Niger Company…I had maybe 10 students …who saw that as the British were
being fair in negotiating rather than seeing it as this is just blatant land grab…[they saw it
as a] perfectly fine way of doing business. That the Europeans were being fair.
Mr. Kennedy indicated that overall the students did well ,yet a significant number of the students
interpreted the documents that were from African authors and leaders as documents written from
a European perspective and could not understand that the documents exposed the brutality of
European colonialism. Consistent with Bellah’s (1967) assertions that once indoctrinated into the
dominant European perspective it is difficult to see beyond the dominant perspective, Mr.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 121
Kennedy’s students were unable to recognize an alternative voice when presented with one and
mistakenly interpreted the documents to represent Western perspectives.
Knowledge, in Mr. Kennedy’s classroom, was valued more when it affiliated with
European dominant narratives. Aligned with his essentialist and Great Books academic
background, Mr. Kennedy’s class for the most part was taught from the perspective that he was
the expert. All of the knowledge came from him, the textbook, handouts and class materials that
he chose. He viewed his responsibility as a teacher as one in which he conveyed the knowledge
and skills to the students. One notable exception was the unit on African civilizations prior to the
units the Arab Empire and imperialism. For this unit, the students were divided into groups in
which they were experts and presented, or taught, their peers. There were eight civilizations that
Mr. Kennedy assigned and the students were to research from the book and outside resources to
teach their peers. This was the most significant time where knowledge was entrusted to the
students to convey and was not passed from the teacher or textbook to the students. This break
from his teaching philosophy, in which he was the expert in the room coincided with a topic that
was far from European narratives and interactions. For this unit, which was not about Europe or
Western civilization, he did not convey or value his knowledge transference, rather the students
were trusted to teach one another. The trust in the students showed that his knowledge
transference, for this topic, was not valued and it was ok for the students to teach one another
despite their lack of expertise. When asked in a follow up interview where the students would get
the information, the teacher said that it was mostly from the textbook and online, not necessarily
from academic sources. This choice showed that he did not value the African civilization
knowledge as much as he valued the knowledge about Europeans.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 122
Definition of religion. When asked, Mr. Kennedy defined religion as “An institution of
social regularities that tries to explain something that is unseen.” His response reflected the
essentialist and classical education he received. Based on his definition, he was in alignment with
Durkheim’s notion of the classical definitions of religion including both rites, or as Mr. Kennedy
defined them, “social regularities” and beliefs, “something that is unseen.” In contrast to
Durkheim, he used the term “institution” which connoted a “component,” “attribute” and
reflected social norms (Spiro, 1966). The term “institution” was a reflection of social norms and
limited religions’ ability to shape society. Additionally, he limited religion to explaining the
“unseen,” further limiting religion to the classical definitions of the supernatural (Durkheim,
2001) and not inclusive of the broader scientific dogma, civil rituals and religion (Bellah, 1967;
Durkheim, 2001). This definition defined his perception of what religion, in and of itself, was
and reflected in his affinity to take up religion in his teaching of history.
Religion as control and maintaining societal status quo. Mr. Kennedy believed religion
to be a means of control for the uneducated. He saw himself as someone who was educated and
not under the umbrella of religious indoctrination. This was true in light of his narrower
definition of religion, yet when including broader aspects of religion and Civil Religion, he
participated fully.
Mr. Kennedy explained religion to the class as a means of control of higher classes over
the un- or under-educated during his unit on comparative religion. In a follow-up interview he
reiterated “That religion was a tool that civilization used to control” and, “Almost every religious
code has something against rebellion.” At various times during my observations he pointed out
to the students the power of the priestly class, or divine royalty, in various civilizations that had
control over the religion. He made statements in class such as “Why did Egypt have little
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 123
rebellion [rhetorical question]? Strong priest class,” “In India, what is at the center [of society
[rhetorical question]? The caste system [with the Brahmins at the top],” “Life has a [religious]
purpose when bad things happen” and “The big stick becomes less of a physical thing and
becomes a belief thing.” He emphasized that religion created routine and removed agency from
the individual. This agency of the individual was transferred to something other such as the
religious hierarchy or priestly class. Religion, he further explained, was used to maintain the
status quo. In his classroom, Mr. Kennedy had a small finger puppet of Karl Marx which he
would point to and ask students, what would he say? Mr. Kennedy aligned himself with the
Marxist concept of religion as an opiate for the masses. He reflected these positions by not
emphasizing or personally believing in, aspects of the supernatural. Yet his choices of
curriculum reflected dominant narratives and myths,
20
and Civil Religious discourses, aspects of
religion that were outside of religious definitions that included the supernatural.
Mr. Kennedy believed religion to be a social construct. He emphasized that religion was a
reflection of the civilization and natural phenomena around the people, rather than the other way
around. For example, he compared the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt and the
predictability of the flooding, where in Egypt the flooding was predictable and in Mesopotamia,
the flooding was not predictable. He, therefore, explained that the Gods in each of these
civilizations were reflections of that predictability. In Egypt the Gods were calmer. Their
behaviors were more expected and distant from individuals. In Mesopotamia the Gods were
more unpredictable and angry. These examples not only showed that Mr. Kennedy’s belief that
religion was a reflection of the world around a society but also hinted at his belief that religions
and faith were merely a social construct by the people of those societies, therefore once again

20
This is discussed further below.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 124
pushing religion aside, as merely a consequence of society and not a driver of events or
perspectives.
Definitions of specific religions. Mr. Kennedy did not value student knowledge of
religions outside of Christianity and did not want the students interpreting or applying higher
order thinking to the world’s religions. He taught a brief two to three-day unit on comparative
religion. During this unit, he relied heavily on the book to provide the details of each religion to
the students. He also provided a pre-filled out chart on the world’s major religions and
philosophies. When asked about how he chose what information was included in the chart, he
said he relied heavily on the information provided by the textbook and Wikipedia. This usage of
a colloquial and non-academic source was in contrast to resources he used to teach trade and
economic history which were largely bestselling highly regarded and researched books, texts and
academic sources. Here again, Mr. Kennedy privileged Western and European and Christian
religious ideals over non-Western and European ideas and experiences by holding them to a
higher standard.
Other than this unit, Mr. Kennedy rarely discussed actual beliefs of the religions. This
was in line with his desire for neutrality. When he did discuss religion, he stayed within geo-
political similarities and the rituals of religions. He rarely discussed the drivers of religion,
beliefs or contexts of the rituals. For example, he explained to his students that Christianity,
Judaism and Islam were similar due to their geographic origins as were the religions of India,
Hinduism and Buddhism. He did not discuss the conflicts that arose around religious
establishment (i.e., Christianity as a break from Judaism, Islam as a confluence of nomadic
religion and monotheistic religions of the region) and contradictory beliefs (i.e., Jesus as a
teacher, Messianic figure or prophet or varied paths to enlightenment).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 125
When discussing religions in class, he also emphasized actions or rules that people of
faith followed rather than the belief systems behind those rules. For example, when discussing
the Sepoy Mutiny in India, he taught that Hindus did not eat beef or cows and Muslims did not
eat pork or pigs. Mr. Kennedy emphasized the rituals or practice, yet was unwilling to give the
ritual meaning. This was reflective of his own participation in rituals such as Christmas without
believing in Christian theology.
What was religion when it is discussed in the classroom? Religion, when discussed in
class, was often a minor theme; as discussed above, religion was discussed not as a driver of
events but as byproduct or excuse for actions. It was rarely taken up by Mr. Kennedy, and taught
within a geopolitical context rather than as a force of historical events. In interviews, Mr.
Kennedy said he wanted the students to discuss religion, yet in class he rarely provided the space
or framework for such discussions to arise or be taken up overtly. Reflective of his own
ambivalence and positionality toward religion, when religion did come up, he explained in class
that historically, when religions interacted, problems often arose. During the unit on the Arab
Empire, Mr. Kennedy emphasized the struggle of Muslim leaders who had to decide whether or
not to convert those that were conquered, “If we are an Islamic Empire, what are we doing with
all these people who are not Muslim?” He asked rhetorically. He explained in the same lesson,
“If we go into India, we are going to run into people who don’t think like we do.” After defining
Arabic terms like Mawali and Dhimmi for the students
21
, he went on to explain that there were,
“Areas of [the Islamic] empire where Jews, Christians and Muslims got along just fine and in
others they were treated horrible.” Later in the same lesson, while explaining the decision of the
Abbasid Arab dynasty/caliphate to not convert and just expand, he said, “No one likes anything

21
Mawali is a non-Arab Muslim and Dhimmi is a Non-Muslim under protection of Muslim law, often used to refer
to other “people of the book,” Jews and Christians (Oxford Islamic Studies Online, 2017)

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 126
more than money… the Abbasids were good at this.” He made similar statements during the unit
on colonialism and the decision to try to convert some colonies into Christianity yet not others.
He explained that leaders were fighting for power and land and the people went along with it in
order to bring their religion to others. His approach implicitly dismissed religious conflicts and
wars, again, making religion a tool of manipulation used by the ruling classes. He minimized an
individual’s belief and importance of religion and dismissed participation in religion as a person
merely being used for manipulation. Additionally, the inherit supposition was that religion was
inherently bad, removed individual agency and caused conflict.
Mr. Kennedy described to the students, and reflected his own definition of religion, that
religious institutions throughout history had behaved as conservative organizations that
maintained the status quo and when religions interacted with each other, that status quo was
challenged. Mr. Kennedy’s association of religious institutions and conservativism reflected his
own desire to be liberal and not connected with a religious, or non-religious, identity. He was
pushing back against both of those ideas. One exception he pointed out to the students, in
conflict with the notion that religion was a conservative organization, was during the Mexican
Independence Movement; he pointed to the Catholic religion and its leadership in Mexico as the
catalyst for the revolution and progress toward equality. Yet, in the same lesson, he explained
that the religious leadership in Mexico desired more authority rather than deferring back to the
leadership in Spain. Here again, he promoted the ideas of geopolitical power and not religion as
the impetus for change.
Mr. Kennedy’s explanations and discussions regarding religion generally emphasized
geography and geopolitical power above belief systems. For example, during the unit on the rise
of Islam and the Muslim Empire, he commented to the students that, “More Muslims look
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 127
Chinese than Arab” to emphasize how far geographically the empire had reached. No mention
was made as to why or how so many people in the empire converted to Islam and what beliefs
these conversions implied.
Taking up religion (or not). While Mr. Kennedy did not share his own religious
affiliations and beliefs with his students, he expressed expectations of his students’ religious
ideas and expected them to advocate for their own beliefs when represented. Mr. Kennedy
expected students to ask question when they did not have the knowledge or skills that were
expected in class, including ideas and expertise of religion. This was apparent in his teaching of
religious topics. For example, he expected that his students had prior knowledge of religions
from their exposure in seventh grade or from their personal experiences, especially in terms of
Christianity.
22
Mr. Kennedy explained in interviews that the prior knowledge expectation was
validated because students did not ask questions around these topics.
Mr. Kennedy defined religions, both in class and with his handouts, within the divisions
of West (or European) versus East and explained to the students that unlike Christianity, which
was European, Islam was semi-European, yet still a Western religion. He treated non-Christian
religions with the same expectations of advocacy yet, did not include or expect the same prior
knowledge. He explained in interviews that he had an expectation that students would speak up
for their religious identities and affiliations if they believed they were being mis-represented. For
example, when teaching about the Arab Empire during class lectures, he used two images that he
explained as rare, and might not be generalizable to the larger respective religious community.
He did not explain or contextualize why the image were rare. One image was a medieval

22
I expand upon his expectations related to prior knowledge of Christianity below.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 128
depiction of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.
23
When asked in a follow up interview why he
made the choice to show the image, Mr. Kennedy explained that he showed the image in a
historical context, and if any student were to be offended by the image they would say so. He
explained in a follow up interview,
I[’ve] had a much heavier concentration of overtly Muslim students in the classroom. I
had one classroom that had three girls who wore the headscarf but they were very quiet. I
don’t know if that was that they wouldn’t say something like that out of fear or if they
didn’t want to say it because they were trying to chart this path between the culture
they’re in and a culture that they belong to, that there’s somehow a difference?
He expected the students who did not fit within the dominant narrative he was teaching to speak
to the minority narrative they experienced. At the same time, he recognized that he might not
create the space for such conversations. He suggested that the students might not have wanted to
share their own identities, not because of discomfort, but rather, because they were trying to fit in
to dominant culture.
Mr. Kennedy went further to explain that even if they disagreed, or were offended he
would probably not change it. He compared the image of Mohammed to using the nude image of
Michelangelo’s David earlier in the year. His comparison was that both served a purpose in
historical learning. He treated the image of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed the same as a
Christian image that does not have the same universal offensiveness. Additionally, he wanted the
students to treat the image of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed with the same regard, without

23
Many people of the Muslim faith find the depiction of the Prophet Mohammed, or any Qur’anic personalities to be
forbidden. The reason is to not indulge or give into the worship of these images, only Allah, should be worshipped
(Burke, 2015).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 129
religious or cultural context and sensitivity, as the biblical image of David, which in and of itself
is not considered religiously offensive
24
.
Similarly, when explaining the expansion of the British Empire into India, he used an
image of a Hindu religious ceremony, the Sati Ceremony.
25
He explained to the students that the
ceremony was not common, but the image showed what the British encountered and depicted
when they arrived and conquered India. Again, in a follow up interview, Mr. Kennedy explained
that the image was used in its historical context to explain how the British saw the Indians and if
a student disagreed with this depiction, he expected the student to speak up. Mr. Kennedy
seemed to struggle and contradict himself with the usage of these images. First, despite not
expecting prior knowledge from the students about the image of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed
or the Sati ceremony, he expressed that the students should speak up if they found it offensive.
Secondly, within the context and expectation of students lack of prior knowledge, he shared one
image that was considered largely offensive and another image of a marginalized ceremony. His
expectation was that the students would not generalize these images to the larger religious
adherents, despite their lack of prior knowledge.
Major world religions and indigenous faiths. As discussed above, Mr. Kennedy often
explained religion within history as a justification for actions and a space where conflict occurred
when faiths interacted, but religion was not a driver in and of itself for historical events. He saw
religion as a more minor factor within the broader context of historical narrative, emphasizing
economic factors and trade. One notable exception to this was the unit on African civilizations.
As discussed above, this unit was structured differently than other units of study throughout the

