The Educational Identity Formation of Jehovah S Witnesses

Religion & Education
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/urel20
The Educational Identity Formation of Jehovah’s

Witnesses
Carrie S. Ingersoll-Wood
To cite this article: Carrie S. Ingersoll-Wood (2022) The Educational Identity Formation of
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Religion & Education, 49:3, 310-338, DOI: 10.1080/15507394.2022.2102875
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2022.2102875
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RELIGION & EDUCATION
2022, VOL. 49, NO. 3, 310–338
https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2022.2102875
The Educational Identity Formation

of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Carrie S. Ingersoll-Wood
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Through qualitative research this study addresses the inad- Jehovah’s Witnesses;
equate amount of research investigating the educational iden- educational identity; self-
tity formation of individuals who are raised as Jehovah’s determination; motivation
Witnesses (JW). Narratives from semi-structured interviews
suggest participants negotiated multiple identities in multiple
frames—their identity as religious members and their personal
educational identity in their secular education. Individuals
whose parents subscribed to the religion’s notion that higher
education was unnecessary and detrimental, formed educa-
tional identities that rejected their talents, suppressed their
motivation, and foreclosed opportunities for autonomy and
self-satisfaction in personal goal setting and career selection.
Introduction
What do you want to do when you grow up? I remember when I learned
how to answer that question. I learned how to answer it according to the
guidelines of the religion my family practiced, not according to my own
intrinsic aspirations. I remember as soon as I realized that I was not going to
go to college after high school; it occurred to me that it did not matter how
well I did in school, and so I lost the motivation to participate in my educa-
tion. My lack of motivation confused my high school teachers because I pre-
sented as a bright and capable student. I remember sitting in an office with
my high school guidance counselor trying to answer his questions about
where I wanted to go to college and what I wanted to be when I grew up. He
was trying to help me chart a course for success in high school, help me map
out my future, and I was trying to hide that I was at war with myself.
I did not know it at the time, but as I sat in that office with my guidance
counselor avoiding questions, I was fundamentally engaged in what Kuran1
Carrie Ingersoll-Wood is the Director of the Disability Cultural Center at Syracuse University. She is a Ph.D.
candidate in the School of Education at Syracuse University. As a first-generation student herself, she researches
the motivation and educational identity formation of first-generation students, and how students draw on forms
of community cultural wealth to assist in building academic self-efficacy and positive educational identity to
succeed in their pursuit of a degree. cawood@syr.edu
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of
the article.
ß 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
RELIGION & EDUCATION 311
refers to as “preference falsification—the act of misrepresenting one’s genu-

ine wants under perceived social pressures” (3). As the third child in my
family to subvert the efforts of a high school guidance counselor, I received
far less push back about not going to college than my older brothers. As an
educator, I understand not every student sees themselves going to college,
but that is entirely different than a student concealing the desire to go to
college due to the burden of belonging to Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) a
“high-cost” religion that denounces higher education. Researchers Scheitle
and Adamczyk2 describe the demands of membership in high-cost religious
groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses:
… the Latterday Saints (commonly called Mormons) and Jehovah’s Witnesses are
typically considered to be among the most demanding, high-cost, theologically and
culturally exclusive religious groups (Iannaccone et al. 1995). Both have distinctive
beliefs, and members face many upfront costs, including high levels of required
participation, behavioral and social restrictions. (326)
As noted by historian Knox3 in her book Jehovah’s Witnesses and the

Secular World: From the 1870s to the Present, the tremendous international
growth the organization experienced following World War II became the
impetus for the Watch Tower Society (Society) to establish and ensure uni-
formity of ideology in all congregations worldwide:
This growth challenged the Society to maintain a unity of purpose, which is ensured
by requiring (and monitoring) high standards of behaviour. The supervision of its
members has relied on a rigid hierarchical structure, close oversight of congregations,
and extensive reporting of all its activities … The organization is highly centralized,
with teachings handed down by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and
disseminated primarily through publications but also relayed by elders at
congregational meetings. The teachings are reinforced by sanctions against those who
willfully ignore official guidance. It is rigidly patriarchal. (66)
The degree of uniformity in the organization’s literature can be attrib-

uted to the Writing Committee, the committee charged with articulating
the policies of the “Governing Body,” a group of eight men based at their
world headquarters who, since 1971, has determined the policies and pro-
cedures to Jehovah’s Witnesses, allowing the “Society,” shorthand for The
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, to communicate the organization’s
behavioral guidelines to believers. In addition to the literature they pro-
duce, the Society also maintains a website (www.jw.org), which houses a
sanitized and selective version of its history and also serves as its principal
brand identifier across all social media platforms.4 While I secretly wanted
to socially identify with my peers and answer my counselor’s questions
about my dreams of higher education, and who I envisioned I could
become, those dreams were in opposition with the rest of me, the part of
me that strongly identified with my family and our religious affiliation, and
312 C. S. INGERSOLL-WOOD
since higher education was organizationally discouraged by JWs in litera-

ture and through talks at the meetings, the two could not co-exist, and so I
buried my interests deep.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, a fundamentalist Christian religious organization, was
“established in the United States in 1879 by Charles Taze Russell”5; accord-
ing to Wallis6 and Holden7 as quoted within in Ransom et al.,8 JWs reject
politics, acts of patriotism, all religious holidays, and association with nonbe-
lievers and therefore classify themselves as “no part of the world.” While
members of JWs enjoy a large social network “of fellow believers”, members
who exit the religion are subject to ostracism “by family, friends, and the
wider religious community.”9 Unlike other Christian religions that do not
interrupt individual autonomy the “Watchtower Society calls upon people to
pledge allegiance to a transnational de-territorialized collectivity … one that
draws very clear boundaries around what defines the ideological, political,
and ontological components in the lives of its members.”10 Having been
raised in the religion from birth, as a JW adolescent, the approval of my
parents, the connection with my family, and our tight-knit religious commu-
nity were the most important things to me, and I chose the familiar connec-
tions with family and friends over an unknown life outside of JWs. As a
teenager, I did not have the vocabulary to describe what it meant to exit the
group. I did not know what social mourning or individuation meant, but I
knew from the experience of watching others leave, that my familial relation-
ships and social network of friends within the congregation would break
down. I did not yet have “the courage of self-affirmation”11 to break away
from my upbringing. According to Scheitle and Adamczyk,12 “ … most peo-
ple stay in the religion which they were raised” (329) I, like the participants
in this study, did not see myself ever leaving the social circle of the religion
and therefore willingly reimagined my future into the vision that my parents
imagined studying the publications Jehovah’s Witnesses produced.
Like many other Witness children, I learned early to suppress my natural
curiosity and talents to fit in with my family and the congregation. The
internal conflict naturally worked its way out in my teen years, and even
though I did not have a strong sense of who I could be when I grew up, I
remember catching glimpses of my potential self over the years in school.
Though I intellectually matched my peers in class, I led a very different life
from them outside of school. While my peers were busy preparing to take
the SAT, an exam that was meaningless to me but would predict my peers’
post-secondary education and life beyond, I was dutifully studying the pub-
lications that would keep me anchored in the life my parents chose when
they became members of Jehovah’s Witnesses. To my parents, the prospect
of happiness in a future eternal life together in paradise on earth far out-
weighed the surrender of a short self-fulfilled life in the present world.
According to Ringnes et al.13 in “Emotional Forecasting of Happiness” in

psychological terms, the use of affective forecasting drives the prediction of
future feelings of happiness, leading to the emotion regulation strategy of
emotional forecasting, a term introduced by the researchers, and used by
individuals to predict their future level of happiness. My parents’ good
intentions were rooted in the delayed return culture of Jehovah’s
Witnesses, where all behavior and decisions they made about day-to-day
living, including education and employment goals, were governed by pro-
spection—using mental simulations of our future lives as depicted in the
representations of paradise they viewed in JW literature (317–327).
As I sit down to write this paper, I feel an overwhelming sense of
responsibility to get this “right.” With so little academic research written
in the first-person by former Jehovah’s Witnesses, as a woman and an
academic, I feel the pressure to ensure that my narration along with
reporting the findings in this study does not detract from the research.
The goal of this study is to add first-hand knowledge to the current aca-
demic conversation about the social cost of a Witness education—the
loss of intellectual freedom—and how the suppression of education
impacts current members of Jehovah’s Witnesses and ex-members. As
an ex-Witness, I examined the organization through the lens of a
hyphenated identity created by the dominant other, Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Researcher Michelle Fine14 explains what “working the hyphen” means
in her piece “Working the Hyphens: Reinventing Self and Other in
Qualitative Research”:
Self and Other are knottily entangled. This relationship, as lived between researchers
and informants, is typically obscured in social science texts, protecting privilege,
securing distance, and laminating the contradictions. … When we opt, as has been
the tradition, simply to write about those who have been Othered, we deny the
hyphen … When we opt, instead, to engage in social struggles with those who have
been exploited and subjugated, we work the hyphen, revealing far more about
ourselves, and far more about the structures of Othering. (72)
According to the Watchtower Online Library on JW.org, Witnesses can

expel or “disfellowship” members from the congregation “to maintain the
purity of organization doctrinally and morally.”15 Consequently, members
can be disfellowshipped from the congregation for any of the following
offenses: “fornication, adultery, homosexuality, greed, extortion, thievery,
lying, drunkenness, reviling, spiritism, murder, idolatry, apostasy and caus-
ing divisions in the congregation.”16 Members are therefore warned to stop
socializing with individuals expelled from the congregation to maintain
“God’s favor … Otherwise, God would expel or cut off the entire con-
gregation.”17 Out of the expellable offenses listed above, I have been identi-
fied as an apostate. Like many other ex-JWs, my family and friends have
all been advised to shun me. The precarity of [an ex-Witness] hyphenated
identity is best explained by researcher Fine18:
The relationship between the loss of community and the loss of self is crucial. To the
extent that identity is collapsed with home and community and based on
homogeneity and comfort, on skin, blood and heart, the giving up of home will
necessarily mean the giving up of self and vice versa. (72)
Since a Jehovah’s Witness identity is predicated on belonging within the

community, ex-Witnesses cut off from the community find themselves
“othered” by members, cut off from family and friends in order to preserve
the homogenous group identity. As Pannofino and Cardano19 indicate, as a
group Witnesses instill a fear of being cut off from the community through
a doctrinal encapsulation directive to keep separate from the world; “the
group is radically opposed, on the axiological level, to the surrounding
world … This in-group, out-group distinction tends to be perfectly superim-
posed on the good/evil distinction, with the sanctification of everything
inside and demonization of all otherness” (8). Anyone removed from the
congregation falls under the umbrella of otherness. Fine20 explains how the
construction of an othered identity by members subjugates the recipients of
their “disfellowshipped” label into subordinance, “Othering probes how
individuals inhabiting a space of dominance construct their sense of Self
through the denigration of Others” (78). By excommunicating members
and disparaging them within their former community, JWs reinforce the
importance of belonging while simultaneously constructing boundaries on
acceptable kinship. In the case of participants who share their stories within
this study, being Othered or the potential to be Othered, served as an ini-
tiative for them to transform to a multidimensional identity—before and
after belonging.
Methodology
Because participant contributions were so powerful, I have chosen to fore-
ground my fieldwork in this article. This study aimed to investigate the
notions of education that circulate in the everyday practices of Jehovah’s
Witnesses and how the production of knowledge by the organization ultim-
ately impacts the way members perceive higher education. The findings for
this study indicate that Jehovah’s Witnesses have fixed ideas about the pur-
pose of higher education in their lives. While Witnesses value some educa-
tion, ultimately, they prioritize the organization’s generated knowledge over
academic knowledge. Witness children who grow up chasing extrinsic goals
tied to the group wind up stifling their personal development and pursuit
of “basic need satisfaction”21 which affects their ability to recognize the
impact that controlled motivation has on their development and
psychological need for autonomy. Growing up under the watchful eye of

their community, they wrestle with the expectations of their parents and
members of the community to gain and maintain their approval. Like me,
participants who relinquished goalsetting to the benefit of the community
were deprived of autonomous goal setting; when combined with contingent
parental love and the bonds of fictive kinship forged with members of the
religion, Witness youths resign themselves to lower life satisfaction in the
present as an exchange for a promised future reward of eternal life with
their family and friends in paradise on earth. As noted in interviews with
current and former members of the religion, surrendering innate curiosity
from a young age resulted in long-term regret about the coercion placed
on their parents to push down their dreams and interests.
Interviews were held with twelve individuals—current and former mem-
bers—whose identities have been changed to protect participants’ confiden-
tiality. Confidentiality was important to participants because JW
congregations are often made up of generations of families, making them
an especially tight-knit group, and as such, the anonymity of participants is
an important characteristic of participants in this study. Holden22 upholds
participants’ request for anonymity by way of his observation of the gener-
ational make-up within the community, “The movement owes much of its
success to horizontal and vertical recruitment. Mothers, fathers, brothers,
sisters, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, in-laws,
grandparents and grandchildren … ” (140). As noted by Testoni et al.23 if
ex-JWs have not already been ostracized by family and friends, the desire
to maintain connection is a priority that can prove tricky “Since JWs is a
high-cost religious group that is theologically, socially, and culturally exclu-
sive, when followers decide to abandon the group they lose any contact
with other members of the community, which may cause a dramatic crisis”
(691). The (potential) for loss of family and subsequent loss of social iden-
tity caused by willful or forced separation from a religious community
could lead to a loss of self and purpose, and for that reason, some choose
to become “inactive,” keeping their loss of belief hidden from active mem-
bers and thereby preserving all social connections through an appearance
of affiliation. Inactive JWs who participated in the qualitative study by
Testoni et al. on the psychosocial transitions of Jehovah’s Witnesses articu-
lated their fears of loss, loss of self, loss of community, and loss of family.
One participant revealed, “I am intensely afraid of losing my loved
ones … I don’t want to leave or lose them. Indeed, inactivity guaranteed
both a sense of security and of partial freedom … ” (688–696). The data
included in the findings were collected during observations made at separ-
ate field site locations on the east coast of the United States along with the
transcribed interviews and memos of the researcher. Several themes
emerged during the coding of the data; of those themes, this study focuses
on two primary themes: community and education.
This study seeks to establish through excerpts from all forms of data
how these two themes contribute to providing answers to the following
research questions: What are the notions of education that circulate
through the everyday practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses? How does their
production of knowledge ultimately impact the way they perceive higher
education? How does the pedagogy of Jehovah’s Witnesses isolate their fol-
lowers through the use of external regulation and what is the motivational
consequence of such regulation? This study explores the relationship
between expectancy, value, individual motivation, and self-actualization as
transmitted through interviews with current and former members of
Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Findings from this study indicate that Jehovah’s Witnesses have fixed
ideas about the value of higher education in their lives as indicated in the
Watchtower article “Education—What It Costs, What It Offers”:
There is, however, a price that wise Christian parents are not willing to pay. They do
not pressure their children to study so hard that they have little or no energy or time
left to study the “holy writings” or to serve God. Why not? Because, while secular
education has a certain value, only education based on the “holy writings” can make
a person “wise for salvation.” (2 Timothy 3:15) Which is more important: a secular
education that equips one for a few years of life? or an education that prepares one
for eternal life?24
By employing rhetorical questions within the study article, the organiza-

tion situates attending college as a path that will lead their children away
from eternal life, a supposition intended to strike fear into a parent’s heart.
Since Witnesses believe that the end of the world is coming any day, they
see their present lives as temporary; consequently, when faced with choos-
ing between their child’s eternal life in a paradise or their success with this
“temporary” life, the parent is left to choose between their faith and the
best interest of their child. By providing opportunities for members to pub-
licly share answers from the article with the congregation during the
Watchtower study, members amplify the message within the lesson, further
strengthening their beliefs. One of the younger participants in the study
shared how she felt whenever she answered at a meeting
I felt powerful because other members would validate my response, even though we
all had the same answer. (Annie)
During a field observation at a Kingdom Hall, I saw Annie’s remark

about validation in action. Throughout the public talk and the Watchtower
lesson, I observed that members were reassured of their belonging by way
of references to them that the speakers made through verbal commenda-
tions for their participation. For example, during the study of the
Watchtower article I observed, the conductor thanked members for their

responses with expressions of gratitude such as, “very good,” “thank you,
sister,” or “thank you, brother.” By affirming their responses to questions
with praise, the conductor of the lesson assumed the role of a teacher. The
conductor, like a teacher, stood at the front of the room—in this case on
an elevated platform. By identifying each respondent with the title of
brother or sister, the members underwent a figurative baptism into fictive
kinship each time they answered. As noted by Annie, the desire to be rec-
ognized as a cooperative member among the group reinforced her impulse
to participate.
The same phenomenon was also observed during another field site
observation. In contrast to the members at the first field site visit, these
members were observing a live-streamed Watchtower study taking place
remotely on a projection screen in their Kingdom Hall. The audience in
the Kingdom Hall I was sitting in simultaneously followed along in their
copy of the Watchtower or on their personal device. After individuals on-
screen answered a question correctly, the conductor of the study praised
them with statements to reinforce their correct answer, “very nice answer,
sister (or brother).” Only the individuals who appeared on the screen giv-
ing answers were participants in this lesson. Even though the members in
the auditorium were not speaking or giving answers themselves, they sig-
naled their agreement with the brothers and sisters who remotely gave
answers by nodding their heads in agreement, and clapping as a show of
appreciation at the conclusion of the lesson, the very same way they
clapped at the end of the in-person live talk I observed:
As the Watchtower ended on the screens, the remote audience on the screen
appeared and clapped to signify their appreciation for the delivery of the material
and at that moment the silent auditorium I was sitting in broke out into applause as
they continued to watch the screen. (Fieldnote)
Even though the members in the auditorium were watching a remote

presentation, the organization fostered a sense of community and belonging
by live streaming the meeting so that members worldwide in Kingdom
Halls across the globe could watch the event:
The members of the congregation only participated when it was time to sing, and
the rest of the time, from my outsider perspective, it appeared to me that they were
watching a movie; they laughed at the funny parts, nodded their heads in agreement
when the speaker on the screen made statements with which they agreed and shook
their heads ‘no’ to signal disbelief when one of the speakers said something that
registered disappointment in the group. (Fieldnote)
All field site visits revealed that Witnesses are willing to devote large
chunks of time to the process of learning through the educational practices
inside of their religion. However, when it comes to educating themselves in
subjects outside of their ideology, they have stringent guidelines on accept-

able subjects for study and what level of education is acceptable as noted in
three interviews with male participants. One current member and two for-
mer members shared their thoughts about education; of interest is a cur-
rent member’s emphasis on philosophy
Our education or whatever is extremely important in our ability to communicate
with people, but we set parameters because we’re concerned about sometimes when
we go into some of higher education … There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of different
lifestyles, different thinking as far as philosophy and then obviously evolution and
creation comes into, you know challenge and all that. (Carl)
The organization has a complicated and confused approach to higher education.
While I was young it was certainly discouraged to go away to a college or university.
Yet, while I was in Bethel, the Society had three members in a university; two were
in law school and one was in dental school. They wrote a book while I was in NY
called Young People Ask. It had a chapter on education that encouraged vocational
types of education. It also had a portion on higher education and had a somewhat
conflicted portion that made a distinction between a college and a university. Their
fear was that higher education promoted things that conflicted with their bible
doctrines – like evolution. They felt going away from home and the congregation
would leave young people vulnerable to “worldly” influence and lead them away
“from their faith.” I could not get an answer from them as to their view of the
difference between college and university. The answer I got was that college was a
shorter period of time and often college could be attended while still living at home
and therefore under the congregation’s influence. It was a convoluted answer that
made no sense to me. (Donald)
I’m certain from the stage that there would have been times when they questioned
your ability to be a proper Jehovah’s Witness if you were to pursue higher education.
You know, the expected life planned out for a teenager was to finish high school and
then engage in the full-time ministry. If you’re a male they wanted you to then
progress to going to Bethel for four years, and if you were a female, getting married
and having babies. (Victor)
The main headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses is located in Warwick, NY

but was formerly located in Brooklyn, NY. The organization refers to all of its
facilities as “Bethel”; so, the comments about Bethel made by participants are
referring to facilities where members who were accepted for Bethel service
live and perform voluntary services that aid in the production of their litera-
ture and media. Even though there is an application process to serve at
Bethel, and not every JW who applies gets accepted, it should not be mistaken
for a college or university. Bethel is not the same as Brigham Young
University, a private university established by The Church of Latter-day
Saints. To be accepted for service at Bethel, a member must be in good stand-
ing at their Kingdom Hall and be recommended for service by elders in their
congregation. The application process and selectivity associated with becom-
ing a “Bethelite” creates an exalted identity of Bethel service in the minds of
members. Recruitment for Bethel service begins with adolescents. Parents are
encouraged to groom their children for voluntary service at the world head-
quarters instead of encouraging them to pursue an education as seen in the
comment above by a former Bethelite. He refers to The Watchtower Bible
and Tract Society in abbreviated form when he uses the word “the Society.”
JW.org25 describes Bethel service this way
As a group, those who serve at these facilities are known as the Bethel family. Like a
family, they live and work together, enjoy meals together, and study the Bible together in
unity.—Psalm 133:1 A unique place where family members give of themselves. At every
Bethel facility, there are Christian men and women who are devoted to doing God’s will
and serving Kingdom interests full-time. (Matthew 6:33) Not one of them receives a wage
or salary, but all are furnished with room and board and an allowance to assist with
personal expenses. Everyone at Bethel has an assignment, whether in an office, a kitchen,
or a dining room. Some serve in a printery or a bindery, or do housekeeping, laundry,
maintenance, or other things. (24)
Witnesses reinforce their fictive kinship by referring to members as

brothers and sisters and to those who serve at Bethel as family. Individuals
accepted to serve at Bethel agree to serve in their assigned role for one year
in a department that has a vacancy. Recruitment to Bethel service is pro-
moted by the organization in a video entitled, “Making Yourself Available
for Bethel Service.”26 At the beginning of the video the narrator claims that
“Thousands of people are becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses every week,” and
then asks the following question, “But who will work to provide the Bibles
and Bible literature and audio and video publications that sustain us spir-
itually and help us to accomplish our kingdom preaching and teaching
work?” As the recruitment video continues, the ideal applicant’s profile is
outlined in clear language:
Applicants should be between the ages of 19–35, exceptions are made for applicants
over 35 “who may have specialized skills that are needed at Bethel, such as those
with certain technical or medical experience, translation skills or building trades such
as plumbing, electrical, heavy equipment mechanic or carpentry. Those with such
capabilities and training are welcome to apply. With regard to secular skills, we do
not encourage individuals to obtain university education or training with the thought
that this will improve their chances of being called into Bethel. The best way to
prepare for Bethel service is to first serve in the full-time pioneer ministry. The
greatest need is for single brothers; however, all who meet the qualifications,
including sisters, are encouraged to apply for temporary volunteer service … Parents:
Follow the example of God-fearing parents such as Hannah and Elkanah who
willingly made their son available for expanded theocratic privileges. Continue to
place the goal of Bethel service before your young ones and stimulate their interest
in the full-time ministry by your example and your positive expressions. If possible,
bring them on a tour of world headquarters in NY, USA, or make arrangements to
bring them on a tour of the Bethel in the branch territory in which you live. Such
visits can help young ones to witness firsthand the work that is being done at Bethel
to promote kingdom interests.
One former member, Casee, shares her impression of learning about

Bethel, visiting the facility, and the conversations that she overheard
parents having with their children about the privilege of serving
at Bethel:
I remember my first time going to Bethel and seeing what it actually was and there
were like waiters and waitresses and cleaners, and I thought, “how is that your
aspiration to go be a waiter or a house cleaner? Like how?” I’m not knocking those
jobs. They’re necessary and I’m not knocking the people that perform those jobs, but
I just thought that was strange to me for kids to have an aspiration of doing that as
opposed to going to school. Being someone that wasn’t raised as a Jehovah’s
Witnesses, it just seemed odd to me, and I remember hearing certain families have
conversations about things that weren’t related to college. (Casee)
All participants discussed the different ways they fell under the spell of
the doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses; they explained how they were over-
whelmed with the continuous stream of literature that the organization
produces that they were expected to read. They told me they were expected
to prepare for all the meetings they attended by “studying” the requisite
book or brochure they would discuss with their smaller study group or
with the whole congregation. As former member Casee explains, the study
of the literature was not an actual study, at least not in the way that typical
academic discussions occur:
So, you go to these meetings where there’s these “studies” happening and inside the
magazines, there are direct messages, and subliminal messages about higher
education and how it’s dangerous. How it, you know, creates danger in being around
worldly people and danger in putting your faith in something that’s of the world, I
guess. An education that’s of the world and in an environment that’s of the world.
And when I say of the world, I mean not Jehovah’s Witness people and
things. (Casee)
Casee’s reflection on her experience with the teaching techniques

Witnesses use is noteworthy because, unlike other participants, she was not
raised as a Witness. Casee joined Jehovah’s Witnesses in her early twenties
with some college already under her belt. In addition to her experience in a
college classroom, Casee comes from a family of educators, and she quickly
recognized the education she was receiving at the Kingdom Hall did not
seek to develop her critical thinking skills as reported in Pannofino and
Cardano’s27 article “Exes Speak Out, Narratives of Apostasy: Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Scientology and Soka Gakkai”:
Once you become Jehovah’s Witnesses [sic], after a while, the ability and will to
perceive errors and contradictions are almost totally stifled by the constant study of
the Governing Body’s magazines and publications, study which consists in the
passive and uncritical acceptance of everything the Society says. (7)
Casee’s comments demonstrate her awareness of being brought along into

“the truth” and how individuals who study are expected to interact with weekly
study materials:
Every week when you go to meetings and you’re studying, really when I say
studying it’s not authentic studying where, you know, you’re reading things and
you’re objectively thinking about things and as a real authentic learner,
questioning things. You don’t do that. You re-read it and you accept it, and you
have discussions, but it’s not a discussion. You’re basically just reiterating what it
says and how much you like it. That’s pretty much what a study is to
them. (Casee)
The reproduction of values, especially shared values within a group, rein-

forces identity and a sense of belonging. Giving answers at the meeting,
whether during a book study in someone’s home or at the Kingdom Hall
for the weekly Watchtower lesson, is a public declaration of shared know-
ledge and cements the teaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the mind of the
learner and in the minds of those in attendance.
A quick analysis of a Watchtower article using the Flesch-Kincaid read-
ability test reveals that the publication is written at a ninth-grade level,
which is appropriate for their audience as the majority of members only
have a high school education. However, members who never attended col-
lege have an inflated impression of the publications they study and that is
because they have been told that the reading level of their publications is at
a college level and that their lessons are akin to college courses as a current
member Beth implies when asked to comment on Watchtower
study lessons:
Well, it’s very structured and very organized, probably like a college course would
be. And they have parts on the program that are assigned to people in advance. So,
like say you were doing a project at school on, whatever, health or something, and
you had to give a presentation in front of the class, this is just the same kind of
thing. (Beth)
To understand when the organization developed their views about a col-

lege education, during interviews I asked participants if they had a sense of
a timeline for when Witnesses began advising their members that a college
education was unnecessary. Answers varied according to the participant’s
age and the length of time the individual spent within the organization:
I don’t know exactly the timeline, but that’s something that they wouldn’t want to
encourage or allow people to pursue because as soon as you’re introduced to
academia, everything that you do is the counter opposite of what you’re learning
while in the church. So, I don’t know the exact timeline, but I have an
understanding of why they wouldn’t encourage higher education at all, just because
then you’re encouraging them to ask questions, and then their whole religion kinda
falls apart. (Victor)
Gosh, I really don’t know. It was always like that so far as I can remember. I
mean I was born in ’77, but I don’t recall a time at all when they started feeling
that way. I know that there was an elder in the Hall who was willing to go on
welfare instead of going for further education because it would interfere with
meeting times, and he was applauded for the decision to not go for a free
secondary education. (Melanie)
As a community, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the sacrifices they

make in their current lives will ultimately be rewarded in their future
lives, post-Armageddon, and this notion was revisited in the public talks
and Watchtower lessons I observed. Elders who give the talks to the
congregations all uphold the views of the Society and reiterate the need
to make long-term sacrifices for Jehovah, how the directives on educa-
tion play out on their members’ short-term lives is a different story. To
gain a better perspective on how the notions of education have ultim-
ately shaped their lives, I asked participants, “Can you tell me about a
time when you may have felt that your level of education was insuffi-
cient for the life you wanted to live or desired?” Allison and Henry
were both born and raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose parents
followed all of the advice about education did not go to college, but
shared their longing to attend:
Oh, I think it’s the applied my whole life. You know, I chose a career in dentistry. I
had an aptitude for it, and I learned a lot of things on the job. I worked in several
different specialties with lots of different doctors, and almost all of them have asked
me why I only did what I did and why I didn’t do more, because I had the aptitude
to do more, and the intelligence. I wish that I had a magic wand and can go back to
being eighteen again and make a lot of different decisions for myself. But
unfortunately, I don’t. (Allison)
So, what I’m saying is, I did not pursue higher education for a couple of reasons.
Number one, I had an opportunity to do something else. But number two, of course,
I think part of what this interview is about is, I was never encouraged to do so, or
actually discouraged to do so because of my religious upbringing. (Henry)
In speaking with Allison, from the tone of her voice, it was clear that she
recognized she was held back by her lack of education; in addition to rec-
ognizing the ways she herself was held back personally and professionally,
she also reflected on the struggles her father experienced with providing for
his family without a degree because he too was raised as a Jehovah’s
Witness and did not attend college.
At the end of her interview, Allison communicated that while she has
been able to sufficiently provide for herself and her family with her job,
during the interview, she came back around to her adult realization that
her on the job experience could only get her so far in her career as she ver-
balized the long term affect her parents’ external regulation had on her,
a developing adolescent whose potential was stymied due to the mandates

of the religion:
I have years of experience, but not doing something that I want to be doing. I have
years of experience doing something that I no longer am interested in because it’s
very physically demanding. They never pay you what you’re worth no matter how
many years of experience that you have. And you know, it would be much better if I
had a degree in at least dental hygiene because I’d be making significantly more
money. (Allison)
Allison, like other participants within the study, ended up leaving

Jehovah’s Witnesses as an adult. Their interviews are important because
these individuals clearly articulate what happens to children when they are
prevented from exploring their interests. The motivation for parents to
obey the recommendations of this religious group is short-sighted and lacks
consideration of the long-term psychological impact need thwarting will
have on their children. For individuals like Allison and myself—individuals
who left the religion as adults and are now excommunicated from the
group, our stories are important to tell because they provide insight on
motivation inside of groups that rely on fictive kinship and punishment
driven direct and indirect reciprocity to foster cooperation.28
Identity formation
Children who grow up as Jehovah’s Witnesses have a utilitarian view of
secular education because they are taught what they learn through the pub-
lications the religion produces is “the truth,” a term the organization
coined to shape their followers’ view of the education they receive from the
group. In a July 2020 Watchtower29 study article, the term “the truth” is
defined, “What do we mean by the term “the truth”? Generally, we use it
to describe our beliefs, our way of worship, and our way of life” (8). By
coding their beliefs as “the truth” Witness children are positioned to defend
their religious beliefs over knowledge they receive from educators.30 JWs
consistently use messaging that devalues education throughout their publi-
cations as noted in the article “How do Jehovah’s Witnesses View
Education?” in their online publication Frequently Asked Questions about
Jehovah’s Witnesses (2021), “Spiritual education has greater value than secu-
lar education. Unlike secular education, Bible-based spiritual education pro-
vides the lifesaving knowledge of God” (58).31 Witness parents and youths
are reminded through repeated messaging in JW literature and through
their active participation and observation of simulations portraying
Witnessing presented weekly during the Theocratic Ministry School at their
local Kingdom Hall, that their primary obligation is to teach others about
their beliefs.
The Theocratic Ministry School (TMS) is an education program the organ-

ization uses to train its members how to speak publicly about their beliefs to
strangers, neighbors, unbelieving family members, teachers, classmates, doc-
tors, etc., essentially everyone they come into contact with who is not already a
JW. The curriculum for the Theocratic Ministry School was developed by the
organization and appears in the text Benefit From Theocratic Ministry School
Education. The TMS is run by an elder in the congregation, referred to as the
overseer32 and the overseer’s job is to assign members enrolled in the school
an assignment from their textbook to improve their public ministry, either
reading from a passage in their bible, The New World Translation of the Holy
Scriptures,33 or developing a talk based on a topic related to one of their beliefs
in a fictional setting with another member of the congregation acting as a
“householder”34 or individual they are presenting information to. Only male
members (brothers) are assigned readings of bible passages; female members
(sisters) are assigned bible topics to research and then perform simulated dis-
cussions between themselves and their “householder” before members of the
congregation. Immediately following the delivery of the assigned material, stu-
dents debrief with the overseer in front of the congregation, and he gives the
individual counseling to improve in their public ministry. With each
Theocratic Ministry School assignment, students receive a speaking point to
work on during their talk from their text. Post-presentation, students are
advised on points ranging from their appearance, reading fluency, the
emphasis of key points made, their use of gestures, tone, modulation, and the
timing of their assignment, to name a few of the 53 points for counsel. The
Theocratic Ministry School is effective in multiple ways. First, it creates well-
rehearsed, well-versed evangelizers for the organization of Jehovah’s
Witnesses, and second, the TMS constitutes in the mind of the member that
their belief system supersedes all secular knowledge.
Although Witnesses are disciplined readers of their own texts, their
approach to secular education is a curious combination of adhering to
compulsory education laws and challenging instructional content that con-
tradicts their teachings.35 JWs enshrine their publications as sacred texts
and their adolescent members are instructed to use their texts to challenge
curriculum, especially science and the theory of evolution, dismissing it as
false through an incorrect understanding of the scientific term theory and
through misinterpreted quotes from evolutionary scientists that are
extended in many of their publications, including the book Life—How Did
It Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation?36 Within the text, the reader is
presented with an argument to dismiss evolutionary theory altogether
through the use of logical fallacy:
Those who support the theory of evolution feel that it is now an established fact.
They believe that evolution is an “actual occurrence,” a “reality,” a “truth,” as one
dictionary defines the word “fact.” But is it? To illustrate: It was once believed that
the earth was flat. Now it has been established for a certainty that it is spherical in
shape. That is a fact. It was once believed that the earth was the center of the
universe and that the heavens revolved around the earth. Now we know for sure that
the earth revolves in an orbit around the sun. This, too, is a fact. Many things that
were once only debated theories have been established by the evidence as solid fact,
reality, truth. (14)
The excerpt above illustrates how knowledge, in this case, scientific the-
ory, which does not align with what JWs believe, teach, or publish, should
be considered specious. Researcher Liedgren37 comments on the way JWs
intervene at an early age with (JW) children, teaching them before they
even enter school, to be dismissive of science, “Jehovah’s Witnesses chil-
dren are prepared by the congregation before entering a school operated
by the local authority. Young children are told that they will be exposed
to some erroneous teaching about the theory of evolution.”38 This type of
training in a secondary learning environment is problematic for Witness
children who attend school because to acquire new knowledge, an individ-
ual must engage in critical thinking, be allowed to draw conclusions to
contextualize new information, and be free to make application of the
new knowledge. While Witness children are encouraged to do well in
school, “Witnesses tend to disapprove of higher education.39,40 Critical
thinking is encouraged only to a certain point, and it should never be
directed toward the organization itself”41 making it nearly impossible for
JW youths to satisfy their need for competence as autonomous, self-deter-
mined learners.42
When asked to reflect on their primary and secondary education experi-
ence, participants in this study, as well as JWs and ex-JWs who participated
in studies and interviews43,44,45,46,47 similarly reported amotivation when
individuals recalled (their) education experiences. According to Self-
Determination Theory (SDT), as cited in Pr ospero et al.,48 Deci and Ryan49
link amotivation with individuals who lack perceived competence,
“Amotivation describes individuals who perceive their behaviors as being
caused by forces outside of their control and do not link their behaviors
with desired outcomes.” Because Jehovah’s Witnesses consider themselves
separate from the rest of the world, they restrict their association with indi-
viduals outside of their organization.50 Witness youths are repeatedly
warned about the dangers of associating with classmates outside of school51
and restrict themselves from forming friendships with their peers, blunting
a critical stage of adolescent identity development. Liedgren’s52 study indi-
cates, in the case of Witness youths, because their identity is “derived from
their membership,” JW youths are more likely to experience social exclu-
sion. “Social exclusion, which thwarts the basic need to belong … and is
associated with increased levels of stress and anxiety, among other negative
outcomes” (34). Ex-JWs whose personal identity formation was stymied to

align with the group they belonged to, as reinforced by their parents/guard-
ians, expressed deep regret about being held back from fully engaging in
academics, from pursuing their interests in a subject, or dropping out of
school. In his article, Lack of Education Leads to Lost Dreams and Low
Income for Many Jehovah’s Witnesses, Vander Ploeg53 reports the experien-
ces of some of the 100 plus ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses he interviewed who
were not permitted to attend college; Amber commented, “I was taught
very, very young to stop dreaming, to not have dreams, that you’ll never
ever be a famous person or a doctor or nurse. It’s not possible.” By forcing
Witness youth into a dependency model of education, their autonomy,
competence, and intrinsic motivation are interrupted and the child’s ability
to see themselves succeeding beyond the educational limitations established
by the religion, especially when higher education is consistently devalued,
Witness children see their education as a means to an end.
The process of educational identity formation as described by Faircloth54
requires individuals to shed identities linked with their families and former
communities in favor of an upwardly mobile social identity via higher educa-
tion. According to Ingersoll-Wood55 “The autonomous act of attending college
naturally disassociates students from family culture, forcing them to renegotiate
relationships with family and friends. To succeed in educational identity for-
mation, attending college requires a student to lose part of herself in anticipa-
tion of her future self” (6). Witness parents are encouraged to shift their focus
away from a secular education that develops the talents and interests of their
children in order to groom them to pursue a service-based voluntary role
within one of their belief-based education centers or the full-time ministry with
an eye toward a future reward of everlasting life, “Christians should regard edu-
cation as a means to an end. In these last days, their purpose is to serve
Jehovah as much and as effectively as possible … Parents, guide your children
toward the goal of becoming useful members of the new world society!”56 By
their calculus, the impending arrival of Armageddon supersedes the time it
would take to earn a degree; therefore, time would be better spent in the
preaching work:
All worldly careers are soon to come to an end. So, why should today’s youth get
interested in ‘higher education’ for a future that will never eventuate? The colleges
are falling into chaos, anyway. The essentials of education for a useful life can be
obtained by studying well at high school, and beyond that there is also the ‘highest
education’ that Jehovah provides through his organization, preparing for a satisfying
career of full-time service that goes on forever.57
I was born in the early-70s, and like other participants in the study who
were born before and after me, we were born and raised in “the truth”; there-
fore, our educational identity was shaped through the consistent use of
language within the literature our parents read and through the talks they
heard at meetings that transmitted boundaries and positioned families to
choose between the education of their children or risk ostracism and everlast-
ing life. Since the social circle of Witnesses is reduced to JW members only,58
members self-regulate their behaviors and monitor the behaviors of other
members to ensure their behavior synchronizes with the beliefs of the group.
This type of external regulation is associated with extrinsic motivation, and in
academic settings like school, extrinsically motivated individuals display less
interest, see less value, and exert less effort in what they are being taught and
therefore their overall performance is lower.59
External regulation is used by Jehovah’s Witnesses to manage members
so that they conform to the expectations of the group; if the member does
not align their behavior, they are at risk of expulsion from the community
for non-conformity. Researchers Deci and Ryan60 report the purpose
behind the use of external regulation as an extrinsic motivational tactic,
“ … behaviors are performed to satisfy an external demand or obtain an
externally imposed reward contingency. Individuals typically experience
externally regulated behavior as controlled or alienated, and their actions
have an external perceived locus of causality (EPLOC)” (61–62). As out-
lined by researchers Deci and Ryan,61 within Self Determination Theory
(SDT), an individual’s EPLOC reveals whether or not the individual will-
ingly engaged in behavior or the individual felt required to participate in
the activity by self-imposed regulation or external pressure. According to
Norenzayan et al.,62 “groups that impose behavioral restrictions or taboos
have members that are more committed” (13), which is the overall object-
ive of reducing educational opportunities that foster personal growth. By
limiting education, individuals will continue to identify strongly with the
group, safeguarding its existence. Unfortunately, a consequence of limiting
autonomy in individuals is the inevitable destruction of intrinsic goal set-
ting. Witness Children who are raised in an environment that puts them
at odds with their vision of themselves are at an increased risk of display-
ing need-thwarting behaviors, behaviors motivated by one’s sense of guilt,
obligation, or perceived threats to one’s ego.63 As Deci and Ryan64 point
out, children who are subjected to excessive developmental restriction
through autonomous regulation and need satisfaction suffer psychological
side effects: “inner conflict, alienation, anxiety, depression, and somatiza-
tion, as well as accommodations in the form of controlling regulatory
processes and compensatory goals” (249). In other words, when an indi-
vidual’s need for relatedness is thwarted at a young age, they may try to
compensate by attempting to attain a sense of self or worth by pursuing
image-oriented goals or through the accumulation of money or material
possessions.
According to Kirsch,65 by authoring publications that require their followers

to participate in question-and-answer lessons they situate themselves as educa-
tors. “By constructing a network of particular literacy practices, the Jehovah’s
Witnesses crucially relied on the accessibility of their written materials.” If new
knowledge is created by engaging in critical thinking, asking one question
should theoretically lead to more questioning. While engaging in a weekly
study of one of their publications, individuals are repeatedly placed in a pos-
ition of ignorance and must be instructed in the “right” answers that are pro-
vided during the lesson. By repeating the answers provided within the
publications during these study sessions, members reinforce their dependency
on the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WTBTS) for knowledge. This type
of thought generation crushes the human spirit, eliminates critical thinking
and autonomy while simultaneously programming the individual toward con-
trol-oriented behavior causing a person to continuously monitor how she
should behave; a behavioral condition researcher Higgins66 refers to as the
“ought self.” According to Deci and Ryan,67 “Ought-based behaviors
have … external perceived locus of causality.” Individuals with an external per-
ceived locus of causality (EPLOC) relinquish their concept of self, losing
“innate tendencies of human beings to engage in interesting activities and to
elaborate and refine their inner representation of themselves and their world.”
Deci and Ryan68 further explain that if an individual’s social world does not
provide a reliable path toward autonomy, if individuals have to consistently
block need satisfaction, SDT predicts significant psychological costs and
accommodations.
In the case of Witness children like me who grew up in a controlling
parental and religious environment, Deci and Ryan69 explain the long term
effects of when a child is expected to “do (or be) what the parents want
them to do (or be)”, in my case, and in the case of the participants who
grew up like me, the child learns that their parents’ love is contingent upon
their cooperation and to maintain parental love, the child must “relinquish
autonomy (and thus not be who they really are)” (249). Children who
experience conditional love end up feeling resentful that they were not
allowed to explore their interests and that level of control has long term
repercussions in the production of the child’s concept of self as Deci and
Ryan70 state:
Having behaved to gain parental love (external regulation), their behavior became
increasingly aimed at feeling self-worth (introjected regulation), and as we have seen,
external and introjected regulation have a variety of negative mental and health
consequences relative to more autonomous regulation of behavior. (249)
The extent to which Witness children need to belong to the group directly
correlates with their long-term aspirations. They do not grow up hearing they
can be anything they want to be. Their options for future careers are limited to
acceptable occupations suggested by the organization: Witness children are not

encouraged to pursue their intrinsic aspirations. Instead, they work toward
extrinsic goals that are set by the organization, are unrelated to their autono-
mous well-being, and are associated with nonautonomous goals. Witness
youths (and their parents) are reminded through JW numerous publications
that specifically target and groom JW children to forego higher education as
recalled through comments from participants in this study and also from the
following excerpt as quoted in their book aimed at youths Questions Young
People Ask, Answers That Work, “A university degree may or may not improve
your employment prospects. But one fact is indisputable: “The time left is
reduced!” (1 Corinthians 7:29) For all its presumed benefits, would four years
or more in a university be the best use of that remaining time?”71 Throughout
the chapter entitled “What Career I Choose?” the reader is discouraged from
attending university in favor of entering into the full-time ministry. The mes-
sage to JWs who received this publication was to prioritize committing their
youth to evangelize. Within the same chapter of the same publication, JW
youths were informed that they could support themselves financially in their
off-hours from the full-time ministry through occupations that did not require
a university degree by seeking employment that capitalized on their training
“offered in congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses—the weekly Theocratic
Ministry School” or looking for work they could secure immediately after high
school “while in secondary school, some took courses in typing, computer pro-
gramming, auto repair, machine-shop work” because, “Such skills may lend
themselves to part-time employment and are often in high demand.” To
reinforce their positionality against seeking out a career that required a univer-
sity degree, the organization continued their line of reasoning the following
way, “And though many youths disdain ‘working with their hands,’ the Bible
dignifies doing “hard work.” (Ephesians 4:28; compare Proverbs 22:29) Why,
Jesus Christ himself learned a trade so well that he came to be called “the car-
penter”! —Mark 6:3.”72 To reinforce their views on higher education and to
ensure that the reader comprehended the points made within the chapter, five
review questions for discussion are posted after the paragraph:
Why do secular careers often fail to bring happiness? Why should all God-fearing
youths consider a career in the full-time ministry? What are the claimed benefits of
higher education, and do such claims always hold true? What dangers might
university education pose? What alternatives to university education can a
youth consider?73
Considering how the review questions are written to lead the reader back
to the statements made about education within the paragraphs, there is no
misunderstanding the purpose for review—to keep JW youths out of uni-
versities. When individuals are allowed to pursue their interests, they
experience positive self-actualization. When the needs of the individual are
thwarted through the employment of external regulation, such as limiting

an individual’s level of education, regardless of how advantageous it is for
the individual to comply with the controller, the detrimental effects of
external goal setting remain with the individual even after the regulation
has been removed.
Literature review
The body of scholarly research I use to analyze literature authored by
Jehovah’s Witnesses incorporates inquiry from three interdisciplinary
bodies of literature: philosophy, religion, and education. I draw on philoso-
phy to explicate the relationship between ideas and the production of
knowledge as they relate to the perceptions about the education they have
on members within a group.74 To discuss the impact of the production of
knowledge as a paradigm inside a religious group, I draw from religious
researchers and scholars.75 To analyze the outcomes of an education
framed by one religious organization, I draw from the case studies and
research of76 whose studies examine value attribution and value transmis-
sion between parents and children.
In addition to the scholarly research on the development of knowledge
as created by Jehovah’s Witnesses, I examine a portion of the body of lit-
erature that Jehovah’s Witnesses have produced on education, specifically,
not limited to, articles contained within the Watchtower and Awake! maga-
zines that were produced in the 1980s and 1990s. Though Witnesses’ pos-
ition on attending college has since evolved, as seen in the responses of
participants, I focused on the literature published in the 80s and 90s
because, during this time period, Witnesses produced the most articles
about education that directly impacted the participants within this study.
These articles illuminate the organization’s extrinsic motivation(s) and
external regulation of their members’ lives according to their interpretation
of the Bible. I compare the strategies that Witnesses employ against the
motivational strategies discussed in multiple articles by authors Deci and
Ryan,77 along with the Vansteenkiste et al.,78 and the cultural evolution of
prosocial religions as discussed by Norenzayan et al.79 These bodies of lit-
erature create a conversation around the value and necessity of education
in juxtaposition to need thwarting when the end goal for the individual
within the group is a synchronized belief system supported by fictive kin-
ship.80 By synthesizing the viewpoints of the researchers, academics, and
philosophers, this research offers a perspective on how a singular educa-
tional point of view can stifle the intellectual growth of individuals within
an organization. In doing so, I aim to contribute to the literature on the
production of knowledge within religious groups and how unrestrained sys-

tems can have long-term consequences on an individual’s autonomy.
According to John Dewey,81 philosopher, and educational reformer, edu-
cation serves as a social function that secures the development of the
immature through their participation in the life of the group to which they
belong; therefore, education will vary with the quality of life associated
with the group. “The conception of education as a social process and func-
tion has no definite meaning until we define the kind of society we have in
mind” (52). Further noted by Dewey, members of groups are socialized by
the standards that are valued within the group—intellectual, material, spir-
itual—their shared interests reinforce their sense of belonging and experi-
ence. “Any education given within a group tends to socialize members, but
the quality and value of the socialization depends on the habits of the
group” (47). Dewey recognized that the standards of a group are shored up
by their common interests which fosters cooperation among those who
choose to associate, and continued association within that group reinforces
the values that they collectively share. Accordingly, an education system
left unchecked by society could become distorted and self-serving.
In Joel Feinberg’s philosophical essay “The Child’s Right to an Open
Future” he examines the “rights-in-trust” or the “anticipatory autonomy
rights” of the child in relation to her parents’ rights to exercise their prefer-
ence of religion—he analyzes a child’s “right to an open future” against the
role of the state.82 According to Feinberg, children are born into belonging,
and therefore, the developing attitudes and the convictions of the children
will naturally align with their parents’ until they are legally capable of sepa-
rating themselves. But Feinberg also recognized the potential ramifications
of setting aside the anticipatory rights of a child whose parents believe that
the education of their child need only be sufficient enough to support her-
self in their religious activities. Feinberg83 explains the long-term conse-
quences of limiting a child’s future opportunities by restricting
their education:
an education that renders a child fit for only one way of life forecloses irrevocably
his other options. The chances are good that inherited propensities will be
stymied … and in nearly all cases, critical life-decisions will have been made for a
person well before he reaches the age of full discretion … . (115)
While Feinberg acknowledges that honoring a parent’s right to exercise

their choice of religion supersedes the anticipatory rights of their child, he
also warns that preventing a child any autonomy has long term ramifica-
tions in that child’s future life, especially if the purpose for preventing the
child from pursuing an education becomes null in the child’s lifetime as
indicated by the participants in this study (most of whom grew up in the
’70s and ’80s) whose parents fully anticipated the arrival of Armageddon
before their children would hit the age of retirement—an issue that has not
been acknowledged or addressed by Witnesses. During interviews, I noticed
a phenomenon among participants; ex-Witnesses remarked that they
marked time by the impending arrival of Armageddon through a shared
phrase, “I never thought I would” followed by a milestone in their life. For
example, “I never thought I would” learn to drive a car, graduate high
school, get a job, have children, etc. The I never thought I would sentiment
was shared by all participants, including the youngest who was 19 years old
during the time of her interview.
When I was younger, I remember not thinking that I would either graduate high
school or even go to college. Like, that wasn’t even an option when I was younger.
Like, when I was daydreaming about growing up and stuff with my cousins, I
remember just thinking that I’d grow up and just become a mom. That’s all I would
do. I didn’t have any plans for the future regarding higher education. (Emma)
Because Jehovah’s Witnesses’ publications routinely devalue higher edu-

cation, members grow up reading and studying from (their) venerated
sources that repeatedly signal a college is a dangerous place and that a col-
lege education is unnecessary. Rarely do they grow up picturing themselves
pursuing an education beyond high school. During interviews with former
Witnesses, participants acknowledged resigning themselves to setting aside
their interests in childhood to align with the expectations of their faith. By
prioritizing knowledge acquired from a singular source, members develop
an educational identity in opposition to future education and professional
possibilities. Consider the reasoning against education in the following
excerpt from an article entitled “Does the Bible Discourage Education?”
written to discourage Witnesses from attending college in the March 8,
1998 issue of Awake! Magazine:84
What are some potential drawbacks? These may include being exposed to teachings
that erode faith in God and in the Bible. Paul advised Christians to be wary of “the
falsely called ‘knowledge’” and “the philosophy and empty deception according to the
tradition of men.” (1 Timothy 6:20, 21; Colossians 2:8) Undeniably, exposure to
some forms of education can be detrimental to the faith of a Christian. Those who
consider additional training or studies should be aware of the risk of such harmful
influences. (20)
By discouraging higher education in articles the organization uses as

educational tools, the organization accomplishes two things: first, it teaches
its members to have an irrational fear of college, and second, it shapes the
orientation of motivation in its followers. Within their magazines the
Watchtower and Awake! Witnesses are instructed to regulate the level of
education their children pursue through the use of scripture to support
their reasoning. In the July 15, 1982 issue of the Watchtower study article
entitled “Education—What It Costs, What It Offers” the following excerpt
Table 1. Participants’ characteristics including current association with Jehovah’s Witnesses

and level of education.
Participant’s current status
Participant characteristics with JWs Participant’s level of education
Annie (23), 19-year-old Annie considers herself an ex-JW Annie is a college student
white female born and because her parents left JWs enrolled in a university on the
raised as a JW. when she was a child. east coast of the United States.
Carl (25), age not disclosed, Carl is an elder in the Carl has a high school education.
researcher estimates congregation where field
participant is in his early observations were performed.
50s, white male.
Donald (25), mid-60s, Donald is an ex-JW who formerly Donald has a high school
white male. served at Bethel and as education and
an elder. technical training.
Victor (25–26, 30–31), mid- Victor is an ex-JW who left as Victor has a college education,
40s, white male. an adult. bachelor’s degree.
Casee (28–29), mid-40s, Casee is an ex-JW who left as Casee has a college education,
white female. an adult. master’s degree.
Beth (30), mid-70s, Beth is an active JW who Beth has a high school education.
white female. randomly called me to
“witness” and then agreed to
participate in the study.
Melanie (31), mid-40s, Melanie is a JW who has stopped Melanie has a college education,
white female. attending meetings and bachelor’s degree.
considers herself an ex-JW.
Allison (31–32), mid-30s, Allison is an ex-JW who left as Allison has a high
white female. an adult. school education.
Henry (32), mid-40s, Henry is a JW who stopped Henry has a high
white male. attending meetings as an adult. school education.
suggests to parents that allowing their child to go to college is tantamount

to allowing their child to play in traffic:
But, it may be objected, not everyone who goes to university loses his Christian faith
or dies of a drug overdose. This is true. Some graduates have become valued and
hardworking members of the Christian congregation. But consider, it is also true that
not every child who plays on a busy street will get killed by a passing automobile.
Some survive to grow up. But would you let your children play in the street in traffic
because of that? (15)
The aforementioned 1998 study article cites and references Colossians

2:8 wherein the apostle Paul writes to Christians in Colossae urging them
to beware of the philosophy of men, “Look out that no one takes you cap-
tive by means of philosophy and empty deception according to human
tradition, according to the elementary things of the world and according to
Christ” (NWT Col. 2:8). The interpretation of the scripture in Colossians
from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT), “the phil-
osophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men”, the
Watchtower study article incorrectly extrapolates meaning through a false
equivocation of Paul’s use of the Greek word philosophy with the subject of
philosophy instead of his intended target, the presence of a group of
individuals in Colossae whose behavior, scholars contend come from a
group in the region connected to Judaism during that time period.85

To the detriment of their members, Witnesses have extended the inaccurate
interpretation of the word philosophy to support their position on educa-
tion for decades throughout their literature, during talks given at their local
congregations, assemblies, and conventions held worldwide. By drawing a
parallel between attending college to learn the “philosophy and empty
deception according to the tradition of men” and playing in traffic, in the
mind of Witness parents, the organization reinforces the notion that educa-
tion outside of the one Jehovah’s Witnesses provides is dangerous, and the
potential cost is the loss of their child’s eternal life.
Conclusion
Through detailed analysis of the literature published by Jehovah’s
Witnesses and the interviews with individuals who participated in this
study, the results indicate that by producing their own views on educa-
tion and transmitting those views as values to members, especially
parents, the organization expects members to heed their declarations
about the dangers associated with obtaining a higher education, even if
that means, in the end, a member’s sacrifice costs them their intellectual
freedom. Perhaps the most important aspect of establishing themselves as
the ultimate source of knowledge is the implication for the members of
the congregation and anyone interested in the religion. By eliminating
academic engagement, members and interested individuals refer to the
denomination’s publications as their primary source of knowledge. By
eliminating access to external knowledge, the congregation as a whole
surrenders autonomy and willingly subjects themselves and their children
to the external regulation of the religion. By only referring to one source
for answers, individuals wound their critical thinking skills, skills highly
valued in education. By failing to draw out the ideas and thoughts of
their members, ironically, the organization seeks to indoctrinate those
whom they profess to educate.
By synthesizing the viewpoints of researchers, this study sought to
offer perspective on how a singular educational viewpoint can stifle
intellectual growth, stymie intrinsic motivation, and construct a negative
social identity for and by the student that inhibits future academic pur-
suit. There is a lack of research on how externally controlled environ-
ments and the overt coercive strategies organizations like Jehovah’s
Witnesses use can impact the development of educational identity in an
individual. I believe further research is warranted to fill this gap, along
with the gap in research about educational identity formation in nontra-
ditional learning environments.
Notes
1. T. Kuran, Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference
Falsification (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).
2. C. P. Scheitle, and A. Adamczyk, “High-Cost Religion, Religious Switching, and
Health,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51, no. 3 (2010): 325–42.
3. Knox, Z. (2018). Jehovah’s Witnesses and the secular world. London: Palgrave
Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39605-1.
4. Ibid.
5. H. J. Ransom, R. L. Monk, and D. Heim, “Grieving the Living: The Social Death of
Former Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Journal of Religion and Health (2021), 54.
6. R. Wallis, The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life (Boca Raton:
Routledge, 2019).
7. A. Holden, Jehovah’s Witnesses: Portrait of a Contemporary Religious Movement (Boca
Raton: Routledge, 1964/2002).
8. Ransom et al., “Grieving the Living.”
9. Ibid.
10. R. Heyward, “Witnessing in Black: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Textual Ethnogenesis, Racial
Subjectivity, and the Foundational Politics of Theocracy,” Black Theology 10, no. 1
(2012): 93–115, 114.
11. Ines Testoni, Kirk Bingaman, Giulia Gengarelli, Marianna Capriati, Ciro De
Vincenzo, Andrea Toniolo, Barbara Marchica, and Adriano Zamperini, “Self-
Appropriation between Social Mourning and Individuation: A Qualitative Study on
Psychosocial Transition among Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Pastoral Psychology 68, no. 6
(2019): 687–703, 689.
12. Scheitle and Adamczyk, “High-Cost Religion, Religious Switching, and Health.”
13. Hege Kristin Ringnes, Gry Stålsett, Harald Hegstad, and Lars Johan Danbolt,
“Emotional Forecasting of Happiness: Emotion Regulation Strategies among Members
of End-Time Focused Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Archive for the Psychology of Religion 39,
no. 3 (2017): 312–43.
14. M. Fine, “Working the Hyphens,” in Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N.
K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.,
1994), 70–82.
15. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Insight on the Scriptures,
Volume 1 (JW.org, 2018), 787.
16. Ibid., 788.
17. Ibid.
18. Fine, “Working the Hyphens.”
19. N. Pannofino and M. Cardano, “Exes Speak out, Narratives of Apostasy: Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Scientology and Soka Gakkai,” International Journal for the Study of New
Religions 8, no. 1 (2018): 1–26.
20. Fine, “Working the Hyphens.”
21. E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan, “Self-Determination Theory: A Macrotheory of Human
Motivation, Development, and Health,” Canadian Psychology / Psychologie
Canadienne 49, no. 3 (2008): 182–5, 183.
22. Holden, Jehovah’s Witnesses.
23. Testoni et al., “Self-Appropriation.”
24. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Education—What It Costs, What It Offers. (JW.org, 1982, July
15), 12. https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1982526
25. Jehovah’s Witnesses, What Is Bethel? (JW.org, 2016). https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/

lp-e/1102012162
26. Jehovah’s Witnesses, “Making Yourself Available for Bethel Service,” JW.org, Watch
Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 2019, https://www.jw.org/en/library/
videos/#en/mediaitems/VODOrgBethel/pubjwb_201905_3_VIDEOJehovah’sWitnesses
27. Pannofino and Cardano, “Exes Speak out, Narratives of Apostasy.”
28. Y. Iwasa, H. Ohtsuki, and M. A. Nowak, “Indirect Reciprocity Provides Only a
Narrow Margin of Efficiency for Costly Punishment,” Nature 457, no. 7225 (2009):
79–82, 79.
29. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Be Convinced That You Have the Truth (JW.org, 2020, July).
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2020481
30. P. Liedgren, “Minorities with Different Values at School - The Case of Jehovah’s
Witnesses,” British Journal of Religious Education 40, no. 1 (2018): 31–43, 33.
31. How Do Jehovah’s Witnesses View Education? (JW.org, n.d.). https://wol.jw.org/en/
wol/d/r1/lpe/502018291
32. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Benefit from Theocratic
Ministry School Education (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New
York, Inc, 2012), 282.
33. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, New World Translation of the
Holy Scriptures (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York,
Inc, 2013).
34. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Follow the Golden Rule in Your Ministry (JW.org, 2014, May
15). https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/402014364
35. Holden, Jehovah’s Witnesses, 134.
36. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Life—How Did It Get Here? By
Evolution or by Creation? (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New
York, Inc, 2006).
37. Liedgren, “Minorities with Different Values at School.”
38. Watch Tower, Life—How Did It Get Here?
39. Watchtower, 2005. “Parents – What Future Do You Want for Your Children?” The
Watchtower, October 1: 26–31.
40. Watchtower, 2013. “Slave for Jehovah”. The Watchtower, October 15: 12–16.
Brooklyn, NY: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
42. E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan, “The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs
and the Self-Determination of Behavior,” Psychological Inquiry 11, no. 4 (2000):
227–68, 231, 240.
43. Liedgren, “Minorities with Different Values at School”; Ransom et al., “Grieving
the Living.”
44. Ransom, H.J., Monk, R.L., Qureshi, A. et al. Life after Social Death: Leaving the
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Identity Transition and Recovery. Pastoral Psychol 70, 53–69
(2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-020-00935-0
45. Lack of education leads to lost dreams and low income for many jehovah’s witnesses.
(2017). Weekend all Things Considered
46. H. J. Ransom, R. L. Monk, and D. Heim, “Grieving the Living: The Social Death of
Former Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Journal of Religion and Health (2021), 54.
47. NPR, 2017. https://www.npr.org/2017/02/19/510585965/poor-education-leads-to-lostdr
eams-and-low-income-for-many-jehovahs-witnesses
48. M. Prospero, A. C. Russell, and S. Vohra-Gupta, “Effects of Motivation on

Educational Attainment: Ethnic and Developmental Differences among first-
Generation Students,” Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 11, no. 1 (2012): 100–19.
49. E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human
Behavior (New York: Plenum, 1985); Deci and Ryan, “The “What” and “Why” of
Goal Pursuits.”
50. P. Liedgren and L. Andersson, “Strategies among Young Jehovah’s Witnesses in
Secondary School in Sweden” (SSSR (Society for the Scientific Study of Religion) and
Religious Research Association Annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, 9-11
November 2012).
51. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Beware the Intentions of the Heart (JW.org, 2013, February 15).
https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/w20130215/.
53. Vander Ploeg, Lack of Education Leads to Lost Dreams and Low Income for Many
Jehovah’s Witnesses (2017). Weekend all Things Considered.
54. B. S. Faircloth, “Wearing a Mask” vs. Connecting Identity with Learning,”
Contemporary Educational Psychology 37, no. 3 (2012): 186–94.
55. C. Ingersoll-Wood, The Production of Knowledge Impacts the Perception of
Educational Value among Jehovah’s Witnesses (Unpublished manuscript, Department
of Teaching and Leadership, Syracuse University, Syracuse, United States, 2018).
56. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Education with a Purpose (JW.org, 1992, November 1). https://
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57. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Set Apart from the World
(Watchtower, September 1971), 563.
58. Liedgren, “Minorities with Different Values at School”; Ransom et al., “Grieving
the Living.”
59. N. N. Trevino, and S. C. DeFreitas, “The Relationship between Intrinsic Motivation
and Academic Achievement for First Generation Latino College Students,” Social
Psychology of Education 17, no. 2 (2014): 293–306.
60. Deci and Ryan, “The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits.”
61. Deci and Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination.
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66. E. T. Higgins, “Self-Discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect,” Psychological
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68. Ibid.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Questions Young People Ask:
Answers that Work (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York,
Inc, 1989), 177.
72. Ibid., 178.
73. Ibid., 179.

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Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America, revised and updated (New York:
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Review 39, no. 2 (1946): 109–40; Y. Kim and W. B. Wilcox, “Religious Identity,
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(2014): 555–80.
76. R. Homan, “Teaching the Children of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” British Journal of
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81. Dewey, “The Democratic Conception in Education.”
82. Feinberg, “The Child’s Right to an Open Future.”
83. Ibid.
84. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Does the Bible Discourage Education? (JW.org, 1998, March 8).
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85. J. R. McConnell, “Colossians: Background and Contexts,” Review & Expositor 116, no.
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The Educational Identity Formation

refers to as “preference falsification—the act of misrepresenting one’s genu-

As noted by historian Knox3 in her book Jehovah’s Witnesses and the

The degree of uniformity in the organization’s literature can be attrib-

since higher education was organizationally discouraged by JWs in litera-

According to Ringnes et al.13 in “Emotional Forecasting of Happiness” in

According to the Watchtower Online Library on JW.org, Witnesses can

Since a Jehovah’s Witness identity is predicated on belonging within the

psychological need for autonomy. Growing up under the watchful eye of

By employing rhetorical questions within the study article, the organiza-

During a field observation at a Kingdom Hall, I saw Annie’s remark

Watchtower article I observed, the conductor thanked members for their

Even though the members in the auditorium were watching a remote

subjects outside of their ideology, they have stringent guidelines on accept-

The main headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses is located in Warwick, NY

Witnesses reinforce their fictive kinship by referring to members as

One former member, Casee, shares her impression of learning about

Casee’s reflection on her experience with the teaching techniques

Casee’s comments demonstrate her awareness of being brought along into

The reproduction of values, especially shared values within a group, rein-

To understand when the organization developed their views about a col-

As a community, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the sacrifices they

a developing adolescent whose potential was stymied due to the mandates

Allison, like other participants within the study, ended up leaving

The Theocratic Ministry School (TMS) is an education program the organ-

outcomes” (34). Ex-JWs whose personal identity formation was stymied to

According to Kirsch,65 by authoring publications that require their followers

acceptable occupations suggested by the organization: Witness children are not

thwarted through the employment of external regulation, such as limiting

production of knowledge within religious groups and how unrestrained sys-

While Feinberg acknowledges that honoring a parent’s right to exercise

Because Jehovah’s Witnesses’ publications routinely devalue higher edu-

By discouraging higher education in articles the organization uses as

Table 1. Participants’ characteristics including current association with Jehovah’s Witnesses

suggests to parents that allowing their child to go to college is tantamount

The aforementioned 1998 study article cites and references Colossians

group in the region connected to Judaism during that time period.85

25. Jehovah’s Witnesses, What Is Bethel? (JW.org, 2016). https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/

48. M. Prospero, A. C. Russell, and S. Vohra-Gupta, “Effects of Motivation on

73. Ibid., 179.

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