The most recent addition to the Key Issues on Diverse College Students series bridges theory to practice in order to help student affairs and higher education professionals understand the needs and experiences of religious minorities on college campuses. Religious Minority Students in Higher Education explores existing literature and research on religious minorities on American college campuses, discusses the challenges and needs of religious minorities on campus, and provides best practices and recommendations. Providing a foundational, nuanced approach to religious minorities in the American college context, this important resource will help educators at colleges and universities promote religious pluralism and tolerance to support student learning outcomes and campus inclusion among students of diverse religious backgrounds.
In the updated edition of this important volume, the editors and chapter contributors explore how diverse populations of students experience college differently and encounter group-specific barriers to success. Informed by relevant theories, each chapter focuses on engaging a different student population, including low-income students, Students of Color, international students, students with disabilities, religious minority students, student-athletes, part-time students, adult learners, military-connected students, graduate students, and others. New in this third edition is the inclusion of chapters on Indigenous students, student activists, transracial Asian American adoptee students, justice-involved students, student-parents, first-generation students, and undocumented students. The forward-thinking, practical, anti-deficit-oriented strategies offered throughout the book are based on research and the collected professional wisdom of experienced educators and scholars at a range of postsecondary institutions. Current and future faculty members, higher education administrators, and student affairs educators will undoubtedly find this book complete with fresh ideas to reverse troubling engagement trends among various college student populations.
Spirituality in College Students' Lives draws on data from a large-scale national survey examining the spiritual development of undergraduates and how colleges and universities can be more effective in facilitating students' spiritual growth. In this book, contributors from the fields of education, psychology, sociology, social work, and religion present research-based studies that explore the importance of students' spirituality and the impact of the college experience on their spiritual development. Offering a wide range of theoretical perspectives and worldviews, this volume also includes reflections from distinguished researchers and practitioners which highlight implications for practice. This original edited collection explores: Emerging theoretical frames and analytical approaches; differences in spiritual expressions and experiences among sub-populations; the impact of campus contexts; and how college experiences shape spiritual outcomes. Spirituality in College Students' Lives is an important resource for higher education and student affairs faculty, administrators, and practitioners interested in nurturing the inner lives of college students.
College in the United States changed dramatically during the twentieth century, ushering in what we know today as the American university in all its diversity. Religion departments made their way into institutions in the 1930s to the 1960s, while significant shifts from college to university occurred. The college ideal was primarily shaping the few to enter the Protestant management class through the inculcation of values associated with a Western civilization that relied upon this training done residentially, primarily for young men. Protestant Christian leaders created religion departments as the college model was shifting to the university ideal, where a more democratized population, including women and non-Protestants, studied under professors trained in specialized disciplines to achieve professional careers in a more internationally connected and post-industrial class. Religion departments at mid-century were addressing the lack of an agreed-upon curricular center in the wake of changes such as the elective system, Carnegie credit-hour formulation, and numerous other shifts in disciplines spelling the end of the college ideal, though certainly continuing many of its traditions and structures. Religion departments were an attempt to provide a cultural and religious center that might hold, enhance existential and moral meaning for students, and strengthen an argument against the German research university ideals of naturalistic science whose so-called objectivity proved, at best, problematic and, at worst, inept given the political crisis in Europe. Colleges found they were losing sight of the college ideal and hoped religion as a taught subject could bring back much of what college had meant, from moral formation and curricular focus to personal piety and national unity. That hope was never realized, and what remained in its wake helped fuel the university model with its specialized religion departments seeking entirely different ends. In the shift from college to university, religion professors attempted to become creators of a legitimate academic subject quite apart from the chapel programs, attempts at moralizing, and centrality in the curriculum of Western Christian thought and history championed in the college model.
The most recent addition to the Key Issues on Diverse College Students series bridges theory to practice in order to help student affairs and higher education professionals understand the needs and experiences of religious minorities on college campuses. Religious Minority Students in Higher Education explores existing literature and research on religious minorities on American college campuses, discusses the challenges and needs of religious minorities on campus, and provides best practices and recommendations. Providing a foundational, nuanced approach to religious minorities in the American college context, this important resource will help educators at colleges and universities promote religious pluralism and tolerance to support student learning outcomes and campus inclusion among students of diverse religious backgrounds.
