K-12 Christian school teachers’ open responses regarding faith and learning

Abstract

Relating faith and learning is central to Christian education, but few large studies have examined how grade-school teachers understand this task. Witwer previously reported Likert-type data from 1059 teachers in Christian elementary and secondary schools. The present paper reports findings from 2356 open responses by 655 of those teachers. Teachers’ responses associated faith with attitudes about teaching, presenting a Christian perspective on content, and using standard pedagogical practices more often than they reported using distinctive pedagogical practices or limitations in faith’s influence on their teaching. These and other findings add to our understanding of how grade-school teachers perceive teaching Christianly.