Volume 2021 No. 1

Navigating through the Multivalent Notions of ‘Normative’: A Faith Community’s Reflections

Nisha Keshwani, Institute of Ismaili Studies, India

United Methodist Policies and People Convicted of Sex Offenses: Stigma, Harm, and Exclusion

Maggie Buckridge, and Chrysanthi Leon, University of Delaware, US

Gender Identity: Perspectives from Psychology and Religion

Glen A. Bowman, York College, US

The Observation Effect: Exploring Reliability and Sustainability in Teaching Performance Evaluation

Ilaria Brancatelli, University of Chester, UK

Nurturing Hybrid Student Voice in the US and China

Xiaodi Zhou, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, US

Navigating through the Multivalent Notions of ‘Normative’: A Faith Community’s Reflections

Nisha Keshwani, Institute of Ismaili Studies, India

In this study, I am arguing for a normative component in religious education (RE) as a distinct factor that characterizes RE, although there is less consensus on what constitutes such ‘normative’ when it comes to a faith community. In this paper, I will first attempt to understand this idea from scholarly publications. Subsequently, the key aim of this study will be to demonstrate through the perspectives of the practitioners of religious education of Ismaili community how the key stakeholders navigate, define and redefine on day to day basis with their students and teachers of religious education ‘the norms’ that hold the community together. This paper explores why these practitioners struggle to arrive at one universal notion of ‘the normative.’ The notions of tradition chang
Keshwani.pdf
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United Methodist Policies and People Convicted of Sex Offenses: Stigma, Harm, and Exclusion

Maggie Buckridge, and Chrysanthi Leon, University of Delaware, US

In 2004, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) first instructed local churches as well as US Annual Conferences to consider existing recommendations and publish their own policies regarding the participation of people convicted of sex offenses. Nineteen of 54 US Annual Conferences and some General Conference websites have provided related public-facing statements, policies, and recommendations. This project asks how and why the policies and outward-facing statements put forth by the UMC General Conference and other US Annual Conferences stigmatize and harm people convicted of sex offenses? This endeavor is rooted in feminist standpoint theory, and is based on deep inductive qualitative coding of 42 public-facing institutional policies and statements. The analysis reli
Buckridge Leon.pdf
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Gender Identity: Perspectives from Psychology and Religion

Glen A. Bowman, York College, US

In recent years, gender identity has become a controversial issue in the United States, especially in psychological research. Instead of using the classical definition of gender, a growing trend has involved some perceiving their gender differently than their original anatomical characteristics would indicate based on their personal perspective. Many in the scholarly community have embraced this new definition of gender identity, transforming the meaning of transgender from someone who had a sex-change operation to someone who perceives themselves differently than their gender designated at birth.
Multiple religions seem to indicate a different philosophy towards gender identity that aligns with the classical meaning. Based on the biblical text, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam describe G
Bowman.pdf
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The Observation Effect: Exploring Reliability and Sustainability in Teaching Performance Evaluation

Ilaria Brancatelli, University of Chester, UK

This research postulates the need for a reconsideration of the current implemented evaluation programme of teaching performance in the UK and theorises the devising of potential action to convey functional expansion to the specific educational praxis. The adopted ethnographic enquiry seeks to find the components of the platform observer-observee and endeavours to enter the world of the lecturer experience under observation to evaluate the modus operandi. Identifying the stressors and their corollary epitomise the core of the investigation. It is extraordinary for the practice intending to observe natural behaviour in the educational environment to be also responsible for classroom dynamics disruption. The validity of results seems compromised by the inherent group interference from the obs
Brancatelli.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [405.0 KB]

Nurturing Hybrid Student Voice in the US and China

Xiaodi Zhou, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, US

This article deals with the student’s voice in the US and China, chronicling the author’s experiences as a student and instructor in each context. The contention that one cultural-educational tendency is shifting towards the other is introduced—the importance of prioritizing students’ authentic voices in their education in the classroom. With examples of students’ voices in both cultural contexts, this article presents the merits of nurturing these distinct perspectives in the classroom. Different formats for instruction are presented for encountering these voices and different means of enacting dialogic learning. By building on notions of hybridity and dialogue, this paper invokes a metaperspective of pedagogy that pluralizes traditional notions confined by culture, language, an
Zhou.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [752.2 KB]

Volume 2021 No. 1

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