Winner of a 2013 American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award Drawing on conversations with hundreds of professors, co-curricular educators, administrators, and students from institutions spanning the entire spectrum of American colleges and universities, the Jacobsens illustrate how religion is constructively intertwined with the work of higher education in the twenty-first century. No Longer Invisible documents how, after decades when religion was marginalized, colleges and universities are re-engaging matters of faith-an educational development that is both positive and necessary. Religion in contemporary American life is now incredibly complex, with religious pluralism on the rise and the categories of "religious" and "secular" often blending together in a dizzying array of lifestyles and beliefs. Using the categories of historic religion, public religion, and personal religion, No Longer Invisible offers a new framework for understanding this emerging religious terrain, a framework that can help colleges and universities-and the students who attend them-interact with religion more effectively. The stakes are high: Faced with escalating pressures to focus solely on job training, American higher education may find that paying more careful and nuanced attention to religion is a prerequisite for preserving American higher education's longstanding commitment to personal, social, and civic learning.
Today, no institution can ignore the need for deep conversations about race and ethnicity. But colleges and universities face a unique set of challenges as they explore these topics. Diversity Matters offers leaders a roadmap as they think through how their campuses can serve all students well. Five Key Sections Campus Case Studies: Transforming Institutions with a Commitment to Diversity Why We Stayed: Lessons in Resiliency and Leadership from Long-Term CCCU Diversity Professionals Voices of Our Friends: Speaking for Themselves Curricular/Cocurricular Initiatives to Enhance Diversity Awareness and Action Autoethnographies: Emerging Leaders and Career Stages Each chapter in Diversity Matters includes important discussion questions for administration, faculty, and staff.
This title was first published in 2000. The place of religion in universities and institutes of higher education has become increasingly topical and contested in recent years, largely due to the growth of religious diversity on campus. Issues such as shared worship spaces, equal opportunities, and the management of inter-religious conflict, concern university administrators and students alike. Based on primary empirical research, this book indicates the need for clear guidelines on these issues and provides the data to inform policy-making. Offering the first study of the practical and sociological implications of the multi-faith campus, this book provides a context for examining some of the dynamics of religious diversity in Britain more generally as well as providing a useful analysis for the wider international context. Key themes covered include: religion in institutions; inter-faith relations; the changing roles of religious professionals; secularisation and resacralisation; and religion, youth and identity.
Julie J. Park examines how losing racial diversity in a university affects the everyday lives of its students. She uses a student organization, the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) at “California University,” as a case study to show how reductions in racial diversity impact the ability of students to sustain multiethnic communities. The story documents IVCF’s evolution from a predominantly white group that rarely addressed race to the most racially diverse campus fellowship at the university. However, its ability to maintain its multiethnic membership was severely hampered by the drop in black enrollment at California University following the passage of Proposition 209, a statewide affirmative action ban. Park demonstrates how the friendships that students have—or do not have—across racial lines are not just a matter of personal preference or choice; they take place in the contexts that are inevitably shaped by the demographic conditions of the university. She contends that a strong organizational commitment to diversity, while essential, cannot sustain racially diverse student subcultures. Her work makes a critical contribution to our understanding of race and inequality in collegiate life and is a valuable resource for educators and researchers interested in the influence of racial politics on students’ lives.
Remixed and Reimagined: Innovations in Religion, Spirituality, and (Inter)faith in Higher Education is a new edited book that invites readers to rethink and re-examine the traditional paradigms in which religion, spirituality, and interfaith (RSI) have been studied within higher education and student affairs settings. This volume introduces new theoretical frameworks that enrich and enliven the study of RSI, making it more dynamic, inclusive, and, most importantly, innovative. It is framed by a commitment to social justice and intersectionality, while centering the narratives of the religiously marginalized. The text is divided into two units. The first unit explores new and emergent frameworks for analyzing and interpreting RSI in higher education and student affairs. The second unit puts various theoretical frameworks into practice, while highlighting the often-marginalized voices of the religiously minoritized. The book concludes with a call for researchers to begin exploring the new proposed horizons within the study of RSI in higher education and student affairs. This text is perfect for graduate level seminars in higher education and student affairs programs. It is also an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars. Perfect for courses such as: Religion in Popular Culture | Religion and Spirituality in Higher Education | Introduction to the Study of Religion | Introduction to Interfaith (Multifaith studies) | Interfaith Dialogue on Campus | Introduction to Queer Studies | Contemporary Issues in LGBTQ Studies | Introduction to Diversity | Masters of Education (Graduate Level) | Politics of Difference | Diversity and Identity | Diverse Issues in Higher Education | Student Affairs