24
It has been noted that the nudity of Michelangelo’s David may be offensive to some, yet the image of David
himself is not offensive.
25
The Sati Ceremony, within some very traditional Hindu groups, is/was when a widow committed suicide after the
death of her husband, sometimes throwing herself upon the fire and ashes of the deceased. This was highly
publicized practice and banned by the British yet rarely actually occurred (Women in World History).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 130
year. Rather than being teacher led, with Mr. Kennedy as the expert, this unit was peer taught,
with the students, in groups, each taking one of eight civilizations and teaching the significant
developments and structures within that civilizations to teach to their peers. Within each of these
civilizations, Mr. Kennedy’s expectation of the students was to give equal weight to three
factors: 1) political, 2) economic, and 3) religious. In the only unit I observed that did not have
an overt Western perspective, he brought religion up as a significant force. Religion in non-
Western cultures was privileged to be significant and a driving force for the civilization, yet, in
Western cultures, religion was pushed aside as a means of control and an excuse rather than a
cause. The distance he had from non-Christian religions meant that his ambivalence towards
religion being a factor in non-Western cultures what able to emerge.
Civil Religion. As discussed above, European narratives of history were an extension of
American identity. This section will be an examination of the beliefs and expected participation
of Civil Religious ritual and their effect on his classroom choices.
American Exceptionalism, for Mr. Kennedy, included collective myths and a drive to
push forward both as a society at large and for the individual. Mr. Kennedy “love[d] the idea of
American Exceptionalism.” He used American collective stories and myths throughout his
curriculum. In alignment with his definition of religion discussed above, he did not see these
collective stories and rituals as religious.
As a reflection of his own education, Mr. Kennedy was aware and transparent that he
taught from the perspective of American Exceptionalism, collective myths and to a certain
extent, Great Books, perspective and philosophy. He explained that he did not always love
teaching from this lens, yet countered his own argument with this question: who and what is one
going to take out to add something else in during the limited time available?
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 131
Below is a discussion of how Civil Religion was taken up in Mr. Kennedy’s classroom.
First, I present how Mr. Kennedy made conscious decisions about which collective myths to
emphasize. Second, I discuss his admiration for the American spirit and how this influenced his
emphasis in classroom choices. And third, I offer how Christian privilege aligned with Civil
Religion in his classroom.
Collective stories and myths. Despite the knowledge of the historical inaccuracies
perpetuated by some collective stories and myths in American culture, he sometimes chose to
perpetuate the myths and was selective when deconstructing the collective myths. For example,
in an interview, he pointed to the story of the Alamo as an example of a myth that he preferred
over the historical truth. He liked to teach that the Americans were defending freedom, rather
than slavery. In a different interview, he explained that he liked the traditional narrative of
Christopher Columbus looking for new trade routes and only in passing discussed Columbus’s
destructive aftermath and did not include Columbus’s or Spain’s religious motivations in his
instruction. These were examples of what Bellah (1967) referred to as indoctrination of children
into Civil Religion to attain national goals. Or what Mr. Kennedy called the “American Spirit”
that he admired and tried to instill in his students.
In contrast, much like his own questioning of religion and status quo and aligned with his
perception of himself as liberal and unique, he tried to deconstruct the hero-ization of
Washington and Lincoln. For Washington, during an observation, he pointed out to the students
a number of factors that contradicted the collective narrative. For example, he shared that
Washington was not a self-made man, and instead, was affluent due to his wife’s fortune. He
explained to the students that Washington lost more battles than he won. He contrasted this by
saying to the class, “Washington is secure in history,” and in an interview, “Picking on George
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Washington is easy in a way. It's not like he's ever going away.” For Lincoln, in the same follow
up interview, he explained that he liked to tell the students “how Abraham Lincoln got voted out
of office because he opposed the war with Mexico. He gave this great speech about how this was
crazy and he lost the next election.” As another example of how he deconstructs some collective
myths. Mr. Kennedy said,
myths happen, myths are important and then what’s my role as the history teacher in this
moment. I’ve thought about this. I don’t want to be a teacher who says, destroy
everything that people hold dear and see where the pieces fall. That’s not the goal. The
goal is to think critically about it though. I like the idea of the myth and storytelling.
He was making intentional decisions in which myths to up hold and which to deconstruct. He is
being consistent with his own Civil Religious practice while taking advantage of Civil Religious
myth. Just like his own religious practice, he is willing to push back on some aspects yet not full
destroy the myths completely. Mr. Kennedy explained that Abraham Lincoln and George
Washington were easy targets to take apart because they were not “going away.” The other
myths, in his perspective, were more fallible. The selective nature of deconstructing certain
myths in his class while perpetuating others was aligned with his own religious, or non-religious,
identity and practice. For example, he chose to participate in various rituals and have his
daughters attend a weekly church fellowship without emphasizing religiosity and beliefs within
his own practice. He chose to distance himself from some aspects of Civil Religion while
accepting others both in the classroom and in his personal life. Also, similar to his own identity
he chose to push back on dominant theology that is often considered safe within Christianity,
namely God. This was similar to his pushing back on safe heroes such as Abraham Lincoln and
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George Washington, while at the same time maintaining aspects of Civil Religious practices and
myths both in the classroom and personally.
The American Spirit. Drive and exceptionalism, rising up from nothing, were essential
elements that Mr. Kennedy included as Civil Religion. Mr. Kennedy liked the idea of the
“American Spirit.” He explained, when asked about the American Spirit, that it promoted and
drove people towards action. He qualified this value and placed limitations on the Spirit. In
interviews, he recognized that this Spirit was a part of a Civil Religion. He emphasized that its
importance was mostly in the past and not in contemporary America. For example, when he
discussed in an interview the concept of Manifest Destiny. He said:
I don’t think these things are written somewhere… This was a national religion at the
time if you will. I think Americans wanted it so in that sense they strove for it and in that
sense, they attempted to make it happen… there is no birthright.
He explained the Civil Religious concept of expansion, Manifest Destiny, as a reflection of the
historical nationalistic desire to expand at the time. Civil Religion, similar to established
religious institutions, was an justification or rationalization for their actions, but not as a cause.
The myths that were a part of our Civil Religion were also a part of what Mr. Kennedy
chose to include in his classroom. As discussed above, despite his own knowledge of the
historical inaccuracies, he made choices as to which collective stories to de-mystify for his
students. These choices seem to be ones that he viewed as more benign.
As will be seen below, despite his perception that he was an outsider, even within his
own family as one who pushed against Christian traditions in his personal life, in the classroom
and with his students, he fell into Civil Religious expectations and Christian privilege. As Alcoff
(1988) discussed, his perception of self and identity were context dependent.
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Christian privilege. Similar to the application of Civil Religion above, Mr. Kennedy’s
academic and personal backgrounds, as well as his definition of religion, were reflected in his
curricular choices. In alignment with Bellah (1967) and Clark’s (2006) discussion of Christian
Privilege, despite having defined himself not a Christian, in his classroom, he emphasized this
Civil Religious perspective.
Affinity towards Christianity. Christianity was an extension of Civil Religious
knowledge and ritual, based on American roots in Europe and aligned with American common
culture. As explained above, Mr. Kennedy had an expectation of student prior knowledge of
Christianity, and specifically the books of the Christian Bible. For example, during an in-class,
document-based question essay exam, the students were asked to “compare and contrast the
attitudes of Christianity and Islam towards merchants and trade from the religions’ origins until
about 1500” (2002 AP world history free-response questions, 2002, p. 2). One of the document’s
authors in the document-based question essay exam was Thomas Aquinas. When asked in a
follow up interview about how the students might know that this document was from a Christian
perspective, Mr. Kennedy pointed out that the document included the citation “Matthew vii.12”
(2002 AP world history free-response questions, 2002, p. 4) from the Christian Bible. I followed
up by asking if he reviewed the books of Christian Bible with the students. He paused and then
continued saying that it is “very possible” that the students had that prior knowledge from
outside of class. His answer suggested that he had assumed that the students would understand
that “Matthew vii.12” was a reference to the Christian Bible, whether he had addressed it directly
in class or not.
In another example of his expectation that his students would have prior knowledge of
Christianity, during a lesson on European colonialism in Africa, as discussed above, he used
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Kipling’s (1899) poem White Man’s Burden in the lesson. When Mr. Kennedy asked about a
metaphor within the text of White Man’s Burden he said, “compared to?” In response,
One of the students yelled, “Pyramids?”
The teacher responded, “No?”
Another student asked “Is it from the Bible?”
Mr. Kennedy excitedly said, “Yes, it is from the Bible, like slavery, who leads them out?”
Another student responded, “Moses.”
This exchange shows Mr. Kennedy’s expectation of prior knowledge from the students of the
biblical story of Moses. He also expected the students to apply this prior knowledge the
symbolism used in the Kipling (1899) poem.
When discussing this interaction in the follow up interview, Mr. Kennedy indicated that
his expectation that students had prior knowledge was validated because two students were able
to connect the allusion to the Bible and then explain that Moses was the one who led “them” out
of slavery. When explaining the purpose of the exchange, and the perspective from which
Kipling wrote the poem, Mr. Kennedy said that what he
was hoping to try to get across was that Kipling was casting the Europeans as this Moses
figure who was bringing these people out of the darkness, and somehow was going to get
blamed for it, and that [for Kipling,] Moses was right, so therefore [for Kipling,] the
Europeans are right.
He expected, and his expectations were validated, that the students had prior knowledge of
biblical stories and allusions. He also believed that the students grounding in their prior
knowledge of biblical stories would lead them to make the connection not only to the reading
itself but to the broader evangelical excuse of historical imperialism, with the Europeans bring
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the colonized “out of the darkness.” He expected the students to make the connection of darkness
to Christianity prior to being saved by Jesus Christ.
When discussing the overall goal of this lesson, Mr. Kennedy made two significant
statements: first, that this was “another data point” or example of Christianity spreading, not
“new knowledge.” He pointed again to the expectation that students had prior knowledge about
the history of Christianity and the Church. Second, he stated that in his interpretation of the poem
the burden is this sort of evangelical, go and make disciples of the world, but this is how
we’re going to do it … I’m compelled to do it somehow. This is not my choice either. It
was their choice. This was all about choice … it is self-imposed martyrdom.
Similar to his interpretation of Manifest Destiny, colonialism came with the Christian burden of
evangelism. Civil Religion was an excuse for the behavior and not the cause of the behavior;
religion was once again not the driver but the excuse, reason or manipulation of the masses to
support imperialism.
Christianity and the context of teaching comparative religion. Christian Privilege, as a
part of Civil Religion, was shown through Mr. Kennedy’s expectations of prior knowledge,
curricular chronology and the language he used. Mr. Kennedy taught events mostly in
chronological order. Mr. Kennedy taught a mini-unit, approximately two to three days, on
comparative religion prior to the unit on the Arab Empire. Therefore, the students were expected
to have base knowledge in Judeo-Christian theology prior to doing the comparative religions
mini-unit. The placement of the comparative religions mini-unit not only elevated the depth and
prior knowledge expectations of the students, but also marginalized other religions, which came
after. He did not introduce the religions as they were brought up in history, nor teach the unit
prior to teaching about early Judaism or Christianity, which would have created a baseline
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knowledge across the class. Rather he taught the unit after Judaism and Chrstianity were already
historically significant within his curriculum which is further evidence of his expectation of prior
knowledge.
Another example of privileging Christianity in the context of other religions was the use
of the term “Old Testament” to refer to the Jewish or Hebrew Bible. This terminology makes an
assumption of a New Testament, such as the books in the Christian Bible. The language
discounted those who do not believe in a “New Testament” and privileges those who did.
As discussed above, Mr. Kennedy perceived that he was correct to have expectations
about students’ prior knowledge of Christianity because students did not ask questions around
these topics. In contrast, he commented, that this prior knowledge expectation did not extend to
Buddhism. In an interview he said, “It’s funny because the [document-based question exam] that
I gave them… there's another document in there that sometimes throws. This one it tests on
Buddhism coming into China and the reactions that the Chinese have.” This comment was in the
context of when a document with Christian influence is presented to the students, they do not
seem to have the same difficulty. Reflective of his education and upbringing, as well as his
expectations of his students’ religious identities and affiliations, Christianity was expected to be
prior, common knowledge which the students were exposed to before their AP World History
class.
Christianity as the point of comparison. Another example of his affinity towards
Christian privilege, reflective of his own education, and in turn, cultural and religious
marginalization of other world faiths (Blumenfeld, 2006) was the depth of knowledge and time
he spent on the world’s religions. For example, when he made links between religions, he
consistently used Christianity as the means of comparison. Using Christianity as a reference
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point meant that he de facto spent more time in class discussing Christianity and also had the
expectation that the students would understand the reference.
Affinity to take up less controversial topics. Similar to his affinity to demystify safer
topics in the context of American collective stories and myths, and choosing trade as the
dominant theme throughout the year, when talking about religious topics, he chose to spend time
on what he perceived to be less controversial, or religious topics that he had more grounding in.
This did not allow for a space for beliefs to be discussed, and did not expose Mr. Kennedy’s
conflicting religious positionality. For example, within the mini-unit on comparative religion, he
gave the students a handout he created with a chart for the “Tenets of Faith.” The chart was pre-
filled in for eight major world religions and philosophies: Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The chart included the Founder and
Dates, Writings and Texts, Major Ideas and Tenets, Cultures Impacted, Symbol and Sects and
Schisms. The choice to pre-fill in the faiths followed with Mr. Kennedy’s essentialist educational
philosophy as knowledge transfer, preventing a possible controversial conversation or
interpretation and exposure based on the students’ prior knowledge of religions other than
Christianity.
Various parts of the table may have been problematic, depending on the positionality of
the person looking at it. One aspect that explicitly showed privileging and hierarchy of religions
by Mr. Kennedy is the last row for sects and schisms. Table 1 shows the language he used for
row labeled sects and schisms:

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Table 1
Abridged Tenets of Faith
Faith Sects and Schisms
Confucianism Neo-Confucianism
Daoism Conflict with Confucianism
Legalism Resistance by Confucists and Taoists
Hinduism Various local traditions; Buddhism
Buddhism Theravada (Hinayana “Lesser Vehicle”): emphasis on meditation,
simplicity, renunciation of self; Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”) emphasis
on ritual, God-like Buddha, deities (Bodhisattvas: those who have reached
nirvana on Earth)
Judaism Orthodox; Reform; Conservative; Christians
Christianity Roman Catholic; Eastern Orthodox: Greek and Russian; Protestant
groups: Lutherans, Episcopalians, Baptists, Etc.
Islam
Shi’a: Mohammed’s son-in-law (Ali) rightful heir to empire →political and
religious authority in one, Iran, Bahrain; Sunni: Ali is not rightful heir
→political and religious authority separate, Arabian Peninsula; Sufism:
stresses personal relationship with Allah, less rites, more adaptable

