Religious science teachers’ views on the relationship between science and religion and their practices in the classroom

This study delineated science teachers’ views on the relationship between science and religion and their teaching practices in the classroom in Korea. We focused on the experiences affecting participants’ views on the relationship between science and religion, and investigated how they related their views and practices to religiously minded science instruction and how they interacted. We interviewed four Christian teachers of science with an approach to oral history and interpreted the data categorizing different periods: before pre-service teaching, during pre-service teaching, and during in-service teaching. The participants held divisive views concerning science and religion: from the view that science is not only incompatible with, but also separate from religion to the view that science is an integrated subset of religion. They adhered to such views and their experiences in their college and workplace contributed to forming their views. In terms of teaching practices, they showed different levels of religious acceptance ranging from inactive to active. In addition, the participants’ views on the nature of science and nature of religion, and their vision as science teaching hinged on their attitude towards science education as well as on religious practice. The study suggests that religious instruction of teachers is connected not only to their views on the relationship between science and religion but also to other values such as a vision of science teaching, the nature of science and religion, and religious commitment.