The Place of Justice in Schools - Principle 17

The 17th principle in my Framework for Christian Pedagogy in 'Education and Pedagogy for Life' is critical for all faith-based schools. A key question all schools and teachers should ask: "Is justice sought and modelled within your class and school community life?"

 

 

As I write in my book, God is just! What's more, his justice is an expression of his holiness. In the book of Micah in the Old Testament, God brings charges against his people for their failure to obey his word leading to wickedness and rebellion. God had acted justly with them and had repeatedly shown mercy, and yet they had failed to show justice and mercy in their lives.

 

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

 

Because our God, acts justly and shows mercy, we too must seek and demonstrate justice and mercy in the world (Mic 6:8). Is this demonstrated in the way justice is delivered within our schools? Or are we inconsistent in how punishment is distributed and rewards given? Does the curriculum and the attitude we display show a concern for a limited part of our world beyond? Do you we favouritism in life and teaching? For example, are we shocked and saddened when a famous celebrity dies, and barely notice when thousands die in distant nations from disease or violence?

 

Classrooms must be places turned towards the world and yet aware of the inequities and injustices within it. Our pedagogy must demonstrate a sense of justice and a broad concern for other people. But even if we as teachers might have compassionate hearts and a strong sense of justice, how do we develop these qualities in our students? And how do we encourage our students to demonstrate this to one another and also the stranger?

 

An important question for any teacher, and in fact, any school is, how do we show a love of and desire to seek justice? And as a follow up, how do we encourage empathy and respect for others? There is no doubt that what we teach, including our attitudes to and engagement with the world, will have an influence on our students. How are we preparing our students to love their neighbors? “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)?

 

I attended school as a student from 1956 to 1969! Many forms of the punishment used then would still be recognisable in 2020. Children are still kept in, lines are still written, forgotten homework is sometimes done at lunchtime, privileges are still withdrawn for bad behavior, and so on. But the varied forms of physical punishment that I experienced at school, would not be seen today. As a primary school child, I was caned many times. In fact, by Grade 4 I’d been caned about 40 times (yes, I was badly behaved). This was usually 1 or 2 cuts of the cane across outstretched hands, often in front of my classmates. However, most attempts at punishment failed to change my behavior. But of course, justice isn’t simply about punishment.

 

 

When I grew up and became a teacher, I had to learn very quickly that the ability to exercise discipline and shape behavior in my classroom, was a very important part of what it meant to be an effective teacher. I started teaching as a 19-year-old! True. And thanks to some good teaching by my College lecturers, I had a strong sense instilled in me of the requirement to set standards, to ensure that they were met, to reward those who attained these standards, and to moderate the behavior of those who didn’t.

 

One of the first lessons during my training was that discipline needs to be distributed with consistency and in proportion to the matter that requires the discipline. But there was little talk about the administration of discipline, simply that once I had decided on the need for punishment, it was important to do it and apply it fairly and consistently. But why was I disciplining children? What was my ultimate purpose in moderating specific behavior? And how did I arrive at my decisions? What influenced my decisions concerning the extent and nature of the discipline? And what were the standards against which the need for punishment was determined? Wojciech Sadurski has some wisdom to share in response to my questions.

 

Our God is just, and his justice is an expression of his holiness. Hence, God expects his people to seek justice in the world and demonstrate it (Mic 6:8). Is this seen in the way justice is delivered within the school community and through the curriculum? Do the curriculum and the attitude of teachers show a concern for the world? (Wojciech Sadurski in ‘Giving Desert Its Due: Social Justice and Legal Theory’ 1985).

 

As I write in my book, classrooms must be places turned towards the world and aware of the inequities and injustices within it. How do we demonstrate kindness to others and actively promote compassionate hearts in our students? Do we encourage empathy and respect for others? Do we demonstrate and ‘teach’ justice, forgiveness and mercy?

 

The first step in answering many of the questions I have posed is to reflect together as professional colleagues on current practices in your classroom and school. In my book (pp 159-160), I share a case study on ‘Justice and Forgiveness’ that deals with these questions. Could I suggest that as first step in assessing current practices that staff might find it helpful to read and discuss the case study together as colleagues.

The need to be ‘kidwatchers’ - Principle 12

As I discuss in my book ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’, if we are to influence the life of our classrooms, we need to be engaged with our students and consciously monitor the day-to-day classroom life. But as well as classroom life, we need to be aware of each student’s life outside the classroom, for invariably this has an impact on life within school. My 12^th Principle from my Christian Pedagogical Framework is framed by the question “how aware am I of the life activities and behavior of my students outside the classroom?” This starts with the playground, but also extends to the home and community life of our students across their many external communities of practice. This might seem a ‘bridge too far’, but if our students are demonstrating inappropriate, ‘interesting’ or unusual behavior in other contexts, how might this inform our understanding of them within school. 

