Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:02:38.313Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

26 - Discourse and Religion in Educational Practice

from Part V - Ethics, Inequality and Inclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2020

By
Vally Lytra
Edited by
Anna De Fina  and
Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Anna De Fina
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Affiliation:
King's College London
Get access

Summary

Despite the existence of long-held binaries between secular and sacred, private and public spaces, school and religious literacies in many contemporary societies, the significance of religion and its relationship to education and society more broadly has become increasingly topical. Yet, it is only recently that the investigation of the nexus of discourse and religion in educational practice has started to receive some scholarly attention. In this chapter, religion is understood as a cultural practice, historically situated and embedded in specific local and global contexts. This view of religion stresses the social alongside the subjective or experiential dimensions. It explores how, through active participation and apprenticeship in culturally appropriate practices and behaviors, often mediated intergenerationally, and the mobilization of linguistic and other semiotic resources but also affective, social and material resources, membership in religious communities is constructed and affirmed. The chapter reviews research strands that have explored different aspects of discourse and religion in educational practice as a growing interdisciplinary field. Research strands have examined the place and purpose of religion in general and evangelical Christianity in particular in English Language Teaching (ELT) programs and the interplay of religion and teaching and learning in a wide range of religious and increasingly secular educational contexts. They provide useful insights for scholars of discourse studies into issues of identity, socialization, pedagogy and language policy.

Keywords

Religious literaciesreligious identitiesChristianityevangelical Christianity and ELTlanguage socializationreligious socializationlanguage teaching and learningreligious learning
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies , pp. 571 - 592
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

This is the Position Paper for the Perspectives followed by five commentaries.

This is an ethnographic exploration of the intersection of ELT and evangelical Christianity in the context of an English language school with a Bible-based curriculum in Poland.

This edited collection investigates how children and adolescents leverage rich and complex multilingual, multiscriptal and multimodal resources associated with religion for meaning-making and the performance of religious subjectivities in homes, religious education classes, faith-inspired schools and places of worship across a range of religious communities.

Han, H. (2018). Studying Religion and Language Teaching and Learning: Building a Subfield. Modern Language Journal 102: 432–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, B. (2017). English Teaching and Evangelical Mission: The Case of the Lighthouse School. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) (2016). Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

