WMOT 89.5 | LISTENER-POWERED RADIO INDEPENDENT AMERICAN ROOTS
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

MTSU to share what it's learned about teaching religious pluralism

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Middle Tennessee State University says it’s launching a project to help the mid-state’s young people gain a better understanding of diverse cultures.

MTSU recently received a $120,000 federal grant to share what it’s learned in recent years about teaching religious pluralism. Over the next twenty months, MTSU will work to share those insights with instructors at the state’s community colleges.

MT Associate Professor of History Mary Evins will manage the project. Evins says MTSU learned a lot about teaching religious diversity as the controversy over the construction of a new Mosque in Murfreesboro swirled around the university’s campus.

“We certainly witnessed that here and it impacted our students and faculty on campus along with our community neighbors, and we wondered to what extent these same issues of differences in religious perspective were impacting many other communities around the State of Tennessee.” 

Evins says MTSU will be training community college faculty how to incorporate learning about diverse cultures into most any area of study. She says the purpose of higher education is to broaden every student’s “knowledge, understanding and ideas.”