Essentially, teachers need to be sensitive to any signs that their life at home, or in varied wider contexts outside school, might create additional challenges or opportunities. The latter is just as important, life and learning might just be much more exciting and rewarding in the wider world than in the school or classroom. The example of Chanda in Chapter 2 of my book illustrates this perfectly. A student who wouldn’t write at school was a prolific writer of music at home.

Understanding the student world outside school

How can we as teachers have any idea what occurs outside the school for our students? This can be positive and negative. At times in our schools there are children who at home or in the wider world, might face abuse, poverty, fear and disadvantage. How can we tell such things? Understanding and discerning the needs of our children involves observation and attention to the whole of life of our students as much as we are able. Might some students come to school hungry? If a child arrives at school in an untidy state, what might this tell us? Or if they seem to lack basic resources for school should we be concerned? Is their homework done, and so on? What is our relationship like with their parents? Do we know them at all? Do we have any idea how supportive or otherwise their families might be?

In a more positive frame, what passions and interests do our students have outside school? Are there areas of life outside school that demonstrate unusual gifts, special abilities, perhaps just different and more positive behavior? How can we build on what we know about our children to encourage them and form them? Do we listen to and observe them as they arrive and leave, play and chat with friends in informal moments? What insights might we gain in the diverse and multiple communities of practice they inhabit?

Using 'Open' Questions

One basic and practical way to learn more about our students is to ask open questions that invite response and offer a window into their ‘hearts’ and minds. This will generally be done one-to-one or in small groups. This type of close observation has been referred to by some as ‘kidwatching’ which I refer to in chapter 9 of my book. An American colleague of mine coined the phrase over 30 years ago. She discusses the practice in full in her book ‘Kidwatching: Documenting Children’s Literacy Development’. As the name suggests, the technique was designed to provide “…a framework for engaging in systematic, yet very personalized, data collection”.  While she coined the phrase for a narrower application to literacy, I have developed a much broader application in relation to each child’s participation in school and community life. How might we use such a technique in our schools? And what can we learn from using it?

 For example, do we demonstrate a desire to come to a greater understanding of why our students do or don’t engage in activities within the classroom and school? My basic contention is that only by listening, observing and asking the right questions, will we understand our students more fully, and be able to assess their well-being and journeys towards faith. I’m constantly surprised by how little teachers know about their students. Or, in some cases, how they often offer inappropriate activities for their children, or fail to identify when children are unwell, unhappy, under stress, withdrawn, and so on. I saw this as a parent when observing other parents, but also constantly as a teacher. At times teachers fail to see telling signs that students are withdrawn and distant, stressed, frustrated or sad. This might be due to issues beyond the classroom, or perhaps an inability to cope within the school.

Two real life examples

Let me share two real examples from my teaching. I have changed the names and some details to ensure that there is no chance of identifying individuals. The first was a 3^rd grade boy (I’ll call him Ralph) who I taught in a city school. He came to school tired, late, untidy and smelling of cigarette smoke every day. He was withdrawn, always late in finishing work at school, he rarely completed homework, and he struggled to make friends. After some weeks and endless frustrations, I was to find out from varied professional sources that the child lived in a two-room shed, that his father was an alcoholic, chain smoker and occasional drug user. Life was chaotic at home, sleep was difficult and study or homework at the dining room table (the only space to work), impossible due to communal use, as well as the scattering of empty bottles and full ashtrays.

The second student was an attractive and precocious girl in Grade 5, who had no end of friends at school. But she struggled to complete schoolwork due to her tendency to be easily distracted from any work activity. This behavior continued for all of one term. She was referred to our school counsellor. After a number of sessions, she discovered that the student’s mother had left their family home during the school holidays and had not been seen or heard of for 3 months. With her father working five days per week and shift work at times overnight, and her older brother at university, she was frequently left alone. 

Understanding the lives of both children was essential for understanding my challenges with both in the classroom. Kidwatching involves paying close attention to the behavior of our students, and being prepared to look more deeply for telltale signs of disrupted lives outside the classroom. And perhaps ask that one more question that could elicit a personal response.        

Attentiveness to student life - 'Kidwatching'

In chapter 6 of my book I suggest that we need an attentiveness to the student life of the

classroom to create opportunities to observe their actions, emotions, hopes, fears,

frustrations and joys. At its most basic level, “kidwatching” requires teachers to use their eyes to observe student lives, and their ears to listen to what students do and don’t say. Not in order to pry, judge, or to indoctrinate, but to understand them. We need to demonstrate a desire to come to a greater understanding of why our students do or do not engage in activities within the classroom and school. In the case of Chanda, who I discuss in chapter 2 of my book, what I did was not startling. First, I acted on her noncompliance with the writing curriculum when I observed it. Second, I asked some questions. Finally, I took the time to observe her more closely, and I made an effort to know her better. This deliberate activity enabled me to learn about her avid writing at home and to build upon and use this knowledge to make a difference to her as a student.

