For the first time, in 2008, I offered a world religions study abroad course in South India. The special emphasis was meeting and befriending locals, and the centerpiece of the course was a six-night stay in rural homes. I considered this immersion in a Hindu context to be the best setting for learning Hindu thought. However, the environment was…

The tenets of Hinduism share a complicated relationship with international higher education for an important reason: the purported taboo over crossing oceans. The ethos of Hinduism, however, is deeply embedded in a posited harmony of individuals and cultures. This makes it a faith that at once embraces the value of intercultural exchange while…

Indonesia is a diverse country consisting of various cultures and also religions. Currently, there are six official religions recognized by the Indonesian government, which are Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhi, and Confucianism. Thus, it is important for English book writers to design an English textbook that not only accommodates the…

The paper intends to discuss India's humane cultural traditions and its animal protection laws, justify the current need for humane education in Indian schools and preschools, offer examples of humane education curriculum ideas, and highlight the work of animal welfare organizations in India. Since ancient times, reverence and compassion for…

Global citizenship education (GCE) is supposed to be culturally inclusive in its literal sense. In this metaphysical study, I argue that GCE is grounded in epistemology-driven knowledge systems that may facilitate a particular mode of being (e.g. abstract or liberal individualism) and an epistemic system (e.g. instrumentalism), and its…

This article is based on a theoretical study about the concept of Bildung in world society. The concept of "Bildung" (in German) refers to a special dimension of education. It focuses on personal development and self-education and is not utilitarian. The study, which investigated different traditions of thinking about education in the…

The study examines four adolescent multilinguals' engagement with religion, as well as outcomes of that engagement, in an out-of-school book club. The qualitative analysis of participants' talk in book club meetings, writing responses, and individual interviews revealed that multilinguals tap into their religious knowledge and identities in making…

In the United States, Christianity is the religion of the majority, about 70% of people. Almost 23% are unaffiliated, and slightly less than 7% practice other religions (Sandstrom, 2016). While 7% may not sound like a lot, it means that a growing number of Americans have neighbors, schoolmates, and colleagues who practice diverse, often…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss the role that spiritual development plays in the development of learning individuals and organizations. Spiritual development has been examined though the lens of various meditative practices (such as transcendental meditation, mindfulness and flow) and religious indoctrinations (such as…

Transitioning towards a plant-based diet is considered both ethical and environmentally friendly from a Western perspective of high per capita consumption of flesh foods. However, in contemporary India, beef-eating has emerged as a political act of subversion in the context of its current ban by the Indian state which is transforming…

One of the conspicuous features of the twentieth-century West was silence. This idea could be supported by examining reflections of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Fritz Mauthner, John Cage, Samuel Beckett, Ihab Hassan, Franz Kafka, Wassily Kandinsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, Virginia Woolf, Wolfgang Iser, Jacques Derrida, and Pierre Macherey. To me, silence is not…

This study builds on the research tradition modelled by the Francis Scale of Attitude towards Christianity, the Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Judaism, the Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Islam and the Santosh-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Hinduism to propose a generic instrument concerned with attitudes towards theistic faith.…

Alongside a family of instruments designed to measure the attitudinal dimension of religion within specific faith contexts (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism), the Astley-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Theistic Faith was designed to assess the attitudinal dimension of religion within a multifaith context. Drawing on a sample of 4338…

This collection of 16 reflective accounts and data-driven studies explores the interrelationship of religious identity and English Language Teaching (ELT). The chapters broaden a topic which has traditionally focused on Christianity by including Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and non-religious perspectives. They address the ways in which faith and ELT…

This article examines the question of how to best accommodate Hindu practice on college campuses by contrasting the dedication of a prayer room with the hiring of a Hindu chaplain. The author suggests that this dichotomy--of an impersonal physical space ("a room") on the one hand, and a chaplain empowered to lead a community ("a view") on the…