166 Putting It Together: Religion and Education

Summary

In this module, you learned about religions around the world and the role that religion plays in society. Religion is a way to organize our values and beliefs, forming our world view, often helping us to understand the difference between right and wrong, and sometimes becoming a vehicle of social change.

You also examined education around the world. Education is another institution that helps to socialize people to the cultural norms of their society. What we learn may be about content (history, or math) but also about the hidden curriculum (how to be a good citizen). Education may be formal (in a school) or informal (like learning how to cook or how to fish, or even how to tie your shoes) and it may be mandated as it is in the United States where children must attend for at least ten years of their lives. The quality of education is varied within our own country as well as between countries.

What you learned to do:

• Explain how major sociological perspectives view religion
• Explain the basic tenets of major world religions
• Describe religion in the United States
• Examine educational differences around the world
• Examine the major theoretical perspectives on education
• Identify and discuss historical and contemporary issues in education