What should the priorities be for a Christian teacher?

As we approach the beginning of a new school year in Australia, it’s timely to ask every teacher, how they will judge their success as a teacher, as well as that of the school?

 

My comments are meant for school teachers at any level. As Trevor Hart points out in the foreword to my book, my primary   intent in writing ' Pedagogy and Education for Life' was to challenge teachers to maintain a strong focus on developing both the hearts and minds of their students. 

If readers gain nothing else from reading my book, I hope they at least take away the message that teachers need a pedagogy founded in an ‘eschatology’. Eschatology of course, is that part of theology concerned with death, judgement and the final destiny of our souls as well as mankind more broadly. As Christian teachers, we must help our students to grasp that there is an eternal future not simply an earthly one. The eternal future will always trump our earthly future. The faith-based school must avoid a pedagogy that is short-term, and simply prioritizes worldly success.

 

In any Christian school the faith of our teachers, and the ethos of the school, should point to a hope that is not just in the world. The lives of teachers and the priorities they set, play a major role in student formation. There are more significant goals than academic achievement, a good job or the right university course. To focus on, and hopefully achieve these goals, we need to remember four key things:

1. First, teachers must work hard at creating classroom environments that sustain faith in God, and assist student formation as learners and communicators, to sustain their faith in varied communities of practice in life. 

 

2. Second, we need to create classroom environments where students can ask questions of you as their teacher, but also of each other. Our questions and observations as teachers, should not just focus simply on assessing how smart they are, but also whether they demonstrate love for one another, humility, curiosity and an openness to knowing God.

 

3. Third, the communities we sustain must of course bridge the many communities of practice that students live in day by day (Chapter 2 of my book covers some of this ground). Not just the communities they experience at church and in faith-based schools, but those they frequent outside school.

 

4. Finally, schools must be places where the different communities of practice subtly present in classrooms, playgrounds, and varied social settings outside school, don't draw them away from God. Instead, the varied communities they inhabit, also shape them primarily in the habits, beliefs, attitudes and practices of life.

 

Chapters 1-4 in ‘Pedagogy and Formation and Education for Life’ are of course key chapters that cover the key role teachers have in shaping communities of practice that have eternal significance. The wonderful work of Charles Taylor and Lev Vygotsky are a focus in these chapters. A major theme is that learning is much more than the gaining of knowledge and worldly success.

For the teacher, this requires us to create classrooms where students can reflect on and see the relationship between their lives, and the varied communities they inhabit in and out of school. In chapter 5 of 'Pedagogy and Education for Life' I share five vignettes that seek in a practical way to demonstrate show how classroom and school life can shape our students to centre their hopes on God, not simply worldly success. Schools might find these helpful when discussing the way we can achieve the goals I outline above.