| It is apparent from a thorough search of the precedent literature that K–12 evangelical Christian schools lack sufficient resources for educators to frame and guide effective curriculum practice and decision-making. This lack of resources for Christian educators leads to ineffective operating principles that guide curriculum and instruction. While many evangelical educators have an adequate theological preparation or training in educational leadership they often lack sufficient exposure in one or the other. The inability to integrate faith with learning is a significant handicap. Christian educators need resources to frame and guide effective curriculum practice and curriculum decision-making, as they do not understand how to address both the internal forces of theology and the external forces of the community (Vryhor, Brouwer, Ulstein, and VanderArk, 1989).; This dissertation probes the literature for related studies, information on the evangelical heritage, curriculum theory, and school governance/leadership to better understand the operating principles that guide the K–12 evangelical Christian school curriculum. To do this 3 self-perpetuated board-run schools affiliated with the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) are studied to better understand the internal and external forces that drive their curriculum practice.; This study employs case study and comparative case study research methods in the study of three accredited ACSI schools. The findings and conclusions of this research identified internal and external forces that influence the curriculum decision-making process of each school. As a result a curriculum framework is created which identifies curriculum safeguarding as an emergent theory. The internal forces are identified as the organizational culture, having been filtered by the foundations of Christian education: Bible, evangelical theology, and a philosophy of Christian education. They serve as a curriculum safeguard that maintain the organizational culture of the institution filtering the external forces of the community at large. Both forces work together to the advantage of the school, though the internal force is the stronger of the two. The weakness of this research is that there is so much more that needs to be studied concerning operating principles and their impact on curriculum content and pedagogy. |
