ITALIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

The creation of systems of public schooling in Western Europe and North America over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was primarily intended to develop the civic virtues, including national loyalty, considered essential to the nation- building process. This project was often carried out in explicit opposition to schooling with a religious character that was provided independent of government sponsorship. In recent decades, however, public schools have for a variety of reasons largely abandoned the mission of moral and civic education and, ironically, it is now faith- based schools that are most consistently seeking to shape loyal and engaged citizens. After a brief survey of research on Catholic and Evangelical schools, the article provides some preliminary findings from a study of Islamic secondary schools in the United States.