For students to fully participate in civic life, they must understand and appreciate the diversity and complexity of religious traditions. To gain this understanding, educators should teach about lived religions. This approach, advocated by Henry Goldschmidt of the Interfaith Center of New York, takes religion out of “the rarified realm of doctrine and text and […]
High School
Are Belief Systems a Unifying or Dividing Force? A Lesson Reflection
Guest Blog: Gretchyn Bedard, National Board Certified Social Studies Teacher Religions and belief systems have brought people together and torn groups apart. This phenomenon is something most students can comprehend, at least as it relates to the recent past and today. However, I have discovered that many of my students are largely unaware of how [...]
Islamic Funerary Practices Across the Globe During COVID-19
Guest Blog: Elsa Kunz, Graduate Student, Harvard Divinity School Overview Covid-19 impacted religious communities throughout the world. Grounded in the cultural studies approach to religion, advocated by The Program for Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, this lesson aims to provide students an opportunity to explore the impact of Covid-19 on Muslim communities […]
Religious Literacy in French Classes: Changing Understandings of Laïcité
Guest Blog: Elsa Kunz, Graduate Student, Harvard Divinity School Cultivating religious literacy goes beyond the social studies classroom. In fact, world language teachers have some of the greatest opportunities to incorporate the academic study of religion into their lessons. Using a cultural studies approach and the framework from Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity […]
Religion All Around: Engaging Students with the Category of Religion
Guest Blog: Elsa Kunz, Graduate Student, Harvard Divinity School The category of “religion” is a challenging one, and many students arrive in the classroom with unexplored assumption about what “counts” as religion. For many students, “religion” is an isolatable category that occurs in designated spaces, places, and people. Yet the reality is that religion does […]