Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T01:51:36.397Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How Does the State Structure Secularization?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2015

Damon Mayrl
Damon Mayrl*
Affiliation:
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid [[email protected]]
Get access

Abstract

Why do similar modern nations accord religion different roles in their public institutions? This paper engages this question by examining trends in religious instruction in the public schools of the United States and Australia from 1850 to 1950. I find that American education secularized farther and faster than Australian education because of its decentralized system of educational administration. In the United States, decentralized educational administration facilitated challenges to religious exercises by religious minorities, fostered professional development among educators, and allowed novel educational practices oriented in new educational theories rather than religion to spread. In Australia, by contrast, centralized state control over education insulated majoritarian religious exercises from minority criticism, suppressed professional development, and helped maintain traditional educational practices that sustained religious instruction. The state thus has both mediating and constitutive effects on secularization, a finding which opens new directions for research into the dynamics of secularization.

Résumé

Pourquoi des nations modernes similaires accordent-elles à la religion des rôles différents dans leurs institutions publiques ? Cet article aborde cette question à partir de l'examen des tendances de l'enseignement religieux dans les écoles publiques aux États-Unis et en Australie entre 1850 et 1950. Il montre que l'éducation américaine relève d'une forme avancée de sécularisation en raison du caractère décentralisé de l'administration scolaire. Aux États-Unis, cette décentralisation a facilité tout à la fois la mise en cause des activités des minorités religieuses, la professionnalisation des éducateurs et la diffusion de nouvelles pratiques éducatives davantage ancrées dans les théories de l'éducation que dans la religion. Á l’inverse, en Australie, le contrôle centralisé de l'État sur l'éducation a contribué à insulariser les pratiques religieuses majoritaires des critiques minoritaires, à ralentir tout développement professionnel, et à maintenir des pratiques éducatives traditionnelles étroitement liées à l'instruction religieuse. En mettant en évidence la variété des effets de l’État, l'article ouvre de nouvelles perspectives pour la recherche sur les dynamiques de la sécularisation.

Zusammenfassung

Weshalb werden der Religion in vergleichbaren modernen Nationen jeweils andere Aufgaben in öffentlichen Institutionen zugewiesen? Der Beitrag verfolgt diese Frage, gestützt auf die Entwicklungen des Religionsunterrichts öffentlicher amerikanischer und australischer Schulen von 1850 bis 1950. Er zeigt, dass der amerikanische Unterricht sich durch eine vorangeschrittene Form der Säkularisierung auszeichnet, da von der Schulbehörde dezentralisiert aufgebaut. In den Vereinigten Staaten hat diese Dezentralisierung sowohl die Hinterfragung der Aktivitäten religiöser Minderheiten, als auch die Berufsausbildung der Erzieher und die Verbreitung neuer Erziehungstechniken erlaubt, mehr auf Erziehungstheorien als auf Religion basierend. Im Unterschied zu Australien, wo die zentralistische, staatliche Kontrolle die mehrheitlichen Religionspraktiken von der Minderheitenkritik isoliert, jegliche Berufsentwicklung gedrosselt und traditionelle Erziehungspraktiken in enger Verbindung zur Religionserziehung gehalten hat. Die Betonung der verschiedenartigen Auswirkungen staatlichen Eingriffs eröffnet neue Forschungsperspektiven der Säkularisierungsdynamiken.