References

Ahmed, S. (2015). The Voices of Young British Muslims: Identity, Belonging and Citizenship. In Smith, M. K., Stanton, N. and Wylie, T. (eds.) Youth Work and Faith: Debates, Delights and Dilemmas. Lyme Regis: Russell House. 37–51.Google Scholar
Avni, S. (2012). Translation as a Site of Language Policy Negotiation in Jewish Day School Education. Current Issues in Language Planning 13: 76–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avni, S. (2018). What Can the Study of Hebrew Learning Contribute to Applied Linguistics? Modern Language Journal 102: 446–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Badenhorst, P. and Makoni, S. (2017). Migrations, Religions, and Social Flux. In Canagarajah, S. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language. New York: Routledge. 595–637.Google Scholar
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C. and McEnery, T. (2013). Discourse Analysis and Media Coverage: The Representation of Islam in the British Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baquedano-López, P. (2000). Narrating Community in Doctrina Classes. Narrative Inquiry 10(2): 429–52.Google Scholar
Baquedano-López, P. and Ochs, E. (2002). The Politics of Language and Parish Storytelling: Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Takes on “English Only.” In Linell, P. and Aronsson, K. (eds.) Selves and Voices: Goffman, Viveka and Dialogue. Linköping, Sweden: Linköping University. 173–91.Google Scholar
Barrett, B. (2002). Religion and Habitus: Exploring the Relationship between Religious Involvement and Educational Outcomes and Orientations among Urban African American Students. Urban Education 45(4): 448–97.Google Scholar
Barton, D. and Hamilton, M. (1998). Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Baurain, B. (2007). Christian Witness and Respect for Persons. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 6(3): 201–19.Google Scholar
Baurain, B. (2015). Religious Faith and Teacher Knowledge in English Language Teaching. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Bigelow, M. (2008). Somali Adolescents’ Negotiation of Religious and Racial Bias in and out of School. Theory into Practice 47: 27–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damico, J. S. and Hall, T. (2014). The Cross and the Lynching Tree: Exploring Religion and Race in the Elementary Classroom. Language Arts 92(3): 187–98.Google Scholar
Dávila, D. (2015). #WhoNeedsDiverseBooks? Preservice Teachers and Religious Neutrality with Children’s Literature. Research in the Teaching of English 50(1): 60–83.Google Scholar
Douglas Fir Group. (2016). A Transdisciplinary Framework for SLA in a Multilingual World. Modern Language Journal 100: 19–47.Google Scholar
Edge, J. (1996). Cross-Cultural Paradoxes in a Profession of Values. TESOL Quarterly 30: 9–30.Google Scholar
Edge, J. (2003). Imperial Troopers and Servants of the Lord: A Vision of TESOL for the 21st Century. TESOL Quarterly 37(4): 701–8.Google Scholar
Ek, L. (2005). Staying on God’s Path: Socialising Latino Immigrant Youth to a Christian Pentecostal Identity in Southern California. In Zantella, A. C. (ed.) Building on Strength: Language and Literacy in Latino Families and Communities. New York: Teachers College Press. 77–92.Google Scholar
Fader, A. (2009). Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Genishi, C. and Dyson, A. H. (2009). Children, Language, and Literacy: Diverse Learners in Diverse Times. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Gregory, E. and Williams, A. (2000). City Literacies: Learning to Read across Generations and Cultures. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gregory, E., Choudhury, H., Ilankuberan, A., Kwapong, A. and Woodham, M. (2013). Practice, Performance and Perfection: Learning Sacred Texts in Four Faith Communities in London. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 200: 27–48.Google Scholar
Gregory, E., Long, S. and Volk, D. (eds.) (2004). Many Pathways to Literacy: Young Children Learning with Siblings, Grandparents, Peers and Communities. New York: Routledge Falmer.Google Scholar
Gregory, E., Lytra, V., Choudhury, H., Ilankuberan, A., Kwapong, A. and Woodham, M. (2013). Syncretism as a Creative Act of Mind: The Narratives of Children from Four Faith Communities in London. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 13(3): 322–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, E., Lytra, V., Ilankuberan, A., Choudhury, H. and Woodham, M. (2012). Translating Faith: Field Narratives as a Means of Dialogue in Collaborative Ethnographic Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 11(3): 196–213.Google Scholar
Griffith, T. (2004). Readers Respond to Julian Edge’s “Imperial Troopers and Servants of the Lord”: Unless a Grain of Wheat … TESOL Quarterly 38(4): 714–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haight, W. L. (2002). African-American Children at Church: A Sociocultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Han, H. (2009). Institutionalised Inclusion: A Case Study on Support for Immigrants in English Learning. TESOL Quarterly 43(4): 643–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, H. (2011). “Love Your China” and Evangelise: Religion, Nationalism, Racism and Immigrant Settlement in Canada. Ethnography and Education 6(1): 61–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, H. (2018). Studying Religion and Language Teaching and Learning: Building a Subfield. Modern Language Journal 102: 432–45.Google Scholar
Haque, A. (2004). Islamophobia in North America: Confronting the Menace. In van Driel, B. (ed.) Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice. Sterling, VA: Trentham. 1–18.Google Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hemming, P. (2015). Religion in the Primary School: Ethos, Diversity, Citizenship. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hoque, A. (2015). British-Islamic Identity: Third-Generation Bangladeshis from East London. London: Trentham Books at IOE Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, B. (2017). English Teaching and Evangelical Mission: The Case of the Lighthouse School. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, D. H. and Wilson, C. M. (2017). Supporting African American Student Success through Prophetic Activism: New Possibilities for Public School–Church Partnerships. Urban Education 52(1): 91–119.Google Scholar
Keane, W. (1997). Religious Language. Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 47–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenner, C. (2004). Living in Simultaneous Worlds: Difference and Integration in Bilingual Script-Learning. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 7(1): 43–61.Google Scholar
Kenner, C., Kwapong, A., Choudhury, H. and Ruby, M. (2016). Supporting Children’s Learner Identities through Faith: Ghanaian Pentecostal and Bangladeshi Muslim Communities in London. In Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 213–26.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, R. J. (2017). Literacy Rituals in the Community and the Classroom. Language Arts 95(2): 77–86.Google Scholar
Lillis, T. M. (2013). The Sociolinguistics of Writing. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, S. (2016). Conclusion. In Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 227–33.Google Scholar
