Faith in schools? : autonomy, citizenship, and religious education in the liberal state / Ian MacMullen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacMullen, Ian, 1976-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church schools--Government policy.

Church schools.

Church and education--Philosophy.

Church and education.

Education and state--Philosophy.

Education and state.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Should a liberal democratic state permit religious schools? Should it fund them? What principles should govern these decisions in a society marked by religious and cultural pluralism? In Faith in Schools?, Ian MacMullen tackles these important questions through both political and educational theory, and he reaches some surprising and provocative conclusions. MacMullen argues that parents' desires to educate their children "in the faith" must not be allowed to deny children the opportunity for ongoing rational reflection about their values. Government should safeguard children's interests in developing as autonomous persons as well as society's interest in the education of an emerging generation of citizens. But, he writes, liberal theory does not support a strict separation of church and state in education policy. MacMullen proposes criteria to distinguish religious schools that satisfy legitimate public interests from those that do not. And he argues forcefully that governments should fund every type of school that they permit, rather than favoring upper-income parents by allowing them to buy their way out of the requirements deemed suitable for children educated at public expense. Drawing on psychological research, he proposes public funding of a broad range of religious primary schools, because they can help lay the foundations for young children's future autonomy. In secondary education, by contrast, even private religious schools ought to be obliged to provide robust exposure to the ideas of other religions, to atheism, and to nonreligious approaches to ethics.

Contents:

Civic education and religious schools: The civic case against religious schools

Civic education and the autonomy problem in political liberalism

Autonomy as a public value: Autonomy, identity and choice

The value of autonomy in a pluralist world

Autonomy as a goal of education policy: objections and responses

Religious schools and education for autonomy: Secular public schools: critiques and responses

Religious secondary schools as threat to autonomy?

The role of religious primary schools.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Harvard University.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-226) and index.

ISBN:

9786612935503

9786612087011

9781282087019

1282087010

9781282935501

128293550X

9781400828111

1400828112

OCLC:

342916894