Teaching About Religion: Methods Minicourse

Methods Minicourse

Religious Neutrality: Teaching in a Pluralistic Classroom

A classroom climate of religious neutrality is vital if public schools are to
provide a just and equitable public education for all youngsters, irrespective
of the many worldview differences in our increasingly diverse nation.

This mini-course serves as self-instruction to help any teacher create a more
respectful and just classroom for student learning. No matter what your
subject matter domain or age level focus may be, if you are a classroom
teacher, we hope you will work through the material (outline is below). And, if
you know of a teacher or methods instructor or in-service workshop
instructor who might be interested in this mini-course, then please let him/her
know about it.

Note that this series of lessons is designed to serve in-service and
pre-service public school teachers with online instruction. The goal is to
enable them to develop and maintain religiously neutral classrooms. The
lessons can be of use to any educator, and they will be of special interest to
those who are teaching about religion.

College and university methods instructors are encouraged to incorporate
this online mini-course as part of their Methods of Teaching History/Social
Science, or in other suitable Methods of Teaching classes for prospective
classroom teachers. Instructors of in-service teacher workshops related to
such topics as "religion and the schools," "teaching about religion," and
"religious liberty" (in civic education or character education) may find the
material applicable in their instructional programs. Administrators and
certain school staff too will benefit from learning the principles and strategies
presented in the lessons.