Lytra, V. (2018). Faith Literacies Matter: Reflecting on the Role of Faith as a Force for Learning, Socialisation and Personal and Collective Identification in Young People’s Lives in a Global City. In Fuentes Calle, A. (ed.) Languages and Spiritual Traditions: Linguistic Diversity and Religious Diversity in the City of Barcelona. Papers on the LinguaPax-30 Years Conference, Barcelona, November 24, 2017. Barcelona: LinguaPax. 45–56.Google Scholar
Lytra, V. (2020). Faith Communities. In Tusting, K. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography. Abingdon: Routledge. 312–25.Google Scholar
Lytra, V., Gregory, E. and Ilankuberan, A. (2016). Children’s Representations of the Temple in Text and Talk in a Tamil Hindu/Saiva Faith Community in London. In Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 141–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) (2016a). Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (2016b). Introduction. In Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 1–17.Google Scholar
McMillon, G. T. and Edwards, P. A. (2000). Why Does Joshua “Hate” School … but Love Sunday School? Language Arts 78(2): 111–20.Google Scholar
Moore, L. C. (2008). Body, Text, and Talk in Maroua Fulbe Qur’anic Schooling. Text & Talk 28(5): 643–65.Google Scholar
New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1): 60–92.Google Scholar
Padharipande, R. V. (2018). Online Satsang and Online Puja: Faith and Language in the Era of Globalisation. In Rosowsky, A. (ed.) Faith and Language in Digital Spaces. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 185–208.Google Scholar
Papen, U. (2018). Hymns, Prayers and Bible Stories: The Role of Religious Literacy Practices in Children’s Literacy Learning. Ethnography and Education 13(1): 119–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A. and Blackledge, A. (eds.) (2004). Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Peele-Eady, T. (2011). Constructing Membership Identity through Language and Social Interaction: The Case of African American Children at Faith Missionary Baptist Church. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 42(1): 54–75.Google Scholar
Peele-Eady, T. (2016). “The Responsive Reading” and Reading Responsively: Language, Literacy and African American Student Learning in the Black Church. In Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 85–109.Google Scholar
Pennycook, A. and Coutand-Marin, S. (2004). Teaching English as a Missionary Language (TEML). Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 24(30): 338–53.Google Scholar
Pennycook, A. and Makoni, S. (2005). The Language Effects of Christianity. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 4(2): 137–55.Google Scholar
Peuronen, S. (2017). Language, Participation and Spaces of Identification: The Construction of Socio-Ideological Meanings in a Christian Life Style Sports Community. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
Pihlaja, S. (2018). Religious Talk Online. The Evangelical Discourse of Muslims, Christians and Atheists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pihlaja, S. and Thomspon, N. (2017). “I Love the Queen”: Positioning in Young Muslim Discourse. Discourse, Context & Media 20: 52–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purgason, K. B. (2004). Readers Respond to Julian Edge’s “Imperial Troopers and Servants of the Lord”: A Clearer Picture of the “Servants of the Lord.” TESOL Quarterly 38: 711–13.Google Scholar
Reyes, C. (2009). “El Libro de Recuerdos” (Book of Memories): A Latina Student’s Exploration of the Self and Religion in Public School. Research in the Teaching of English 43(3): 263–85.Google Scholar
Rosowsky, A. (2013). Faith, Phonics and Identity: Reading in Faith Complementary Schools. Literacy 47(2): 67–78.Google Scholar
Rosowsky, A. (ed.) (2018a). Faith and Language Practices in Digital Spaces. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Rosowsky, A. (2018b). Virtual Allegiance: Online “Baya’a” Practices within a Worldwide Sufi Order. In Rosowsky, A. (ed.) Faith and Language in Digital Spaces. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 209–33.Google Scholar
Rumsey, S. (2016). Coming of Age: Amish Heritage Literacy Practices of Rumspringa, Adult Baptism, and Shunning. In Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 56–68.Google Scholar
Sagoo, G. K. (2016). Making and Shaping the First Nishkam Nursery: A Linguistic Ethnographic Study of a British Sikh Project for Childhood. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Sarroub, L. (2005). All American Yemeni Girls: Being Muslim in a Public School. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Sawin, T. (2018). Re-parishing in Social Media: Identity-Based Virtual Faith Communities and Physical Parishes. In Rosowsky, A. (ed.) Faith and Language in Digital Spaces. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 19–44.Google Scholar
Scribner, S. and Cole, M. (1981). Unpackaging Literacy. In Farr Whiteman, M. (ed.) Writing: The Nature, Development and Teaching of Written Communication. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 57–70.Google Scholar
Skerrett, A. (2013). Religious Literacies in a Secular Literacy Classroom. Reading Research Quarterly 49(2): 233–50.Google Scholar
Souza, A. (2016). Language and Faith Encounters: Bridging Language-Ethnicity and Language-Religion Studies. International Journal of Multilingualism 13(1): 134–48.Google Scholar
Skerrett, A. (2018). Facebook: A Medium for the Language Planning of Migrant Churches. In Rosowsky, A. (ed.) Faith and Language in Digital Spaces. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 45–67.Google Scholar
Souza, A., Barradas, O. and Woodham, M. (2016). Easter Celebrations at Home: Acquiring Symbolic Knowledge and Constructing Identities. In Lytra, V., Volk, D., and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 39–55.Google Scholar
Spector, K. (2007). God on the Gallows: Reading the Holocaust through Narratives of Redemption. Research in the Teaching of English 42(1): 7–55.Google Scholar
Stevick, E. (1996). Response to Julian Edge’s “Keeping the Faith.” TESOL Matters 6(6): 6.Google Scholar
Street, B. V. (1984). Literacy in Theory and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Varghese, M. and Johnston, B. (2007). Evangelical Christians and English Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly 41: 9–31.Google Scholar
Volk, D. (2016). Home Worship Service/Bible Reading/Reading Lesson: Syncretic Teaching and Learning in a Puerto Rican Family. In Lytra, V., Volk, D. and Gregory, E. (eds.) Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives. New York: Routledge. 21–38.Google Scholar
Watson, J. A. (2018). Religere like You Mean It: A Meditation on Han’s “Studying Religion and Language Teaching and Learning: Building a Subfield.” Modern Language Journal 102: 458–62.Google Scholar
Wong, M. S. and Canagarajah, S. (eds.) (2009). Christian and Critical English Language Educators in Dialogue: Pedagogical and Ethical Dilemmas. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wong, M. S., Kristjánsson, C. and Dörneyi, Z. (eds.) (2013). Christian Faith and English Language Teaching and Learning. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×