Collisions of difference: Teaching gender and sexuality in a conservative and religious culture

Abstract

Gender and sexuality have been at the forefront of societal debate in recent years with various legal battles concerning LGBT rights and religious liberties taking center stage. Shifts in attitudes and gains in legal protections have served to entrench conservative religious beliefs and to perpetuate generational “bitter” knowledge. This study seeks to understand the types of beliefs brought into the classroom by students and to examine the role of religious socialization in shaping and maintaining problematic beliefs in the context of learning new discordant knowledge. The data demonstrate that students bring “bitter” or problematic knowledge into the classroom, which serves as an obstacle to engaging in critical inquiry. We explore how the educational technique of engaging in pedagogies of discomfort invites students to see things differently and to examine how the religious institution has shaped their beliefs and values. We conclude with the call for educators to create authenticity and safety through sharing in self-examination and presenting their own vulnerability within the course.

Keywords

Classroom ethnography student religious beliefs religious conflict

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Argyle

Beit-Hallahmi

(1975) The Social Psychology of Religion. New York: Routledge.

Astin

(1993) Diversity and multiculturalism on campus: How are students affected? Change 225(2): 44–49.

Bain

(2004) What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bengston

(1979) R.R. Marrett and the study of religion. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 47(4): 645–659.

Berger

(1973) The Social Reality of Religion. Boston: Penguin.

Boler

(1999) Feeling Power: Emotions and Education. New York: Routledge.

Boler

(2004) Teaching for hope: The ethics of shattering world views. In: Liston

Garrison

(eds) Teaching, Learning, and Loving: Reclaiming passion in educational practice. New York: Routledge, 114–132.

Bowen

(1997) Investment in learning: The individual and social value of American higher education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Chickering

Reisser

(1992) Education and Identity. The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. 2nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

10.

Cox

(1988) A Longitudinal Study of Values in Preferences and Changes as an Index to Adult Development in Berea College Students and Alumni. New Orleans: American Educational Research Association.

11.

Felman

Laub

(1992) Testimony: Crisis of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History. New York: Routledge.

12.

Gubrium

Holstein

(2001) In-Depth interviewing. In: Gubrium

Jaber F

Holstein

James A

(eds) Handbook of interview research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2–32.

13.

Hunsberger

Brown

(1984) Religious socialization, apostasy, and the impact of family background. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23(3): 239–251.

14.

Jansen

(2008) Bearing whiteness: a pedagogy of compassion in a time of troubles. Education as Change 12(2): 59–75.

15.

Jansen

(2009) Knowledge in the Blood. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

16.

Krueger

Casey

(2009) Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

17.

Lee

(2002) Religion and college attendance: change among students. The Review of Higher Education 25(4): 369–384. DOI: 10.1353/rhe.2002.0020.

18.

Marett

(1914) The Threshold of Religion. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.

19.

Morgan

(1997) Planning and research design for focus groups. Focus groups as qualitative research. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 31–45.

20.

Oliver

(2001) Witnessing: Beyond Recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

21.

Pratt

(1991) Arts of the contact zone. Profession 33–40. DOI: 10.2307/25595469.

22.

Reddy

(1997) Against constructionism: the historical ethnography of emotions. Current Anthropology 38(3): 327–351. DOI: 10.1086/204622.

23.

Reygan

Francis

(2015) Emotions and pedagogies of discomfort: teachers’ responses to sexual and gender diversity in the Free State, South Africa. Education As Change 19(1): 101–119. DOI: 10.1080/16823206.2014.943259.

24.

Schutz

DeCuir

(2002) Inquiry on emotions in education. Educational Psychologist 37(2): 125–134. DOI: 10.1207/S15326985EP3702_7.

25.

Schutz

Pekrun

(2011) Emotion in Education. Schutz PA and Pekrun

(ed). Burlington, MA: Academic Press.

26.

Watson-Gegeo

White

(1990) Disentangling: Conflict Discourse in Pacific Societies. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

27.

Zembylas

(2006) Witnessing in the classroom: the ethics and politics of affect. Educational Theory 56: 305–324.

28.

Zembylas

(2015) “Pedagogy of discomfort” and its ethical implications: the tensions of ethical violence in social justice education. Ethics and Education 10(2): 163–174. DOI: 10.1080/17449642.2015.1039274.

29.

Zembylas

McGlynn

(2012) Discomforting pedagogies: emotional tensions, ethical dilemmas and transformative possibilities. British Educational Research Journal 38(1): 41–59. DOI: 10.1080/01411926.2010.523779.