For all of the religions, except Christianity and Islam, this was the only reference to
different “sects or schisms” the students were exposed to in class. Mr. Kennedy clarified in an
interview, “I don’t do a lot of breakdowns with Hinduism, Buddhism. Shintoism only gets
mentions when we start talking about Japan; again, in terms of the basic tenets, not a lot.” During
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interviews, Mr. Kennedy often referred to the Protestant Reformation as a major turning point in
history that he intended to go into great detail with the students. This was a reflection of his own
Euro-centric education.
During the unit on the Arab Empire, he briefly mentioned the split between Sunni and
Shi’a Muslims in the introduction to the unit. Otherwise, this split was not mentioned again. His
affinity toward Christianity, and deeper knowledge of the religion, from both personal and
academic background, enabled the discussion of the distinctions between the “sects,” “schisms”
and denominations. He explained that Eastern faiths often did not have as clear cut “sects and
schisms.” His rationale was that many of the religious divisions in Eastern faiths were based on
geography, family tradition or social status and not on theological interpretation. Unlike the
history of the divisions in the Christian churches, Mr. Kennedy did not address nuances, splits
and divisions among Eastern faiths. His knowledge of the religions and positionality, which
privileged Christianity, showed through his choices to explain certain divisions within religions
and not others.
Within the listing of “sects and schisms” the inclusion of Christianity in the Judaism
column, while not including Islam in the Christianity column also showed an inherent privileging
of Christianity and marginalization of Islam. This exposed what Blumenfield (2006) called a
hierarchical understanding of religion. Mr. Kennedy privileged Christiany’s grounded in an
ancient religion, Judaism, while not recognizing the influence, prophetic tradition and grounding
of Islam in Judeo-Christian theology. This choice showed a marginalization of Islam and
hierarchical belief of Christianity on top with other religions underneath.
Mr. Kennedy also treated Christianity with higher regard, respect and historical sympathy
than other religions. Another example of this hierarchical belief of religions with Christianity
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toward the top was during a lesson where the students were divided up into groups of eight or
nine to a group. Each group was asked to come up with a thesis statement comparing and
contrasting different empires. One of the prompts asked to compare and contrast the Spaniards in
the Americas with the Muslim Empire in India. There were two mentions of religion while the
students were asking for help and clarification on their ideas about religious imperialism. Mr.
Kennedy described the impact of the spread of the religions in each of the empires through the
lens of Christian understanding, “One [the Muslim Empire was] in imposition on a major
religion [Hinduism], the other is Christian on indigenous [peoples or faiths].” He implied that the
Christians were more successful in converting the indigenous peoples of America because they
were Christians and because it was not a significant and powerful faith of the indigenous peoples
while the Muslims were less successful because they were against another major world faith,
Hinduism. In the same lesson, with the same group, he also justified and contextualized the
religious fervor and overall persecution of indigenous peoples of the Americas with a comment
that the Spaniards were “coming out of a tradition of conquest, taking back the Iberian Peninsula
from the Arabs.” Here he sympathized with the Spaniards’ acts of religious imperialism because
he viewed them as victims of religious imperialism themselves.
Reflections on when religion was taken up. During each interview, one of the questions
I consistently asked was, “Do you feel religion came up in this lesson?” Mr. Kennedy often said
no. He did not see the nuances of Christian privilege or religious influences on an event as
“religion coming up.” The only times he said that religion came up were when religion was
directly tied to the objective of the lesson, such as in the comparative religion unit or the lecture
on the origins of the Muslim empire. These reflections aligned with his definition and
understanding of religion as an “institution” and explaining the “unseen.”
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Religious identities in the classroom. As a reflection of his own lack of transparency
about his religious views with the greater school community, Mr. Kennedy also did not actively
try to discover his students’ religious backgrounds or beliefs either. When asked, he said he was
able to make general assumptions based on statements made by the students, yet he was unsure.
There were only two students whom he identified in the class to have religious background that
he knew of. One was one of the Black females in the class, the same young woman who
identified Moses during the discussion of Kipling’s (1899) poem White Man’s Burden. He
identified her as having been adopted from West Africa through her church, regularly attended
church and was a religious Christian. With this identification, Mr. Kennedy made the assumption
of prior knowledge of Christianity. The other student whom he identified as having a religious
affiliation was a young man whom he identified as from Iran. Mr. Kennedy said that when he
met the student’s father at back to school night, he had a thick Persian accent. He believed the
student was born here in the USA yet spoke some Farsi. Mr. Kennedy explained that based on
this knowledge he assumed the student was Muslim and had knowledge of Islam. Both students
were fairly outspoken in class and sat in the front rows on opposite sides of the room facing the
center aisle. There were a couple of other students who Mr. Kennedy identified as possibly
having similar beliefs to him, based on comments in class, but he was unsure. Based on the
demographics of the local area, Mr. Kennedy assumed most of the rest of the students were
conservative and affiliated with a Christian church and had personal knowledge and experiences
with Christianity. During my observations, he asked the Christian young lady to identify when
scripture was alluded to in readings in class twice. The young lady was able to respond to his
questions. He did not ask any questions about religion to the young man whom he identified as
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Muslim. He created a space for the outspoken Christian student to share her knowledge of her
faith, yet, did not do so for other students in the class.
Unless asked directly by a student about his religious, or non-religious, beliefs, Mr.
Kennedy did not discuss his beliefs and views with his students. At the same time, he believed he
knew most of his students’ beliefs. He expected the students to be knowledgeable about their
faith and share that knowledge with their peers yet did not create the space for them to share.
In the section below, I will follow a similar format with the second case study as was done with
the first; including a discussion of the second case study’s academic and professional
background, view of the school environment, religious background, and a description of the class
observed. These factors together will contextualize the teacher’s positionality. Following this
contextualization, I will directly address the research question with the following themes:
curricular emphasis, definition of religion, how religion was discussed in the classroom, how
religion was taken up, or not, inclusion of Civil Religion, religious hierarchy, including Christian
Privilege and the teacher viewed students’ religious identities in the classroom.
Case Study #2: Mr. Johnson, Eleventh Grade United States History
Mr. Johnson was in his first-year teaching at Eisenhower High School but already had 20
years of teaching experience. He nostalgically spoke about regularly attending local Civil War
battle reenactments with his father, who was also a history teacher and had passed away fairly
young, when Mr. Johnson was a child. He identified himself as a firm Atheist by the time he was
a teenager yet was curious about different religions as a child. He met his wife in high school,
where they both grew up and graduated from the same school district as Eisenhower High
School. He and his wife taught, and their two teenage daughters attended schools, in the district.
He and his family enjoyed camping, hiking and being in nature. During his professional teaching
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career, he had left the area, having lived and taught in various rural parts of Southern California.
He expressed a desire to return to the “shire” and did not want to leave.
Mr. Johnson’s Academic and Professional Background. Mr. Johnson was a proud
product of the district he was teaching in. He made the point though that he graduated from a
neighboring school and not Eisenhower High School. He went to university at a California State
school and received his undergraduate and master’s degrees. He had wanted to study Japanese,
yet had difficulty with the Kanji, character-based written language. He pointed to his early
exposure to the battle reenactments, which led him to pursue a master’s degree in the military
sciences and focused on the Westward migration in the USA during the mid-1800s, Manifest
Destiny and the Mexican-American War. He had taught in various rural public school districts
around Southern California, including seven years at a charter military school. He had
experience in both middle and high school in a variety of Social Studies curriculum. He was
happy about this being his first year back in the district and at Eisenhower High School. He said,
“We’re back for good. We will never ever, ever leave the shire.” His favorite subject and year to
teach was 11
th
grade US History. He said he liked juniors because they were not “burnt out yet.”
He contrasted teaching US history and World History by saying
If you do world history, it’s like, here is the world. Teach something. US history is like,
hey, here is 200 and somewhat years. It’s a little more focused, a little more accessible at
least for me and the kids. To be honest, since I’ve been doing this for a long time, it’s
easy. If I go into any unit, I’m like, Okay, I got 10 ways I can teach this or I can come up
with a new one this year.

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Mr. Johnson’s Perspective on the School and Community
As stated earlier, Mr. Johnson was proud to be back within the community he grew up in.
He had graduated from the district, yet a different high school. He remembered the stigma that
Eisenhower High School had while he was a teen. Eisenhower High School was considered the
“Hood.” He remembered being scared of the students at Eisenhower High School because of its
reputation for being socio-economically disadvantaged. He also recognized that compared to the
other high schools in the area, it was probably “like a loaf of wonder bread.” He was happily
surprised when he arrived at Eisenhower as a teacher,
The stigma still exists comparatively. Million dollar homes in neighboring schools vs.
apartments-living [around Eisenhower]… whatever it looks like on paper, these are top
notch kids. I’ve been very impressed with their academic performance so far. Anything
that I got from paper didn’t pan out in the classroom.
When asked about the religious diversity of the school, Mr. Johnson replied, “A
multitude of Christian sects, Jewish, Islam, Hindu. And then we have a large Asian community,
so Buddhism, then philosophical religions like Taoism and Confucianism. I just heard people
talk about that.” He saw the school as richly diverse ethnically and religiously. Based on
conversations with the students, he assumed most of his students leaned left politically with a
few that were identifiably more right.
Classroom Environment and Student Make Up
Most of the classes Mr. Johnson taught represented the greater Eisenhower High School
population, he pointed out, with the exception of his advanced placement class, which was more
socio-economically advantaged. This case study was conducted in his period 1 ‘regular’ 11
th

grade United States History class. There were 28 students enrolled in this class, with one student
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who rarely attended. Based on conversations with Mr. Johnson and observations, I was able to
conclude nearly two-thirds of the class was male, 10 students were Latinx, 6 students were
Black, 3 were Asian, 3 were White, 2 were Middle-Eastern, 2 were not identified and 2 were
mixed race with Latinx last names. One of the mixed-race students identified himself as having
had a Japanese family who had been interned during World War 2. Mr. Johnson expressed
surprise when going through the roster that there were not more Japanese students in the class.
There were a few students in the class who regularly wore their athlete uniforms and were
identified as being involved in different sports on campus.
The classroom was set up in rows divided into two sections facing toward the center of
the classroom where there was a wide aisle. The teacher desk was at one end of the aisle and the
overhead projector pointed to a white board on the opposite side of the room. Posters of military
films, video games and sports teams were hung on the walls of the classroom. The white board
on the right side of the room behind half of the students was carefully divided into sections with
electrical tape. Each section served a purpose, including agendas for each class throughout the
day, and essential questions for the unit. On two white boards were large sheets of sticky chart
paper where all the assignments for the unit thus far were listed. One bulletin board was
decorated green and cloud covered bulletin board paper and labelled “The Field of
Awesomeness.” “The Field” was dotted with dye-cut llamas with students’ names.
Teaching style. “The Field of Awesomeness” was for students to add their dye-cut paper
llama with their name on it if they received a 98% or more on a test or quiz. Mr. Johnson saw the
llama as his mascot, totem or go-to joke. He had been inspired by a particularly difficult hiking
excursion where he saw an elderly man hike with five llamas. He had set this as a goal for
himself.
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Mr. Johnson was often sarcastic and dry in class. He consciously spent time in class
explaining the reasons why he chose to do an activity or assignment. He varied his class
including group work, lectures, videos, debates, individual quiet work and individual work in
which students could help one another. He emphasized the process towards the product. For
example, during his first assigned document-based essay of the year, he had questions for the
students to first analyze the documents, a graphic organizer for the students, and required a rough
draft that needed to be peer edited and a final draft. Each step along the way was stamped that it
was completed in the assigned time. He allowed students to turn work in late, yet they would
receive partial credit. He often spoke about his own limitations as a teacher with the students.
During a unit test, he told the students they were lucky that there was no short answer essay and
only multiple-choice because he would not be able to get them graded on time for the grade
reporting period. He also would explain to the students that he was using “brain theory” and
“metacognitive theory.” For example, on one assignment which he asked the students to create a
World War 2 cartoon, he told the students that the assignment might seem babyish but, in World
War 2, cartoons were important, and this was a way to use “brain theory” and apply what they
learned to something else:
Metacognitive teaching, I think is very important at this level. Let them know why I'm
doing what I'm doing. I'm giving them the rational behind it trying to get them on board. I
think it's important for them to ... I promised them "I'm never going to give you busy
work". Everything I do I try and make it valuable to them. Whether I'm doing that or not,
that's up for debate, but that's my intent… It's just telling them the science behind why
I'm doing what I'm doing… I try to tell them how it's going to help them learn.
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Mr. Johnson worked towards being present and transparent with his students with all the types of
knowledge, as Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) discussed, that he brought into the classroom.
He emphasized knowledge of subject matter (not just the subject itself, but also the how and why
the subject matter is the way it is); learning and pedagogical skills; the ability to observe,
understanding of context, how the learning and the relationship of the teacher and student exists
in the larger picture (including the school); and societal factors at large which enable to the
students to develop a “complex picture” of their learning (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006). He felt
it was important for students to understand the process and reasoning behind the process, not just
work towards an end product.
Mr. Johnson often encouraged the students, telling them they were capable. He would ask
them to “show me how awesome you are right now.” He did not assign homework, except to
complete classwork. This extended to his emphasis on organization and the class notebooks. He
would give students an entire period prior to a unit exam to organize and complete their
notebooks, using the chart paper list as a guide, prior to turning them in. If the students
completed their notebooks early, they could use the time to study. He commented in one
interview that if he did not give them time in class, in his experience, the students would not get
it done.
Mr. Johnson’s Religious Background, Identification and Positionality
Mr. Johnson was the youngest of four children in his family. His family’s origins were
from Poland and both his parents had been brought up “very, very, very Catholic.” Both his
parents broke with the church yet his extended family remained connected. His father had
attended Catholic schools his entire life. After being kicked out of a Catholic college, and
attending a secular school, his father “in a matter of a week, went from being Catholic to
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Agnostic at best.” Mr. Johnson identified his father as “very academic,” which would not have
been able to co-exist with faith in anything supernatural. His mother broke with the church soon
after Mr. Johnson was born,
She had me, the fourth kid, and I’m 5 years younger than my next. I’m out of the system.
They had three kids and then me later. [His mother thought,] I can’t have another kid.
I’ve got to go on birth control …We’re teachers, we’re poor, we have four kids ... She
went into confession [and discussed her desire to go on birth control]. The next day, the
priest gave this fire and brimstone damning speech about the evils of birth control and
pointed at my mom in the row and was just yelling at her basically, in front of the whole
congregation. She got up, the story went, walked out and never went back.
He grew up with “vague Christianity” and had friends of various religious faiths. Until 9
th
grade,
his best friend was a practicing evangelical Christian. Mr. Johnson would often go with him to
church. He was very curious; his friend’s church was a “rock and roll” church. One day, his
friend recommended he start reading the Bible, “He suggested I start with Luke so I read Luke
and then I read the gospels … That was my introduction. When I started reading Old Testament
stuff …it didn’t hold my attention because it was just so strange.” By 9
th
grade, he defined
himself as an Atheist. In college, he was exposed to Eastern religions. He was more tolerant of
spirituality, non-mainstream religions that emphasized spirituality and connectedness with each
other or nature, what Mr. Johnson called “woo-woo,”
26
and found some comfort within
Unitarians. A female Unitarian priest performed his marriage ceremony. He liked the philosophy
behind many theological concepts but the supernatural turned him off. He described his adult