Keywords

SecularizationReligious educationStatesInstitutionsUnited StatesAustraliaSécularisationÉducation religieuseÉtatsInstitutionsÉtats-Unis d’AmeriqueAustralieSäkularisierungReligiöse ErziehungStaatenInstitutionenVereinigte Staaten von AmerikaAustralien
Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , August 2015 , pp. 207 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adler, Cyrus, ed., 1917. The American Jewish Year Book, 5677 (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America).Google Scholar
Archer, Robin, 2007. Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States? (Princeton, Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Austin, A. G., 1965 [1961]. Australian Education, 1788-1900: Church, State, and Public Education in Colonial Australia, 2nd ed. (Melbourne, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons).Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006. Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2006 (Canberra, Government Printer).Google Scholar
Bader, Christopher D., Mencken, F. Carson and Froese, Paul, 2007. “American Piety 2005: Content and Methods of the Baylor Religion Survey”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46: 447-463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barcan, Alan, 1965. A Short History of Education in New South Wales (Sydney, Martindale).Google Scholar
Barcan, Alan, 1980. A History of Australian Education (Melbourne, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Barro, Robert J. and McCleary, Rachel M., 2003. “Religion and Economic Growth across Countries”, American Sociological Review, 68: 760-781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benavot, Aaron and Riddle, Phyllis, 1988. “The Expansion of Primary Education, 1870-1940: Trends and Issues”, Sociology of Education, 61: 191-210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, Peter, 1969. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York, Anchor Books).Google Scholar
Berger, Peter, Davie, Grace and Fokas, Effie, 2008. Religious America, Secular Europe? A Theme and Variations (Burlington, Ashgate).Google Scholar
Beyerlein, Kraig, 2003. “Educational Elites and the Movement to Secularize Public Education: The Case of the National Education Association” in Smith, C., ed., The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life (Berkeley, University of California Press: 160-196).Google Scholar
Board, Peter, 1921. “Use of Lord’s Prayer in Schools: Letter from Catholic Federation”, Memorandum, 28 February, nrs 3830, Box 19/8239.5 (Kingswood, State Records New South Wales).Google Scholar
Bone, Robert G., 1957. “Education in Illinois before 1857”, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 50: 119-40.Google Scholar
Brown, Elmer E., 1907. “Some Relations of Religious Education and Secular Education”, Religious Education, 2: 121-26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruce, Steve, 2011. Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory (New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, Keith J., 1963. “Education in Religion and Morals in the Primary Schools of New South Wales”, M.Ed. thesis, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Butts, Freeman, 1955. Assumptions Underlying Australian Education (New York, Teachers’ College, Columbia University).Google Scholar
Callahan, Raymond E., 1964. Changing Conceptions of the Superintendency in Public Education, 1865-1964 (Cambridge, New England School Development Council).Google Scholar
Casanova, José, 1994. Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casanova, José, 2006. “Rethinking Secularization: A Global Comparative Perspective”, Hedgehog Review, 8: 7-22.Google Scholar
Chaves, Mark, 1994. “Secularization as Declining Religious Authority”, Social Forces, 72: 749-774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleverley, John and Lawry, J., eds., 1972. Australian Education in the Twentieth Century (Camberwell, Longman Australia).Google Scholar
Cohen, Naomi W., 1992. Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious Equality (New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, William F., 1993. Reshaping Australian Education, 1960-1985 (Melbourne, acer).Google Scholar
Council for Christian Education in Schools, 1952. “Report on Interviews with Director-General of Education”, unpublished report, Box 70322 (North Parramatta, Uniting Church Archive).Google Scholar
Cramp, Karl R., and Smairl, J. H., 1921. Memorandum to Peter Board, 1 March, NRS 3830, Box 20/13220 (Kingswood: State Records New South Wales).Google Scholar
Cremin, Lawrence A., 1980. American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876 (New York, Harper & Row).Google Scholar
Cuban, Larry, 1993. How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in American Classrooms, 1890-1990, 2nd ed. (New York, Teachers’ College Press).Google Scholar
Davis, Sheldon E., 1970 [1919]. Educational Periodicals during the Nineteenth Century (Metuchen, Scarecrow Reprint Corporation).Google Scholar
Dierenfield, Richard B., 1962. Religion in American Public Schools (Washington, Public Affairs Press).Google Scholar
Dierenfield, Richard B., 1967. “The Impact of the Supreme Court Decisions on Religion in Public Schools”, Religious Education, 62: 445-451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dierenfield, Richard B., 1986. “Religious Influence in American Public Schools”, The Clearing House, 59: 390-92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobbelaere, Karel, 1981. “Secularization: A Multi-Dimensional Concept”, Current Sociology, 29: 1-216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Education, 1956. “Preparation for Scripture Teaching and Moral Training”, 14 March.Google Scholar
