Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic Schooling in Canada

The education provided by Canada’s faith-based schools is a subject of public, political, and scholarly controversy. As the population becomes more religiously diverse, the continued establishment and support of faith-based schools has reignited debates about whether they should be funded publicly and to what extent they threaten social cohesion. These discussions tend to occur without considering a fundamental question: How do faith-based schools envision and enact their educational missions? Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent offers responses to that question by examining a selection of Canada’s Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic schools. The daily reality of these schools is illuminated through essays that address the aims and practices that characterize these schools, how they prepare their students to become citizens of a multicultural Canada, and how they respond to dissent in the classroom. The essays in this book reveal that Canada’s faith-based schools sometimes succeed and sometimes struggle in bridging the demands of the faith and the need to create participating citizens of a multicultural society. Discussion surrounding faith-based schools in Canada would be enriched by a better understanding of the aims and practices of these schools, and this book provides a gateway to the subject.

Table of Contents:
Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic Schooling in Canada, edited by Graham P. McDonough, Nadeem A. Memon, and Avi I. Mintz Introduction Graham P. McDonough, Nadeem A. Memon, and Avi I. Mintz Part A: Aims and Practices 1. The Jewish Day Schools of Canada Seymour Epstein 2. The Distinctiveness of Catholic Education Mario O. D'Souza, csb 3. Between Immigrating and Integrating: The Challenge of Defining an Islamic Pedagogy in Canadian Islamic Schools Nadeem A. Memon Part B: Faith and Citizenship 4. Jewish Education, Democracy, and Pluralistic Engagement Greg Beiles 5. Canadian Catholic Schools: Sacred and Secular Tensions in a Free and Democratic Society J. Kent Donlevy 6. London Islamic School: Millstone or Milestone? Asma Ahmed Part C: Dissent and Critical Thinking 7. The Changed Context for Jewish Day-School Education Alex Pomson and Randal F. Schnoor 8. Teaching Subject Matter That is Controversial among Catholics: Implications for Intellectual Growth in the Church Graham P. McDonough 9. A Canadian Islamic School in Perspective: A Critique of the “Moderate” and “Strong” Categories in Faith-Based Schooling Qaiser Ahmad Conclusion 10. Diversity and Deliberation in Faith-Based Schools: Implications for Educating Canadian Citizens Avi I. Mintz Glossary The Contributors Index

About the Author :
Graham P. McDonough is an assistant professor of education and an associate fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He has published articles in Catholic Education and International Studies in Catholic Education. His book, Beyond Obedience and Abandonment: Toward a Theory of Dissent in Catholic Education, is forthcoming. Nadeem A. Memon is the director of the Islamic Teacher Education Program, a collaboration between Razi Group and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. He also teaches courses in equity and education and Muslim studies at OISE/UT and Wilfrid Laurier University. Avi I. Mintz is an assistant professor in the University of Tulsa's School of Urban Education. He has published articles in Journal of Religious Education, Studies in Philosophy and Education, Educational Theory, and Journal of Philosophy of Education.

Review :
``The editors' choice to concentrate on only Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic schools ... achieves the stated goal of allowing the reader to reflect on different perspectives surrounding debates over religious schools. The focus on three religions also serves the discussion regarding three important aspects of the debate. In the first part, it affords the reader the opportunity to become more familiar with the approach to education particular to each of the studies religions. In the second, we consider the integration of Canadian multicultural values into religious teachings, while in the third we are exposed to the openness of religious schools to internal pluralism. In this fashion, the readers comes to appreciate different facets of the daily functioning of such schools, grasping a more holistic portrait of their reality.... In sum, since religious schooling in Canada is a subject that has been scarcely treated in academic literature, even though it regularly occupies the public attention, a sort of demystification of religious schools emerges in this book. This reveals that even while respecting a religious faith and structure, such institutions can encourage students to be a part of a tolerant and open society. These contradictions in experiences within religious schools are well-discussed in the book's conclusion, ââ¬ËDiversity and Deliberation in Faith-Based Schoolsââ¬â¢ (Mintz), a chapter that, without trying to eliminate the controversy, shows how such schools have a place in the quest for Canadian identity.'' -- Sivane Hirsch, Universitè de Montrèal -- Canadian Jewish Studies/Ãâ°tudes juivres canadiennes, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2012 ``Religious education is a particularly contentious topic in an increasingly secular society. And yet there is surprisingly little scholarly literature on this topic. The editors seek to address this gap through this excellent and much needed contribution to the field.... Given this ongoing controversy in Canada, Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent can ideally help foster a healthier and more informed debate about the role of religious schools there.'' -- Aruba Mahmud, Western University, London, ON -- American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Volume 31, number 3, Summer 2014