Faith, Education, and Leadership

EDU A310C Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Across the United States, students in rural, suburban, and urban communities experience persistent educational inequities shaped by under-resourced schools, systemic inequality, and fragmented support systems. At the same time, faith communities—churches, mosques, temples, and other religious organizations—play a significant and often underexamined role in supporting young people, families, and educators through academic assistance, mentoring, social capital, and meaning-making. This course examines the intersection of faith, education, and community leadership through an ecosystem lens. Drawing on empirical research, case studies, practitioner frameworks, and student reflection, participants explore when faith–education partnerships enhance educational opportunity—and when they risk exclusion, coercion, or harm. The course emphasizes ethical leadership, partnership design, governance, and sustainability, with particular attention to educator well-being and community voice. Students leave the course with a research-informed, ethically grounded partnership design and a sharpened capacity to lead across difference.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. Analyze educational inequity using a PK–12 ecosystem framework
2. Interpret empirical research on faith, spirituality, and educational outcomes with methodological rigor
3. Distinguish between transformational and symbolic community partnerships
4. Design faith–education partnerships that attend to power, equity, and governance
5. Engage with and reflect on a community of faith that is not their own
6. Integrate concerns about educator well-being and sustainability into leadership design
7. Articulate a reflective, ethical stance toward leadership at the intersection of faith and public education