Educational Policies Commission, 1946. Policies for Education in American Democracy (Washington, National Education Association).Google Scholar
Evans, Peter B., Rueschemeyer, Dietrich and Skocpol, Theda, eds., 1985. Bringing the State Back In (New York, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fetzer, Joel S. and Soper, J. Christopher, 2005. Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Finke, Roger, and Stark, Rodney, 1988. “Religious Economies and Sacred Canopies: Religious Mobilization in American Cities, 1906”, American Sociological Review, 53: 41-49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Jonathan, 2008. A World Survey of Religion and the State (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, James W., 1999. Between Church and State: Religion & Public Education in a Multicultural America (New York, St. Martin’s Griffin).Google Scholar
Fraser, James W., 2007. Preparing America’s Teachers: A History (New York, Teachers College Press).Google Scholar
Gill, Anthony, 2008. The Political Origins of Religious Liberty (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Gorski, Philip S., 2000. “Historicizing the Secularization Debate: Church, States, and Society in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ca. 1300 to 1700”, American Sociological Review, 65: 138-167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorski, Philip S., 2003. “Historicizing the Secularization Debate: An Agenda for Research”, in Dillon, M., ed., Handbook of the Sociology of Religion (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 110-122).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorski, Philip S., 2005. “The Return of the Repressed: Religion and the Political Unconscious of Historical Sociology”, in Adams, J., Clemens, E. S. and Shola Orloff, A., eds., Remaking Modernity: Politics, History, and Sociology (Durham, Duke University Press: 161-189).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorski, Philip S. and Altinordu, Ateş, 2008. “After Secularization?” Annual Review of Sociology, 34: 55-85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Steven K., 2010. The Second Disestablishment: Church and State in Nineteenth-Century America (New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halfmann, Drew, 2011. Doctors and Demonstrators: How Political Institutions Shape Abortion Law in the United States, Britain, and Canada (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halikiopoulou, Daphne, 2011. Patterns of Secularization: Church, State and Nation in Greece and the Republic of Ireland (Burlington, Ashgate).Google Scholar
Handy, Robert T., 1991. Undermined Establishment: Church-State Relations in America, 1880-1920 (Princeton, Princeton University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, William T., 1903. “The Separation of the Church from the Tax-Supported School”, Educational Review, 26: 222-227.Google Scholar
Hennesey, James, 1981. American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States (New York, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Hervey, Walter L., 1907. “Moral Education in the Public Elementary Schools”, Religious Education, 2: 81-85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogan, Michael, 1987. The Sectarian Strand: Religion in Australian History (Ringwood, Penguin Australia).Google Scholar
Justice, Benjamin, 2005. The War that Wasn’t: Religious Conflict and Compromise in the Common Schools of New York State, 1865-1900 (Albany, State University of New York Press).Google Scholar
Kaestle, Carl F., 1983. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860 (New York, Hill and Wang).Google Scholar
Kandel, Isaac L., 1938. Types of Administration, with Particular Reference to the Educational Systems of New Zealand & Australia (Auckland, New Zealand Council for Educational Research).Google Scholar
Kriesi, Hanspeter, 2004. “Political Context and Opportunity”, in Snow, D. A., Soule, S. A. and Kriesi, H., eds., The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (Malden, Blackwell: 67-90).Google Scholar
Kuru, Ahmet T., 2009. Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laats, Adam, 2010. Fundamentalism and Education in the Scopes Era: God, Darwin, and the Roots of America’s Culture Wars (New York, Palgrave Macmillan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labour Daily, 1935. “Subsidy for Schools: Urged by Bishop of Goulburn”, 23 January.Google Scholar
Langdon, Alan A., 1986. The Anatomy of Religious Education in Schools (Sydney, Christian Education Publications).Google Scholar
Lynd, Robert S. and Lynd, Helen M., 1929. Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture (San Diego, Harcourt and Brace).Google Scholar
Lynd, Robert S. and Lynd, Helen M., 1937. Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company).Google Scholar
Maclaine, Alan G., 1975. Australian Education: Progress, Problems, and Prospects (Sydney, Ian Novak).Google Scholar
Maddox, Marion, 2014. Taking God to School: The End of Australia’s Egalitarian Education? (Crows Nest, Allen & Unwin).Google Scholar
Martin, David, 1978. A General Theory of Secularization (New York, Harper and Row).Google Scholar
Martin, David, 2005. On Secularization: Towards a Revised General Theory (Burlington, Ashgate).Google Scholar
Mason, Sister Mary Paul, 1953. Church-State Relationships in Education in Connecticut, 1633-1953 (Washington, Catholic University of America Press).Google Scholar
Mattingly, Paul H., 1975. The Classless Profession: American Schoolmen in the Nineteenth Century (New York, New York University Press).Google Scholar
