Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

School of Education

Program

Religious Education, PhD

First Advisor

Roy C. Naden

Second Advisor

Edward A. Streeter

Third Advisor

Walter B. Douglas

Abstract

Problem. Despite the numerical growth of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) membership and the number of private and parochial schools, there has not been a corresponding increase in student enrollment in Adventist church schools in British Columbia, Canada. This study investigated possible reasons for this trend through a study of the attitudes of church members toward the support of Adventist education in the province.

Method. The data for this study were gathered using the Adventist Education Opinion Survey (Naden, 1987). The sample was SDA church members in British Columbia who provided 498 usable responses that were analyzed by the use of item analysis, one-way ANOVA, and test of correlation coefficient. Each of the 17 hypotheses was tested at the.05 alpha level.

Findings. The main findings of this study based on the data received include the following: (1) Respondents who were more positive in perceiving church schools as an avenue through which students become members of the Seventh-day Adventist church were females, singles as opposed to married, respondents between 15-35 years of age, those who were members of the church between 1-9 years, and those employed by the church. (2) Respondents for whom Christian education was a conviction rather than a preference were more favorable in their attitude toward the support of church schools. (3) Church leadership was not a factor that contributed to a more positive attitude toward church schools. (4) Respondents who favored accepting government funds for church schools and those opposed to it were not significantly different in their attitudes toward church schools.

Conclusions. (1) Respondents in general seemed not to have strong positive attitudes toward the support of Seventh-day Adventist church schools. (2) Church schools were perceived as playing a significant role in thespiritual nurture of students. (3) Although many respondents viewed Christian education as a conviction rather than a preference, this stance needs to be strengthened.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventist schools--British Columbia

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