抄録
Religious schools face contemporary challenges. In Japanese Christian schools, religious
education has been weakening, and the number of Christian teachers is decreasing. This study
aims to clarify how religious studies teachers shape their Christian educational practices and
secure their teacher autonomy when their school curricula strictly regulate their practices.
Specifically, it focuses on the conflicts that religious studies teachers experience in exercising
their education. In this study, Ando’s framework (2005) for teachers’ conflicts and conflict
coping styles was used to analyze the teachers’ narratives. Data were collected from two
Christian schools conducting semi-structured interviews with ten religious studies teachers.
The analysis revealed that the religious studies teachers tended to face three types of conflicts,
related to either 1) religion classes, 2) student guidance, or 3) relationships with fellow teachers.
Further, the religious studies teachers were attempting to cope with these conflicts by recognizing
and distinguishing some self-images: the professional self as a member of their school, and the
personal self described as “clergy” or “believer.” Hence, religion studies teachers may face
multiple facets of conflict. These conflicts among religious studies teachers are found to be
associated with structural factors, including negative connotations of religious matters in
Japanese society, school systems and rules imposed on teachers, and the distinctive nature of
religious education at schools in Japan.
https://ror.org/057zh3y96 
