Faculty member publishes book focused on religion and education

Kevin Burke, a faculty member in the Department of Language and Literacy Education has a new book with his colleague, Avner Segall.

Christian Privilege in U.S. Education: Legacies and Current Issues (Routledge) explores the relationship between religion—specifically, Christianity—and secular public education in the United States.

Despite several court decisions separating religion and education, Burke and Segall, argue that the two are still very much entwined. This book reframes the discussion about religion and schooling, arguing that religion remains in the practices and routines of school and in the concepts of “child " and “teacher.” It also questions assumptions about the role of schools as part of the morement toward accountability, standardization and testing.

Christian Privilege in U.S. Education examines not whether Christianity has a place in public education but rather the ways it persists in a legally secular system.