The view of pedagogy outlined in my book defines learning as socially constituted within communities of practice, not simply classrooms and schools. Learning takes place within the life of many communities in which students and teachers participate. As teachers, we are doing much more than imparting knowledge and skills, we are also forming young lives as we engage with them in a rich life of apprenticeship, mentoring and discipleship. To quote Chapter 6 (p.86) of my book:

Christian pedagogy, will lead to an education that points towards Kingdom goals in the moment-to-moment life of the classroom. It is not simply the delivery of doctrine and teaching in chapel, Scripture classes and Bible studies, nor is it simply the reinforcement of a specific worldview. Pedagogy will always reflect the attitudes of the teacher, the purposes that drive classroom activities, discipline and praise, rewards and punishment, as well as the words spoken and the knowledge shared. This is an education that is implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, centered on God’s purposes for his creatures, not simply the pursuit of the goals of the world.

                                                                                              

To embrace such a view of pedagogy and to implement it in our classrooms, requires deep knowledge of our students. This is where ‘Kidwatching’ comes in.

Helping students to take responsibility for their learning – Principle 8

In ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’ I suggest that while teachers must exercise authority over students, and their students in turn must learn to respect the authority of their teachers, self-responsibility should be nurtured. This requires more than simply seeking to instill the right community values, virtues, or even a Christian worldview. The challenge for teachers and parents is how to keep the two seemingly equal and opposite forces of teacher authority and student self-responsibility in healthy tension. In my book, I argue that this requires a pedagogy that gives considerable attention to how “… teachers orchestrate and sustain classroom life… driven by an intent and telos.” The 'telos' of course is an ancient Greek word referring to an ‘end’ or goal. Alisdair MacIntyre in his book ‘After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory’, draws on the work of Aristotle to suggest that “every activity, every inquiry, every practice aims at some good”. Within the school and classroom, there is a purpose in all that we do and each and every event, activity or practice points to an ‘end’.
 

As a principal, teacher or parent, we might well seek to instill Christian values, virtues, and a Christian view of the world in our students. We might even manage to obtain ascent within the controlled world of the classroom or school to some of these things. But, if these are in conflict for our students’ inner purposes, goals, hopes and desires, then little ‘real’ long term change will occur. Unless, of course, God disrupts these internal goals by his Spirit, through the teaching of his word and the influence a Christ-centred community life within our classrooms and schools.

Craig Dykstra offers us a helpful insight into the challenge for every Christian teacher when discussing the work of Thomas Chalmers (a leader of the Free Church of Scotland) in the nineteenth century. Chalmers argued that: 

Beneath the level of norms, roles, institutional structures, rituals, stories, and symbols lies the level of our fundamental communal intentions toward one another and the world, which govern how we live in our roles and rituals and by means of which we apprehend the mystery of our existence.

Above: Thomas Chalmers

Chalmer’s famous sermon “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” offers some wonderful insights into the human condition. In his sermon he suggested that: 

"Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that it must have a something to lay hold of and which, if wrested away without the substitution of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind, as hunger is to the natural system."

If you wish to change student behavior, and help them to rid themselves of a specific behaviour or sin, you don’t replace it with a vacuum. Nor do you achieve this simply with a religious program, the teaching of a virtue ethic and so on. You replace it with an even stronger passion for something good. The teacher must seek to orchestrate and influence the whole of life of the classroom and school, with the hope that all that is done in structuring this school ‘life’, might impact on the rest of our students’ lives. Such a school and classroom life will be focussed on clear teaching from God’s word centred on Christ.

James Smith has also reminded us in his book ‘Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview andCultural Formation’, that our desires are aimed at specific ends or goals, and set the trajectory for our lives. “A vision of the good life captures our hearts and imaginations.”

The Christian teacher’s key role extends well beyond structuring curriculum, and teaching well. It requires him or her to structure and influence the whole life of the classroom, to disrupt entrenched views of life’s purpose, and instead embed a ‘telos’ that shifts our students’ attention away from the values of the world towards a view of humanity's purpose centred on faith in Jesus Christ. This requires us to place at the centre of all we do and say, the Gospel of Christ, and God’s promise of redemption in and through him, to those who believe and accept him as their saviour. I will say much more about the practical implications that such a view of the world has for pedagogy in future posts.

Understanding the Diverse Nature of Learners - Principle 7

I’ve been rather disturbed as a teacher and researcher in recent years, to observe that many of our nation’s educational administrators, some of our leading teacher educators, many parents, and some business leaders and varied professionals, seem to assume that the way to improve educational outcomes is to test our children. Not so! Only teaching and student support of learning will improve educational outcomes. I hope that few Christian schools and their parents fall into this trap, but I suspect that many do. Principle 7 of my pedagogical framework deals with this issue.

Testing our way to mediocrity

I've written in other places about this disturbing phenomenon (see HERE and HERE). Testing and assessment should always have as their goal to inform practice. And in particular, to help teachers and parents to tailor instruction and support to the needs of the child. But somehow, we’ve lost sight of this most fundamental of educational principles and I see schools and teachers doing more testing than teaching. And perhaps worse still, their teaching becomes increasingly directed towards achieving desired grade standards as judged by test administrators, rather than responding to student needs to help them to learn and grow.

The desire to constantly test our children has many detrimental impacts on them as learners. I know a child who when she started school could already read. She reached the end of the year and said to her mother, I didn’t learn anything new this year at school. In her second week in Kindergarten she was excited to be taken to the library and to be allowed to borrow some books. She looked at the picture books and saw few that she hadn’t read before, and others which didn’t capture her interest. She moved to the junior fiction shelves only to be reprimanded by the librarian and told that she couldn’t read those books because they “were too hard for her”. “But Miss”, she pleaded, “I can read these books”. “Go back to the picture books” the librarian replied. She left that day without a book to take home. When she entered her second year at school she again reached year’s end and said quietly to her mother, “This year was just like kindergarten, I haven’t learnt anything new this year either”. “Mummy, when will I get to learn some new things at school?”

In her third year at school she was excited to be in a composite class with children from the grade above her, surely her mother thought, this will be a chance for her to learn new things and be stretched. But alas, the school in its ‘wisdom’ had decided to pair the weakest grade 3 students with the best grade 2 students. Why you might ask? I’m not sure, but it seems to me that it was probably to ensure as narrow a spread of ability as possible so as to make it easier to teach a common program across the composite classroom, or at the very least, to allow the bright grade 2 children to teach themselves. It might also have been to concentrate on the struggling year 3 students to help them pass the tests, while the year 2 students worked alone. I find any of these options depressing for they show little concern for individual differences in our children. Constant system wide testing has pushed many teachers down a path towards teaching to a common grade by grade standard irrespective of children’s abilities.

Curriculum that dumbs down and ignores diversity

The use of curriculum and teaching practices that assume all students are the same, and teaching diverse classes a common program and with identical expectations, couldn’t be further from the way education should occur. God made us different, and this wasn’t by accident. Varying abilities and even learning styles weren’t an unfortunate accident of creation. All of our students will have different strengths, weaknesses, and needs (Rom 12:6). Christian teachers, classrooms, and schools should demonstrate this understanding in word and action. We are to do this by responding to, valuing, respecting and building on our children’s varied needs and gifts. Teaching to the middle, or application of restrictive methods to the point of frustration for some, is not an option that should serve as an appropriate goal or acceptable practice. We are to encourage and help students who are slower to learn, and enrich those students who show specific gifts, and develop those who have learning difficulties. God has made our children to be different, hence we need to educate as much as possible to extend and grow all of our students as learners and people.

Embracing, celebrating and working with difference

Having children of different abilities in our classrooms is an uncomfortable reality for teachers, even when we carefully grade our classes. But rather than seeking to minimize differences, or ignoring them, we need to embrace them and help each and every learner to grow. In the midst of this ‘growing’ we might just see that our children who might perform differently on narrow test regimes (to their detriment), will begin to demonstrate different gifts and abilities. The best reader in grade one might be not so good at maths, and perhaps even hopeless at sport, public speaking and in demonstrating the varied basic human virtues like respect, loyalty, honesty and so on.   

In my book ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’, I also stress in my 7^th statement about Christian pedagogy that as well as accepting difference within our classrooms, we need to identify how unique our children are and seek to develop social harmony amongst them.

In the tradition of shalom1, we are to seek the flourishing of all in our care. Our children come to us each day with varied gifts, lived experiences, ethnicities, abilities, and pasts. On any day, we will have troubled and difficult children in our classrooms. As Jesus neared the crucifixion, he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Safety and the assurance of physical needs was not what Jesus was promising. Shalom meant much more than this. While shalom can mean tranquility and peace in our classrooms in the sense of freedom from harm, it also means unity and accord among people.

While true spiritual harmony involves restoration with God, Christian classrooms must be places that demonstrate shalom in the sense of harmony within the community, peace among students, love and service to one another, and a culture of restoration of differences with others.

 

Footnote

1. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Educating for Shalom: Essays on Christian Higher Education. Edited by Clarence W. Joldersma and Gloria Stronks. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Developing Humble Learners: Principle 6

In this post, I want to consider principle 6 in my pedagogical framework, 'God made us as creatures who learn', yet another distinctive of a Christian pedagogy that doesn't seem to be linked very often with success in the world. God's plan for us was that we should be 'humble learners'. Now, while humans are not unique as creatures capable of learning, this characteristic is one that only humans seem to possess. In spite of what E.B. White might have suggested in 'Charlotte's Web', the cunning rat, and the plump barnyard pig are not capable of displaying humility. Nor would it necessarily be in their best interests to do so. In fact, humility isn't a trait that is terribly obvious in many people, let alone children. But principle 6 in my pedagogical framework suggests that the Christian teacher should be seeking to 'develop humble learners'.

As a small child I spent many hours with my grandfather, Alexander Linton. I would follow him around as he did business with others, built a holiday house, or as he repaired all manner of things. My mother's father was a very smart man. From 1920s to 1963 he ran his own business, taught himself how to build radios and later televisions, studied accountancy through the London International Correspondence School and was a leader in his community. If anything needed fixing (cars, radios, televisions, appliances etc), or any problem required some wisdom, the locals would find their way to my grandfather's door.

As a child of 8-12 years old I would talk and natter away as he'd do his work. I'd also at times, offer him some advice about the latest problem. In response, one statement he would gently use quite often when I was making my many suggestions was as follows:

"Son, what I know about this topic I could write on the back of a postage stamp. What you know, you could write on the head of a pin."  

In his own unique way, my grandfather was trying to teach me about humility. There are many places that we can go to in the Bible that speak of the need for humility to be part of the character of the Christian. It is of course the opposite of pride and is a trait that reflects an understanding that compared with the God of the universe we are inconsequential. 1 Peter 5:6-7 reminds us that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. We are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col 3:12).   Scripture also suggests that many good things flow from the person who demonstrates humility, including:

• Respect for elders (1 Peter 5:5)
• Forgiveness (2 Chron 7:14)
• Favour with God (Prov 3:34)
• Wisdom (Prov 11:2)
• Honour (Prov 18:12)
• God teaching us his way (Psalm 25:9)

In a Christian school where humility is cultivated and encouraged, we will look beyond things such as intellectual or life achievements, to the depth and character of our students. And of course, as we teach our students in classrooms and schools where there is an ongoing effort to seek and encourage humility in our learners, they will be different! And if the gospel of Christ is central to all that we do in our Christian schools, then we will be offering the perfect example of true humility - Jesus himself! Jesus provides the perfect example of true humility (Philippians 2:1-8):

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 

rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, 

being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, 

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross! 

If Christ is at the centre of our school communities, then they will be very special, with a pedagogy that is truly Christian.


For more details, see my new book (available in hard cover, paperback or Kindle):

'Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of teaching, learning, and formation' (Wipf & Stock, 2018).

Or, if in Australia HERE

Developing a right view of work and effort - Principle 4

If you have read my previous posts on this blog you will realize that I am working my way through the 20 key principles within my pedagogical framework that is the foundation of my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'. There are 20 principles in all shaped that reflect three key aspects of God's relationship to us as his creation. First, "God made us as unique creatures". Second, "God made us as creatures who learn". Third, "God made us for communion". In this post, I want to look at the fourth and final principle that relates to the first aspect of our humanity, that is our uniqueness as God's creatures. This fourth statement stresses that while God made all of his creatures to 'work', only humanity is charged with the responsibility of seeing work as a gift from God for our good.

What is a right view of work and effort?

Genesis 2 reminds us that God made us to contribute to the order and running of our world. When he made us, God put us in the garden to "work and take care of it" (Gen 2:15). Work was part of God's good plan for us, and continues to be part of our humanity. While work will at times be hard as we 'toil' with the tasks for which we are responsible, there is a purpose to all of our work. Yes, it will provide money to buy food and pay for a shelter for our heads, but its role in our lives offers so much more. For a start, work is used by God to help us to understand the satisfaction of effort and of tasks completed. That moment when we can look at the fruits of our labour and say, yes the job is finished. At the moment of work's end, we can also be thankful for the rest that follows. Rest follows work.

But of course, work and effort can be misplaced. We can toil in our work simply to create something that "we've built", seeing it as our achievement; I did this! Of course, satisfaction in completing a task well can easily slip from thankfulness to pride and self-congratulation. Somewhere between the starting and finishing of our work, motivations can be easily misplaced. We can quickly shift from being thankful that God enabled and equipped us for a task to basking in the 'glory' of what "I've just done"!

So, Christians are to embrace work as part of God's good plans for us. We are to avoid idleness and be productive, because God gives us things to do, and this is part of what it means to be his creatures. 

We are God's co-workers. Not as equal partners, but as willing and obedient servants grateful for yet another of his gifts - work! And of course, 'effort' is closely intertwined with the goodness of work.  There is little commendation for idleness and laziness in God's word. He made us to be creatures who work and rest. This is part of who we are.

So, what does this mean for us as teachers?

The book of Colossians commends the slave to be obedient to the master. It offers a perspective on work, whether student, teacher or truck driver, that is different to many of the messages that flood us today. The slave was not commended to obey their earthly masters, just to gain their favour, but "... with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord" (Col 3:22) We are to embrace work and do it "... with all of our heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters" (Col 3: 23). 

The Christian teacher has two great responsibilities in relation to work. They are to demonstrate a right view of work themselves, and also instill this same right view in their students. We are to encourage our students to adopt a right attitude to all tasks. Hard work is not to be shunned (or even apologized for by the teacher), it is to be embraced as part of life and God's plan for us.

As teachers, we will have good days, and sometimes very bad days. Our students might be out of control, and we might be having trouble making it to the end of the school year and a much needed summer break. But we are to strive to show thankfulness for the work God has given us and also for the time of rest he gives us in order to sustain our work through what to the teacher will seem at times very long school terms. As teachers (and students), we are to fellowship with God when it gets tough. As the book of Isaiah reminds us, God will strengthen us in the midst of life, including work. We are to seek fellowship with God when times are tough in our classrooms and schools. Likewise, we are to encourage our students to understand this great truth (Isaiah 41:10). As his word reminds us our God is aware of the challenges, and when work is tough he is there. 

"For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13

'Indentify that which is Valuable in all Children' - Pedagogical Principle 1

Have you ever considered what drives us as teachers; and by extension, what drives the schools in which we serve? Is our major concern to see our students growth in character? Or are we fixated on growing their minds, or perhaps, just helping them to achieve success at school? Is our major priority (and perhaps that of parents) simply helping students' to succeed at school and hence, in life? What a shallow and inadequate aspiration this is for education!

Every parent of course wants their children to succeed in life, to gain employment, have families and so on. But what of their character? Where does their formation as people fit in? Is it even a concern of the teacher? And what role if any, does the teacher play in partnership with parents in the formation of children?  

In my last post I emphasized that my book ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning, and Formation’ represents a distillation of my many years as a teacher and researcher addressing questions of this type. My experience as a teacher and researcher, as well as my faith, led me over almost three decades, to develop a pedagogy that did not consist simply of knowledge of good practice and appropriate curriculum content. Rather, it has a central assumption that children learn in relationship to others, and that these relationships and the practices they engage in day by day, are always embedded within shared communities, consisting of people who hold many understandings, beliefs and practices. The definition that shaped the pedagogy within my book reflects the culmination (at that time) of my personal life journey as a teacher when I realized that.

“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”

At the end of my last post I shared a pedagogical framework reflecting this definition and promised that I'd begin to discuss each of the 20 components organized around three key main strands of a biblical theology of personhood:

• God made us as unique creatures
• God made us as creatures who learn
• God made us for communion

Each of the above understandings of personhood lead to a number of questions that should shape pedagogy. In this post, I want to comment on the first question that relates to our uniqueness.

Do I identify that which is valuable in each child?

Above: Picasso's Girl with a mandolin

All children are made in the image of God (Gen 2:15-25) and yet, all are different. While we might recognize common behaviour, attitudes, knowledge, habits (good and bad), abilities, emotional strengths or weaknesses and so on, in our children, each child in his or her own way is unique. This is of course is true, even for identical twins (monozygotic twins) who from the same fertilized egg. They too are genetically different (see this article) and different in character.

What does this simple plank in my pedagogy imply for pedagogy? Let me suggest five things.

a) First, that to teach to teach the whole class as a single group is foolishness. Sure, if we wish to teach specific skills and knowledge that we see as vital (e.g. learning to count), it will mean that all will be taught the same content. But if we are to engage students as learners, we will need to find content that varies and relates to diverse interests and adopts varied methods.
b) Second, we should expect our students to present with different strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, we have a responsibility to build on strength and support students to cope with their weaknesses and perhaps overcome them or cope with them. Conversely, we need to have a diverse curriculum that allows students to demonstrate their varied capabilities. As a young difficult child in primary school I was grateful to several teachers who encouraged some of my key interests and tolerated areas of weakness.
c) Third, we should strive to develop curriculum content that opens up many and varied forms of learning. This of course might reflect and relate to curriculum content (science, art, writing, maths, drama, natural history, music etc), or perhaps modes for learning (creative activities, oral and written expression, divergent as well as convergent thinking etc). 
d) Fourth, we should offer choice in content and curriculum activities, not simply prescription.  Enthusiasm can be more easily engendered by ensuring some freedom and choice for students in relation to the activities that are experienced.
e) Fifth, we need to understand that we all have different abilities and capabilities, and ensure that we allow space for this in our curriculum and pedagogical practices.

To be an effective teacher is to recognize that which is unique and valuable in each child.

In my next post, I will consider the second of my 20 principles. This examines the place of the family in God's plan, and the question "Does my class and school build on the foundations of the family"?

What Matters When We Teach? What is our purpose?

