The Importance and Nature of 'Double Listening'

The Importance of ‘Double Listening’ in Faith-based Schools (Revisited)

 

An Update - I posted on this topic in November (HERE) but I've posted this shorter version that might be more helpful for School staff to commence a discussion

 

While writing an article for a journal recently, I was reminded of John Stott’s concept of ‘Double Listening’. I believe it needs to be shared with faith-based teachers and schools. John Stott was an English Anglican priest and theologian, who was noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He was the founder, director, and honorary president of the London Institute for Contemporary Studies. He wrote 40 books! His work was always filled with great wisdom.

In one of his many publications, ‘The Contemporary Christian: Applying God’s Word to Today’s World’ (1992: IVP), Stott introduced the concept of ‘Double Listening’. He shared, “we are called to the difficult and even painful task of ‘double listening’. That is, we need to listen carefully… both to the ancient Word and to the modern world, in order to relate the one to the other with a combination of fidelity and sensitivity.”

 

This concept resonates so clearly with my own work. Those who have read ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’, will see immediately why I find his concept of ‘Double Listening’ so helpful. It sits comfortably with my call for faith-based teachers to think deeply and critically about how “…we shape the whole life of a community viewed from the standpoint of the kingdom of God?” (Cairney, 2018, p.30).

 

Why is Double Listening Important for Terachers?

 

Faith-based schools tread a tightrope while seeking to teach and shape their students with the World’s many competing voices and challenges. Even in the setting of a Christian school, there constant tension between preparing our students for the world, while also seeking to grow them as people. In my work, I give special emphasis to encouraging teachers, parents and students to see their faith as central to all of life and not to be distracted simply by success in the world. In any faith-based school, we need to encourage everyone to listen first to the Word of God, while also preparing students for life IN the world. That is, we seek to bring the Word to bear on the world, not the other way around.

 

In an interview in 1997 with Professor Derek Morris (Southern Adventist University, Tennessee), John Stott was asked to explain what he meant by ‘Double Listening’. He responded:

 

“By double listening, I mean listening, of course, to God and to the Word of God, but listening to the voices of the modern world as well. Now, I make it clear that in listening to the modern world, we are not listening with the same degree of respect as that with which we listen to the voice of God. We listen to Him in order to believe and obey what He says. We listen to the modern world, not in order to believe and obey what it says, but in order to understand its cries of pain, the sighs of the oppressed. And it seems to me that relevant communication grows out of this process of double listening.”

 

2.  How should faith-based schools respond to and learn from this challenge?

In ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’ I argue that education in faith-based schools should always be situated in the “whole of life of the school”. This in turn is situated within our students’ complete lives that simultaneously transcend varied and multiple communities of practice. As teachers, we need to keep reminding ourselves that our students’ learning does not occur simply in our classrooms Things taught in the school are integrated and interpreted as part of daily life. Collectively, this perspective seeks to create “…classroom life with the potential to ‘speak’ to our students about what is important in the world of the classroom and school, and consequently, what matters in the world” (Cairney, 2018, p.31).

John Stott’s words might seem ‘quaint’ to some, but we must be careful not to quickly dismiss his bold claim. These words are very helpful for anyone who has faith in God, and is navigating a world that is increasingly hostile to all faiths. Stott’s comment relates directly to the key challenge all Christian schools to balance the obvious desire of parents, as students and teachers seeking success in life, with a desire to see them to seek faith and eternal hope in God.

An important complement to ‘Double Listening’ is the development of “standpoint” or point of view (Cairney, 2018, pp 27-29). This relates to the shared understandings students develop in multiple communities. A key role of the teachers in faith-based schools is to present and help shape viewpoints within classroom and school life. Students can be encouraged to orient their life to the Kingdom of God, not the ways of the world. This requires an all of school approach and the creation of community life that places faith and our hope in Christ at the centre.

3.  How does this concept relate to my work on “formation”?

First, we need to understand and embrace the concept of ‘Double Listening’ in our lives as Christians and teachers. We also need to observe and understand the world in which our students live, and the many ideologies that are spoken of, promoted and that ‘wash over’ them each day. As teachers (and parents), we need to be alert to the signs of varied ideologies shaping our students’ priorities and practices. But as well, we need to have the courage to push back on some of the ideas they embrace, and explain what the Bible teaches us about life’s priorities.

Second, we must not forget that a key part of our roles as teachers is to “orchestrate the meaning, language, and life of the classroom” (Cairney, 2018, p. 67). To observe the lives of our students is a key priority, but we also need to be active in attempting to shape our students to consider all of life in the context of God’s word to us.

 

But, one more comment is necessary. Schools must be careful not to create places so insulated from the world, that they become escapist ‘bubbles’ protecting them from the world. Schools can in a sense, become such separate worlds, that students aren’t really prepared for the wider world, where the cultures and priorities are so different, and where they have new autonomy.

 

The place of ‘Double Listening’ in schools is very important. As teachers, we must become such good listeners and observers that we are in a position to have an influence on the worldviews that students develop and how faith has a central role to play in shaping them.

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

How a Grade 5 'non-writer' taught me a valuable lesson about writing!

One of the great challenges we face as a teachers is that if we don't know our students then we are at a great disadvantage in extracting the best from them. I talk in chapter 5 of my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life' about the depth of community life in our schools and classrooms and has this has a key formative role in the lives of our students. I shared a story from my days as a Teacher in Charge of a one teacher school and how in a school community, whether a group of friends, a class, or perhaps the whole school. I suggested that this was a rich and important element of any shared community. 

My take home message in relation to that classroom even was that as teachers we need to understand the complexity of the shared communities of practice that exist in schools and be able to tap into them. Sadly, some teachers visit the classroom, teach content and control behaviour without ever developing deep understanding of their students. We might know some of our students well, some a little, and others perhaps barely at all except in relation to their behaviour, work and interactions in class. What do we know about their hopes, loves, dreams and the things that excite them most outside school?

In my book I talk about the need to "orchestrate classroom life". We do this in many ways, but a key tool is to listen and observe classroom and school life in the 'cracks' of the school day. I've just shared a post on my literacy blog "Literacy, Families & Learning" that should be of interest to readers of this blog. I share a story of an elementary (primary) student who I was teaching in the US. She was a difficult students at times, who did little work. 

 

But as I share in the post "On an ordinary morning, as I prepared for the school day I heard the yellow school buses arrive, and the rush of students down the corridor shortly just minutes later. Students burst through the door and we did the usual crowd control as. Imagine my surprise when a bundle of poetry spilled on the floor in front of me."

You can read the full blog post HERE.

I hope that it proves helpful in reinforcing the vital need to know our students.

Building on the Foundations of the Family - Pedagogical Principle 2

As I wrote in my last post, the central concern of the Christian school teacher must be the formation of character in their students. While growing minds and bodies is also important, it is the character of every child that is the central concern of God. As James K.A. Smith argued in a conference that I convened in Sydney in 2012, education is much more than teaching skills or helping children to acquire knowledge, it is more fundamentally an exercise in the formation of the child. And of course, the outcome of such formation is what we would typically describe as 'character'. Martin Buber suggested that "education worthy of its name is essentially education of character" (Martin Buber, 'Between Man and Man'). And of course, character is not 'taught'; rather, it is acquired or developed in community.

The importance of community is a critical element in 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'. In the book I outline a framework that reflects a key foundational proposition in my pedagogy:

“Education is the whole life of a community, and the experience of its members learning to live this life, from the standpoint of a specific goal”

In the final chapter of my book I offer 20 statements that expand on this central definition and act as a framework for education in a Christian organization. I express them in the form of questions. In the last post I considered the first question, "Do I identify that which is valuable in each child?"

In this post I consider the second question.

Do my class and school build on the foundations of the family? 

I spent almost 20 years conducting research on family literacy and learning. This work offered valuable insights into the relationship between the home, school and community, and demonstrated that when schools understand and respect families, that education at school is more effective. One national project that I led for the Australian government, considered the role that parent support and understanding of school pedagogy played in helping children to succeed in literacy learning in the elementary school years. The outcome of the work is described in my book 'Beyond Tokenism: Parents as Partners in Literacy'. While my concern in 'Pedagogy and Education and Life' is the education of the whole child, the findings from my family literacy and learning research, showed that even in relation to school success, a strong open relationship between home and school is vital. This of course is even more clearly needed when we are concerned for the whole child as Christian parents and teachers. This in turn will reflect our faith, and a view of the world shaped by the Scriptures and the gospel-centred narrative that binds the Bible together from beginning to end.      

So why is it important to build on the foundations of the family?

First, it is important to understand families because our students are first and foremost the responsibility of parents under God. While we have the privilege of teaching the children of families, we must understand that our students arrive as people shaped initially by parents. As well, we need to respect the wishes of families for their children. Having said this, it is also important to remember that families are all different and so their parenting strategies will also be different. Also, our parents might not be people of Christian faith. Nevertheless, the school and its teachers need to take responsibility to ensure that parents understand what the school offers and the school's statement of faith that is meant to shape pedagogy and school life.

Second, and more fundamentally, the Bible has much to say about the importance of the family as a critical unit in any society. The Bible teaches that God made us to live in relationship first to him, and second to other people. And the family was the foundation of humanity (Gen 2:15-25), and continues to be the foundation for learning in the early years of life (Deut 6:1-9). Families also have a vital role throughout schooling, and hence the Christian school is to know the families of its students, to support them as they nurture their children, and as God works in their lives. Families are not problems to be managed, but rather partners in education and recipients of God’s grace, sometimes delivered through the school.

Any teacher reading this post will of course realize just how hard it can be at times to deal with parental attitudes and expectations, that do not mirror those of the teacher or the school. In the final chapter of my book I follow the pedagogical framework with a series of case studies that highlight some of the challenges that teachers face in their partnership with parents, who may not share their beliefs. In fact, many of our students do not accept the Christian faith themselves. I stress in the second case study in chapter 9 of my book, that the key challenge for the Christian teacher when teaching the children of non-Christian parents is "... to communicate honestly to parents whether  Christian, or non-Christian." And as well, as the teacher does so, they need to trust God will use her words according to his purposes."