For Teachers & Educators
ICJS Fellowship for Teachers: Cohort program builds religious literacy for educators
Religion is always present in the classroom, even when no one names it.
Students bring religious identities, assumptions, histories, holidays, and inherited narratives with them every day. Teachers do too. So do curricula, calendars, and school cultures. The question is not whether religion is present, but whether we are prepared to engage it thoughtfully.
ICJS offers a one-year cohort for Baltimore-area teachers to gain knowledge and confidence in religious literacy, to develop and share lesson plans for their own classroom, and to think deeply about pedagogy with a network of experienced educators and scholars.
Learn more about the Fellowship for Teachers below.
Interreligious Studies & Secondary Education
New book featuring contributions by ICJS staff and fellowship alumni
Edited by Christine Gallagher (ICJS), Lucinda Mosher, and Axel Takacs
Interreligious Studies and Secondary Education: Pedagogies and Practices for Living and Learning in a Religiously Plural World is a groundbreaking collection of essays exploring the role of interreligious studies in public, private, and parochial secondary education.
Contributors—including several alumni of the ICJS Fellowship for Teachers and the Fellowship for Nonprofit and Civic Professionals—offer insights into religious literacy, the impact of Christian privilege, and the transformative power of interfaith dialogue and experiential learning.
Each chapter ends with a list of discussion questions. Our hope is that administrators, professional learning communities, teacher educators, and more can use these essays as a way to begin conversations in their own schools.
Founder Story: Donna Lee Frisch
ICJS teacher programming has always been teacher-led. Donna Lee Frisch (1940-2020), a founding ICJS trustee and a former teacher at Bryn Mawr School, knew that students need to learn about religion to be informed local and global citizens, yet teaching about religion was tough. With generous support from the Frisch family, since 2015 ICJS has offered essential professional development opportunities for teachers and educators.
Teacher Voices & Impact Stories
What We Miss When We Don’t Talk About Religion
As a religious studies teacher at an independent school in Baltimore County, for the last 13 years it has been my professional joy to discuss religion and faith with high school students. Through world religions and a series of religious studies electives, I have explored religious practices, ethics, faith, and purpose with my students. As…
There Are No Stupid Questions Across Difference
Some people balk at the idea of “no stupid questions.” I have had students cringe or call out their friends when a classmate brashly asks a question that seems insensitive or reveals cultural ignorance. Like when a student asked me this year around the winter holidays how it was possible that I had Christian and…
Flour and Water/Body and Soul: Making challah as a metaphor for being human
Throughout the Teachers Fellowship, I’ve come to understand how important it is to teach about religion in schools—especially minority religions. It’s essential for majority communities to respect, support, and uplift minorities. The goal isn’t always to compare religious practices or try to make sense of them from our own perspectives, but rather to learn, listen,…
From Being Right to Being in Relationship
At our first meeting of the ICJS Fellowship for Teachers, we were given guidelines for cultivating dialogue over debate. I took these to heart; they felt like a message from a higher power about how to improve all of my relationships. The conversations that we were able to have under these norms were challenging for…
Contact Christine Gallagher | Head of Program | Program Director for Teachers & Schools
If you want to learn more about ICJS’ work with teachers and educators, contact Christine Gallagher at cgallagher@icjs.org.
Contact Jason Creeger | Program Manager for Teachers & Schools
If you want to learn more about the ICJS Fellowship for Teachers, contact Jason Creeger at jcreeger@icjs.org.