Called to Teach: Excellence, Commitment, and Community in Christian Higher Education. By Christopher J. Richmann and J. Lenore Wright, eds. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2020. 236 pp. ISBN 978-1-5326-8318-3 (softcover) $29. (original) (raw)
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Fostering Community and a Culture of Learning in Seminary Classrooms: A Personal Journey
While a syllabus can helpfully outline the various topics and expectations for a course (“explicit” curriculum), it is increasingly realized that all learning is framed by an “implicit” curriculum. These “implicit” values and convictions about pedagogy that instructors (and students) bring to the classroom greatly influence the quality of learning, but they are often unexamined or unexpressed. Effective learning happens when these values are shared, explored and critiqued in the class. In this essay, the author provides practical ideas and suggestions to explore the pedagogical values of instructors and students. His goal is to deepen the learning experience through fostering community and a culture of learning in the classroom.
Christian Faith and University Life: Stewards of the Academy
International Journal of Christianity & Education, 2018
In this collection of essays, editors Laine Scales and Jennifer Howell explore ''the question of how we might envision and inhabit a Christian understanding of the concept of stewardship within the academy'' (pp. 5, 11). In their introduction, Scales and Howell describe their experiences as graduate mentor and doctoral student at Baylor University, their participation in the Conyers Scholars Program (a group of graduate students and faculty committed to the exploration of stewardship), and the insights that have resulted from those dialogues. The editors specifically emphasize the difficult experience of doctoral students as they adjust to the competitive, isolating culture of university life. However, the essays in this collection will prove relevant to all faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates seeking to be Christians of incarnational faith in the academy. The editors identify concerns facing many universities and colleges today, namely, national and international rankings, the swiftly changing nature of online education, and the tendency toward competitive ownership of intellectual property. In response to these trends, and in the quest to preserve the integrity of the academy for future generations, Scales and Howell have gathered responses from fellow Conyers Scholars and other trusted voices. The editors have organized the sixteen essays around three key themes: Part I, the nature of vocation in the life of the scholar-teacher; Part II, specific practices of faithful pedagogy; and Part III, the ideal relationship between Christian institutions of higher education and the Church. In Part I, the contributors offer a renewed understanding of vocation as a key aspect of stewardship in the academy. Darin Davis argues that, ''Beyond integration, faith actually animates the sacred task of learning'' (p. 24). Davis illustrates the powerful parallel between vocation and the story of Lazarus. He explains that, ''From the isolation of death [Lazarus] is called by Christ's powerful voice to the community of the living. .. Each of us is so called. Vocation, vocatio, is about being raised from the dead, made alive to the reality that we do not merely exist, but we are 'called forth' to a divine purpose'' (p. 23). Stewards of the academy do not
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Christian Higher Education, 2019
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Teaching Theology & Religion, 2011
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Toward a Vision for Distinctively Christian Educational Leadership
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