distinctively christian learning faith in research 4 th june 2014 professor trevor cooling
TRANSCRIPT
The Church of England Background
No Church school can be considered as part of the Church’s mission unless it is distinctively Christian. (Dearing)
Church schools are places where a particular vision of humanity is offered. (Dearing)
Faith and spiritual development at the heart of the curriculum and ensuring that a Christian ethos permeates the whole educational experience. (Chadwick)
A Church school curriculum that includes implications for pedagogy, curriculum content and school organization (Chadwick)
The Challenge
Unwitting compliance with values and principles that may compromise those that they seek to promote (Helen Jelfs)
Have assimilated the prevailing educational paradigm (Roger Street)
Distinctively Christian Anthropology?
The tourist’s world is defined by immediate survival requirements, leisure activities and pragmatic transactions; paying for services, asking directions, securing help in case of an emergency and the like. It is a world that is often bereft of any spiritual experience
Distinctively Christian Anthropology?
Foreign languages education should prepare students for two related callings: to be a blessing as strangers in a foreign land and to be hospitable to strangers in their own homeland.
Two Key Questions
What are our aspirations for our pupils?
What do our pupils imagine they are doing in their classrooms?
What if Learning…? Connecting Christian faith and teaching
Seeing anew: How could a Christian understanding of God, people and the world provide a different way of seeing a lesson/unit?Choosing Engagement: How could the students engage with this new way of seeing? Reshaping practice: What changes to my practice do I need to make as a teacher?
The approach
Distinctively Christian?
Faithfulness to the Christian tradition in the way that schools undertake the tasks of education
Uniqueness by distinguishing Christian schools from every other kind of school
Faithfully Christian Learning
We are looking for and at a vocation to be the people of God in the fifth act of the drama of creation.
Tom Wrightformerly Bishop of Durham
The Gospel Message
Salvation?
Transformation? Scott McKnight, “The King Jesus
Gospel”
Zondervan, 2011