Religion

Abstract
Undergraduate students lack the opportunity and environment to contemplate and develop ecoliteracy skills that serve to integrate subject matter into their everyday experiences. Ecoliteracy is grounded in Capra's web of life theoretical framework and represents students' capacities to read world systems objectively with their head, heart, hands, and spirit. Contemplative pedagogy provides educators with exercises that give students time to reflect on the integration of learning. Ecoliteracy and contemplative pedagogy research has shown little quantitative data pertaining to how contemplative pedagogy affects undergraduate student ecoliteracy. To address that gap, this causal-comparative study measured the use of contemplative pedagogy exercises relative to undergraduate student ecoliteracy. A convenience sample of 150 undergraduate students who did and did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises completed the New Ecological Paradigm Scale and Self-Compassion Scale Short Form. Independent-samples t tests measured the differences between the 2 groups. Findings indicated that students who did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises in the classroom were more likely to self-report higher ecoliteracy. A possible interpretation of these findings is that current contemplative pedagogy exercises may focus students' attention internally and not adequately promote the world-centered view that would more readily advance student ecoliteracy skills. Results of this study provide further insight that may inform professional development and contemplative pedagogy exercises that empowers students' ecoliteracy skills by encouraging critical thinking, action, and compassion towards positive social change.

Abstract
Ecoliteracy creates an opportunity to foster sustainable pedagogies and cooperation amongst educators, students, and the community.  The use of workshops and seminars can illustrate how the implementation of ecoliteracy paradigms and sustainable pedagogy practices can supplement current curriculum, departmental dynamics, and campus-wide activities.
Keywords:  ecology, ecoliteracy, environmental education, experiential education, higher education, Indigenous learning, living systems, mindful learning, participatory research, sustainable education, transformative learning

Abstract
Educational research affords the opportunity for teacher training programs to bridge learning theory and instructional design. Examining social and emotional learning and the use of pragmatic social constructivism can address the current climate surrounding a high school student and the 21st Century College. A program recommendation concerning the use of a living systems theory lens and learning gardens illustrates how social and emotional learning and pragmatic social constructivism can find practical application. Data collection and research methodologies provide the necessary tools for today’s teacher to engage in the educational system as he or she enters the field or is already involved.
Keywords: social and emotional learning, education research, constructivism, living systems, learning gardens, high school adolescents, college students, emerging adulthood, teacher training

Abstract
What is altruism and how may shifting individuals’ attentions from self to other diffuse the self-centered power of sustained victimology, identity divisions, and demagoguery?  My paper examines altruism, demagoguery, excerpts from Chapter 3 of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara, and the fostering of altruism through the practice of bodhichitta.  Particularly as it pertains to the commitment a bodhisattva makes in acting for the wellbeing of all sentient life in the development of aspirational and action bodhichitta through spiritual activism.  Individuals need not be Buddhist to foster, express, or practice the bodhisattva commitment.
Keywords:  altruism, demagoguery, demagogue, bodhisattva, bodhichitta, identity divisions, spiritual activism

Social scientists have been involved in systematic research on genocide for over forty years, yet an under-examined aspect of genocide literature is a sustained focus on the nexuses of religion and genocide, a lacuna that this article seeks to address. Four ways religion and genocide intersect are proposed, of which two will receive specific attention: (1) how religious rhetoric and (2) how religious individuals and institutions foment genocide. These two intersections are further nuanced by combining a Weberian method of typologies, the Durkheimian theory of collective violence, and empirical data in the form of rhetoric espoused by perpetrators and supporters of the 1995 Bosnian genocide. This combination yields the three typologies of " othering " , justification, and authorization, which are further supported by a review of genocide literature. The typologies provide a framework for analyzing the synergistic relationship between religion and genocide in the interest of devising a model that can be applied to other genocides for investigative and comparative purposes and reveal that religion is both instrumentalized by individuals and institutionally instrumental in genocide perpetration. Individuals explicitly employ religious rhetoric to prey on the fear of the masses, and religious institutions and individuals are indispensable to lending religious justification and moral authority to genocidal campaigns. These results may serve as a starting point for devising strategies that neuter the destructive links between genocide and religion as well as leveraging the ambiguity of religion in favor of its constructive and obviating potential.

In recent genocides and other conflicts—for example, the Sudan, Burma, and now Iraq—sexual violence and religion have received increasing but modest systematic treatment in genocide studies. This essay contributes to the nascent scholarship on the religious and sexual dimensions of genocide by providing a model for investigating the intersections among religion, genocide, and sexual violence. I treat the Rwandan genocide as a case study using secondary and primary sources and proffer the reinforcing typologies of " othering, " justification, and authorization as an investigatory tool. I further nuance the influences of religion on forms of sexual violation by arguing that religion indirectly (distally) and directly (proximately) furthers the aims of genocide by coding genocidal ideology and violence as " religious. " Ultimately, I contend that studying the religious and sexual aspects of genocide deepens our understanding of the complex dynamics of genocide and opens new lines of inquiry into genocide studies.