Volume 13, Issue 2

The authors explore ways that faith and a commitment to social justice can be integrated intolearning in higher education today. They also seek to highlight six foundational insights emerging from the proceedings of the National Faith, Justice, and Civic Learning (NFJCL) conference related to the importance of effectively reintegrating the perspectives and practices of faith traditions and communities into higher education and emerging public discourse. The article provides a brief reflection on today’s societal context, followed by recommendations for how practitioners and educators might foster such meaningful learning within the academy.

Evidence of Christian privilege in America is not difficult to find. At the same time, however, Christians, particularly in evangelical settings, commonly think of themselves as a marginalized minority being overrun by the power of secular liberalism. The authors propose that both perceptions are accurate descriptions of reality. For this reason, interfaith dialogues can be instrumental in helping students understand the complexity of this issue and the ambiguity of their status within these categories, thus fostering spiritual and civic maturity.

This article examines relational ways of knowing—a concept both broad and deep—as a strategy we have infused throughout our design of one first-year Living and Learning Community (LLC). As outlined here, the authors teach faith as relationship; justice as being in just relationship with others, research as the concept of putting ideas in relationship to one another, and dialogue as the commitment to remain in conversation—to build community through ongoing relationship. This model has implications for how faculty and student development professionals may integrate faith and justice in the college context integrating personal, social, and civic responsibility as one viable means to introduce students to both a disposition and a skill set, an attitude and action strategies. Key among the skills authors convey and practice are deep listening, deliberative dialogue, performance tasks that address critical thinking and writing across the disciplines, and rigorous research that involves putting sources in dialogue and applying theories to living contexts. This curriculum may help other educators design developmental, sequenced, scaffolded, and integrated learning activities to foster a disposition to “doing justice.”

This article analyzes the experience of teaching and learning in a “Literature of Service” course in its attempt to utilize the best of civic learning and faith-based reflection to make sense of social inequality. The language of students’ final portfolios for the course suggests a direct connection between their classroom talk about literary texts and questions of vocation, their writing about these issues, and their service in the community. The concept of vocation allows students to reframe their perception of community engagement from a duty of citizenship to a spiritual calling that clarifies their relationship to the broader world.

The Freedom Seder is a multicultural and interfaith celebration based on the Exodus themes of the Passover Seder. Conceived during the Civil Rights Movement, this ritualized program has been used successfully to build bridges between diverse communities at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (and elsewhere). This article provides insight into how the Freedom Seder can be used on other campuses to bridge ethnic, cultural and religious divides, while providing a meaningful opportunity for interfaith dialogue about issues of social justice.

Institutions of higher education have continuously struggled to find ways to keep young adults engaged. In order to do so, they have introduced a number of techniques and programs into the curriculum, but these programs do not necessarily translate to transformational learning for students. This article discusses the transformation of an undergraduate student who participated in a study abroad program in Ecuador and her quest for a more meaningful post service-learning experience. Her experience demonstrates how critical student reflection can lead to student transformation and action. Additionally, her experience exemplifies possible avenues for higher education institutions to provide more individualized experiences that allow for student interest and voice to be infused into study abroad service-learning programs.

This article describes an initiative that integrated a strengths-base curriculum into a first-year experience program at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Using a positive psychology framework, students completed the StrengthsQuest and participated in activities designed to help them learn and apply their signature talent themes. A pre- and postsurvey were included to assess measures related to students’ self-awareness. The results suggest that a curriculum based on strengths positively impacts students’ awareness of their strengths, a factor that, in turn, has positive implications for students’ major/career choices and future decision-making. Strategies for practice and guidelines for future research are highlighted.

Our colleges and universities have the opportunity to play a role in transforming the tone of our current national discourse and model the core values of our democratic society as we prepare students to be civically responsible.

Given the lack of published spiritual practices in classroom settings, particularly in public colleges and universities, this article provides one way of promoting mindfulness in an academic course format. Personal insights and practices are shared as a way to encourage fellow instructors not only to teach mindfulness but more importantly, to teach mindfully.

How can Christian colleges and universities promote interfaith cooperation on their campuses while remaining true to their particular theological orientations? The authors explore why Christian colleges are uniquely situated to positively engage religious diversity and offer best practices for interfaith work in a Christian college context from their experience at Berea College.

In Caleb’s Crossing, Geraldine Brooks takes a frequently overlooked episode in American history as inspiration for her fictionalized version of the remarkable true story of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the first Native American to attend and graduate from Harvard College.

What is loyalty and why is it problematic in athletics? The author discusses the ethical lapses that can occur when a powerful social value, loyalty, trumps individuals’ ability to make moral decisions. She argues that education about morality should be a necessary part of sport education and explains how moral education programs can make a difference in reasoning and sometimes moral behavior of athlete populations. Research on moral reasoning with athlete and coach populations is given.