Difficult Knowledge(s) and the False Religion(s) of Schooling - Journal of Educational Foundations Vol. 32

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw

Analytic essay examining how religiosity in U.S. education is expressed through discourses that shape what schooling treats as possible, focusing on four concepts connected to “difficult knowledge,” falsehood, truth, and risk. Using a “Catholic school” “exorbitant moment” and recent discussions of ISIS/ISIL and Christian possibilities, the work argues that schooling resists the risk of falsehood while still positing a single route to truth and access.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Religious truth and falsehood in schooling

The Catholic mass as an “exorbitant moment”

ISIS discourse and the idea of true religion

Educational reform and access to truth

Difficult Knowledge(s) and the False Religion(s) of Schooling Scott Jarvie Kevin J. Burke The Journal of Educational Foundations Vol. 32, No. 1, 2, 3, & 4 2019, pp. 5-23 Copyright 2019 by Caddo Gap Press Abstract This analytic essay builds on recent work examining the ways religiosityin U.S. education is manifest in the particular discourses that come to shape popular understandings of the possible in and through schooling. The authors analyze the function of four concepts, in light of recent constructions of religions and their relative positioning as‘true’ or ‘false,’ in order to make a larger point about the ways in which religious understandings of difficult knowledge (Pitt & Britzman, 2003), falsehood, truth, and risk underline that which is im/possible in the U.S. educational project. Building from an “exorbitant moment”(Gallop, 2002) in a Catholic school, and putting it in conversation with recent discourses about ISIS/ISIL, Christianity, and the possibility ofa true (and thus, false) religion, the work argues that ultimately schooling, averse to the risk of falsehood, continues to posit a single road to what is true and who has access to truth. This orientation, the authors suggest, is especially manifest in the ongoing moment of educational reform. Introduction Truth is the agreement of our ideas with the ideas of God. —Jonathan Edwards, Memoirs Scott Jarvie is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Teacher Education of the College of Education at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. Kevin J. Burke is an associate professor in the Department of Language & Literacy Education of the College of Education at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Their e-mail addresses are: [scott.a.jarvie@gmail.com & burkekq@uga.edu](scott.a.jarvie@gmail.com & burkekq@uga.edu) 􀀵 In a typical Catholic mass, the General Intercessions, or Prayers of the Faithful, is a time set aside to pray for contemporary persons and events. The moment constitutes an exceptional break from the otherwise rigid traditionalism of the mass, rooted as it is in the extrahistorical continuity of ritual (see, for example, McLaren,1999), in which the current happenings of the world are brought into the sacred, isolated space of the church. It’s also a moment in which the immediate context of the service matters: intercessionsat a mass in Nigeria today would lookvery different from those given in New York 50 years ago, though the rest of the service (e.g., the readings, the Nicene Creed, the Eucharist) might look quite similar. We share this to set up just how the following event could make its way into a Church space which might not be concerned with contemporary Islam (except by its tacit exclusion) otherwise. The first author, while teaching at a Catholic high school in Chicago, attended an all-school mass in the spring of 2015. During a typical Prayersofthe Faithful, sandwiched between intercessions for the recent death of alumni and the impending departure of a group of seniors on a service trip to West Virginia, the lector enjoined the congregation:“We pray for the victims of violence at the hands of ISIS, who practice a false version of Islam. Let us pray to the Lord.” The congregation provided their solemn, expected response,“Lord, hear our prayer,” and the mass proceeded on, as always. We call attention hereto the ordinariness of this“exorbitant moment”(Gallop, 2002): the rhetoric of religious truth and falsehood, far from seeming odd or inappropriate as it was employed to delegitimize a disturbing religious act, went mostly unnoticed. Indeed, we suggest this rhetoric was not only so common as to seem natural within a Catholic context, it was also natural to the students (this happened as a part of official programming at the school, after all) in the congregation that day. Moreover, we’re interested in thinking about how the rhetoric of true and false religion shapes the experiences of students in religi

FAQs

What is the essay’s central focus on religiosity in U.S. education?

It analyzes how religious understanding becomes manifest through discourses that define what schooling treats as possible, especially through notions of difficult knowledge, falsehood, truth, and risk.

How does the authors’ Catholic mass example function in the argument?

The “exorbitant moment” shows rhetoric of religious truth and falsehood used to delegitimize a violent act, while remaining largely unnoticed as ordinary and even natural to students.

What does the essay claim about schooling’s relationship to truth and falsehood?

Schooling avoids the risk of falsehood yet continues to propose a single road to what is true and who can access truth, a pattern especially visible in ongoing educational reform.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw