Search
Enter Keywords:
Home arrow Volume 10 (2006) arrow Issue 2
Issue 2
Introduction: Connecting Spirituality, Justice, and Pedagogy Print E-mail
Written by David I. Smith, John Sullivan, and John Shortt   
“Those who are into spirituality are usually not into justice and those who are into justice are usually not into spirituality.”1 This comment was made by Nicholas Wolterstorff during his plenary address to the recent conference “Spirituality, Justice, and Pedagogy,” sponsored by the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, from which the papers in this volume (including that plenary address) are drawn. A similar suspicion lay behind the conception of the conference. There is voluminous discussion of spirituality in education these days, running the full gamut from plans for explicit faith formation through efforts at a mediating “phenomenology of the distinctively human”2 to maximally generic ideas of spirituality as a “heightening of awareness” and the like.3 There is also a wide literature discussing educational justice, attending to matters such as discrimination and representation in relation to various aspects of personal identity and the ways in which educational provision and educational assumptions follow the paths of social privilege. An important area of intersection between these discussions does exist (see, for instance, the recent writing of David Purpel4), but nevertheless a common pattern is for writings concerned with educational justice to treat faith and spirituality with indifference, or even hostility, and for writings on spirituality in education to focus on inner realities to the exclusion of the social, and even sometimes the ethical.5 These two tendencies, of course, easily become mutually reinforcing. The aim of this volume, and of the conference that gave rise to it, has been to resist the dichotomy and explore places where spirituality, justice, and pedagogy might constructively interact, with a particular focus on Christian spirituality.
Read more...
Teaching Justly for Justice Print E-mail
Written by Nicholas Wolterstorff   
JUSTICE SHOULD BE both a hallmark and a main goal of teaching. Christian theology has tended to neglect the theme of justice and to limit its attention to retributive justice, rather than the more basic primary justice, that justice which has broken down when injustice occurs. Two reasons for this neglect are explored: the idea that love supplants justice in the New Testament, and the tendency for English translations of the New Testament to translate the Greek dikaiosunê and related words in terms of rectitude rather than justice. The relationship of justice to personal worth is explored, together with reasons why teachers should focus both on teaching justly and on teaching for justice.
Exposing Students to Intractable Problems Print E-mail
Written by Glenn E. Sanders   

Exposing Students to Intractable Problems: Christian Faith and Justice in a Course on the Middle East

THIS CHAPTER DESCRIBES the planning and teaching of a course on the history of the Middle East at a Christian university, focusing in particular on the way in which a concern for spiritual growth and for engagement with issues of justice shaped the structure a pedagogy of the course. The chapter explores the "inner" and "outer" work necessary to connect justice concerns with spirituality and learning.

Being Is Believing? Out-of-the-Box (Subversive) Education Print E-mail
Written by Philip Fountain and Chris Elisara   
THE WOUNDS OF this world—ecological and humanitarian—require a re-thinking of our educational systems. Building upon a shalom model of education, the authors argue that questions of space and location are critically important to Christian pedagogies. Our education praxis must move beyond the classroom to engage students empathetically in the world around us. Doing so will necessarily be a subversive endeavor. The Creation Care Study Program in Belize is presented as a case study of "study abroad" and field-intensive education.
The Formation of Character: Spirituality Seeking Justice Print E-mail
Written by Doub Blomberg   
EDUCATION ALWAYS DEPENDS on a view of humanness. Howard Gardner's influential theory of multiple intelligences promotes a broader view of human abilities than that generally favored in schooling, but Gardner relegates ethical, spiritual, and other normative dimensions to the periphery. The paper argues that virtue ethics despite historical Protestant antipathy (which is addressed), provides a more comprehensive perspective, as long as the development of the virtues is seen to be embedded in creation and community. A biblical understanding of spirituality supplies the core that is missing from Gardner's bundle of computational competences, and seeking God's justice is its proper goal.
Teaching Justice by Emphasizing the Non-neutrality of Technology Print E-mail
Written by Steven H. VanderLeest   
THIS CHAPTER EXPLORES the connection between justice and technology and its implications for teaching about technology and teaching technological design. The non-neutrality of technology in relation to issues of justice is examined, and pedagogical strategies are described for making students aware of this non-neutrality and enabling them to incorporate a concern for justice into their design decisions.
Character Development from African-American Perspectives: Toward a Counternarrative Approach Print E-mail
Written by Louis B. Gallien and LaTrelle Jackson   
THIS CHAPTER ARGUES that character education, if it is to be effective, must be responsive to the values and narratives of particular cultural groups. It looks in particular at the cultural counternarratives informing traditions of character formation in African-American communities, and argues that these can provide a basis for successful character education. By grounding character education in the history, literature, and cultural and religious values of African-Americans, we are more likely to integrate the psychological, spiritual, and academic development of the next generation of African-American youth.
Preparing the Way for Justice: Strategic Dispositional Formation Through the Spiritual Disciplines Print E-mail
Written by Bradford S. Hadaway   
THOUGH MORAL EDUCATORS cannot make their students virtuous, they can promote certain habits of active learning, analogous to the traditional spiritual disciplines, which can dispose the soul towards the subsequent blossoming of embodied and lived-out justice. The incorporation of a range of these disciplines improves typical service learning courses because each discipline is designed to resist or prune preexisting negative dispositions which could otherwise undermine the transformative power of the service learning experiences themselves. Kant's doctrine of virture and Merton's account of monastic spirituality are developed to explain and defend this view.

Issues
Volume 13 (2009)
Volume 12 (2008)
Volume 11 (2007)
Volume 10 (2006)
Volume 9 (2005)
Volume 8 (2004)
Volume 7 (2003)
Volume 6 (2002)
Volume 5 (2001)
Volume 4 (2000)
Volume 3 (1999)
Volume 2 (1998)
Volume 1 (1997)
Subscribe
Click here to subscribe to the Journal of Education and Christian Belief