26
Woo-woo means “Descriptive of an event or person espousing New Age theories… often has studied in an
authentic religious tradition such as Hinduism or Zen Buddhism, but now practices an Eastern-influenced yet
severely watered-down and Westernized pseudo-mysticism” (Lowe, 2005)

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 150
religious identity as going from “militant Atheism into curious Agnosticism on a regular basis”
and at the time of this dissertation, “pretty Atheist.” He had challenges with those who were
religious and academic. He explained,
I don’t see how anybody can actually take the Bible or any holy book with supernatural
elements at face value. I just don’t see how logically that can happen. People believe in
science, they believe how all this works, and then they say, “Oh, but here, I’m just going
to ignore all of that.” I’ve always found that cognitive dissonance amazing. I respect a lot
of people that have these deeply held views, but I just don’t understand it. I’m always
wondering, “Are they lying to themselves, or do they really believe both?”
Mr. Johnson’s reflection exposes his difficulty with other’s ability to be present and authentic
while holding two sets of beliefs that are contradictory.
The closest thing to religion for Mr. Johnson was respect for nature. This came out during
his experiences camping, backpacking and being in the outdoors. The connection to nature was
not only for himself, but also his family. He described that his 17-year-old daughter loved to
chase butterflies. He explained that “we feel a rejuvenation” when they do activities outdoors. He
described that
it fills my energy cup. It gives me more patience in the future. I’m sure this is what
people find in prayer, what people find in meditation, with all that is this sense of peace,
this sense of connection to things around you outdoors.
Mr. Johnson’s family celebrated Christmas, with an emphasis on gifts and decorations. His
family got a tree. He explained the rituals he participated in were not biblically rooted and
therefore “secular.” He described,
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 151
We celebrate this like anybody else…We put the stockings up and Santa Claus and the
whole bit. We give gifts and we’ve always done that. As for the religious element, it’s
absent. We do Easter too. We do little bunny rabbits and everything else.
He compared Christmas to Thanksgiving, as an excuse to get family together. Despite their
participation in these rituals, he stated that he disagreed with the commercialization of Christmas
within our society and found it “obscene.” He and his family also participated in other
mainstream American holidays, including Halloween and Memorial Day. For Halloween, they
all dressed up. He and his wife usually wore one of the battle reenactment costumes they had and
participated in trick or treating. He saw the holiday as fun and was bothered by those who cite
Halloween as “Satan’s” holiday. For Memorial Day, his family had a bar-b-que and tried to
include the stories of, and gratitude for, veterans before the meal, in lieu of when others would
say “a prayer.”
Religious background, identification and positionality and teaching career. As a
teacher, Mr. Johnson kept his religious, or non-religious, identity and theological beliefs fairly
quiet. He had a few significant experiences in his professional career where his Atheism and the
school community he taught within crossed. In one of his first positions as a teacher, he
remembered overhearing the administration saying that they had “just hired a nice Mormon
couple.” The school assumed he and his wife were Mormon. His wife was later asked why she
was not at church. Despite his fear that something might change, he did not believe that once the
school community found out they were not Mormon, they were not treated any differently.
In contrast, at another school where he taught, he was having a conversation and his
Atheist beliefs came up with a group of students. He was trying to prove to the students that a
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 152
person did not have to believe in God to be a good person, have values and morals. He described
what happened next,
Within a week …I was being called on the carpet for everything and being blamed for
everything. I’m just like, “What is going on?” Then [the vice principal] wrote me up this
review. I’d been teaching for you know, 15 years, I’ve got awards coming out my ass. I
have the worst review I’ve ever seen anybody get, even on subject matter knowledge. I
have a master’s, right? He wrote, barely meets expectations. “Oh, I expect that from
somebody ...” I’m like, “What happened? What happened?” I talked to some other people
and found out that those two families [the vice principals and the one of the students who
were in the conversation about his Atheism] are friends…That’s the only thing I can
think of. I’ve been gun-shy since …I left that school that year. I was done in one year.
I’m like, “I can’t. I can’t do this anymore.” I went to [another school] and told everybody
I’m a Unitarian, because they didn’t even know what that meant, and that covered me.
When he arrived at Eisenhower High School, he continued to keep his religious, or non-
religious, identity quiet. Mr. Johnson was an assistant coach on the Eisenhower High School
football team. He explained that he was made very uncomfortable when the entire football team,
coaches and players, participated in a Christian prayer prior to each game; “I’m like, this is
completely unconstitutional. Coaches cannot engage in a religious. I would walk away. I never
addressed it with them because I was the new guy…I didn’t want to anger the [head] football
coach and everybody else.” He felt like the coaches might have treated him differently after not
having participating in the prayer and received a colder reception from them. He was aware that
this might be merely his own construction and he was might be being treated the same.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 153
Mr. Johnson became a participant in this dissertation through Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy
approached him and asked if he would participate. Mr. Kennedy was not sure of Mr. Johnson’s
beliefs, yet had some idea based on passing conversations. Mr. Johnson was relieved when Mr.
Kennedy approached him,
at least I know one guy’s [not] going to judge me negatively for not going to church or
whatnot. When we talked a little bit, I could tell that he was very diplomatic in the way
that he approached things and was sensitive to the fact that we might be a little bit
different in our approaches. I don’t even know if he’s Agnostic, Atheist, I have no idea,
but … I know that he’s at least on that side of things. If I have an issue or a problem, he’s
a veteran teacher, he’s a veteran of the area, somebody I can kind of trust.
Mr. Johnson also showed some anxiety about being a participant in the dissertation, if I was
“religious” and had an agenda. I tried to reassure him.
Self-identification. Mr. Johnson identified himself as “patriotic,” he liked to say the
pledge of allegiance, omitting the words “under God,” “loud and proud.” He also considered
himself an “academic,” proud of his own education. He used the word “Atheist” to describe his
religious, or non-religious, identity and also used the word “Unitarian” to get people not to
bother him. He preferred term “Humanist” though, since it was more aligned with his beliefs.
Mr. Johnson desired to connect with his students. He worked to creating hooks for
students to plug into their learning and the classroom enviorment. However, Mr. Johnson had a
disconnect with his students in terms of his positionality and presence. A vast majority of his
students were identified as parts of historically marginalized groups. Mr. Johnson, in contrast,
only shared the aspects of his positionality that were a part of the dominant, being White, male, a
father, married and educated. The one aspect of his positionality, being Athiest, which identified
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 154
as outsider was kept from his school community and students. This in turn, challenged his
ability to be authentically present with his students.
Above is an explanation of Mr. Johnson’s background, to give insight into his
positionality and contextualize his curricular choices. Below I will address Mr. Johnson within
the context of the research question of this dissertation.
Research Question: How are Teachers’ Religious Identities, Affinities and Positionality
Revealed in Their Curricular Choices?
Mr. Johnson’s curricular choices revealed that, despite his recognition that religion was a
powerful influence in history, he often stayed away from discussing religion in class. His choices
often reflected what he believed to be of moral and ethical importance, which he separated from
religious, or non-religious, identity. When religion did come up, his background and beliefs
about religion were implicitly shown. His own background of his family overtly turning their
back on the Catholic Church came through when he identified and aligned the people who were
identified within a religion, either as self-identification or by others, to be discussing the religion
itself. His aversion towards the supernatural came out because he rarely discussed the theology,
belief systems or rituals that made up the religion.
Mr. Johnson’s curricular choices as related to his religious, or non-religious, identity,
affinity and positionality are discussed below in the context of his curricular emphasis, definition
of religion, his explanation of religion in the course of history, Civil Religions, understanding of
other religions other than Christianity and his perception of his students’ religious affinities and
affiliations.
Curricular Emphasis. Mr. Johnson taught history from a social and military lens,
aligned with the California Social Studies Standards. Much like his desire to keep his personal
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 155
religious views out of the classroom, religion overall was largely left out of his curricular choices
as well.
Mr. Johnson’s classroom focus was based on the California Social Studies Standards. He
taught chronologically using the standards as his guide. He emphasized the stories of leaders, or
“influential individuals” throughout history. He saw one of his guiding questions throughout the
year to be, “Do events make the man or does the man events?” He liked the quote, “Don’t think
that a small group of dedicated people can’t change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that
ever has.” He hoped this lens of teaching would empower his students towards believing they too
could be drivers of change. Mr. Johnson’s academic background and interests were focused on
military history. Despite this personal interest, he did not see the overt alignment with the
California Social Studies Standards and therefore, tried to emphasize the “socio-economic
perspective on history more than probably any other category, political, military, scientific or
whatever as a driver of events.”
Much like the standards, and aligned with Mr. Johnson’s own academic background and
interests, he used wars and significant points in military history to frame the units he taught. He
used his interest in military history and events to broadly frame and give a background on socio-
economic history. For example, when introducing the unit on the World War 2 period, he began
with a review of what the students should have learned the previous year in World History. This
review was a PowerPoint lecture and then student summary entitled, “3 bad guys.” He reviewed
the rise of power and goals of the three major Axis power leaders; Mussolini, Hitler and Tojo.
After this introduction, he had the students do an activity, published by the Teacher’s Curriculum
Institute, in which the students went through placards to review the major battles and military
turning points throughout the war in Europe.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 156
It was important for Mr. Johnson to have the students see him as someone with a strong
moral compass and guided by ethics. This desire also framed his curricular emphasis. For
example, despite the desire to include military history throughout his lessons and his
understanding that war was often necessary, Mr. Johnson believed, and shared with his students
often, that war was immoral. He told the students, “The biggest advocate for peace is a wartime
veteran.”
Using socio-economic themes and wars as the guidelines to construct units, he
emphasized these aspects of historical narrative and de-emphasized other aspects, including
religion. Mr. Johnson included other aspects of history to try to hook the students’ interests. He
used art and local heroes and events to bring up the students’ interest level. For example, he used
films about and stories of local World War 2 heroes to try to get the students interested in
learning about World War 2 on the Homefront. Mr. Johnson wanted students to see history as a
series of events and decisions made by individuals, whom they might have no connections with
but could be inspired by.
Reflective of his belief in the cognitive dissonance of faith and evidence, Mr. Johnson
wanted the students to learn to use documents and cite where their knowledge came from. He
believed, “All history is based on docs, it is the most important history-ish, if that’s a word,
writing.” Many times, these documents emphasized the individual or small group’s impact on
history. For example, he gave the students excerpts from the majority and dissention opinions in
the trial of Korematsu v US. He emphasized to the class that this was a regular guy with an
American-sounding name, who took a stand. Despite the dissention not being legal precedent, it
was written and therefore valuable. Using documents emphasized history that was written and
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 157
not oral narratives. It also emphasized provable facts and not feelings or stories that might have
changed through oral narrative.
Political Beliefs. Unlike his shyness to share his religious, or non-religious, Mr. Johnson
shared his political stances openly with his students. He seemed to believe this was his moral and
civic responsibility. In the example of the lesson and handout on Korematsu v US referred to
above, he emphasized multiple times throughout the lesson that the decision in Korematsu still
stood and internment was a possibility in modern USA. When asked about why he included the
dissenting opinion in the lesson during an interview, he said that there were two reasons: 1) it
was another document for the students to analyze and 2) he agreed with the dissention and
wanted to the students to have read it.
This case study occurred during the time when then candidate Donald Trump received
enough votes in the primary election to be the nominee for the Republican Party. With the
political climate in mind, Mr. Johnson in a lesson on the rise of totalitarian leaders prior to World
War 2, turned to me and said under his breath, “Watch me get fired.” He showed a clip from the
Daily Show where the host, Trevor Noah defined Fascism and created a mnemonic device to
learn what Fascism was using examples from then candidate, Donald Trump’s speeches. He
overtly was showing his belief that Donald Trump could become a fascist leader. He explained
why he showed the video in an interview,
I don't understand the Trump phenomenon. I don't. I'm really trying to wrap my brain
around even parts like, "If I'm this person, the typical supporter, why do ... I just don't see
it." This article about authoritarianism and the appeal and desire of authoritarianism. I'm
like, "Oh, okay. I guess that makes sense. That's kind of scary, because that's the reasons
why Mussolini and Hitler were able to come to power there. It's very similar." It's like,
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 158
"Don't compare somebody to a Nazi!" Well, I'm not, but this is very similar in lots of
things, so it scared me. We've joked about it in this class and things like that ... Around
left and right, Trump and that. I can't pass up this opportunity to make this comparison to
these kids and let them debate, criticize, agree, disagree.
In another interview, he spoke more broadly about exposing his students to the moral choices
they might have to make as adults and his responsibility as a teacher,
This could be a very telling thing about my teaching style and my philosophy, but this is
how I believe. They're juniors in high school, right? In just a matter of a year, little over a
year, they're going to be out on their own, they're going to be in college. If they are
unable to self-motivate, self-regulate, and self-plan, they are not going to survive in life,
so natural consequences, guidance, modelling, these other things I think are much more
powerful in the long run.
Mr. Johnson’s classroom choices reflected his need to impart what he believed to be moral and
ethical education upon his students.
Student Service. Community service was also significant and important to Mr. Johnson.
He believed that this was a responsibility for everyone. His definition of service reflected his
views of society, religion and religious institutions. As a part of his responsibility as a United
States history teacher in 11
th
grade at Eisenhower High School, he had to organize, document and
reward student service learning projects. The students were required to do 10 hours of service
learning. He commented that the minimum of 10 hours should not have been too difficult, but for
some students it was. Mr. Johnson, tried “to get them to make sure that what they give me is
community service and not helping out grandma.” He wanted the students to feel empowered
and help the larger community. Aligned with his view of being moral and not religious, or
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 159
aligned with a religion, he was clear with the students that he did not want the students helping to
perpetuate a religious institution, but rather directly help people, “they think by helping out their
church it’s community service. I’m like, no, that’s helping out the church. If the church is
helping the community and you’re helping them do that then it’s community service.”
Definition of Religion. When asked in a pre-interview, Mr. Johnson defined religion as
“a set of established beliefs that explain the universe.” This definition, similar to Durkheim,
revealed that religion can be all encompassing. Similar to Durheim, he explained religion beyond
classical definitions and beyond just the supernatural. This reflected Mr. Johnson’s own
upbringing and belief systems with his affinity towards Unitarianism, spirituality and “woo-woo”
despite the supernatural turning him off. His definition was narrower that Durhkeim’s (2001)
with the usage of the word “established.” The usage of the term established implied two beliefs:
1) religion must be a tradition, passed on from one to another and 2) religion is practiced by a
group, not just the beliefs of an individual. This definition of established also reflected his
family’s experience of leaving the church and him seeing himself outside of any religion. These
implied beliefs were apparent in how Mr. Johnson discussed religion and when, reflecting on his
curricular choices, saw religion in his classroom.
In the sections below I will address how Mr. Johnson viewed religion within his
curriculum and within the course of history, discuss the role Civil Religion played in Mr.
Johnson’s classroom, examine how religions were addressed when discussed and finally,
examine Mr. Johnson’s perspective on knowing student’s religious backgrounds.
Religion in the Course of History. Aligned with his own enmity towards religion,
religion was often not addressed in the course of historical events. When addressed, it was
discussed in a vacuum and not given privilege as an influence, driver, cause or effect of history.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 160
In Mr. Johnson’s class. Mr. Johnson recognized religion as a driver in history yet, more
often than not, did not include it overtly in his curricular choices as an influence over events. He
used the Standards as the guide for his classroom curricular choices. He recognized that within
the California State Standards there were overt standards that addressed history. When asked
about including religion in the curriculum, he said,
That’s actually a standard … It’s an important part of motivation for humanity. In US
history, we talk about any time that religion plays an important part, it’s discussed from
the social Gospel movement in the progressive era to the religious justifications formed
against slavery. When we’re in the 1920s, I usually do a mini-unit called “God and
Consumerism,” these two different powerful motivations. Then we talk about the
religious influence on politics in the 80s.
In the statement above, he not only recognized that religion was in the Standards, but also a
powerful influence for people throughout history. When reflecting upon the choices of using
religion in the curriculum during interviews, he discussed religion in the classroom as an aspect
of political power and a means of control to sway people into specific action. He also saw
religion as a justification for actions in US history such as slavery, war and womens’ rights. He
also discussed that religion has positive impetus for action in the arts and public service.
Despite Mr. Johnson’s discussion in the interviews that religion was a significant part of history
and understanding that religion was in the California State Standards, he rarely overtly brought
up religion in his classroom. When pressed in interviews, he recognized that religion could have,
and in some cases, should have come up during lessons. For example, after teaching about the
Great Depression, he recognized that he did not talk about the theological implications of the
Great Depression on Americans or Civil Religion. In another example, during a lesson on Native
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 161
Americans patriotism, despite their treatment by the government, he briefly stated that the Native
Americans were stripped of their language and religions. Later, in an interview, he recognized
that he did not actually address what that meant. Mr. Johnson’s desire to not discuss religion or
religious, or non-religious, identity overrode what he saw as significant aspects of history that
could and should have been included in his lessons.
Mr. Johnson’s conviction that an individual or group being connected to a religious
identity is religion itselfn was reflected in his lessons, Mr. Johnson would often point to the
identification of a religious group as a discussion of religion. For example, he said religion came
up in a lesson when he mentioned Jews in the Holocaust. He also pointed to when he discussed
voting blocs, such as the Catholic or Evangelical Christian vote. In these instances, he said
religion came up in the class yet, it was only the identification of a religious group without
context and how the religious beliefs and history may or may not have influenced those groups
within those events in history. This reflection was aligned with Mr. Johnson’s definition of
religion, which emphasized religion as an established group of people.
Another example of how Mr. Johnson discussed events in the classroom that overtly had
ties to religion, yet spoke of them in a vacuum, without relating them to causes, effects and
parallel events occurring was the class discussion of the rise and revivals of Christian
Fundamentalism in the post-World War 1 era. This topic is overtly outlined by the California 11
th

