Reproducing religious hegemony: An analysis of religion in secondary history standards

Discussions around religion in public schools have grown in pace and intensity over the past few years. Various states are enacting legislation that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms as well as greater emphasis on Christian teachings in public classrooms creating classrooms that propagate Christian norms and values. In this study, we sought to examine how religion is currently treated in state history standards. We identified 988 standards from secondary history education that related to religion. We coded each standard to identify which religion(s) it was about (e.g. Hinduism, Christianity), what aspects of religion it addressed (e.g. Origin, Texts), and time period(s) reflected in the content. We found that standards tended to present religion as an ancient topic and if it were present in modern history, religion was connected to violent conflict and politics. Throughout the standards, there was a greater emphasis on Christianity than other religions. We conclude with suggestions for what teachers should consider when they implement the standards related to religion as well as what standards writers should consider when creating new standards.