In Australia, we have a number of system wide tests. These are designed to assess in objective ways what children know and don't know, as well as what they can do and not do. Standardized tests that are designed to assess, monitor system wide student achievement, areas of strength and weakness, and in some cases, guidance in relation to curriculum content. But ..., and the teachers reading this knew there would be a 'but', these tests are rarely used in accordance with their purpose, and they have unintended consequences. We have just finished administering what is known as NAPLAN that is administered to students in grades 3, 5, 7 & 9. NAPLAN tests "... the sorts of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling and numeracy." The assessments are undertaken nationwide, every year, in the second full week in May, and by August we are castigating our schools and teachers for failing to teach well enough to the test (see HERE). Since their inception, the tests have gone from a means to provide advice to teachers and systems about the areas of curriculum where students need additional help. However, it is clear now that teachers have (not surprisingly) increasingly taught to the test. That is, shaped their curriculum and methods based on their expectations of what might be in the test. My question? Is this the best we can do? Is this the highest purpose that we can have for education?

  

I entered teaching in the 1970s as an unlikely member of the profession. I was an escapee from engineering, after having a lifelong desire to become a mechanical engineer. Hence, I was a somewhat ‘accidental’ teacher.  And yet, within months of entering a classroom I was captured by the desire to know why some of my students were able to read and write, while others were struggling. I began doing my own ‘action research’, devising new methods and testing ideas to try to unlock the capacity of some of my students to do things which seemed to be basic and foundational. For me there was a direct link between what I observed in my classroom each day and my students' performance. This made an incredible difference and children who couldn't read, began to read, while those who didn't read well in this working class and culturally diverse community, began to read. I chose methods that were appropriate for them, and the only tests that mattered were those that helped me to monitor their progress and help them to grow as learners.

But while my purposes were more directly connected to the success of the current epidemic of system-wide testing and schools 'teaching to the test', my purposes were still quite utilitarian. I had been thinking a great deal about ‘what’ and ‘how’ I would teach, but I had thought little about the question ‘why’? Clearly, the answer to 'why' was obviously so that they could learn and grown in ability. So my ultimate purpose for teaching my students for them to do well at school. Is this the full extent to our purposes in education? Well, probably not. I was wanting them to do well so that they might do well at school and one day gain jobs etc. But was this it? Or, was I also concerned for the growth of their character, rather than just their minds? I'm sure that I did have concerns for my students to be happy, to succeed in life, to grow up gain jobs, have families and (in this community) stay out of trouble. But how much did I think about my role in this? Did I see that I had a role in their growth in character? Was their well-being simply seen as an associated outcome, or did I understand that I had a key role to play?

In those early years, I thought little about the ultimate purpose of my teaching and the education of my classes. As a young Atheist, I had no real framework for the choices that I made other than what might work, and what led to success. I sensed that there needed to be a higher purpose for what I was doing each day, but this wasn't the main game. The goals I set for my teaching did not go much beyond the need for the personal success of my students, and perhaps a driving sense of the seeming injustice that some were so ill-prepared for their futures.   

But over time, as I grew in character and maturity myself, I began to grasp that education is more than the sum total of the curriculum, methods, teaching strategies and the measurement of educational success. I also began to realize that my purpose wasn't simply to train or teach children to reproduce skills, knowledge and tasks. I began to understand that a narrow kit bag of methods, and a commitment to testing and revision, was not a fool-proof way to ensure universal success and well-being. My book ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning, and Formation’ represents a distillation of my many years as a teacher and researcher, and how after coming to faith in my early 30s, many questions arose in relation to teaching and pedagogy. I slowly grasped that education is much more than content, methods and curriculum. 

Authentic education must always have an articulated purpose or end goal in mind. I realized that I needed to develop a pedagogy that did not consist simply of knowledge of good practice and appropriate curriculum content. As this was going on my life, as a young teacher and (by then) a researcher in my 30s I came to faith as a Christian. This significant life event not only changed me as a person, it changed me as a teacher. Under the influence of varied secular and Christian educators, I slowly realized that children learn in relationship to others, and that these relationships and the practices they engaged in day by day, are always embedded within shared communities, consisting of people who hold many understandings, beliefs and practices. The definition that has shaped the pedagogy within my book reflects the end point of my personal life journey as a teacher.

“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”

A key facilitator of my growing understanding of pedagogy, was the realization that the teacher is but one member of a classroom. True, they have authority and knowledge that their students might not possess, but as we teach young people, we must realize that they are not our learning captives. We cannot lock them in a room and program their minds for life. Rather, they need to navigate a world of endless meanings, and knowledge beyond our mind’s capacity for consumption. And I realized that this takes place embedded within numerous and varied physical and virtual daily practices and events. My children arrived each day as travellers and citizens of many communities, and I was largely at the centre of just one of them. Hence, my influence was at best minor in relation to their character and formation as people. For they were interacting in and outside school with numerous friendship groups, indeed communities of practice. Wenger & Lave describe communities of practice as “...groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” A fundamental question for me as a teacher is what impact do I have on my students' participation in such communities, and how effective might that make me in shaping their character? For formation occurs in relationship to others.

 

As Arthur Holmes reminds us, from ancient times we have been aware that we learn with others. The Greek rhetorical tradition of Socrates, which influenced Holmes’ work, recognized that we learn best with others. In ancient Greece, this was very much a case of young boys sitting at the feet of a learned teacher. Nonetheless, foundational to this approach was an understanding that the young are formed as they tussle with ideas and knowledge in dialogue with others. Not surprisingly, Augustine’s Confessions were founded on the understanding that such learning ultimately has a greater foundation in God. As Holmes reminds us:

“… every good (one) experiences, and all truth (one) learns come ultimately from God and are occasions for praise. God is the being by whom all things are true that are true, and all things are good that are good.” (Arthur Holmes, ‘Building the Christian Academy’).

A central claim in my book is that while there are varied almost limitless methods that we can use as teachers, pedagogy must be central. And people of faith need to understand pedagogy must always must be driven by a central purpose or goal, as the Greeks expressed it telos. As a Christian, I turn to the Bible for this central purpose. Christian education is to be kingdom focused, and in turn, must communicate the intended end goal of education. This will be a telos that is centered on the kingdom of God, not simply earthly success and achievement. And of course, there is a relationship between our priorities shaped by the gospel, our faith in Christ, how we live out and speak of this faith, and our actions (Phil 1:27; Jas 2:14-26). Hence, the things we teach and the way we do it cannot be separated from the life of the school community, nor for that matter, communities outside the school. Our pedagogical practices will lead to the creation of a classroom life, that has the potential to ‘speak’ to our students about what is important in the world of the classroom, and consequently, what matters most.

For the above reasons, I see formation as central to the model of pedagogy advocated in my book. This is a pedagogy that reflects and is interwoven into the daily life of any community; a pedagogy that will see classes, schools and students transformed. The Bible’s central message is centred on our transformation in and through Christ. We are what we live, not just what content is learned, the worldview the teacher holds, success on the exams sat, assignments completed, and so on. It is within the life of the community that character is shaped. In effect, pedagogy as I am defining it, is a term that attempts to encompass the essence of how teachers orchestrate and sustain classroom learning and life, and this of course it is driven by an intent and telos.

It must be pedagogy that determines our focus, and enables us to place our mark on children in ways that truly differentiate faith-based schools from secular schools. In a sense, pedagogy is the ‘what’, the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of teaching, all rolled together. But it is worth noting, that while we have freedom to change the ‘what’ and ‘how’, the ultimate ‘why’ should not change, for it is shaped by our higher purpose. If ‘Christian Education’ is to be authentic, then all that we do, say, sanction and plan, should be centered on the end goal of seeing young people growing as people who one day will be a part of the family of God.

In my book, I outline a 20-point framework that I believe is the distillation of the type of pedagogy that I believe is essential in faith-based institutions. I provide examples and a series of case studies to illustrate how elements of the framework will shape pedagogy. This framework is the basis of the pedagogy that I have used to challenge teachers to reflect on their practices and the telos that is central to their teaching. 

The Framework

The framework below is structured under three major headings, which reflect the theology that has informed the whole book, as well as the biblical theology of person hood. Three broad biblical truths give shape to the framework: ‘God is Creator’; ‘God’s creatures are meant to be learners’; and, ‘God made us for communion’. Under each key truth I list a number of key components of my pedagogy. 

In my next post, I will begin to provide some examples of how I believe that the framework can be used for staff professional development.

FRAMEWORK (From ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning, and Formation)

Each point of course is explained in detail in the book with examples and case studies.

a) God made us as unique creatures

Identify that which is valuable in each child.

Build on the foundations of the family.

Demonstrate and encourage service.

Develop a right view of work and effort.

b) God made us as creatures who learn

Develop meaning-makers who interpret language and knowledge to know ‘truth’.

Develop humble learners.

Understand the diverse nature of learners, and identify and respond to individual

needs.

Create opportunities for students to take responsibility for learning.

Foster the development of imagination and creativity.

Encourage creative risk-taking and problem solving.

Utilize varied methods to facilitate learning in diverse learners.

Act as “kidwatchers” observing and monitoring student learning and well-being.

Evaluate the ends towards which our pedagogy is directed.

Make our classrooms places where just punishment and discipline are evident.

c) God made us for communion

Demonstrate forgiveness and seek repentance in students as hearts are trained.

Model and promote self-sacrifice and generosity.

Seek and model justice within class and school community life.

Ensure learning in the classroom is related to the world beyond.

Promote the importance of ‘story’ in your classroom and school.

Implement pedagogical practices that demonstrate a relationship between education

and discipleship.