Abstract
In this book, Blosser presents an ethnography of Grace Academy and its journey to address diversity. Grace Academy is a K-12 conservative Christian school located in the southern United States that has made a specific public commitment to addressing diversity issues. One key theme of this book is that “diversity does not mean the same thing, nor can it be addressed the same way in all schools” (p. 119), so what Blosser observed may not be the reality in all Christian schools nor is it the reality at Grace Academy now, several years later.
In chapter 1, Blosser presents a strong argument for why we should care about Christian schools and frames her research within the greater context of American education. She explains that while Christian schools are growing and are becoming more diverse, her research is critical because it shows “that conservative Christian understandings of diversity are more complex than news reports reveal” (p. 17).
Chapter 2 presents information about Grace Academy and the plan it had for addressing diversity during Blosser’s year of observation. The school held the view that “in conservative Christianity, there was absolute truth, which had implications for how one understood diversity” (p. 31). This belief impacted the way they addressed diversity and meant that although the school sought to become diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, it did not consider diversity in religion or sexual orientation.
Blosser discusses the school’s efforts to increase student and faculty diversity in chapter 3 through relaying the story of a black teacher in the school and feedback from black parents. According to Blosser, “the conservative politics of the school alienated many black families” (p. 60) and led to challenges in increasing the diversity of both students and faculty.
The fourth chapter presents Grace Academy’s efforts to cultivate a school culture that embraced diversity. In this chapter, Blosser describes the challenges the school faced due to stereotypical beliefs and attitudes about black students. In addition, she notes that students tended to socialize with other students from similar backgrounds and that the curriculum did not specifically address cultural differences.
Chapter 5 explains that Grace Academy taught an unintentional hidden curriculum regarding diversity and that the school “wanted its students to feel their unique backgrounds were celebrated but wanted to achieve that without any specific programming or lessons around diversity” (p. 90). Students in the school learned about diversity through service learning, the school biblical living policy, and the biblically based curriculum.
In chapter 6, Blosser offers a synopsis of the lessons that Christian schools can learn from the experience of Grace Academy. First, diversity efforts can be undermined when school stakeholders respond defensively to concerns about racism or discrimination. Second, it is important to consider the impact of their faith on the instructional decisions that teachers make. Third, Christian schools must consider the implications if they choose to accept school vouchers or other government funds. Finally, due to the lack of diversity in many Christian schools, there is debate about the role of Christian schools in American society. The chapter offers a description of the changes that Grace Academy has made to address diversity since the conclusion of Blosser’s research. The book closes with Blosser’s concern that “conservative Christian schools generally use their resistance to secular culture as a smoke screen for meaningfully addressing diversity” (p. 136) and that, based on her research and that of others, what she observed at Grace Academy is common in conservative Christian schools in the United States.
Blosser presents a compelling ethnography of a conservative Christian school and its efforts to increase racial and socio-economic diversity. Throughout the book, she makes the case that this school had a “belief in minimizing attention to difference” (p. 91) and that the school’s “pervasive culture of purity and conservative Christianity was more powerful than the strategies it employed to celebrate difference” (p. 102).
This snapshot of how one American Christian school addressed diversity leaves the reader with much to ponder, especially in light of the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States. The issue of diversity, both in terms of increasing the number of diverse students and supporting a variety of student needs, is a topic that must be addressed in all schools, but doing so proves to be challenging for many conservative Christian schools. Blosser’s book is easy to read, but powerful, and I highly recommend it to Christian school leaders, as well as Christian educators.