grade Standards. Mr. Johnson addressed the topic, yet did not discuss why the rise took place in
that specific era, nor how it related to art, or other social or political movements. This would
have led to a discussion on the actual beliefs themselves and not just the groups of individuals
and political power which they achieved in this period.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 162
Mr. Johnson spoke of belonging to a religious group as motivation for individuals’
actions. He did not speak to the beliefs of the religion, which might have, or have not influenced
those choices. One significant point, which he brought up in an interview after the class, was his
discussion of Einstein’s motivation in being a part of the development of nuclear weapons in the
USA. He explained to the students that Einstein, as a Jew, fled Austria, and therefore had a
motivation to help the USA beat the Nazis during World War 2. This mention occurred after
watching a video on the development and usage of the Atomic Bomb. The video quoted
Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita. No mention of this quotation, Oppenheimer’s Jewish
identity, or Einstein’s religious beliefs were mentioned. Such a discussion might have led to
other topics about religion. The only mention was that Einstein was Jewish. This again points to
the established community aspect of religion that Mr. Johnson saw as religion in and of itself and
Mr. Johnson’s affinity to avoid the discussion of beliefs.
Civil Religion. Mr. Johnson’s strong background in military history led him to
emphasize narratives of fighting for freedom as his expression of Civil Religion. He said in an
interview when asked about common culture and identity in America, “I love this country.” He
had pride in being an American and defined being American, and our collective Civil Religious
practice, through a lens of pursuing freedom.
This lens of freedom was the common thread of American narrative evident in various
aspects of Mr. Johnson’s teaching. Each day, all of the students in Eisenhower High School
participated in the Civil Religious ritual of saying the pledge of allegiance during their first
period. Mr. Johnson proudly viewed this ritual as an opportunity to show his and their patriotism.
As discussed earlier, Mr. Johnson said the pledge each day, yet did not recite the words “under
God.” All of the students in Mr. Johnson’s class stood and put their hands over their heart, yet
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 163
not all said the pledge. When asked about his views of the students’ participation in the ritual of
saying the pledge, Mr. Johnson reflected on past classes and students who did not participate or
stand. When asked about how he responded to the students who did not stand, Mr. Johnson
responded that he “congratulate[d] them for exercising their first amendment rights.” The
participation in the ritual itself was not what Mr. Johnson found important, rather it was the
freedom to choose to participate or not and how they participated that was more meaningful.
An expression of Mr. Johnson’s values and educational background, freedom and, more
specifically, the willingness to fight for the ideal of freedom, defined how Civil Religion
emerged in Mr. Johnson’s curricular emphasis. For the World War 2 unit, aligned with the
California Social Studies Standards, Mr. Johnson focused on how the war’s effects on, and the
contributions of, various subgroups within the United States. For each subgroup, African-
Americans, Japanese-Americans, Native Americans and Women, he emphasized that despite
their terrible treatment in the USA, and contrary to their civil rights, each group fought for
freedom. For each of the subgroups, his lesson followed a similar pattern, he commented on what
the group was facing at home, then he played a video and showed how they valiantly fought
during the war, or supported the war effort. The students answered questions based on the video
and then the class had a discussion about the details of how challenging their fight was and how
they were honored. For example, for African American contributions to the war, he briefly spoke
about segregation and referred back to the previous classroom lessons. He then played a
YouTube music video entitled Red Ball Express, which detailed how the troops were supplied on
the Western European front. Many of the people who were in the Red Ball Express were African
American. The video emphasized how difficult it was to be on the supply lines during the war in
Europe. After getting initial reactions form the students, Mr. Johnson had the students read a
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 164
handout out loud on the 99
th
and 332
nd
fighter squadrons, known as the Red Tails. He
emphasized, in a teacher led discussion, that the Red Ball Express was thankless, but the war
would not have been successful without them and that the Red Tails were one of the most
decorated units during the war. Similarly, for Native Americans, he explained, “Native
Americans are a small percentage of American, less than 2% but played and important role in
World War 2, especially in the Pacific.” He then showed a YouTube music video entitled Code
Talkers about the Navajo Code Talkers in the war in the Pacific using their native language as a
secret code that was never deciphered. He followed the video with a teacher led discussion.
He asked the students, “What did we learn?”
One student responded, “About the destruction of language and culture”
He continued to elaborate on the student’s comment,
We didn’t know what to do with Native Americans. We put then in Indian Schools with
English, not their language, teachings of the Christian Church, not their religion, cut their
hair… it was a cultural genocide... [they] couldn’t even vote.
He explained that the Navajo language was “harder than Chinese.” He went on to spend more
than half the period having the students read aloud a handout on the incredible patriotism of the
Navajo Code Talkers. The handout’s conclusion paragraph stated,
Throughout the Pacific the Navajo Code Talkers performed in a highly commendable
fashion… recognition for their dedicated service to American in World War II, the
Navajo code talkers were awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the President… in
December 1981… Their patriotism, resourcefulness and courage also have earned them
the gratitude of all Americans.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 165
In these conversations, he created little context of their maltreatment in the USA and his
emphasis was on the patriotism and bravery displayed but these subgroups. The class discussion
was not only focused on the contributions of these minority groups, but also their willingness to
sacrifice in the fight for freedom. Mr. Johnson contextualized that these groups might not have
enjoyed the freedom they were fighting for, but fought for it anyway. For Mr. Johnson, it was
important that no matter their background, they participated in the moral obligation of fighting
for freedom, just as he hoped the students would as well within their own contexts.
The reflection on how he hoped the students would participate in a fight for freedom also
became apparent when talking about the Japanese Americans during the World War 2 era. When
addressing the contributions of the Japanese Americans during World War 2, Mr. Johnson first
briefly discussed the contributions of the 442
nd
regiment, which was a Japanese American
regiment that fought in Europe during the war. In the handout, which the students read out loud,
it opened with an explanation that these soldiers volunteered despite being interned. Mr. Johnson
explained that these soldiers were not allowed to fight in the war in the Pacific for fear of joining
the other side. Again, the handout emphasized the incredible acts of bravery and record number
of decorations these soldiers received. Mr. Johnson emphasized that there were local heroes in
this battalion as well. This lesson continued for more than two days. After the emphasis on the
heroism and patriotism by those who fought, he returned to the internment camps. He made a
point to the class that the internment camps were “very bad” and pointed out that they were still
considered legal up through modern day; this was especially important for Mr. Johnson in light
of the contemporary political situation and language being used by the presidential candidates. In
an interview, when asked about why he emphasized the legality of the internment camps, he
responded that he wanted the students to be vigilant and politically aware that it can happen to
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 166
anyone anywhere. He hoped the students would participate in their own fights for freedom as
they arose in the political climate of their era.
While emphasizing for the students the fights for freedom both abroad and at home, Mr.
Johnson also wanted to maintain the Civil Religious belief that the USA was a light among
nations. In the same lesson, Mr. Johnson went through a brief history of internment camps,
emphasizing that the USA was not the first to use them, since they were invented in Cuba, nor
were Americans the only ones to use internment camps. In the follow up interview, Mr. Johnson
said his reasoning for including this history, despite disagreeing with the internment camps, was
that he, “didn’t want to demonize America too much…I always tell them I have a saying and I
go it’s going to get me fired someday, ‘America is the worst country on the earth except all the
others.’” He wanted to make sure that the fight for freedom was not against an enemy of the
USA, but rather for the USA.
Mr. Johnson contextualized negative decisions and historical realities of the USA, while
still remaining patriotic. This was his rationale for the class discussion around the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In class, he discussed the arguments for and against the bombing and
seemed to have some sympathy and understanding for the first bombing at Hiroshima, yet
strongly disagreed with the second bombing at Nagasaki. He did not use the term war crime. He
explained,
I’m afraid to label anything the United States does like that a war crime…like the
bombing …because a war crime is … a legal definition. Nobody is, it’s innocent until
proven guilty. I want to just keep it in the whole it’s possible. Let’s talk about it. What
would make it or what would it not and keep them thinking about that. Just the idea that
your country is capable of doing something wrong I think is important for them to
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 167
understand because I think blind Patriotism is a scary, dangerous thing. I want to keep
them questioning and thinking but I don’t want to come up with any answer for them.
In line with the other examples above, Mr. Johnson’s emphasis was on freedom and questioning
while still aligning himself with the Civil Religious belief of admiring and loving the USA.
Christian Privilege. Christian Privilege in Mr. Johnson’s class was subtle and came out
through expectations of common traditions and language. For example, when talking about the
death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the class, he commented that “FDR was a saint.” In an
interview, he made the statement that they, he and his family, “celebrate [Christmas] like
anybody else” and on March 17, he told the students, “We are all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day!”
These statements were all examples of his expectation that all the students had similar
understandings of these holidays and language. Mr. Johnson gave small clues into his upbringing
of a family who had not actively participated in an established religion but had roots in
Catholicism, as an expectation of Civil Religious understanding.
Other Religions. As discussed above, in interviews, Mr. Johnson often stated that he
discussed religion when including members of a specific religious group into the class
conversation, such as talking about Jews in the Holocaust and the cultural genocide of the Native
Americans, including the removal of their religion. One notable exception, aligned with his
academic interests in college, was his discussion of Japanese religions and practices yet, even
these were defined within Western religious concepts and language. For example, when
explaining the Civil Religion in Japan pre- and during World War 2, he explained that the
“Emperor is God” and he is the “Head Priest of Shinto.”
27
During a follow-up interview, Mr.

