Abstract

Institutionalization of curricular or pedagogical innovation or reform occurs at three different levels in an organization, the regulative institutionalization which occurs as compliance by expediency, normative institutionalization which occurs as compliance by moral or legal appropriateness and cognitive institutionalization which occurs as compliance by conceptual correctness. The cognitive level is most the desirable because at that level the values and norms of the organization are manifested in the beliefs and behaviors of individuals in the organization. This research study examined the patterns of institutionalization of integration of faith and learning as a curricular and pedagogical model among faculty members at a private Christian liberal arts university in Nigeria, West Africa. Five patterns of integration of faith and learning emerged from the study compared to eight patterns of institutionalization that emerged in a similar study of four religious research universities in the United States by the team of Ream, Beaty and Lyon (2004). The findings suggest that the level of institutionalization manifested and perceivable in the Nigerian study is at the regulative institutionalization level due to the fact that the beliefs and the behaviors of the faculty members are non-congruent to the expected beliefs and behaviors compatible with the institutionalization of the integration of faith and learning curricular and pedagogical model. Even though the 'fear of God' emerged as one of the dominant themes articulated by some of the faculty members in the study, four other emergent themes articulated the need to find a balance between religious integration and academic excellence. The findings suggest Seventh-day Adventists faculty members struggle between the need to subscribe to the fear of God as a measure for integration and the need to maintain a separation between faith and learning for objectivity in the academy. Being a Seventh-day Adventist male lecturer over the lecturer II rank was found to be a dominant factor in the institutionalization of the integration of faith and learning curricular model at a regulative level at the institution in the study.