Mayrl, Damon, 2011. “Administering Secularization: Religious Education in New South Wales since 1960”, European Journal of Sociology, 52: 111-42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayrl, Damon, forthcoming. Secular Conversions: Political Institutions and Religious Education in the United States and Australia (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
McClellan, B. Edward, 1999. Moral Education in America: Schools and the Shaping of Character from Colonial Times to the Present (New York, Teachers College Press).Google Scholar
McGiffert, Arthur Cushman, 1919. “Democracy and Religion”, Religious Education, 14: 156-161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, Donald, 1955. “Reading for Teachers”, Education, 6 July.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Bruce, 1975. Teachers, Education, and Politics: A History of Organizations of Public School Teachers in New South Wales (St. Lucia, University of Queensland Press).Google Scholar
Monsma, Stephen V. and Soper, J. Christopher, 1997. The Challenge of Pluralism: Church and State in Five Democracies (Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield).Google Scholar
Moore, Laurence R., 2000. “Bible Reading and Nonsectarian Schooling: The Failure of Religious Instruction in Nineteenth-Century Public Education”, Journal of American History, 86: 1581-1599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New South Wales, Department of Education, 1978. The Executive Structure in N.S.W. Primary Schools: A Discussion Paper (Sydney, Author).Google Scholar
New South Wales, Department of Instruction, 1926. “Religious Instruction in Public Schools”, Memorandum, 20 January, nrs 3830, Box 19/8239.4 (Kingswood, State Records New South Wales).Google Scholar
New South Wales Teachers’ Federation, 1959. Executive Minutes, 17 November, Deposit Z327/107 (Canberra, Noel Butlin Labour Archives).Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa and Inglehart, Ronald, 2004. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelham, A. H., 1952. “Syllabus Conference of the Council for Christian Education in Schools”, Report to Director of Secondary Education, nrs 3846, Box SZ72 (Kingswood, State Records New South Wales).Google Scholar
Pike, Robert Marden, 1965. “‘The Cinderella Profession’: The State School Teachers of New South Wales, 1880-1963: A Sociological Profile”, Ph.D. diss., Australian National University.Google Scholar
Reese, William J., 2005. America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press).Google Scholar
Report of the Committee on Resolutions, 1902. Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Education Association: 26-28.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda, 1992. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, Belknap Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Christian, 2003. “Introduction: Rethinking the Secularization of American Public Life”, in Smith, C., ed., The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life (Berkeley, University of California Press: 1-96).Google Scholar
Smith, Miriam, 2008. Political Institutions and Lesbian and Gay Rights in the United States and Canada (New York, Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spaull, Andrew, 1986. “The State and the Formation and Growth of Australian Teachers’ Unions, 1915-1925”, History of Education Review, 15: 34-48.Google Scholar
Stark, Rodney and Finke, Roger, 2000. Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion (Berkeley, University of California Press).Google Scholar
Thomas, George M., Peck, Lisa R. and De Haan, Channin G., 2003. “Reforming Education, Transforming Religion, 1876-1931”, in Smith, C., ed., The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life (Berkeley, University of California Press: 355-394).Google Scholar
Tyack, David and Hansot, Elizabeth, 1982. Managers of Virtue: Public School Leadership in America, 1820-1980 (New York, Basic Books).Google Scholar
Tyack, David, James, Thomas and Benavot, Aaron, 1987. Law and the Shaping of Public Education, 1785-1954 (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press).Google Scholar
United States Office of Education, 1904. Report of the Commissioner of Education, made to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1903 (Washington, Government Printer).Google Scholar
Way, H. Frank, 1968. “Survey Research on Judicial Decisions: The Prayer and Bible Reading Cases”, Western Political Quarterly, 21: 189-205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max, 1946. “Science as a Vocation”, in Gerth, H. H. and Wright Mills, C., eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford, Oxford University Press:129-56).Google Scholar
Weir, Margaret and Skocpol, Theda, 1985. “State Structures and the Possibilities for ‘Keynesian’ Responses to the Great Depression in Sweden, Britain, and the United States”, in Evans, P., Rueschemeyer, D. and Skocpol, T., eds., Bringing the State Back In (New York, Cambridge University Press:107-67).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wigney, L., 1958. “Provisions for Religious Education in the State School Systems of Australia and in the Territory of Papua New Guinea”, Journal of Christian Education, 1: 69-80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wild, Laura H., 1916. “The Essential Place of Religion in Education, with an Outline of a Plan for Introducing Religious Training into the Public Schools”, in National Education Association, The Essential Place of Religion in Education (Ann Arbor, National Education Association: 30-47).Google Scholar