| This dissertation builds on five years of research exploring the connection between the goals and methodologies of religious education in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville in Illinois and the insights of emotional intelligence (EQ), or the so-called social and emotional learning perspective in education. The original research in this dissertation studies the ways in which 12 schoolteachers in Catholic middle schools make connections between religious faith and religious education practice and social and emotional insights, skills, and competencies. The study provides a descriptive terrain of the teachers' use of affectivity in their religious education goals, planning and classroom practice, and the beginning of a grounded theory connecting the languages and conceptual frameworks of faith formation and emotional intelligence. In general, the teachers demonstrated an intuitive grasp of the common dynamics between faith and social and emotional intelligences. But, their inability to articulate the specifics of this connection, or to demonstrate classroom performance that addresses adequately the emotional dimension of the religious tradition, suggests the need for a more developed theory on the role of affectivity in religious education. |