27
Shintoism is the unofficial state religion of Japan. In most cases, it does not exclude people from believing in or
practicing other religions. Shinto emphasizes ritual and not beliefs. Shintoism has no belief in God, only connections
within this world that are spirits known as kami which are often local. The Emperor is expected to have a greater
connection with the kami through various rituals practiced. During the period immediately prior to and during World
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 168
Johnson recognized that he applied Western concepts to the status of the Emperor, yet explained
that he wanted the students to know the lengths to which the people of Japan would go for the
Emperor. Another example was when Mr. Johnson briefly described that American soldiers were
surprised by kamikaze pilots and Banzai charges; he contextualized these actions by the Japanese
by explaining that it connected to Bushido culture.
28
Later on in an interview, Mr. Johnson
explained,
we were talking about America’s island-hopping campaign and when they were fighting
in the islands that the Japanese were not surrendering no matter what. It also created the
Kamikaze pilots and Banzai charges and all these things where Americans were like what
the heck is going on, it goes back to this Bushido culture of honor, pride, no surrender
kind of thing. Not as much detail as I’d like but that’s what we got.
He had hoped to contextualize even further the Civil Religious origins of Bushido culture within
Japan yet, felt time limited. Both of these examples showed a willingness to discuss Japanese
religion, something he had interest in during his time in college. Additionally, these topics were
of religious practices that were no longer adhered to in modern times and, therefore, were not
open to theological debates, which Mr. Johnson avoided.
Students’ religions. In line with his previous experiences at other schools, Mr. Johnson
did not share his religious, or non-religious beliefs, with his students nor did he want to know his
students’ beliefs or affiliations. In the pre-interview he said, “That’s not the relationship I want to
have with my students. I’d like to know them as a people and everything else. I don’t tell them

War 2, Shinto became the state religion and it was believed that the Emperor himself was a kami or a descendant of
the kami. At the end of World War 2, the USA demanded that as a part of the Japanese surrender, any divine or high
religious status of the Emperor be undone (Hopfe & Hopfe; 1994; Religion, 2014).
28
Bushido, meaning way of the warrior, culture has its roots in Confucian and Zen Buddhist teachings and was
common education for samurai and other warriors/soldiers in Japan (Hopfe & Hopfe; 1994; The Bushido Code: An
Overview, 2014). Bushido culture emphasized loyalty, discipline and honor while expecting detachment and looking
at the collective rather than the individual. It eventually permeated Japanese society and became an important part of
Japanese Civil Religion (Religion, 2014; The Bushido Code: An Overview, 2014).
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 169
my religion and they don’t tell me theirs.” He pointed out that unless there was an overt symbol
of religious identification, it does not seem “organic for the students” to discuss their religious
perspectives. In this statement, he revealed his view that the students’ religious identities were
not an essential part of what made them who they are, but were merely a label or affiliations. He
seemed to have an aversion to wanting to know how students identified themselves, because he
did not want to align the students with the institutional views of that identification, a view he
hoped the students had of him. He also didn’t like to know the students’ religious affiliations
because of what he taught,
anytime we deal with religion, I bend over backwards to be extremely respectful,
balanced and academic about it because that’s a very personal emotional touchstone for
many people. I don’t want to belittle it in anyway especially if there is somebody [of that
faith].
And on the occasions when he knew students’ religious affiliations through items such as crosses
on jewelry, head scarfs or statements made by the students, he felt he had to be more careful with
his language. He found this caution to be challenging because he liked to be sarcastic. Consistent
with Alters’ (2010) findings, he showed fear of how the students might interpret his teaching if
he knew their religious affiliations and belief.
Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006) explained that there are various factors which influence
a teacher’s ability of presence in the classroom, including authenticity of self. Mr. Johnson was
willing to share various aspects of his views, including his political vies with his students, while
not sharing his religious beliefs. This reflected his desire to know his students’ interests and
connect them with their learning through various avenues, while not creating the space for their
religious identities in the classroom. He showed apprehension that parts of his identity would be
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 170
eclipsed by knowledge of his Atheist views. Similarly, he feared that knowing his students “in
that way,” i.e. knowing their religious, or non-religious identity, would impede on other aspects
of his authentic self.
In line with his desire to engage students yet not have religion or religious identification
discussed in class, Mr. Johnson struggled with his responses to students when they did reveal
such personal information. During the observations of the class there were two significant
moments when students revealed their religious and ethnic affinities. In both instances, Mr.
Johnson validated the students but then quickly pivoted away from the religious issue. In one
instance, while discussing war crimes, a student identified that he had sympathy with Palestinian
Muslims and asked why the USA and international community did not do anything for their
cause. Mr. Johnson recognized the student concern for the students’ issue and said that they
would be discussing it more later in the school year. In a follow up interview, Mr. Johnson said
he knew that the student had those feelings,
[the student] wrote an essay and it was about Andrew Jackson and he turned it into a
protest piece about the treatment of Palestinians. I’m like, that was very bold. I see where
you’re going with this. Actually, you have some legitimacy here but you really have to
answer the prompt thoroughly and then use that as a connection to write. He’s like okay. I
think he was happy that I didn’t just put him down and just tell him to be quiet. I can
obviously see that’s a position that he’s passionate about, aware about. I think that’s what
he’s been talking on, at least the majority of it and that’s something he’s passionate and
willing to talk about.
Mr. Johnson tried to create a balance between not discussing the student’s religious beliefs while
at the same time keeping the student engaged in learning and the class. Mr. Johnson was willing
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 171
to take up student comments and ideas when not rooted in religion. In this case, the comment
was rooted in religious identifications, therefore, Mr. Johnson tried to validate the student while
not engaging in the discussion.
Another student raised his hand during the conversation about how internment camps in
the USA could still be a reality in the future. This student identified himself as a Coptic
Christian. He said that he was from Egypt. He explained that he and his family were scared with
the political climate and even had considered moving back to Egypt, despite persecution, due to
their fear of the current political reality.
29
In class, as the student spoke, Mr. Johnson was
sympathetic and repeated that it must be very scary for him and his family. When the student
finished his thought, Mr. Johnson then quickly pivoted back to the experience of the Japanese-
Americans during their internment in World War 2. When asked about his thinking in an
interview later, Mr. Johnson explained that he thought about using the students’ experiences as
an example of various small communities, for example Jews during World War 2, all around the
world being persecuted, yet he decided not to take it up due to time constraints. Mr. Johnson did
not want to take up the topic which might have led to a discussion about religion. In both
instances, Mr. Johnson showed his affinity not to discuss religion in the classroom, whilst still
showing that he was empathetic and ethical when working within his students concerns.
Revealing his personal views towards religion and religious institutions, the only time
Mr. Johnson actively engaged with a student who brought up religion was through sarcasm. Mr.
Johnson showed me a quiz in which a student wrote at the end, “Even though some are wrong
answers, I better get a biblical grade.” Mr. Johnson wrote back “Genesis 6.” When asked about

29
It should be noted that I, as an observer of this interaction, became visibly emotional and moved by the students
comments about his fear. Mr. Johnson did not comment that day or in the follow up interview that my reaction
influenced his choice to how he reacted to the student, or even that he noticed that I was upset. I am aware though
that this might have influenced the student/teacher interaction.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 172
this thinking process for this response, Mr. Johnson explained that it was a quick response. He
wrote Genesis 6, referring to the F in flood. In this response, he revealed his knowledge of
biblical scripture and his overall cynical view of religion.
Cross Case Analysis
This section presents the major themes which were found when examining the
intersection of religious identity, affinity positionality and the curricular choices of the teachers
in the case studies above. The framework with which these were analyzed, as outlined in Chapter
2, examined various factors, within the context of their backgrounds and positionality that in turn
influences one’s view of religion, personal beliefs, affiliation and identification. Each of these
informed Mr. Kennedy’s and Mr. Johnson’s definitions of religion, how they participated in and
expected or hoped their students to participate in Civil Religion, including rituals, and their
views of Christianity in the USA. All of these factors were ultimately context dependent and this,
in turn, was how religion was revealed in their curricular choices. The cross case analysis below
will first examine the significant similarities and differences in both positionality and
backgrounds for Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson. Taking their positionality and backgrounds into
account within the conceptual framework of this dissertation, the following themes will be
discussed:
• Curricular emphasis
• Definition of religion and classroom application
• What was religion when discussed in the classroom
• Civil Religion when discussed in the classroom
• Christian privilege and religious hierarchy

