This scholarly essay employs an African philosophical and symbolic construct--Sank?fa--to examine religious education in Ghana. Sank?fa implores the need to examine the past in order to understand the present and to plan for the future. In line with this frame, I recount the history of religious education in Ghana, examine the present challenges,…

This article examines the key tenets of contemporary education philosophy and compares it to the principles of the Adventist educational philosophy. The intent is to determine whether Adventist educational philosophy aligns with the demands of contemporary education. In this vein, 10 key principles of contemporary education are first described.…

In recent years, a growing demand by educators, governments, and the community for the teaching of values in public schools has led to the implementation of values education. As acknowledged by the 2010 Living Skills Values Education Program, values education is an essential part of schooling. In the public school system, there have been attempts…

Jewish and Muslim philosophers, alike, regarded the formation of proper habits to be the key to effective education. They also considered rational acceptance of religious obligation to be mandatory for successful observance. This essay examines the relationship between these two dimensions of religious education: knowledge and reason on the one…

Research into the relationship between the Anglican tradition and its schools is relatively undeveloped in England. The research reported here draws on Benne's (2001) significant components of the relationship between educational institutions and their founding religious tradition to examine whether these components are a helpful way of describing…

The purpose of this particularistic case study (Merriam, 1998) was to enable Christian school educators to examine their enrollment and instructional policies in light of their philosophies. Within the framework of effective schools and scientifically-based interventions, I examined the instructional strategies that two Christian school teachers…

Whether known as Christian or Kingdom education, its very nature is opened for examination in this article. From the assumption that Christ is to be at the center of Christian education, it assumedly would be patterned after his life and activities on earth. A review of the Scriptures about Jesus points to an education orientation that is not well…

Diverse perspectives with respect to Christian Education constitute a potential path for misunderstanding and contradictions; this study considers this situation in the context of a Seventh-day Adventist Christian system with students and parents from different religious perspectives in Chile. The parents/sponsors of the eighth graders were…

This article originally appeared as Chapter 14 in Dr. Callen's book "Enriching Mind and Spirit: A History of Higher Education in the Church of God," published in 2007 by Anderson University Press. It appears here by special permission of the author. In this chapter, Dr. Callen presents a summary of several issues that have been faced by higher…

The Bruderhof communities in the United States have organized their own private schools with a distinctly Christian philosophy of education, adding to the interesting mix of American private and religious schools. Rooted in early 20th century German pedagogy, romanticism, and shared responsibility, Bruderhof schools represent the essence of a…

An analysis of recent publications in the field of school effectiveness studies shows that virtually no contributions have been made in that knowledge domain with respect to the effectiveness of Christian schools. To address this shortcoming--while keeping the undesirability of a package approach to Christian education in mind--a…

Describes a 2001 conference by the Education Department of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists which involved presentations of papers and focus groups and which convened participants to discuss and approve an updated and expanded Statement of Adventist Philosophy of Education. The statement is included in this theme issue. (SM)

Compares the educational philosophies of Hitler and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. While they both emphasize physical health, mental training, and character education, Hitler's motive was to promote a diabolical agenda. The article stresses the importance of reading deeper than mere words and practices to understand any author's philosophy and…

Discusses the Seventh-day Adventist educational philosophy, originated in part by founder Ellen White, who believed the basic goal of Adventist education was derived from what she considered a fundamental Biblical message: restoring human beings into the image of God. The paper concludes that this concept is the best source for a vision to drive…

Presents a fictional interview with Ellen White, founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, regarding the theological principle upon which the Adventist educational philosophy is based. This theme focuses on restoring the image of God in the human soul. The paper addresses teacher selection and training, teaching methodology, and how the…