Abstract
Th is grant project surveyed students’ experiences from different faith affiliations (or none) who attended Christian graduate programs, asking how they navigated the university’s Christian worldview and language in light of their own beliefs (or non-belief). The goal was to conduct a small pilot study to explore how Christian universities with a definitively Christian ethos could maintain their identity but shift their paradigm from discipleship in their undergraduate schools to a mission field in their graduate schools. This project targeted schools with a definitively Christian undergraduate program but who opened their enrollment to graduate students of all faiths. To access student feedback on their views and experiences at a Christian university, the research method relied on questionnaires for and interviews of graduate students who did not profess Christian faith. Th e results reveal that non-Christian graduate students often feel disenfranchised and suggest that engaging students in an open and honest dialogue about faith issues will help create an atmosphere that is more inclusive.
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Recommended Citation
Givens, R. (2020). Welcoming unfamiliar voices in familiar spaces: How can Christian colleges and universities respond to their graduate populations whose faith affiliation is different from that of the school’s?. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for Christians in Higher Education, 10(1), 5-24. https://doi.org/10.31380/sotlched.10.1.5