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 173
Positionality and Background
There were some very obvious similarities between Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson. Both
were White or of European descent, middle-aged, male, had familial origins in Christianity,
teachers in their families of origin, were married to teachers, were career teachers themselves and
were fathers to two school-aged daughters. Both were also brought up in the area surrounding
Eisenhower High School, had gone to schools nearby and recognized that Eisenhower had a
reputation for being a rough school in an underserved area. Both, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson,
chose to keep the only part of their apparent identity which led them to be outside of the
dominant narrative, their identifications as Agnostic/Pagan and Athiest/Humanist, from their
school community and their students.
There were a few significant differences in the cases, however. First, Mr. Kennedy’s
class was an AP World history class, with a self-selecting group of students who were perceived
by the school community as more socio-economically advantaged and desiring of more rigor.
The curriculum did not easily lend itself to the traditional chronological narrative of most history
classes and jumped around geographically, per the College Board guidelines. Mr. Johnson’s
class was a “‘regular” US History class which was more representative of the broader school
community and was taught chronologically, based on the California Social Studies Standards.
The second difference was their religious background. Mr. Kennedy’s family of origin
participated and identified with being Protestant Christian. This was apparent through the
participation of rituals, not necessarily through outspoken faith and beliefs. Mr. Kennedy’s
immediate family, his wife and two daughters were also involved in their church, attending
services and weekly fellowship. Mr. Kennedy himself did not identify as Christian, rather he
participated in these rituals as a part of the family and preferred when the rituals were
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 174
modernized. Mr. Kennedy was an outsider within his own family in regards to identification,
while still participating in familial rituals. This conflict was apparent in his curricular choices
and emphasis. It also challenged Mr. Kennedy’s own alignment within his choices, making them
less consistent without clear boundaries and made reflection upon these choices more
challenging.
In contrast, Mr. Johnson’s family had actively broken away from the Catholic Church.
Mr. Johnson viewed his family’s participation in rituals such as gift giving at Christmas as a part
of their Civil Religious identity and not Christian. His family’s overt break with the Catholic
Church created distance for Mr. Kennedy from his understanding of religion. This distance
created more consistency with curricular choices and enabled more reflection when those choices
were made.
Third, they defined their own religious, or non-religious, beliefs differently. Mr. Kennedy
identified with the word Agnostic. He actively doubted the existence of God or another higher
power, yet did not say God did not exist. He also said that he admired those who had faith. He
sarcastically used the term “Pagan” to identify himself and those who believed similarly to him.
Mr. Johnson, on the other hand, defined himself as Atheist and preferred the term
humanistic to encompass his views of morality and respect of nature. Mr. Johnson did not
understand those who had faith in things that had no evidence, while at the same time
considering themselves educated. He explained the people with both identifications had a
“cognitive dissonance.” Similar to Meadows et al.’s (2000) discussion of religious Christian
teachers who taught evolution needing to manage their conflict, Mr. Johnson did not understand
and found a disconnection with those who lived with both believing in something unprovable, or
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 175
supernatural and considered themselves academic. Mr. Johnson also used the religious
identification of Unitarianism so as not to expose himself to challenges of his beliefs.
Finally, their experiences in their professional lives within their religious identifications
were significantly different. Despite both of them not actively sharing their religious, or non-
religious identity with their school communities, the outcomes of their “outing” had been
different. Mr. Kennedy did not report experiencing any discrimination in his professional career
as an Agnostic or “Pagan.” Mr. Johnson, on the other hand report three different instances where
he felt either uncomfortable or overtly discriminated against to the point of leaving the teaching
position.
Curricular Emphasis
In both case studies, the teachers placed the decisions for their curricular emphasis
outside of themselves. However, when individual choices were made, their choices were
influenced by their own educational emphasis, especially through their college experiences. Mr.
Kennedy’s choice to emphasize economic history and Euro-centricity was influenced by his own
experience in high school, taking AP European history and college where he learned through an
essentialist “Great Books” curriculum.
Mr. Johnson’s choice to discuss the Japanese culture, emphasize the Japanese American
experience during World War 2 frame historical chronology through wars and emphasize
military history were all reflective of his interests in his graduate and undergraduate studies.
Both privileged historical themes and narratives they had personal interests in and de-
emphasized and, at times ignored, religion within history.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 176
Definition of Religion
As described in the literature review, religion was defined in the context of this
dissertation as a collection of concepts which carry moral authority that are exemplified through
collective rites, rituals, beliefs and myths (Durkheim, 2001; Jones 1986). Both Mr. Kennedy and
Mr. Johnson had narrower definitions of religion as those included in the framework. Mr.
Kennedy narrowed his definition through the use of the word “institution” and “unseen.” This
came through in his curricular choices by not including religious, or non-religious, beliefs, and
rather only discussing the institutions and rituals.
Mr. Johnson also had a narrower definition through the use of the term “established,”
expressing a historical connection to a set of beliefs and an institution. This definition came
through in his understanding of the discussion of religion being about the people associated or
identified with the religion. He rarely discussed rituals, rites and beliefs because discussing the
people was already discussing religion.
Both case studies avoided discussing the beliefs that defined the religion, despite both of
them including the term “belief” in their definitions. As described by Alters (2010) and Talbert,
and Romanowski (2002), and despite their definitions, they both had an apprehension to discuss
ideas that might contradict their students’ religious, or non-religious, beliefs.
Religion when Discussed within History
Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson’s views of religion were vindicated by how they
understood religion through historical events. As inferred and described by Journell (2011),
Nelson (2010) and White (2007), there is a cycle of personal view of religion and then seeing the
evidence, though historical events having justified those views, then led to further through seeing
history through that lens. For Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson this was a cycle and iterative
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 177
process. Neither teacher choose to emphasize religion, despite recognizing that religion was a
significant factor throughout history. Mr. Kennedy described religion as an excuse or
rationalization for historical events. He saw religion as a factor within geo-political power. He
emphasized that religion in and of itself was not the cause of events. Religion, he pointed out,
was used by those in power to manipulate the people. When religions did interact with history,
through geo-political expansion and trade, conflicts occurred.
Mr. Johnson, in contrast, did see religion as driver of historical events, in and of itself.
Despite this assertion, he avoided discussing religion in class. When religion was discussed, it
came up in two forms: 1) as the individuals or groups associated with the religion, aligned with
his own experiences and self-identification of his family leaving a religious institution; and 2) as
Noddings (2008) describes within the safety of Eastern faiths, and in Mr. Johnson’s case
specifically, state religion in Japan. This was aligned with his own interests but did not hold the
same institutional weight as Western faiths.
Civil Religion
Both teachers emphasized a uniqueness about the American popular culture and historical
narrative similar to Blumenfeld (2006) and Bellah (1967; 2014). The language and assumptions
of this uniqueness aligned with Christian narratives and identity. Both teachers also had implicit
beliefs around their students (and all Americans) having a common knowledge of, and regular
participation, in Civil Religious rituals. Some of the rituals were historically and uniquely
American, such as observances of Memorial Day. The observance of Memorial Day, as Bellah
(1967) asserted, had implicit alignment with Christian narratives of sacrifice, yet were not
overtly Christian. For Mr. Johnson, willingness to sacrifice and fight for the freedom was a major
theme throughout his class. Both teachers also expressed expectations that “like everybody else,”
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 178
they participated in Civil Religious rituals aligned explicitly with Christianity, such as gift giving
on Christmas.
In addition to the Civil Religious participation as discussed above, Mr. Kennedy
emphasized that he tried to maintain a balance, whilst getting his students to think critically,
about Civil Religious myths. Despite this expressed desire, the implementation in the classroom
was superficial. He spoke explicitly about not wanting to be the teacher who broke everything
down for the students. He cited specifically that he was willing to expose the non-traditional,
more historically accurate narratives of Washington and Lincoln, yet not willing to do the same
for the stories of the Alamo and Columbus. Mr. Kennedy explained that Washington’s and
Lincoln’s places in history were safe and therefore could be deconstructed unlike the Alamo and
Columbus. These choices showed that he wanted to maintain civil myths, since he was willing to
deconstruct narratives that would perpetuate despite his overt analytical breakdown of their
stories.
Mr. Johnson’s perpetuation of American narratives and Civil Religion did not take the
form of story deconstruction but rather through the lens of the fight, and sacrifice, for freedom.
He emphasized the honor of the fight itself. The fight was important for not only those who were
beneficiaries of the freedom, but also those who were discriminated against within the USA,
such as minorities during the World War 2 era or questioning the Korematsu decision. He hoped
that his students took on and would be inspired by the American civil responsibility, and as
Bellah (1967) described, civil sacrifice aligned with Christian beliefs of fighting and sacrificing
for freedom.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 179
Christian Privilege and Religious Hierarchy
Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson, aligned with Bellah’s (1967; 2014) explanation of
collective American Civil Religion, had the implicit expectation of collective experience and
knowledge about superficial Christian rituals. As Blumenfeld (2006) describes, both men
showed biases of religious hierarchy with Christianity at the top. Additionally, both of them, as
described by Noddings (2008) explained Eastern faiths within a context of over-arching
philosophies and did not look towards or explain the rituals and belief systems.
Mr. Kennedy’s examples of religious hierarchy and Christian privilege were more
explicit. He explained in interviews on various occasions that his expectation of prior knowledge
was validated by the lack of questions posed by the students. He privileged Christianity not only
with his expectation of prior knowledge, but also on giving Christianity more time in class. He
leaned on the Protestant Reformation in Europe as a turning point for world history and used
Christianity as a point of reference for understanding other faiths. His understanding and
extension of the American narrative being based in Western Europe also meant that he implicitly
saw the American narrative being a branch of the Enlightenment period in Europe and the
Protestant Reformation. Therefore, American history was grounded in a major turning point, as
he saw it, of world Christendom.
Mr. Kennedy was also explicit in his choices, despite being a world history class, of not
privileging any Eastern faiths except the time they were given during the comparative religion
mini-unit. Simply in the amount of time given, on top of how they were discussed, there was a
bias towards Western European Christianity with an explicit hierarchy of Islam being semi-
European, Eastern Faith following below and finally indigenous African and American religious
traditions at the bottom.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 180
In contrast, Mr. Johnson spoke far less about religion overall. This could have been due
to his own affinity to exclude religion but also could have been due to the class and units which I
observed. Mr. Johnson’s off hand comments about Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day and others
showed an expectation of common knowledge of the observances of these rituals. The only time
religion was overtly discussed, other than by individuals or groups whom adhered or were
identified with a religion, was with Japanese Civil Religion, Shinto and Bushido culture. This
was an example of Mr. Johnson’s willingness to accept and discuss religions more as
philosophies without the supernatural aspects. This was aligned with his own view of the “Woo-
woo” and his own Atheism, as described by Noddings (2008).
Conclusion
Grounded in the literature presented and through the lens of the conceptual in Chapter 2,
the data in the case studies above revealed various themes including:
• Curricular Emphasis
• Definitions of religion and alignment with the definition
• Religion as discussed in the classroom
• Internalization of Civil Religion and Christianity
Patterns emerged with the cross case analysis. Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson chose a
curricular emphasis that aligned with their educational background and not their religion. Both of
their definitions of religion excluded themselves as overtly part of religion. Due to their status as
outsiders, in Mr. Kennedy’s case as a conflicting religious, or non-religious, identity and in Mr.
Johnson’s case of discrimination for his beliefs, both showed an overall repulsion to include
religious, or non-religious, beliefs in their classrooms. Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson, despite
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 181
their chosen religious identities, had internalized dominant narratives of Civil Religion and
Christianity.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 182
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS IN
RELATION TO PRACTICE, POLICY, AND RESEARCH
To answer the research question: How are teachers’ religious identities, affinities and
positionality revealed in their curricular choices?, I first examined how religion has been defined
and socially constructed/understood, how religion has interplayed with public education, Civil
Religion and religious hierarchy, positionality and teacher curricular choices. I then conducted a
multi-site case study of two secondary Social Studies teachers. I used purposeful sampling to
find participants who taught in comprehensive public high schools, were fully credentialed and
experienced, were willing to be reflective about their teaching process and identified as outside
the dominant religious narrative in the USA as Agnostic and Atheist. The data collected, through
triangulation of interviews, observations and artifacts, was coded first by using a priori codes
within the framework of this study and then by examining the data for empirical codes that
emerged. As patterns and themes emerged, findings were generated. Thus, the findings of this
study arose.
Summary of Findings
Mr. Kennedy showed a complex and conflicting religious, or non-religious, identity and
practice, revealed by his curricular choices. Mr. Kennedy identified as Agnostic. His education
had centered on Euro-centric history and followed the essentialist and “Great Books”
philosophies. He was brought up in a Protestant family and his wife and children continued to be
involved in their church. He participated in rituals that were associated with both American Civil
Religion and Christianity yet, during interviews, minimized his desire to be involved in these
rituals. Mr. Kennedy’s definition of religion was narrower than what was presented in Chapter 2
of this dissertation; he included the terms “institution,” “social regularities” and the “unseen.”
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 183
There was often a disconnect between his stated beliefs and his classroom practices, aligned with
his continued participation in Christian rituals and familial connections. All of these aspects of
his positionality and views of religion were shown through his curricular choices.
Mr. Kennedy chose to emphasize trade and economic history. This pushed aside other
factors of history, including religion. His education was reflected through his connecting back of
American narrative to European history. This choice meant that he privileged European and, in
turn, Christian influences and narratives in history. Mr. Kennedy’s skepticism of religion came
out through his discussions of, and lack of discussion about, religion in class. He explained
religion to his class as a social construct, a means of social control to maintain status quo for the
higher classes. He explained that religion was for the un- or under- educated. His emphasis on
European narratives and historical perspective of religion was used to explain religion as an
excuse for actions throughout history rather than a driver of historical events.
Mr. Kennedy valued passing on his own knowledge to his student. He saw himself as the
conduit for student success in his class with understanding of the subject matter. This was the
case with all the units observed except for the unit on African Civilizations prior to contact with
Europe. In this case, students were trusted to be able to access the knowledge on their own and
value religion equally as other historical factors.
Mr. Kennedy’s Christian grounding was evident through using Christianity as a point of
comparison and his expectation that students also shared in similar experiences and knowledge
to pull out information from the class. His education and background also led to his choices of
civil religious narratives including emphasizing American Exceptionalism and the American
Spirit. Mr. Kennedy’s own desire to pass on critical thinking and skepticism while valuing
American Exceptionalism meant that he was selective in the collective myths that he passed on
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 184
to his students. Despite making conscious decision to deconstruct some myths, he only
“destroyed” myths that were safe within the American canon. He aligned his own skepticism of
religion, and Civil Religion through the willingness to have students be aware that myths are
often untrue, and can become societal truths over time. At the same time, he was unwilling to be
an agent himself of the collapse of Civil Religion for his students.
Mr. Johnson’s familial break from any religious establishment, his own experiences of
religious discrimination and firm Atheist beliefs came through in his curricular choices. The
alignment between Mr. Johnson’s stated beliefs and his classroom curricular choices was
evident, due to his background and positionality. Mr. Johnson grounded himself in a desire for
moral and ethical good and a civil religious belief in the fight for freedom. His definition of
religion reflected his own alignment of the individuals with the established institution. He
distanced himself from religion by including “supernatural” in his definition of religion.
Aligned with his own education, Mr. Johnson looked at history through a prism of
military and socio-cultural themes. He recognized its importance through history and the
standards, yet, due to his experiences of discrimination and positionality against the supernatural,
Mr. Johnson rarely discussed any aspect of religion in his class. When mentioned, Mr. Johnson
discussed the individuals or groups identified with religious institutions, and not the beliefs or
rituals of the religion.
Mr. Johnson emphasized the collective myth of the greatness of fighting for freedom,
even if those fighting were not the beneficiaries of the fight. He saw American narratives through
that unique American desire and responsibility and hoped to perpetuate that value in his students.
The civil religious practices that had grounding in Christian traditions were, from Mr. Johnson’s
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 185
perspective, secular in nature; this was apparent in his participation and the societal expectation
to participate in such rituals.
Below are the implications and recommendations for practice, policy and research based
on the findings of this dissertation.
Implications and Recommendations
The original intention of this dissertation was not to examine examples of hegemony
within classrooms. Part of choosing Atheist and Agnostic teachers was to find individuals who
were furthest outside of mainstream religious narrative. Instead, the case studies revealed
evidence of the entrenchment of Bellah’s (1967) concepts, that implicit Civil Religion engrained
with Christianity is deep-seated. The dominant value system, even with two teachers who had
overtly tried to push against dominant religion, remained something they perpetuated and
continued to teach to the next generation. I found practical evidence in both Mr. Kennedy’s and
Mr. Johnson’s classrooms of the theories proposed by Bellah (1967, 2014), including those of
Civil Religion intertwined with Christian narratives, Clark (2006), specifically Christian
privilege, and Blumenfeld (2006), with examples of religious hierarchy and implicit oppression
of minority narratives. The sections below will examine the implications and recommendations
for policy, practice and future research.
Practice. There are four implications and recommendation for practice that are discussed
in this section: 1) implications for positionality and critical reflection, 2) loss of culturally
relevant positionality, 3) reflection of religion as a part of a larger practice of dominant narratives
in social science curriculum and 4) loss of awareness and opportunity for student learning.
As discussed in both Peshkin (1988) and Alcoff (1988), it is well established that
teachers’ positionality, their “class, statues and values” (Peshkin, 1988, p. 17) are present in their
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 186
classroom and curricular choices. Alcoff (1988) argued that positionality is present through one’s
relative power and subjectivity. She continued that teachers could not separate themselves from
the historical and social contexts of their positionality. Therefore, a teacher should attempt to
make those factors of positionality explicit. Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson overtly tried to
make their minority status of religious positionality hidden. Both of them kept their theologies
largely a secret, not only from their students, but also from their colleagues. An implication of
their choice was that they could not be transparent about their worldview or how that worldview
shaped their choices. Without being transparent about their how their positionality might shape
their curricular choices, these teachers were unable to fully engage in critical reflection of their
own practice. Teachers need to feel safe and have professional development and administrative
support to engage in honest conversations about their positionality, including religion, in order to
reflect on their teaching practice.
Another implication for practice was the evidence of the lack of culturally responsive or
relevant pedagogy in the case studies. Gay (2002) argues that teachers need to know their
students’ cultural backgrounds to fully meet their needs in the classroom. As discussed above,
both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson created classroom environments that did not create the space
to include their students’ positionalities or backgrounds in any overt way, including race, culture,
socio-economic status or other factors. Regarding religion, Mr. Johnson said he did not want to
know his students “in that way.” For teachers to fully meet the needs of their students, the
knowledge of students should include their positionality, religious identifications, rituals,
practices, myths and worldviews.
In a broader context, in addition to religion, this dissertation showed various examples of
both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson perpetuating various dominant narratives, not just
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 187
Christianity and Civil Religion, but also Eurocentric perspectives, military history and folklore
heroes to frame their curriculum. Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson showed that their
educational background was one of the main factors for their choice of emphasize in their
curricular choices. As discussed in Chapter 1, social science as a discipline is subjective and the
teacher’s perspective and education overall are significant factors as to how the subject matter is
taught. In order to have curriculum that is reflective of students, and not only the education and
positionality of the teacher, culturally responsive teaching must be used, emphasized and present.
Additionally, teacher positionality through their own awareness and presence should also be
transparent to students. This will enable the students to have open discussions and pursue
analytical thinking
Lastly, as Mr. Johnson pointed out, he wanted his students to know you do not have to
believe in God to be a moral and ethical person. He expressed fear, based on his previous
experiences, about sharing his worldviews. His exclusion of religion, beliefs and his own
positionality in his teaching was a lost opportunity. He was not able to expose his students to
someone who might have had different views than their own. By not being candid about his
positionality, experiences and theology, he was unable to engage the students in the
conversations about inclusivity, overt moral and ethical understanding, dominant narratives,
positionality and Civil Religion. If Mr. Johnson, or teachers overall, were to be able to feel safe
and be transparent about their positionality, they would be able to be authentically present
without consequences, and students would be able to learn about inclusivity and diversity in a
positive light.
Policy. This section will examine the implications and recommendations for the school-
wide, district, state and national policy levels. Tepperman (2010) argued that students not only
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 188
can learn about religions and different worldviews, but they also have a human right established
through various world treaties and organizations . Knowledge and education are the only ways to
be un-biased and transparent. There were various examples throughout this study that exposed
the challenges of achieving this end. The implication and, in turn, recommendations include 1)
the fear of the conversation in and of itself, 2) directives around culturally relevant pedagogy 3)
curriculum for teacher education being inclusive of multicultural education and diversity and 4)
understanding better who becomes a social science teacher.
As discussed in Chapter 3, finding participants for the case studies was a challenge. Not
only did individuals express anxiety about being a part of the study but a large urban school
district did not want to permit me to conduct the case studies in their schools due to the legal
liability risk of knowing whether or not the teachers’ religious views had implications for their
classrooms. These are examples that expose a systemic fear of religion, religious identity and
religious topics in education.
In schools, districts, states and nationally the conversation around religion, as discussed
in the literature review in Chapter 2, pertains mostly to the rituals and rites, not the beliefs of
religion. As discussed by Bellah (1967), in the civil religious context, and Durkheim (2001), in a
broader religious context, the rites, rituals and practices are informed by the myths and
underlying belief systems of the religion, faith, culture or individual. Understanding the rites,
rituals and practices is superficial and does not uncover the worldview or positionality of those
who participate in those rites, rituals and practices. This leaves major gaps in knowledge. If the
learning of both the rites and underlying beliefs are encouraged and embraced by policy,
culturally relevant pedagogy and full historical understanding and contextualization would be
learned or taught in schools in the context of learning history and, possibly, literature.
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 189
To that same end, as discussed in both Chapters 1 and 2 above and through the evidence
collected in the case studies, religion is not generally included in multicultural and diversity
education training for teachers (Bellah, 1967, 2014; Blumenfeld, 2006; Clark, 2006). In Mr.
Johnson’s choices of minority groups to use during his unit on World War 2, he included racial,
ethnic and gender sub-groups and discussed how these communities participated and supported
the war effort. Religious identifications were not included, discussed or even thought of as
relevant. There is a lack of inclusion of religion and religious identity in teacher preparation,
including multicultural education, diversity, culturally relevant pedagogy and how religion
pertains to topics in curriculum. This lack of preparation leads to a perpetuation of excluding
religious identity and worldview as a factor of teaching to the needs of the students, reflecting
student experiences through curricular choices and knowledge of religion overall. Therefore,
religion should be included in courses taught, and dialogue about, multicultural and diversity
education.
Examining who becomes a Social Studies teacher is also significant. Rodgers and Raider-
Roth (2006) discuss the importance of teacher authenticity and presence to create an
environment of trust in the classroom. Bellah (1967) explains the indoctrination and perpetuation
of beliefs and culture from generation to generation. With both of these theories combined, it
becomes important to have teachers who understand minority or historically marginalized
narratives and, maybe more significantly, have teachers who identify with those narratives as
teachers in the classroom. Busey and Waters (2016) explain that in the 2014-2015 school year,
“for the first time in United States history there are now more students of color enrolled in public
schools than their White counterparts” They go on to say that despite the student demographics
changing,
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 190
Social studies unlike other core curricular fields deviates from the demographic norms of
teaching as a homogenous…Representing a more hegemonic structure social studies
teachers tend to be White males… that about 63 percent of secondary social studies
teachers are male and an overwhelming 87 percent of social studies teachers are White.
Busey and Waters (2016) go on to give a variety of possible reasons for the hegemony
represented within social science teachers, including being a subject that is less valued and
therefore these teachers can be given other responsibilities, such as coaching. This dissertation is
an example of, despite aligning themselves with religious identities that are outside the
dominant, both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson perpetuated their own positionality and education.
In light of the importance of students having curriculum that is accessible and not perpetuating of
dominant narratives that do not reflect the student demographics and teachers that are able to be
present, it is important that teachers (and teacher educators) of Social Studies reflect more
demographic diversity. Busey and Waters (2016) recommend, and I agree that this occur
through “intentional about recruiting racially diverse teachers, maintaining mentoring
relationships, and inviting racially diverse teachers and teacher candidates into collaborative
research avenues”
Research. Research about teachers’ religious identities, affinities, beliefs and worldview
is in its infancy (cf. citations). I hope to see it grow and develop overall within different
classroom environments and teacher positionalities. One natural continuation of this research
would be to include teachers whose backgrounds were not as entrenched in dominant narratives.
Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson had overt dominant positionalities including being White,
male, heterosexual, from educated households and Western European Christian roots. As
discussed by Bellah (1967, 2014) and Blumenfeld (2006) their participation in civil religious
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 191
narrative, Christian privilege and religious hierarchy had been passed down and internalized.
Further research with teachers who are outside the dominant narrative, not from households with
Christian roots (i.e., Atheist or Agnostic but brought up Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, etc.), or even
having converted to Christianity while being from households that practiced another religious
tradition would be a natural and interesting next step in this research.
Another possible space for further research would be to take a step back from the
classroom. There were challenges in finding school sites and participants willing to participate
and complete being a part of this study. There was a systemic push back on the conversation
itself of religious identity and its influence in the classroom. This begs the questions, why are
such conversations challenging? And what can be done to enable teachers, public educational
institutions and, possibly, an even broader audience to create the space to be transparent and
open, without fear, about how religious affinity and identification influences choices?
Conclusion
One theme running through all three sections above, are the challenges, fear and stigmas
around having open dialogues in the classroom around religion, teacher identity and the social
science curriculum. This dissertation, hopefully, has added to the limited literature around
religion and teacher choices, opening up the discourse just a little bit more. There are various
implications and recommendations, discussed above, that hopefully will continue this dialogue,
not only through reseach but also in practice and policy.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 192
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Appendix A
INTERVIEW PROTOCOL
Pre - Interview Protocol Part 1

