Jesus, the Bible and ‘I feel like I should be left-leaning’: The liberalising effect of sociology and diffused religion in Australian non-university faith-based higher education

Existing literature on teaching sociology depicts a ‘liberalising effect’ of sociological ideas on student values. Furthermore, research on teaching sociology in conservative contexts is largely contained to North America and, as such, is silent on the impact of diffused religion, or what we term display-aversive spirituality, in the faith-based higher education sector in Australia. Drawing on insights gathered from 17 participants in student-to-student interviews, described as ‘friendship as method’, from a faith-based higher education provider in Australia, we interrogate the taken-for-granted linear conservative-liberal framing of the effect of studying sociology in higher education. We argue that students studying sociology in this research draw on various religious, individual, cultural, and political discourses to make sense of their values and integrate sociological ideas into their worldview. The findings from this project suggest that the ‘political act’ of teaching sociology is not always experienced in these terms by students and that students’ experiences of studying sociology in faith-based higher education in Australia do not conform to the lineal liberalising student values narrative.