DB4

Over the course of this program, I have had to write many discussion articles and papers on the field of education. In doing this, I have used scholarly and peer-reviewed journals to assist me in my collection of research. There are many educationally geared journals, however the ones that I find the most interesting and informative are the ones that are unbiased in their approach and give equal ground to both sides of stories. I am not a fan of journals that seem to be skewed and only public information that is geared towards a very narrow minded audience. Although I might already have a fixed opinion on something, I still enjoy doing due diligence and finding out what the other side thinks about an argument. With this in mind, I believe that the best journals in the field of education are: American Journal of Education, Journal of Educational Policy, Journal of Education and Christian Belief, Review of Educational Research, Teaching and Teacher Education, and American Educational Research Journal.

There were only a few journals that I found to be very relevant to my proposed research interest, which could be targeted to teachers, administrators and social obligations, such as religion. Even some of the journals that I thought would have good information and case studies did not have very much supportive research. When narrowing it down to the journals that had the most accurate, up to date, and useful information, I would have to say that the top three are Journal of Social Work, Journal of Educational Policy and Journal of Education and Christian Belief. These journals all included scholarly articles that spoke directly to the issue of Christian teachers feeling as if they have to suppress their values and morals when they teach in public schools. I believe that there are researchers who seek to pull the mask off of Christian teachers and those individuals have a voice in these journals.

After my review of many journal articles on the topic of religion in the public school, I found that there are not many articles in support of true freedom of religion for all. There are many that discuss the ways that other religions, aside from Christianity, should have a place in the classroom, however they also seem to push Christianity under the rug. This is disheartening considering the country was founded on Christianity and The Word of God. Another weakness that I saw in a lot of the journals that I read is that many of the articles are qualitative research, which definitely has its place in the field of education. I think that there should more quantitative research articles to give data and also I would like it for my own knowledge and future research.

When looking at the need for improvement, I also noticed that there were not many studies done where teachers were interviewed to determine what their thoughts on the matter were and if they felt there were any disparages in the way that Christianity is handled as opposed to other religions. As this issue continues to be a hot button, along with some of the moral issues that come along with religion, I think that it needs to be taken more seriously and more attention should be given to it in journals.