Date:_______________ Start Time:______________________ End Time: _________________

Interviewee Name: _________________________ School :______________________________

Job Title:___________________Phone: __________________Email: _____________________

Introduction:

Hello, I’m Sara-Jean Lipmen. I am a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Leadership at USC. I am
conducting research for my dissertation on teacher choices in the classroom as related to religion.

During this conversation, I am hoping to learn more about you and your awareness as a teacher
to see if you would be a good person for this study.

I would like to tape record this interview in order to have an accurate record of our conversation.
Would that be okay?

The interview should take approximately 25-30 minutes. Do you have any questions before we
begin?

1. How long have you been teaching?
2. What subjects or levels do you teach?
2.1. Levels? AP, Honors, etc.
3. Do you have a subject matter specialty or favorite?
3.1. How did it get to be the subject you are most partial to?
3.2. Sub-topics with those topics?
3.3. Why those topics?
4. Do you know of any unique socio economic factors in your school that I would not find on
the standard school report card?
Immigrant populations
Religious populations
Dramatic shifts recently
Etc.
5. Do your classes reflect the socio economic make up of your school?
5.1. How? OR Why not?
6. What do you view as your role as a teacher in the classroom?
6.1. How do you facilitate student learning?
6.2. Are there parts of your position as a teacher that make it challenging for you to facilitate
learning?
7. Are there aspects of your personal life that you do not share with your students?
7.1. Are there aspects that you do share?
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 201
7.2. Can you give an example of each of these?

Anything else you would like to add?

Thank you. I look forward to being in contact with you in the future.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 202
INTERVIEW PROTOCOLS
Pre -Observation Interview Protocol Part 2

Date:_______________ Start Time:______________________ End Time: _________________

Interviewee Name: _________________________ School :______________________________

Job Title:___________________Phone: __________________Email: _____________________

Introduction:

Hello, I’m Sara-Jean Lipmen. I am a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Leadership at USC. I am
conducting research for my dissertation on teacher choices in the classroom as related to religion.

During this conversation, I am hoping to learn more about how religion and religious views
affect your teaching of the social sciences curriculum. The process for my dissertation will be to
first interview you. Then observe your lessons. After every few lessons, I would like to follow up
with another interview to gain insight into your thinking throughout the lessons.

I would like to tape record this interview in order to have an accurate record of our conversation.
Would that be okay?

The interview should take approximately 60 minutes. Do you have any questions before we
begin?

First, am going to ask you a few questions about your background.
1. How long have you been teaching?
2. What subjects or levels do you teach?
a. Levels? AP, Honors, etc.
3. Do you have a subject matter specialty or favorite?
a. How did it get to be the subject you are most partial to?
b. Sub-topics with those topics?
c. Why those topics?
4. Do you know of any unique socio economic factors in your school that I would not find
on the standard school report card?
Immigrant populations
Religious populations
Dramatic shifts recently
Etc.
5. Do your classes reflect the socio economic make up of your school?
a. How? OR Why not?
6. What drivers of historical events do you discuss or emphasize most in class?
a. Is it important to you to teach about economic influences of the time? Why?
b. Is it important to you to teach about social influences of the time? Why?
c. Is it important to you to teach about political influences of the time? Why?
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 203
d. Is it important to you to teach about artistic influences of the time? Why?
e. Is it important to you to teach about religious influences of the time? Why?
f. Is it important to you to teach about philosophical influences of the time? Why?
g. Any other influences you emphasize?
h. How do you prioritize which of these factors the students learn about most?
i. Can you give an example?
Now I would like for us to shift gears. I am going to ask you some questions that focus on your
religious perspectives and beliefs views:
7. How do you define religion?
8. Do you feel connected to a religion?
Possible probes:
If so:
If so, what religion?
How do you feel connected to it?
Have you always identified as _________?
What lead to the change (if there was one)?
Does this impact your daily life? How?
What are some _____ (Practice, worldview) that you maintain?
Are all your family members _________?
Does you participate in any rituals on a weekly, monthly or annual basis? Which
ones?
Does your family?
What do these look like?
If not:
If not, how does religion show up (if at all) in your life?
Give a very specific example, recent example in your outside of school life?
In your inside of school life?
General:
How does it show up in your life?
Are there other religious or theological views that might influence you?
Childhood? Upbringing etc.
How have these influenced you?
Do you celebrate any holidays? Which?
9. What are your feelings on and how do you observe:
a. Christmas as a federal holiday
What are your feelings on how:
Society observes this holiday?
the school observes this holiday?
your students observe this holiday?
b. Halloween
What are your feelings on how:
Society observes this holiday?
the school observes this holiday?
your students observe this holiday?
c. Memorial Day
What are your feelings on how:
RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 204
Society observes this holiday?
the school observes this holiday?
your students observe this holiday?
d. The pledge of allegiance with the phrase “under God?”
What are your feelings on how:
Society observes this holiday?
the school observes this holiday?
your students observe this holiday?
10. Do you believe there a religious ‘litmus test’ for politicians?
Possible probes:
If so, what is it?
Does this influence your voting?
How do you see this in
Now, I would like to turn to Influence on teaching:
11. Do you know your students’ religious affiliations and beliefs?
Possible probes:
How do you know this?
Do you intentionally not know?
What do you do in order to sure they don’t know your religious beliefs?
In what ways do you or do you not share your religious beliefs
12. Does it matter what your students’ religions are?
13. Does this effect your teaching?
Possible Probes:
Would you approach teaching a subject differently if your students were not
_________________?
How?
14. Do you want your students to discuss religion?
Possible Probes:
What does that look like?
What do you do in class when a student brings up their religious viewpoint?
How do you discuss students’ religious views when they are different from yours?
How do you discuss students’ religious views when they are similar from yours?
How do you incorporate, or not, students’ religious viewpoints in your class?
Is there anything you do to include a variety of religious or theological viewpoints?
15. How do you view religion as an influence in history?
16. Are there parts of your curriculum that explicitly discuss religion? If so, what?
Possible probes:
When you teach these topics, what do you do to introduce the topic or influence of
religion?
What topics make it easier to do this with than others?
Do you teach these differently based on your students’ religious views?

Anything else you would like to add?

Thank you. I look forward to seeing your class in action.

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 205
Post - Observation Protocol

Introduction:

During this conversation, I am hoping to again more understanding of the choices you made in
what I observed. I would like to start off by asking you a few questions about the lesson and then
walk through the lesson.

Again, I want to assure you that your comments will be strictly confidential. I will not identify
you, or your school, by name. I would like to tape record this interview in order to have an
accurate record of our conversation. Would that be okay?

The interview should take approximately ___ minutes. Do you have any questions before we
begin?

1. First off, what was your goal in the lesson? What did you want the students to walk away
with?
2. Do you feel you were successful in accomplishing that goal?
3. How had you and the student prepared for this lesson?
4. Now to walk through the lesson. (These questions would be based on the observations
notes)
5. Did you feel religion came up throughout the lesson? Why or why not? How?
a. What awareness did you have of this?
b. Was this planned?
6. Are you doing this lesson differently next time? How?

Additional questions based on observation notes:

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 206
Appendix B
OBSERVATION PROTOCOL
Teacher: _______________________________

Date:

Observation Summary:
Period of the Day:

Time of Observation start:

Time of Observation ending:

Class title:

Topic of Lesson:

Physical Setting:
Arial Map of classroom (Student desks, teacher desks, chairs, book cases, board etc.)

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 207
Teacher and other adults: Students:
Gender and other observable identifying factors (race,
age, etc.)
Gender Breakdown and other observable identifying
factors (race, etc.):

Approximate Age(s) / Grade (s):

Religious iconography on display on adults (i.e., does
the teacher wear a cross, skull cap, head covering,
etc.) or N/A:
Religious iconography on display on students (i.e., any
students wear a cross, skull cap, head covering, etc.)
or N/A:

Objects in the classroom:
Overtly Religious Objects on
Display (cross, bibles, mezuzah,
etc.):

Religious or holiday related
iconography (Christmas tree,
Halloween decorations, etc.)

Cultural objects

Other Objects

Materials Used in Class Lesson

RELIGION AND TEACHER CURRICULAR CHOICES 208
Page ______ of ____________ Lesson Structure:
Time Lesson flow, student inputs and
actions
Teacher inputs and actions – including
pedagogical and curricular choices
Not
es
Questions
that arise

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract There has been very limited research on the possible role religion has in its influence on teacher choices, especially within a Social Science classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine how secondary Social Studies teachers explicitly and implicitly treat religion as a factor in the teaching of history and how their own affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious institutions influence their curricular choices. The following research question informed the study: How are teachers’ religious identities, affinities and positionality revealed in their curricular choices? ❧ Through the use of the multiple case study model using interviews, observations and artifacts, this dissertation examined how secondary Social Studies teachers explicitly and implicitly treat religion as a factor in the teaching of history and how their own affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious institutions influence their curricular choices. Using the lenses of positionality and presence, while explicitly being aware of American Civil Religion, religious hierarchies and Christian Privilege, this study examined two Atheist/Agnostic teachers in a comprehensive urban high school settings. ❧ The findings are presented as single case studies with a cross case analysis. The analysis of findings found that both teachers did not include religion as a significant factor of history and therefore, did not privilege religion as a topic in their classes. The data showed that both teachers, despite their religious identifications, had internalized Civil American Religion and its alignment with Christianity.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Lipmen, Sara-Jean (author)

Core Title Inadvertent evangelisms (or not): teachers’ views on religion, religious beliefs, positionality and presence and their influence on their curricular choices in the classroom

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education (Leadership)

Publication Date 06/02/2017

Defense Date 04/11/2017

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag agnostic,American civil religion,atheist,case studies,Christian privilege,civil religion,curricular choices,curriculum,Education,OAI-PMH Harvest,positionality,presence,religious hierarchies,religious identifications,secondary education,social science,Teacher Education,Teachers,Urban Education

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Slayton, Julie (committee chair), Kaplan, Sandra (committee member), Samkian, Artineh (committee member)

Creator Email sjlipmen@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c40-378791

Unique identifier UC11258045

Identifier etd-LipmenSara-5358.pdf (filename),usctheses-c40-378791 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-LipmenSara-5358.pdf

Dmrecord 378791

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Lipmen, Sara-Jean

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA