the christian May 2013 volume 21.

teachers journal

reshaping
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practice
Christian
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Managing Editor: subscription and Copyright: All material appearing STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Suzanne Mitchell advertising enquiries: in the Christian Teachers Journal The vision of the journal is to affirm
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Brian Cox
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 3 Editorial

contents
Dr Fiona Partridge

4 Seeing anew, choosing

editorial
engagement, reshaping
practice
Dr David Smith

9 Window on CEPA
10 What if we could develop
resources to transform
I was first introduced to the thought-provoking teaching of Dr David Smith teaching?
at the Transforming Education conference held in beautiful Hobart in 2008. Alison Wheldon
David’s use of life-stories, powerful visual images, and thoughtful unpacking
of metaphors from the scriptures, deeply impacted my own thoughts about 14 How does teaching as a
what it is to teach ‘christianly’. Christian practice impact
the classroom?
In July 2012, Torrens Valley Christian School (Adelaide), in partnership
with the National Institute for Christian Education, was privileged to host Judy Linossier
a five-day ‘intensive’ class taught by David. 18 teachers from schools across
18 Tribute to Harry Burggraaf
Australia participated in this unique opportunity.
Harry the teacher
Throughout the week, participants (myself included) were led to examine Duncan Caillard
what it is to view ‘teaching as Christian practice’, and consider how we,
Harry Burggraaf; always
as human beings, become who we are through participation in shared
activities, sustained by traditioned communities, orientated towards specific learning, constantly serving
goals. David challenged us to explore what it might mean for our schools to Michelle Dempsey
truly create social spaces ‘graced by regard for human beings as embodied, 20 Reflections: A week with
imaginative members of God’s beloved creation’ (Smith). This edition of the
David Smith at Torrens
Christian Teachers Journal presents a number of articles related to the work
of David Smith.
Valley Christian School
David Lepileo
In the opening article, Smith himself encourages us to ‘see anew’,
considering not only how worldview and godly teachers are important 24 The ancient paths: what
elements in Christian education, but also how pedagogical practices can also might it mean to approach
be ‘Christian’. teaching as a Christian
Alison Wheldon describes the development of the What if Learning site, an
practice?
online resource aimed at helping teachers explore how they can ‘see anew’ Linda Pierce
in their teaching. Three participants from the SA Smith intensive class, Judy
28 Epistemic humility:
Linnossier, David Lepileo and Lynda Pierce, each share examples of how
their own thinking and teaching practice has been challenged and shaped engaging a Christian
by David’s work. worldview
David and Marybeth
David and Marybeth Baggett share their experience of purposely working to Baggett
promote, promulgate, and inculcate a Christian worldview into curriculum,
particularly in a tertiary setting.

Finally, in this special edition, we include a tribute to our dear colleague,

Harry Burggraaf, who God called to be with him earlier this year. Harry
JULY 2013
future issues

served on the very first Christian Teachers Journal editorial committee

from 1992, up until 2009. That’s an amazing 17 years! Harry’s thoughtful Creative and performing arts
contribution to Christian education will continue to be an inspiration for Due date: 9 April, 2013
many years to come.
Fiona Partridge October 2013
Professional development
Fiona.partridge@tvcs.sa.edu.au
Due date: 1 July 2013
Coordinator of Studies, Torrens Valley Christian School
Articles will be considered for
Senior Adjunct Lecturer, National Institute for
Christian Education and member of the editorial publication by the editorial
committee committee. Email to
suzanne.mitchell@cen.edu.au
 eeing n
choosin
engageme
reshapin
practic
4 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
 In what follows I want to make a single, simple point

new
(though I’ll need more than this paragraph to unpack it).
Here it is: Christian teachers and Christian schools need
to attend carefully to practices and what is Christian
about them if they are to make better headway with
developing Christian pedagogy, rather than just adding
Christian information to the curriculum or talking about

ng
Christian beliefs.

Many of the most common approaches
to thinking about our role as Christian
teachers are valuable but insufficient
for renewing our pedagogy. Christian
character, for instance, is important for
Christian teachers – but character is
not yet pedagogy; I can be virtuous and
yet teach badly. A Christian worldview
is also a fine and necessary thing –
but a worldview is not yet pedagogy;
I can know the truth and yet teach it
ineffectually or coercively. Christian
spirituality has clear connections to
Christian education – but prayers and
chapels are not yet pedagogy; I can pray
will help to briefly sketch in some basic
landmarks before stepping back and
seeing how they might help us think
about teaching. So what is at stake in talk
of ‘practices’?
Defining Practices
Some human behaviours are, well,
just behaviours. Scratching my nose.
Kicking a stone. Stroking the cat.
Others become more complex, woven
together, and sustained and so rise to
the level of practices. Fixed hour prayer.
Architecture. Teaching. Various scholars
have slightly different definitions, but

ent
and cite scripture and then immediately
teach oppressively. It does not take
anything away from the importance
of Christian character, Christian
thinking, or Christian praying to note
that if what we are about is Christian
education, there is something else that
needs attention: our pedagogy, how we
structure the processes of teaching and
learning. And pedagogy is something
broadly speaking to count as a practice
something has to be:
• sustained over time (not just done
once);
• developed and engaged in by a
community (not just an individual);
• pursued intentionally in order to
achieve some desired good (not just
toyed with or fallen into by accident);

ng
we practise, with our bodies, together, and
in space and time. It involves seeing the • sustained by a shared narrative that
world in certain ways, but also engaging makes sense of it (not just done
with one another and harnessing mindlessly or randomly).
material resources in particular ways.
By submitting ourselves to the rhythms
That’s why we need to think about
of such a practice, we find ourselves
whether there are such things as
being formed at the level of character.
Christian practices.
Suppose I want to grow in my faith,
Notice that I said ‘practices’, plural. I’m
and I decide to engage in daily Bible
not just getting at practice in general
study. Whether I keep it up for months

ce
here, like the practice we mean when we
or years matters more than whether I
talk about ‘putting things into practice’
miss one particular day. Even if I read
or about ‘theory and practice’. I’m not
alone, this is a practice that a community
just concerned with being more practical
has handed to me - I did not invent it,
or with familiar clichés about rubbery
it is clearly recognisable by others as
things hitting roads. By practices I
their practice too, and is engaged in by
mean something a little more specific,
the community as a whole, even if in
something with a particular meaning
different ways and at different times.
sketched out in a variety of recent work
I’m not reading just so that I can check
in philosophy, theology, sociology, and
off days on the calendar - I am seeking
education theory. That’s why I need a
to grow. I do not just go through the
little more than a paragraph. We are not
motions - I remind myself that this is
about to embark on the full tour, but it

The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 5

 God’s word, I ask God to speak to me; I
can tell the story that makes this practice
hang together as a meaningful thing to
do. Suddenly deciding at half past three
on a given Wednesday to read a book
on beekeeping is not the same kind
of thing, even though it also involves
reading. Practices are things we do over
time, in community, in pursuit of shared
visions of the good.
Schools are made not only of ideas and
curriculum plans, but of practices, the
ongoing rhythms of what we do together.
In the secondary school that I attended,
scores for quizzes were regularly read
out from the front of the room, with
names, in ascending order. I learned that
learning was a competition, and that
another student’s failure contributed to
my success. Another school relies heavily
on multiple choice and word-matching
tests. Students soon figure out that they
do not have to think that much about
the material because they will likely
only be asked to recall it in order to gain
high scores. A third school generally
arranges the furniture in straight rows
facing the front. Teachers and students
come to take it for granted that teaching
and learning has to be directed from the
front of the classroom. What drives our
choices is often less our philosophical
reflections, and more the unexamined
network of practices in which we are
embedded.
Practices and Christian
education
What does that have to do with Christian
education?2 Well, imagine a teacher who
becomes exercised about the degree to
which her students are caught up in the
frantic pace of modern life. It seems they
are always rushing from one activity to
the next, never taking time to reflect,
to rest. They need to take greater heed
of the importance of Sabbath to the
Christian life, the importance of having
a time when we lay down our frenetic
efforts to secure our own existence and
allow God to be the one holding the
world together. (If this question has
never arisen in our school, perhaps that
too is a symptom of allowing a good and
proper focus on beliefs to eclipse needed
attention to practices.) What is our
teacher to do?
6 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
…practices are not quite the same thing as
behaviours. A behaviour might be a mindless
one-off incident. A practice is at some level
intentional…
Well, she could plan a series of
classroom devotions about Sabbath
in scripture, or perhaps (lest it seem
like merely a pious add-on) she could
develop a whole unit to be taught in
class exploring the theology of Sabbath
in relation to modern culture. We can
picture her choosing biblical texts to
display, collecting examples to reinforce
her argument, designing handouts that
lay out the theological arguments for
the role of Sabbath in a Christian view
of the world, composing questions for
class discussion about how we use our
discretionary time. Perhaps we can
hear her carefully explaining, then
passionately exhorting her students to
live more intentionally, more christianly.
All of this might be a good thing, a very
good thing even. Notice, however, that
so far it is all focussed on conveying
information and on exhortation.
Perhaps she takes a different approach.3
Instead of preparing talks and handouts,
she decides to restructure her course so
that is it not feasible for her students to
work for her on Sundays. She plans her
homework assignments so that they are
always due to be handed in on Friday, or
electronically by Saturday evening. She
makes sure that no new assignment is
known to the students before Monday
morning. She insists on strict deadlines,
with serious penalties for letting the
task run past Saturday evening. As
the semester progresses, her students
discover that for this class at least there
is no way to work for class credit on
Sundays. Notice that we have shifted the
emphasis here from information and
exhortation to behaviour. Rather than
just telling the students that they should
each live more faithfully, the teacher
has created a shared learning structure
within which there is a built-in bent
towards obedience that operates at the
level of the whole group. This is a simple,
small instance of how one might begin
to build shared practices.
Let’s pull it apart a little further, though.
As we saw above, practices are not
quite the same thing as behaviours. A
behaviour might be a mindless one-
off incident. A practice is at some level
intentional - it involves a shared story, a
shared imagination that helps make it
a coherent, meaningful practice rather
than just a collection of movements
that happen to take place one after the
other. Our imaginary teacher’s second
plan might count as a practice at some
level - she has a narrative about Sabbath
that makes sense of it, and the learners
are being caught up in a communal
set of moves that will help shape their
sensibilities. But it risks falling short of
being fully-flowering shared practice
as long as the students are not invited
into the narrative. Left at the level
of homework instructions, it might
end up as little more than behaviour
modification, with little investment from
the students in the practice of Sabbath-
keeping (which is about more than
avoiding maths homework).
Suppose, then, that our teacher decides
to combine her first and second
approaches. She decides to invite the
students with all the winsomeness and
creativity she can muster into an account
of life in which God calls us to Sabbath
- AND she implements a homework
policy that supports this way of living
through shared behaviour patterns by
refusing to claim a right to students’ time
on a Sunday. She is careful, moreover,
not to settle for an inspiring talk in the
first week and rely on memory for the
rest of the semester. She understands
that building a shared imagination in a
group is a gradual process of alignment,
and so she adopts a strategy of taking
frequent opportunities to graciously
remind her students that part of the
agenda for the semester is to learn to
live Sabbath, and that that is why the
homework is once again due Saturday.
Sometimes on Fridays she mentions
big questions about life before God that
she plans to spend some time thinking
about on Sunday, and suggests that
others join her. Sometimes on Mondays
she shares something that came from
spending time the day before meditating
on a text or praying over a situation,
and invites students to do the same.
Sometimes during the week she draws
students’ attention briefly to how the
practice of Sabbath might make us
view some other aspect of our culture
differently. While doing her best to
avoid becoming drearily moralistic,
and certainly seeking to avoid a tone of
‘I-know-how-to-do-this-and-you-youth-
of-today-need-to-shape-up’, she works
to weave a consistent story through the
semester - and she polices the deadlines
to support it. What she is doing now
is building shared practice.4 A shared
practice is a structure over time that
we live in together and narrate to one
another until we have become different
people from when we started. It creates
a space into which we invite God’s work
in us.
Practices across the
curriculum
The Sabbath theme is, of course, just an
example. We could explore others across
the curriculum. Suppose, for instance,
we decide that learning a foreign
language in a Christian school should be
thought of in terms of loving strangers
(Leviticus 19:34-35, Matthew 25:35).5 We
could – and should – talk to students
about this, but we would also need to
look at things like whether most of the
utterances practised in class begin with
‘I’, whether the activities have students
talking about themselves most of the
time, or whether the interactions with
others that are practised are mostly to do
with buying consumer goods. We might
want to consider whether the pictures
of foreigners in the textbook are capable
of evoking empathic connection, or
whether they are mostly cartoons and
stock photos. We might want to consider
how the balance between learning to say
what I want to say and learning to listen
to others is playing out. Here again, if
we want to move towards a Christian
pedagogy then our shared practices are
important, not just the words that we
layer over the top of them.
Steps towards a Christian
practice of teaching
Addressing teaching and learning in
this way involves at least three basis
steps.
First, there is the question of seeing
anew – whether it’s Sabbath or
loving strangers or seeking justice
or celebrating the natural world as
belonging to God, there needs to be
some reflection on what the basic story
is around which we are looking to build
shared imagination. How do we want
ourselves and our learners to see things
differently as a result of our practices
together?
Second, there is the question of
choosing engagement, choosing
to engage together around the core
vision and choosing how to engage.
This involves not just talking about the
beliefs and values that concern us, but
figuring out the ways in which we and
our students will actually engage with
them, and engage with one another
around them. Will this involve sitting
and listening, talking to one another,
engaging with people outside the school,
changing habits…how will we live into
this learning together?
Third, there is the question of
reshaping practice, harnessing all of
the practical details of the learning
environment in ways that support the
vision and engagement that we are
trying to choose.
…practices are not quite the same thing as
behaviours. A behaviour might be a mindless
one-off incident. A practice is at some level
intentional…
Where will we place the chairs, which
pictures will we use, which question
should we ask first, how will we manage
time – patterns of practice are built up
out of these small choices.
Building Christian educational practices
is unlikely to happen by each of us
sitting staring at blank sheets of paper
trying to reinvent our courses out of
our own individual creativity. Shared
practices grow in community. This
means that school communities need to
find ways of enabling teachers to renew
their practice together. There are also
resources beyond the individual school.
In a recent project a group of Christian
educators and curriculum developers
built an extensive online resource based
on the approach described above. If you
visit www.whatiflearning.co.uk/ you
will find not only some more reflections
on teaching as a Christian practice, but
also more than a hundred examples
from across the curriculum and the
age range of teachers connecting their
Christian faith to classroom practices.
These are accompanied by an extensive
strategy bank and a collection of training
resources, all freely accessible.
My original, simple, point was this:
Christian teachers and Christian schools
need to attend carefully to practices and
what is Christian about them if they are
to make better headway with developing
Christian pedagogy, rather than just
adding Christian information to the
curriculum or talking about Christian
beliefs. I have tried to unpack some of
what that might imply, and to point to
some practical resources and ways of
making headway. The next steps can
only happen in your, and my, school
community.
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 7
 David Smith
dsmith@calvin.edu
David I. Smith is
Director of the
Kuyers Institute for
Christian Teaching
and Learning and
Director of Graduate
Studies in Education at Calvin College
in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. He
has taught in both secondary and
higher education contexts, and has
published numerous books and articles
on language education and on Christian
education more generally. He serves as
Senior Editor of the Journal of Education
and Christian Belief. His recent books
include Learning from the Stranger:
Christian faith and Cultural Diversity
(Eerdmans, 2009) and (with James
K. A. Smith) Teaching and Christian
Practices: Reshaping faith and Learning
(Eerdmans, 2011).
Digital workbooks for the
next generation of learning
CEP Digital Ads-2013 jan17b.indd 2
8 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
Endnotes
1 For those with an appreciation for
the precision of philosophical prose,
here’s perhaps the most often cited
definition of practices, from Alasdair
MacIntyre’s book After Virtue:
By a ‘practice’ I am going to mean
any coherent and complex form
of socially established cooperative
human activity through which goods
internal to that form of activity are
realised in the course of trying to
achieve those standards of excellence
which are appropriate to, and
partially definitive of, that form of
activity, with the result that human
powers to achieve excellence, and
human conceptions of the ends and
goods involved, are systematically
extended.  Learning. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, 3rd
ed. (Notre Dame: University of Notre
Dame Press, 2007), 187.
cepstore.com.au
2 For a much more detailed version of
this argument (in a more academic
register), see David I. Smith & James
K. A. Smith, Teaching and Christian
Practices: Reshaping Faith and
Learning (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
2011).
3 I owe this example to my colleague
Kurt Schaefer.
4 For a detailed account of this process
of building shared imagination and
shared practice in a group setting,
see Etienne Wenger, Communities
of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and
Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998).
5 See David I. Smith and Barbara
Carvill. The Gift of the Stranger: Faith,
Hospitality, and Foreign Language
2000.
24/01/13 12:33 PM
Window on CEPA
An example of a recent discussion on the CEPA general discussion forum
Hi everyone,
Sitting here in a coordinators’ meeting at the moment and we are looking at whether or not it is helpful for
students to be listening to music during class on their iPods or other personal devices.
I would be interested to hear what policies other schools have in place regarding this issue. What problems
have you faced? Do you have a policy you could share with us? Do you have any advice?
Thanks in advance,
Pete
Hi Pete
At the last couple of schools I’ve been at we’ve
allowed senior students to listen to music in study
periods in the library. Whilst some would consider
this distracting it actually helps other students to
not be distracted by their peers. After an initial
phase it tends to settle into a pattern of those who
like it use it and those who don’t work without
their music.
Will be working through this question and a
number of others as we aim to roll out iPads
more throughout the school and technology
becomes more prevalent in every room. For
some students it may aid their learning again to
have distractions put aside and listen to music.
What about recording the instruction part of the
lesson to view / review at home? The challenge
will be training our students for the world they
are living / going to live in rather than the world
that we grew up in. How will we train students
to moderate technology, utilise its benefits, avoid
its excesses, use it as part of their worship filled
response to God rather than worshipping it…
An interesting discussion in the light of catering
for multiple learning needs and styles in the
classroom as well.
I don’t know how many of you have read any of
Todd Whittaker’s books but he consistently asks
how the decisions we make are looking after our
‘superstars’ - best teachers, best students .... and
have we got the policies that allow them to fly
rather than trying make rules to contain those at
the other end of the spectrum. An interesting filter
to use on policy decisions I’ve found.
Would love a developed policy if another school
has one!
Geoff
We allow our year 11 and 12 students to listen to
music, with ear phones, in study periods in the
library. They need to sign an acceptable use form
first. Like Geoff, we have found that some students
listen and others don’t.
Margaret
Really helpful beginnings. A few of the issues we
are working through include:
• Students bringing inappropriate content
on their iPods etc - we lose a certain level of
control. Is this our problem, or an issue that
their parents should be worrying more about
(especially in regard to students only listening
to their own music - that is the intention).
• Should students only be using them in study
periods, and should they be banned from the
playground? Is there a place for students going
on with quiet work in class, being allowed to
listen to music if they will be less distracted
than being a distraction to others in class?
• Is it an easy behaviour dissipater for teachers?
Are we letting them off the hook?
• If we allow students to use iPods from time
to time in class, what impact will it have on
students then asking mum and dad to buy them
one? It could potentially become something that
becomes a burden for parents if we don’t handle
the issue carefully?
• Should we be training students to sit and work
without assistance? Is there some “preparation
for life after school” lesson to be learned here?
Thanks in advance for lending your wisdom.
Isn’t it wonderful to be part of a wider Christian
community together. Blessings all :-)
Pete
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 9
 What if
we could develop
resources
to transform
teaching?
10 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
If you pick up any secondary languages textbook and flick
through it, you will soon discover that it’s all about ‘me’. How can
I get about in the country I’m visiting? Where can I find a decent
restaurant to fill my tummy? What time can I catch the next bus
to the museum? But what if this notion was turned on its head
and the emphasis became the other person? In the balmy Swiss
summer of 2009, a group of Christian educators gathered to
hear Dr David Smith give his keynote address in a small town
near Vevey, on the shores of Lake Geneva. The occasion was the
EurECA conference (European Educational Christian Association)
and I was honoured and privileged to have my thinking and
pedagogy challenged by David’s teaching.

Why and how was ‘What if

Learning’ developed?
The Bible has much to say about
welcoming the stranger among us
(Deuteronomy 10:19; Romans 12:13) and
David shared how this truth had niggled
away at his thinking for some time.
As a teacher of secondary languages,
he found it difficult to reconcile the
approach taken by text book authors
with his understanding of the Bible’s
teachings. A similar situation exists with
maths text books which emphasise using
mathematics for our own gains. In fact,
take practically any area of the primary
school curriculum and often the same
is true. We teach students how to satisfy
their own needs and wants; we show
them how to use modes of transport to
get themselves around; they are taught
about the people in the community
who are there to help them, and so on.
For many of us the conference was a
watershed, as we were all challenged
right down to the very core of what
drives our individual pedagogies.
At the conclusion of the conference, a
small group of us stayed on for a few
more days at the invitation of Dr Smith
and Dr Trevor Cooling, to toss around
the question: What if we could develop a
resource to help teachers transform their
teaching? What would the resource look
like? Who would be its main audience?
What scope might it have? What if it
could challenge teachers to see their
subject areas through a different lens?
What if the subject was the learner and
not the content? And so David’s and
Trevor’s shared vision was embraced
by the group, but as we left for our
respective home countries, we were none
the wiser for how to take the concept
from vision to venture!
Around twelve months later, I was part
of a small international writing team
that met for an intensive three weeks
at Calvin College in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Together we represented
the Anglican Education Commission
in Australia, Transforming Lives from
the Stapleford Centre in the UK and the
Kuyers Institute in the US. Our brief
was to make the vision a reality and it
was decided that a website would give
the resource the widest access. But as
you would appreciate, “Let’s develop an
online resource!” rolls off the tongue
much more easily than in practice. It
took a dedicated team many, many
hours of labour to make it a reality.
In its early stages, we had been asking,
“What if …?” and so it seemed fitting that
the website be named What if Learning.
The website was launched in early 2012
and many schools in Sydney, in the
UK and the US are well underway in
embracing it as part of their school’s
culture. It is a free resource, available
to all in any way involved in Christian
education. There are two versions of
the website, one tailored for US schools,
and the other for the UK and Australian
contexts.
What If Learning arises out of the
Charis Project on spiritual and moral
development in schools which was
based at the UK Stapleford Centre in the
1990s and out of more recent work on
teaching and Christian practices based at
the Kuyers Institute in Michigan.
It has been developed to support schools
that aspire to offer a distinctively
Christian teaching and learning
experience.
What are the basic tenets of
What if Learning?
What if Learning assumes that, as
Christian educators, we know that a
Christian understanding of life should
make a difference to what happens in
classrooms. The sad reality is that in
many schools which align themselves
with the Christian faith, teachers are
unsure about what this should look like.
The What if Learning approach consists
of three broad steps:
1. Seeing anew
This first step encourages teachers to
look at the material or activity as if
looking through a different lens or pair
of glasses. It may be that the teacher
considers how the lesson or topic fits
within the big picture of God’s people
in God’s world, under God’s rule. It
could be that the teacher seeks to take
the emphasis of self and shift it onto
others. It could be that the teacher
wishes to take the students through a
new ‘doorway’ to the unit, introducing
it in such a way that the student is in no
doubt about how this topic area is part
of God’s world.
2. Choosing engagement
In this step we consider how we help
students to engage with what is being
learned. It describes the ways in which
they participate.

The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 11


There are many possible ways of
engaging, such as listening quietly,
vigorous discussion, answering
questions, writing prose or poetry,
responding through pictures or
music, taking part in role-play, doing
independent research, collaborating
with others, helping fellow learners,
praying for one another, looking for life
applications, and so on. For any given
lesson, teachers choose the ways of
engaging that best fit the purpose.
3. Reshaping practice
At this point the focus is on what
teachers do in order to reflect their new
way of seeing in their teaching. It is
changing existing habits and practice
to work with a new perspective. Ways
of reshaping practice might include
changing the layout of the classroom,
altering an approach, attending to
the atmosphere and ethos of a lesson,
changing an emphasis, selecting
different resources, adjusting student
interaction, encouraging questions and
making connections. For any given
lesson teachers need to examine their
own teaching habits and reshape their
practice in ways that best suit their new
way of seeing that lesson.
On the website, the above steps are
shown through concrete examples at
both primary and secondary levels.
Each of the more than one hundred
examples is framed around the question
“What if…?” The examples have been
12 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
selected not as recipes or lesson plans,
but to inspire and motivate teachers to
try something differently. At the heart of
each example is a story of how teaching
can be designed to be distinctively
Christian in a particular topic or lesson.
In addition, teachers can see how it fits
within a framework of Christian faith,
hope and love. It is possible to browse
deeper into each example to have
terminology explained, to find out more
about the topic, and to explore ways of
further developing the concept.
Who can use the resource?
The What if Learning website is
intentionally built around concrete
examples of teachers connecting
Christian faith with their teaching.
However, the examples were not chosen
at random. Informing the examples,
as well as the broader approach and its
suggested strategies, is a coherent way
of thinking about the relationship of
faith to education that emerges from
existing work in educational theory and
curriculum development. While this
site does not attempt to be a theoretical
resource, you can explore summaries of
some of the key ideas underpinning the
approach and some key questions that
are raised by it.
The website’s layout is user-friendly
and navigation around it is very
straightforward. It has been written
with busy teachers in mind. It is widely
cross-referenced to other parts of the
connecting Christian faith with
concrete examples of teachers
The What if Learning website
is intentionally built around
their teaching
website and to relevant, helpful aspects.
Containing hyperlinks to associated
websites and resources, it has been
designed for dipping into and out of, but
do be warned that once you enter it, you
quickly become consumed with all it has
to offer!
One very useful feature of the resource
is the training packages. If you are a
leader and wishing to lead a training
session with your staff, or involved in
in-service training or teacher education,
you will find resources for presenting
the ideas on this site and suggestions
for group activities to help groups of
teachers engage with the material.
Handouts, activities and PowerPoint
presentations are all included and are
free to reproduce and use.
How has What if Learning
been implemented in schools?
Several Australian schools have adopted
the What if Learning approach school-
wide. Much of its appeal is its ease of
use and compatibility with teachers
new to Christian teaching. Some schools
have opted to have outside assistance
to get the concept rolling and gathering
momentum, through the Anglican
Education Commission. My role as
Curriculum Consultant K-6 has seen
me meeting with whole schools, stage
groups and even individuals who
would like some mentoring through the
process. Here is one school’s experience:
 …. the process of seeing anew was
thought provoking, engaging and
an eye opener. It is abundantly clear
that to reflect a distinctly Christian
worldview we have to do curriculum
differently, reshaping language,
purpose and teaching methods. We
found the What if Learning website
an excellent resource on this journey
and will keep coming back to it for
inspiration and practical direction
for lessons and programs.
– Garry Brown OAM, Headmaster,
Mosman Preparatory School
Rather than having a one-off session
of input, schools have opted to ‘spend
a year in What if Land’ (please note
that this not an ‘official’ term but one
created by me!) so as to gain the greatest
benefits. This prolonged approach has
enabled teachers to take time to engage
in reflective thinking about their own
pedagogy and to receive assistance
and support. It would typically involve
a gathering of staff once or twice a
term and encourages frequent ideas
exchanges or ‘showcase’.
I was recently approached by two
teachers from one school that had felt
dissatisfied with their current HSIE
curriculum focus and sought guidance
on how their faith could be embedded
into it. Over a cuppa, we considered
how they could see things anew,
what practices they would like to see
change, and how they could engage
themselves and their students in the
Through fervent prayer and
commitment to a process of
change, these teachers have
become ‘fire-lighters’ in their
school, sharing their journey
with colleagues and in turn
being mentors for others to
transform their teaching
change. Through fervent prayer and
commitment to a process of change,
these teachers have become ‘fire-lighters’
in their school, sharing their journey
with colleagues and in turn being
mentors for others to transform their
teaching.
When would be a good time
to get started on What if
Learning?
The timing is ideal for Christian
teachers and schools to explore all
that What if Learning has to offer. As
the implementation of the Australian
Curriculum bears down upon us,
there will be a great flurry of unit
development over the next few years.
There is no better time than now to
ensure you lay the biblical foundations
and show your students how “… in Him
all things hold together.” (Colossians
1:17).
Consider for a moment:
• What if maths created a community
in which all could achieve?
• What if students learnt about serving
through studying transport?
• What if learning about the
environment led to a sense of awe
and wonder?
• What if your everyday classroom
practices pointed students to Christ?
• What if you embraced What if
Learning?
Alison Wheldon
alison.wheldon@youthworks.net
www.whatiflearning.net.au
Alison has worked for
many years as a
teacher in the public
and Christian
sectors and most
recently as Head of
Primary at Richard
Johnson Anglican
School in Sydney’s
west. She holds a Master’s degree from
the National Institute for Christian
Education. In recent years, as well as
working as the Primary Curriculum
Consultant for the Anglican Education
Commission, she has been one of the
lead writers of the revised CEP Connect
materials used by teachers in Anglican,
Christian and government schools
throughout Australia and New Zealand.
She is one of the co-developers of the
What if Learning website which is being
accessed worldwide. She enjoys working
with teachers in and across schools
on projects designed to authentically
embed their Christian faith within the
students’ learning.
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 13
 How does teaching
as a Christian
practice impact
the classroom?
14 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
 The ideas that follow outline a plan to
introduce, implement and sustain some
of the key ideas presented in this course
to enhance teaching as a Christian
practice at Maranatha Christian
School, a two campus school, across 3
locations in the south eastern suburbs
of Melbourne, Australia, with over 1100
students from Early Learning (Pre-Prep)
to Year 12.
In the past, as I have reflected on what
it means to be a Christian educator,
much of my thinking has centred on the
development of a biblical worldview and
the modelling of Christian character. I
have given very little thought to what
might be Christian about pedagogy
or how teaching and learning are
supposed to work in a Christian school
and how this is connected to what
happens in the classroom. Recently I
have been challenged to consider the
difference a commitment to Christian
practices might make to the practices of
a classroom and therefore to students’
learning.
In preparation for exploring how we
might approach teaching as a Christian
practice at Maranatha, we shared with
our curriculum and faculty team leaders
some of the ideas David Smith presented
to us, such as the importance of building
up a shared imagination through the
use of metaphors, using the examples of
gardens and bread. We also explored the
idea of how language students could see
learning language as being ‘hospitable to
foreign people’. We discussed Carolyne
Call’s article The Rough Trail to Authentic
Pedagogy: Incorporating Hospitality,
Fellowship, and Testimony into the
Classroom and considered what would
In July, 2012, a group of be different about our teaching if we
Australian Christian thought of ourselves as a host and of our
educators participated students as guests.
One of the four staff members from
in a professional
Maranatha Christian School who
development intensive participated in the David Smith
course at Torrens Intensive, read Teaching and Christian
Valley Christian School Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning
by James K.A. Smith and David I. Smith
in Adelaide. The course, and he trialled some principles from
usually delivered at the book in his classroom teaching. He
the Kuyers Institute, shared at a whole staff gathering how the
challenge was in the reflective process
Calvin College, USA,
of his own practices as it stretched
led by Dr David Smith, him to think about his pedagogy. This
explored what it might included the way he spoke, sat, stood,
mean to approach greeted, moved, presented, managed,
approached his students and so on. He
teaching as a Christian shared that he discovered that it placed
practice. his movements as an educator as the
source of formation; that he found
himself observing his own teaching
as he taught and that it helped him to
actively think about his teaching practice
and the messages he is giving outside the
cognitive. Our Principal was challenged
by this presentation and responded
by purchasing a copy of Teaching and
Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and
Learning for every staff member to read.
During 2013 we will introduce a whole
school professional learning focus
of Christian practices. Professional
Learning Teams will be formed and
some possible Professional Learning
Plans may include teams:
• Reading and discussing texts such
as Finding our way again by Brian
McLaren or Teaching and Christian
Practices: Reshaping Faith and
Learning by James K.A. Smith and
David I. Smith.
• Exploring websites that focus on a
Christian way of teaching such as
www.whatiflearning.co.uk,
www.whatiflearning.com or
www.johnshortt.org.
• Revising a documented unit of work,
focussing on practices. For example,
adding in a column called ‘repertoire’
and building a list of the way we do
things such as handing in homework
on Fridays.
• Choosing one class where the teacher
imagines themselves as being the host
and their students as being guests.
• Reading The Peacemaker, by Ken
Sande or using the Resolving
Everyday Conflict resource materials,
focussing on the Christian practice of
peacemaking.
• Focussing on spiritual reading.
Readings will also be set from Teaching
and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith
and Learning for Faculty Team Leaders
and Primary Curriculum Leaders to
discuss when they meet with our Head
of Teaching and Learning three times
each term. The discussion of each
chapter will be led by a different person
and these leaders will be encouraged to
share the chapters they read with their
faculty or primary teams and encourage
them to try some of the ideas presented.
I plan to begin exploring the Christian
practice of hospitality with the 13 people
on my primary staff team and to a lesser
extent the primary students, parents
and the wider staff team. In preparation
for focussing on hospitality it will be
necessary for me to ask myself some
specific questions.
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 15
 How would my leadership be different
if I thought of myself as a host and my
primary staff as guests? What would
hospitality look like when I engage with
my primary staff both individually and
as a group? Do I ask them questions
about their lives outside of school and
then remember to ask them how they
are going with these things when I see
them next? How am I intentional about
encouraging each one of them in their
work as teachers? How will I respond
when I start to experience the cost
associated with being hospitable?
Carolyne Call in her article, The
Rough Trail to Authentic Pedagogy:
Incorporating Hospitality, Fellowship,
and Testimony into the Classroom,
defines hospitality as “the physical
manifestation of welcome” (Call,
2011, p. 64). As a manifestation is a
demonstration, it follows that hospitality
can only be shown through doing
specific things that are welcoming. One
of the things that I could do is to provide
food at staff meetings. A photo could be
taken of our primary team and a framed
copy given to each person. Primary staff
could be invited to put the photo on
their desk to serve as a visual reminder
for them that they are part of a team,
prompting them to pray for the team or
to send a note of encouragement to one
of their team members.
Brian McLaren says, “The most
important things I’ve learned have
come through a person who modelled
a practice and then explained it to me,
encouraged me to try it, and sometimes
checked in later to see how I was doing”
(McLaren, 2008, p.64). As the practice
of hospitality is modelled to members
of the staff team, and ideas are shared
with them as to what hospitality might
look like in their classrooms and
amongst their colleagues and families
of the children they teach, they may be
encouraged to try it. This could include
suggestions as simple as teachers being
intentional about making eye contact
with each student and greeting them
when they mark the roll to welcome
them into their classroom.
Carolyne Call says that it was her
commitment to Christian practices
that enabled her to continue to be
hospitable with her students. She says,
“that genuine hospitality requires
an orientation of the heart, and that
this orientation requires practice
and prayer to maintain” (Call, 2011,
p76). I anticipate that a key factor that
will influence my ability to practise
16 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
I will continue the practice of giving thanks or
gratitude by counting my blessings and being
intentional about not turning blessings into
entitlements or taking blessings for granted
hospitality will be the development
of my own set of Christian practices. I
expect that my commitment to these
Christian practices will be crucial in
order for me to sustain being hospitable.
I will start by praying for each of the
primary staff by name each week. I will
also commit to reading 1Corinthians 13
each day until I ‘learn it by heart’ and
begin to see my spiritual life as a ‘way
of love’. If my practices don’t help me to
become loving then according to Paul in
1 Corinthians 13 they are worthless. In
addition to this I will continue to read
through the entire Bible but at a much
slower pace than suggested by Wayne
Cordeiro in his book The Divine Mentor.
Wayne’s program is designed to take you
through the entire Bible in a year but I
have found over the past year, reading
the amount of scripture suggested
has not allowed me enough time for
reflection. I will follow each day’s Bible
reading by journalling using the SOAP
(Scripture, Observation, Application,
Prayer) method of Bible study but
will not do this on a daily basis. I will
however read the daily devotional Jesus
Calling by Sarah Young which focusses
on enjoying peace in God’s presence.
I will continue the practice of giving
thanks or gratitude by counting my
blessings and being intentional about
not turning blessings into entitlements
or taking blessings for granted. I aim
to sustain the practice of gratitude by
continuing to keep a gift journal in
which I list the gifts I already have. I was
inspired to do this after reading Ann
Voskamp’s book One thousand Gifts. I
have chosen to commit to these practices
as spiritual reading and studying, prayer
journalling and gratitude come under
the category of contemplative practices
as these practices help those who
commit themselves to them to “improve
or sustain the health and well-being of
their souls” (McLaren, 2008, p.91).
Palmer (1983) wrote hospitality involves
“receiving each other, our struggles, our
newborn ideas with openness and care”
(p.65). To encourage staff to “receive
each other” more we will hold primary
staff meetings in a different primary
teacher’s classroom each week. We will
start the meeting by asking the teacher
whose classroom it is to share a bit
about how they are going and how their
class is going and ask them to share
their struggles as well as their successes.
Everyone will then have an opportunity
to pray for this teacher and to thank God
specifically for the contribution that they
make to the team.
I will practise hospitality with primary
students in various ways. I will invite one
primary student from each of the nine
primary classes to have morning tea
with me at the end of each week. During
morning tea we will sit in a circle and
each student will introduce themselves
to the other students and tell them
a bit about themselves. We will then
chat about some of the things we have
found out about each other. I will also
continue my practice of hand delivering
a birthday card to each primary student
on their birthday. Before school started
I visited each of our Prep students for
2013 in their homes. I sent out a letter
addressed to each Prep child in early
January telling them how excited we are
that they will be joining us at Maranatha
this year and asking if I could visit them
at home. I then phoned home in mid-
January and made a time to visit.
Although I have visited Prep children
in their homes during the summer
holidays for the past three years, this
year I approached these visits specifically
as an act of hospitality as I welcomed
the children starting Prep, and their
families, into our school community.
I plan to extend hospitality to parents
in three main ways. I will learn the
names of any primary parents and
siblings I don’t know so I am able to use
their name when I greet them. I will be
more intentional about being out in the
school yard at the start and end of the
day so I can greet parents and students
as they come to and from school. During
the year I plan to phone each primary
parent to ask them if there’s anything I
can do for them to serve them better.
At a campus level, the Christian practice
of spiritual reading will be introduced.
The Cardinia Campus staff team at
Maranatha will begin a devotional
program that will take us through
the Bible in two years. Staff will form
prayer triplets, ideally made up of a
primary team member, a secondary
team member and a support staff team
member. At the beginning of the year,
prayer triplets will nominate a book
of the Bible, or section of scripture to
lead the rest of the staff in devotions.
Each prayer triplet will have two five
minute time slots and one 20 minute
time slot per week, to ‘teach’ that part
of scripture. As part of this scripture
reading program we will be intentional
about teaching and practising how
to read christianly. We will explore
the traditional Benedictine practice
of scriptural reading, meditation and
prayer intended to promote communion
with God and to increase the knowledge
of God’s word known as lectio divina.
I will continue the practice of giving thanks or
gratitude by counting my blessings and being
intentional about not turning blessings into
entitlements or taking blessings for granted
Eugene Peterson says, “Lectio divina is
not a methodical technique for reading
the Bible. It is a cultivated, developed
habit of living the text in Jesus’ name”
(Peterson, 2008, p116). With this in
mind, we will encourage staff to read in
a way that is repeated and ongoing; slow
and attentive; communal, contextual,
charitable and humble with our goal
always being to seek transformation.
Staff who would like to explore lectio
divina further will be provided with the
opportunity to be part of a Professional
Learning Team in term 3 to explore the
Christian practice of spiritual reading.
They will be encouraged to ask what our
reading practices are and investigate
what it means to be a Christian reader
of a text.
For the past five years at Cardinia
campus we have been intentional
about developing a culture of peace
amongst our students. In 2013, all staff
at Maranatha will take part in a full
day personal peacemaking training
day at the beginning of term 3. This
material will be presented by PeaceWise,
a national Christian peacemaking
organisation dedicated to helping people
learn and apply biblical principles
in seeking Christian solutions to the
conflicts we encounter in all aspects of
daily living.
Staff will be challenged to adopt their
own set of Christian practices, to
examine their own learning practices
and to consider if their current practices
need adjusting. As our students are
already part of a community of practice,
staff will be challenged to consider
whether this community of practice is a
plausible one for students to belong to.
As we continue to think through how
teaching and learning are supposed to
work in a Christian school and how this
is connected to what happens in the
classroom my hope is that we will gain a
clearer understanding of what it means
to be Christian educators.
Judy Linossier
JLinossier@maranatha.vic.edu.au
Judy lives with her
husband Andre
and six children in
Melbourne, Australia.
Judy began teaching
as the Grade Prep/1/2
teacher at Ringwood
District Christian
School in 1986. She
then taught Year 8 at Mount Evelyn
Christian School. In 1989 she took up
the role of Head Teacher in the founding
year of Lighthouse Christian College.
Judy is currently Head of Primary at
Maranatha Christian School – Cardinia
campus.
Bibliography
Call, C. (2011). The Rough Trail to
Authentic Pedagogy: Incorporating
Hospitality, Fellowship, and Testimony
into the Classroom. In D.A. Smith &
J.K.A. Smith, Teaching and Christian
Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning
(pp. 61-79). U.S.A: Eerdmans.
Cordeiro, W. (2007). The Divine Mentor.
Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany
House.
McLaren, B. (2008). Finding our way
again: The return of the ancient practice.
Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson.
Palmer, P. (1983). To Know as We Are
Known. San Francisco: Harper.
Peterson, E. (2008). Eat This Book: The
Art of Spiritual Reading. Great Britain:
Hodder and Stoughton.
Sande, K. (2004). The Peacemaker: A
biblical guide to resolving personal
conflict. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker.
Smith, D.A. and Smith, J.K.A. (2011).
Teaching and Christian Practices:
Reshaping Faith and Learning. U.S.A:
Eerdmans.
Voskamp, A. (2010). One Thousand Gifts.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.
Young, S. (2004). Jesus Calling. Nashville,
Tennessee: Thomas Nelson.
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 17

S tepping into our first class of
Revolutions at the end of 2011,
we as students had no idea what to
expect. We had heard horror stories
about the phenomenal amount of
reading material in the course, while
the threat of having to memorise
infinite dates, names, quotes and events
was terrifying. To an outsider, the
coursework for ‘History of Revolutions’
seemed insurmountable. Thankfully,
Mr Burggraaf was not an outsider, and
to him the coursework was far from
the most important component of the
course.
As none of us had ever had him as a
teacher before, we had no idea who
this man was. I pictured him as an
intellectually intimidating titan: Plato,
but with more muscles. Yet, when I
first saw him, he was sitting at his desk,
gingerly tapping away at his keyboard,
with a soft smile on his face.
We took our seats, and he stood up. I
expected the same speech that I had
received from my other teachers that
day. Setting the tone for the rest of the
year, Mr Burggraaf surprised me.
“Could a revolution happen in
Australia?” He asked, leaning back
against his desk.
We had no idea what the definition of a
revolution was. Was it a trick question?
Was this our first SAC? My mind raced,
I was terrified - and then somebody said
something, followed by another person,
and another. Soon enough, everybody
was putting in, enjoying the lively
discussion until Andrew said something
that killed the discussion but gave
everybody in the room a good chuckle,
including Mr Burggraaf. For the first
18 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
Harry the teacher
time, we had just experienced a classic
‘impromptu Burggraaf debate’, which
would develop over the year to consume
every spare moment of class time.
We’d discuss everything, from
economics and the justification of
socialism to morality and philosophy.
Suddenly, a class which was meant to
inform us about events that took place
over 200 years ago was examining
social justice in a modern setting, while
listening to covers of Lady Gaga songs
and Boney M.
We did countless role plays taking
on characters from the revolutions,
constructed timelines and making mind
maps. Through the year, Mr Burggraaf ’s
love for revolutionary images and visual
learning became infectious, and one by
one we all fell in love with this teacher.
Through his inviting smile and passion
for discussion, history became a bastion
for independent thought and creativity,
in the wasteland of rote learning and
memorisation that was year 12.
When I asked him whether he enjoyed
our dramatic production of Pride and
Prejudice, he called it, and I quote,
‘a hoot’ — the greatest compliment I
received regarding the performance.
He was a man of remarkable taste and
humour, up with the latest movies and
astonishingly well read. Incredibly
funny, from time to time he would say
something that would leave the class in
stitches, most prominently on a sunny
day in term two, when Potta stuck his
head out of the window, mid-lesson, to
yell at a year seven in the locker bays
below. Mr Burggraaf leaned over to
the rest of the class, collected around
a central table with a worried look on
his face, and asked whether, quote: “We
could decapitate him quickly?” In the
next role play Mr Potamitas was given
the role of Louis XVI.
Mr Burggraaf was a revolutionary.
He wasn’t aiming for a proletarian
uprising, and certainly didn’t advocate
a secular reformation, but what he
thought and taught was about change.
He was far more concerned with his
students’ eternal destinations than their
university allocations, but remained
intently interested in our hopes and
aspirations. He aimed to create a
change in perspective, a broadening of
understanding. He didn’t want us to
learn a couple of names and then forget
them in a haze of post-exam euphoria.
He wanted to leave us with something
— an idea — that we would move about
and think over for years to come.
He described in our first lesson his love
for art house movies, and encouraged
us, as the future, to “make something
happy”. I think that will be his legacy to
me, and I don’t think that I’ll ever be able
to forget his smile.
On the day that we heard that he had
passed away, I realised I didn’t say
goodbye to him. I simply said, “See
you around Mr Burggraaf ”, as was my
custom. There wasn’t a final goodbye or
affirmation in it, just a promise to see
him again. The more I think about it,
the more I look forward to fulfilling my
promise.
We give thanks to God for the gift of
teaching through Mr Burggraaf
Duncan Caillard
Class of 2012
 Harry Burggraaf
always learning, constantly serving
M y first experience of Harry was
as a youth leader at the Oasis
youth camp. This bold, creative, kind
of skinny, smiling bloke just captured
my attention as a 16 year old. Everyone
knew him and there was a bit of
excitement and difference about the way
he led and challenged us.
Then came the years of Christian
education which Harry embraced with
as much passion as the youthwork
years. His desire to see teachers
engage with the whole biblical story,
to see them think deeply about how
a Christian worldview impacted their
teaching became a mission for Harry.
I had the privilege of working with
him closely as he taught new teachers
through an induction program how
they could work with a basic framework
to apply a Christian perspective to
their curriculum development. It was
stimulating being at the back of the
room! One of his favourite quotes
was by a man named Karl Bath who
stated “The Bible in one hand and the
newspaper in the other and never one
without the other”. To be culturally
informed and biblically informed at the
same time was so important to Harry.
Harry was involved at Donvale Christian
College for over 20 years. During this
time he was the Deputy Principal
focussing on the development of staff
and equipping them with all kinds
of PD to enrich their teaching. The
Donvale staff members, I know, are
grieving a friend, precious colleague and
most effective leader. He was a popular
teacher and had the ability to build
strong relationships with his precious
students. I had the privilege of working
with Harry at Donvale and saw how the
staff loved and respected him.
From 1992 – 2009 Harry served on the
editorial committee for the Christian
Teachers Journal, a publication produced
by Christian Education National. During
this time he provided much critique
and influence in the development of the
journal. He always made time to read,
reflect and ponder such well thought out
responses.
Another part of Harry’s involvement
in Christian education was his work at
Developing Leaders conferences. Always
inspiring and sometimes annoyingly
provocative, Harry would lead by
example and encourage leaders to
celebrate life, embrace the Saviour and
affirm each other.
Every second year, Christian Education
National in Victoria organises an
Intensive Professional Development
conference for all teachers to gather
together over 3 to 5 days in some serious
teaching, basically exploring deeper
what it means to teach christianly.
Harry was instrumental in the starting
up and the continuation of these
conferences. In 2011 as 500 teachers
gathered together to share and learn
together, someone suggested that we pay
honour to the work that Harry had done
in getting the intensive off the ground.
This resulted in the development and
singing of the ‘Harry Burggraaf chorus’ –
not so different to the Hallelujah chorus,
in fact the same tune but the words Har-
ry-Burg-graaf replaced Hal-le-lu-jah. It
was sung together by all 500 teachers. A
wonderful tribute to a wonderful man.
I guess one of the treasures for me was
my collaboration with Harry around
parent partnership. Harry got me
involved in working with parents in
Christian education to inspire them
about working in partnership with
their schools and reminding them to be
involved in the lives of their kids and the
culture in which their kids are growing
up. Often Harry would use the imagery
of waterholes bringing cattle together
in a land without fences in the outback
as a picture of what we ought to do in
our homes. Provide safe, refreshing
‘waterholes’ of comfort, familiarity,
‘welcomeness’ and love for our children.
The past year, though it brought partial
retirement (which included priority
time to be Grandad (Opa) to Spencer
and Meeka), also included some part
time teaching at Donvale, more teaching
at Tabor College and some re-writing
of units for the National Institute for
Christian Education. Always learning,
constantly serving.
The CEO of Christian Education
National, Ken Dickens, reflected on
Harry in a note to principals and leaders
in Christian education stating that
Christian education has lost a champion.
We have indeed. A champion in all
respects. A champion for the cause of
Christian education, a champion for the
Christian walk, a champion for justice,
and a hero in our minds.
Thank you Harry.
Michelle Dempsey
CEN State Executive Officer, Victoria.
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 19
 A week with David I. Smith at
Torrens Valley Christian School,
South Australia

20 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013


A
group of leaders and teachers
from CEN schools around the
country had the privilege of
attending a week long intensive with Dr
David Smith at Torrens Valley Christian
School and the following reflection
outlines some points of interest that
many of us shared.
David began the intensive proposing
that the current Christian education
movement had ‘gaps in the wall’. He
explained that for some time Christian
schools have solely relied on ‘Christian
worldview’ or ‘biblical knowledge’ to
transform students for a life of service in
the workplace.
David described the importance of reflecting
on our practice… that the practice in and of
itself contains the good that is desired
While understanding worldview is important, Christian teaching can often be spoiled
through the everyday practices of teaching and school life. So we were challenged to
reflect on our sequence of teaching and assess whether our practice pushed students
away from ego-centrism and toward ‘Christian’ values and virtues.
David introduced some contemporary sociologists to make clear the influence and
formative power of practices. Many of us found this lesson either intellectually
stimulating or intellectually numbing. Macintyre, in his work, After Virtue, outlined
the importance of practices and the hidden ‘good’ within every practice. MacIntyre
used the term ‘virtue’ to explain this inner good that accompanies any practice whether
it be in our teaching or within a context of shared practices. Using MacIntyre, David
described the importance of reflecting on our practice. He highlighted that the practice
in and of itself contains the good that is desired and the importance of its transmission
for the common good.
Another theorist, Wenger in Communities of Practice solidified much of what MacIntyre
stated but brought a practical reflective depth to our own practice. Wenger used the
following terminology that helped in this reflective process:
Term Meaning
Community of practice: All the people engaged in a practice.
Negotiation of meaning: The objects around us – We negotiate what things mean
(words, grades).
Regime of accountability: Sense of feeling responsibility, accountability of social
norms (not saying something).
Imagination: Our sense of place in the world and the reason we do
things. If the imagination is different then, the practice is
different (story, narrative).
Shared imagination: Shared imagination within a community.
Trajectory: Everyone has a goal within a community- the continual
movement of a person.
Shared repertoire: The way we do things – not enforced.
Reification: Philosophical term, ‘thing-i-fication’ – the process where
you take an idea and turn it into a thing (ie, grades)
Participation: Taking part.
Brokering: Working out how to change within different contexts.
Figuring out the boundaries.
Identity of participation: Who you are in different communities (church, sporting
club).
Alignment: The process by which we tune into each other.
Engagement: Getting involved.
Multi-membership: Belong to many different communities of practice.
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 21
 To substantiate David’s emphasis on
teaching practice, he directed us to
two historical sources in the hope of
explaining the importance of shared
imagination. The first was the father
of western Christian education, John
Amos Comenius. To our shame, there
was some uncertainty amongst us as to
who Comenius was. Born in Bohemia
1592, David explained that Comenius
influenced by reformers (Luther and
Calvin) advocated for a full-time
compulsory system of education. In his
work Pampaedia and The Great Didactic,
Comenius desired that all people
regardless of sex, nationality, class,
age or status should be educated. His
unrelenting passion for children to be
educated was deeply entrenched in his
sole belief that humanity was designed
to ‘delight’ in God.
The work of Comenius challenged
our visionary passion to work toward
effective Christian education and there
was a sense of enjoyment watching the
same passion in David.
The second source David used was
the Bible. Using Scripture David
challenged us with the idea of building
a shared imagination in our schools
and amongst colleagues. He asked, “If
you were an ancient near eastern king
or a Babylonian ruler, how would you
explain or show the extent of your
power?” Many of us replied, “Land,
wealth, follower devotion, monuments”
and of course someone had to say
“hundreds of wives”. I wonder whether
this might lead to poverty… just kidding!
As we reflected on this concept of power,
David referred to Psalm 104, which
states,
Praise the Lord, O my soul, Oh Lord my
God you are very great… v.10 He makes
springs pour water into the ravines; it
flows between the mountains. They give
water to all the beasts of the field; the
wild donkeys quench their thirst. The
birds of the air nest by the waters; they
sing among the branches. He waters the
mountains from his upper chambers; the
earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
22 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
Toward the end of the week David shifted
gears and focussed on our specific Christian
practice. One that was memorable was built
on the question, “what does it mean to read
christianly?”
The Hebraic biblical image of power is
found in the abundance of water and
within the power to use water for the
cultivation of land. Wealth and power
is found in the blossoming of gardens.
Can you imagine a king showing their
strength by pruning the hedges?
David explained his shared imagination
by revealing a parallel in scripture
between the king and the image of
Adam in the Garden of Eden. God finds
delight in Adam within the context of a
flourishing garden. Adam is involved in
the work of gardening and cultivation.
Likewise, humanity is God’s garden
of delight and education is one way of
imagining our practice. David used
this garden imagery to ‘imagine’ how
we might develop our teaching practice
and suggested that perhaps this image
of a garden could be used for staff
development in the hope of obtaining
a ‘community of shared practice’ which
highlighted the values and virtues of our
organisations.
Changing gears
Toward the end of the week David
shifted gears and focussed on our
specific Christian practice. One that
was memorable was built on the
question, “what does it mean to read
christianly?” David showed us short
clips from two movies which gave a
comparative analysis in the way we often
approach written texts. He suggested
that The Bourne Ultimatum is viewed
efficiently, fast, once only and with an
attitude of mastery. The second movie,
Mongolian Ping Pong (what a great title)
was intriguing, slow and mysterious.
Although one was entertaining, it was
not long lasting. The other, Mongolian
Ping Pong lured the viewer to journey
with the movie, carefully observing the
scenes and approaching it with a child-
like naivety. We were all challenged by
the thought that schools and universities
alike are pushing toward ‘consumerist’
reading rather than a reverential
approach. The lesson for Christian
teaching was to model ‘christianly’
reading. That is, slow and attentively;
repeatedly, communally, contextually,
charitably and humbly always seeking
transformation.
Every book projects a way to read. Paul
Griffiths wrote, Works that have been
read only as a consumerist reader reads…
sit inert upon the shelf, usually forgotten
and remembered, if remembered at all,
not for their flavour and fabric, but for
their title and place of publication. The
claims of such works are minimal and
strictly instrumental.
The week went by quickly and the final
day re-established much of what we
learnt and practised. We were all given
so much in this week and the words
written here do not represent the depth
of collegial learning that took place. Of
course, some of our learning happened
during our lovely trip through the
Barossa Valley!
David was a gracious and personable
teacher, his love for his work and
contribution toward Christian education
was one to be admired and respected.
Likewise, a special thanks to Fiona
Partridge, the R-12 Coordinator for
Torrens Valley Christian School, who
went above and beyond the call of duty,
organising accommodation, meals and
tours. The hospitality shown was greatly
appreciated by all and added value to
our experience.
 Some books that were recommended by
David Smith were:
DA Smith and JKA Smith, 2011 Teaching
and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith
Expressions
and Learning
E Peterson 2005, Eat This Book: A
of Interest
Conversation on the Art of Spiritual Journals Editor –
Reading
Christian Teachers Journal and Nurture
C Dykstra 2005, Growing in the Life of
Faith: Education and Christian Practices After many years of faithful service as editor of CTJ and
JKA Smith 2009, Desiring the Kingdom: Nurture, Suzanne Mitchell has announced she is leaving.
Worship, Worldview and Cultural
These publications have been significant in furthering
Formation
an understanding of Christian education in Australia and
A MacIntyre 1984, After Virtue: A Study internationally. We now, with God’s help, seek to find the
in Moral Theory right person to carry on the important work that Suzanne has
E Wenger 1999, Communities of Practice done. The editor works with separate editorial committees
for each publication and reports to the Executive Officer
Communications of Christian Education National (CEN). The
David Lepileo
position is part-time and located at the National Office of CEN
DLepileo@maranatha.vic.edu.au in Mulgoa, NSW (on the site of Nepean Christian School).
David is married with For further information or to express interest in the position,
two children and works
please contact:
at Maranatha Christian
School as a history/ Ken Dickens (CEO)
humanities teacher.
ken.dickens@cen.edu.au
Davis is a member of the
02 47735800
editorial committee of the
Christian Teachers Journal

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The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 23

 The
ancient
paths
Lessons learnt from the
David Smith Intensive,
What might it mean
to approach teaching
as a Christian practice?

Adelaide, July 2012

24 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013

“What are these people doing?” asked keynote
speaker David Smith, as black and white images of
serious European people, users of another language
in an earlier time and foreign place, emerged and
remained for considered examination.
With a shock of recognition, I knew the terminology to articulate and apply
exactly what they were doing. I, too, used systematically a range of Christian
their story, in the form of a German film, practices which had been found to bring
The White Rose, which re-enacted the believers closer to God in their faith
Nazi resistance of these three students, communities over hundreds of years.
who ultimately paid with their lives for This was an ‘aha!’ moment.
their actions. Smith used the images in However, if these practices were so
his undergraduate foreign language class effective, why were they no longer
in the USA. I used them in my year 10 commonly practised? Many factors
English class at Torrens Valley Christian came into play: shifts in philosophical
School in South Australia to expand the thinking, the increased secularisation
students’ understanding of the capacity of society, fragmentation of societies,
of literature, in this case the adolescent wars, dislocation, increasing acceptance
novel The Wave, to encourage reflection of relativism, a more consumer and
about life and how to live it. These production oriented society with a
young German university students in a shift in educational outcomes from
non-violent resistance group, The White God and church centred to individual
Rose, reflected a Christ-like hope and skill development, with never-ending
suffering, serving the greater good in a consumption of heavily marketed goods
valiant attempt to restore a fallen world and services. Very few randomly selected
in Nazi Germany. In a biblical way, their people today, in answer to the question,
failure illuminated and heightened the “What is the purpose of man/woman?”
spiritual resolution of their actions. would be likely to provide the 16th
My incorporation of the film had been century catechism response, “To glorify
considered but unarticulated. It was God and enjoy him forever.”
an intuitive decision that felt right and It was an immense relief to discover that
resonated as a meaningful Christian I had instinctively approached teaching
worldview selection. Listening to David as a Christian practice and that there was
Smith explain the use of traditional a much bigger and already well explored
Christian practices in education palette of other Christian practices to
provided a valuable connecting link: apply.

The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 25

 Craig Dykstra in his text, Growing in the Life of Faith (2005), identifies
fourteen Christian practices:
• worshipping together
• telling the Christian story
• interpreting scriptures
• praying corporately and individually
• confessing, forgiving and being reconciled
• tolerating and encouraging each other in our work
• acts of service
• giving and receiving gifts
• suffering with and for each other
• providing hospitality and care
• listening and talking attentively to each other
• grappling to understand our context
• criticising and resisting destructive powers
• creating and maintaining social structures and institutions
according to God’s will.
Others, such as Dorothy C Bass, have
This, indeed, is the
discussed practices such as observing the
purpose of Christian Sabbath, and if we are truly to approach
teaching as a Christian practice, we
spiritual practices: to need the rest, renewal, replenishment
draw nearer to God, and the joy of a Sabbath lived to the
specifications of our creator, who,
to worship, to pray himself, observed his work, saw that
without ceasing in the it was good and rested on the seventh
day (Bass, 2010). When I was young the
daily round, to grow shops closed at midday on Saturday
in humility and reflect and did not reopen until Monday
morning. This accommodated Saturday
the image of Christ afternoon sport and ostensibly made it
a lot easier to observe the Sabbath, both
communally and individually. However,
despite this seemingly accommodating
structure, few seemed to observe the
Sabbath with deliberate intent. Already
a central focus on God the creator
almighty had shifted for many people.
The advent of television in Australia
also hastened the pace along this secular
track. The internet, which offers an array
of faith-based materials, also offers
new temptations and often increased
isolation or the lure of life in a galaxy of
virtual worlds. Turning off the computer,
the television, perhaps even the phone
and the car for a space of time on the
Sabbath may contribute to our capacity
to teach as a Christian practice. Wendall
Berry’s Sabbath poetry captures the
synchronicity of work and rest, “When
we work well, a Sabbath mood rests on
our day, and finds it good.”
26 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
This sense of shalom, of flourishing
in educational ‘Gardens of Delight’
rather than suffering in the medieval
“slaughterhouses of the mind” that
thinkers such as Comenius (1592—1670)
deplored, opened new educational
possibilities which reflected man’s
creator and drew students towards God.
Comenius believed schools should train
students to pursue pleasure that “the
entire world will be a garden of delight
for God, for people and for things” and
this should be achieved through the
“full power of development into full
humanity not of one particular person,
but of every single individual, young
and old, rich and poor, noble and
ignoble, men and women—in a word,
every being born on earth, with the
ultimate aim of providing education to
the entire human race regardless of age,
class, sex and nationality” (Comenius,
1650, cited by Smith, 2012). Comenius
believed that God’s image could again be
formed in humanity through education.
“He called his biblical philosophy
Pansophia, integrating all wisdom,
secular and sacred, into a biblical
framework.” (Mangalwadi, 2011, p 214).
This pleasure is not a superficial result
of entertainment but a seeking of virtue
together in the Garden of Delight.
A journey such as this requires the
nurturing of the teacher’s imagination,
ideally within a community of practice,
as well as a differentiated nurturing
of the imaginations of the students,
depending on the spiritual maturity
of the students, an idea developed
by the 12th century Abbott, Bernard
of Clairvaux, who saw the students
receiving sustenance from the teacher
which was “trustworthy because it was
from a trusted friend” (Smith, 2012).
Thus, our lessons must be intellectually
digestible, so that everyone receives
an appropriately sized serving. What
is being served should appeal to and
nourish the teacher as well.
“Taste the goodness of your Redeemer”
(Anselm of Canterbury as referred to by
Smith, 2012). This, indeed, is the purpose
of Christian spiritual practices: to draw
nearer to God, to worship, to pray without
ceasing in the daily round, to grow in
humility and reflect the image of Christ.
The practices are considered formative;
we learn by doing and are shaped by
our thoughts and actions. “‘God loveth
adverbs’: it is how we do things that is
important” (Smith, 2012). Developing
facility with Christian practices, like
teaching itself, is a journey of incomplete
mastery and ongoing, uneven
development, but modelling this process
of learning is valuable for the students as
they learn and are formed by their own
palette of Christian practices. As Smith
explains, “the heart is desperately wicked”
so a “part of the function of Christian
practices is to reveal your failure, leading
to confession of sin and our reliance on
God” (Smith, 2012).
As educational practitioners, each
alone as such in our classrooms, we are
part of a wider Christian community
which transcends time and space as
we engage deeply through a suite of
spiritual practices that can bring us into
closer dependence upon and reverential
worship of our Lord and Saviour:
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask
for the ancient paths, ask where the good
way is, and walk in it, and you will find
rest for your souls.” ( Jeremiah 6:16).
Lynda Pierce
Lynda.pierce@tvcs.sa.edu.au
Lynda is SOSE
co-ordinator and
senior school teacher
at Torrens Valley
Christian School in
Adelaide.
References
Bass, D.C., Ed, 2010, Practicing Our Faith,
A Way of Life for a Searching People, 2nd
Edition, John Wiley & Sons Inc, San Franciso,
California.
Berry, W., Sabbath Poetry, www.jesusscribbles.
wordpress.com/2012/09/02/sunday-poetry-
wendell-berry-on-the-sabbath, accessed 13
February 2013.
Dykstra, C.R., 2005, Growing in the Life of
Faith, 2nd Edition: Education and Christian
Practices, Westminster John Knox Press,
Louisville, Kentucky.
The Holy Bible, New International Version,
1984, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
McLaren, B., 2008, Finding Our Way Again:
the Return of the Ancient Practice, Thomas
Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee.
Mangalwadi, V., 2011, The Book That Made
Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul
of Western Civilisation, Thomas Nelson,
Nashville, Tennessee.
Rhue, M., 1994, The Wave, Puffin Books, Stand at the crossroads
London, England.
and look; ask for the
Smith, D., Speaker, Intensive Workshop,
National Institute for Christian Education ancient paths, ask where
and CEN, Torrens Valley Christian School,
Hope Valley, South Australia, July 16—20, the good way is, and
2012.
walk in it, and you will
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, film directed by
Marc Rothemund, Germany, distributed by find rest for your souls.
Zietgeist Films, USA.
Jeremiah 6:16
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 27
 Epistemic
humility:
engaging a Christian wor

28 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013

 Combined, my wife and I have taught
at the collegiate level for nearly thirty
years (I also taught at a Christian
high school for one year). I teach
philosophy, and Marybeth teaches
English. Having the privilege of a wife
who’s a fellow teacher and colleague
is a remarkable blessing. We discuss
pedagogy, classroom challenges, strategy,
teaching innovations; we commiserate,
we decompress, we rejoice with one
another, and sometimes we mourn with
one another.
One of our recurring discussions is
how best to promote, promulgate, and
inculcate a Christian worldview. We
teach at a large evangelical university
in the United States, and fostering a
distinctively Christian understanding
of the world is one of the school’s most
important university-wide learning
outcomes. Innovation is encouraged,
workshops are directed toward this end,
a new college within the university was
formed to help make it happen, and
extensive assessment is done to measure
our progress. This article delves into this
important matter of teaching Christian
worldview. In an effort to help fellow
Christian educators, what follows are
some of the insights and challenges that
we’ve experienced as we have attempted
to teach Christian worldview both
formally and informally.
A worldview features beliefs about God,
reality, knowledge, human beings, and
values. That’s the way Ron Nash puts it.
Or take this list of questions:
• What is prime reality—the really real?
• What is the nature of external reality,
that is, the world around us?
• What is a human being?
• What happens to a person at death?
rldview
• Why is it possible to know anything
at all?
• How do we know what is right and
wrong?
• What is the meaning of human
history?
These seven questions are from The
Universe Next Door by James Sire, a
helpful book, chronicling, comparing
and contrasting a catalogue of
worldviews.
In light of the importance of actually
accomplishing this vital task of helping
our students to see the world from a rich
and sophisticated Christian worldview,
we want to share a cross section of our
experiences to make it clear some of
the lessons that we as teachers have
learned as we have set ourselves to this
task. Although we teach at the tertiary
level, this study is quite relevant to
K-12, because we pick up where K-12
leaves off. We are convinced that more
intentionality throughout the Christian
education curriculum can help address
the issues and problems we’re seeing
among Christian college students.
Assessing worldview
outcomes
At our university we have intentionally
set out to cultivate a Christian worldview
among our students, particularly in the
introductory philosophy course, the only
course at our university intentionally
designed to help students develop in
every area of the Christian worldview
learning outcomes. These outcomes
include articulating and defending
a Christian worldview, a worldview
consisting of historically orthodox and
substantively biblical insights on the
basic makeup of the world. We typically
employ a pre-test and post-test to gauge
our students’ ability to reflect from a
Christian perspective. In the past we’ve
offered the students scenarios for their
consideration, such as cases involving
active and passive euthanasia and
physician-assisted suicide. Results were
often disappointing; there’s hope and
there’s been improvement with new
Students often
neglected articulating
a rational, broadly
theological set of
principles, opting
instead to quote a
series of Bible verses
or use scripture in a
superficial manner
The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 29

teaching strategies; but the job has
proven more difficult in many ways than
we’d first imagined.
Some of our salient observations in
years past reflect perhaps the effects on
our students of the aforementioned but
all-too-common trivial understanding
of worldview as conspicuously devoid
of much rigor of thought or reflection.
Students often neglected articulating
a rational, broadly theological set of
principles, opting instead to quote a
series of Bible verses or use scripture
in a superficial manner. Many stated
conclusions with little explanation
of the thought process behind those
conclusions. Several made the topic
entirely spiritual, neglecting to engage
in much ethical reflection, but rather
putting the entire focus on the state of
the suffering person’s soul. Whereas
many students paid lip service to the
difficulty of the questions, their answers
betrayed that they actually thought
each was a clear-cut question with
obvious answers. Many students engaged
heavily in anecdotal cases rather than
more rigorous ethical reflection. In
general, the critical thinking skills
shown were in need of improvement.
Finally, some of the students counselled
following the biblical mandate without
attempting to spell out what that was or
acknowledging any potential difficulty
in discerning it. Suffice it to say,
sometimes robust assessment measures
can be as sobering as they are insightful.
Based on these results, the philosophy
department recommended
implementing various changes into the
introductory philosophy course and
broader curriculum. Firstly: critical
thinking skills need to be emphasised
much more heavily throughout the
30 The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013
The simplistic rejection of the
secular mindset seems related
to a quite ungracious and
uncharitable depiction of
secular people themselves
curriculum—probably in every class.
Training should be provided to faculty
to help students think in higher order
ways; the changes may require an
alteration of the culture of the school
toward a more rigorously academic
paradigm. Every teacher should be
encouraged to find innovative ways to do
this as we begin to have this necessary
conversation. It’s important that we
tie critical thinking and Christian
worldview initiatives together so the
impression isn’t conveyed that we need
more indoctrination into Christian
teachings; the issue instead is reflective
engagement from a thoughtful Christian
perspective, which requires critical
thinking skills. The issue is not merely
more rote memorisation of ‘party’ lines.
Secondly: biblical principles must
be taught to be applied intelligently,
with demonstrable hermeneutical
sophistication, less mechanically,
so students are more aware of the
possible distinction between biblical
teachings and their interpretations.
Thirdly: students must be taught and
see modelled, intellectual curiosity
and humility to recognise that some
questions are indeed difficult ones
and require careful deliberation and
a willingness to be engaged by the
details rather than content to speak in
generalities or settle for ‘pat’ answers.
Fourthly: a worldview emphasis
should play an important role in our
introductory philosophy and theology
classes, especially as all the most
fundamental questions of worldview
tend to be deeply philosophical in
nature (epistemic, metaphysical, and
ethical). Fifthly: chapel services should
occasionally feature rigorous Christian
thinkers, leading Christian scholars
who can challenge our students to
cultivate the life of the mind—within
the parameters of classical orthodox
Christianity. Too often we are not as
effective as educators as we should be in
enabling students to see the connections
between the spiritual and academic.
A new approach
Recently we effected a change in the
nature of the assessment assignment.
Still offering a pre-test and post-test, we
began to ask a new series of questions
for their reflection. (Examples: What is
a worldview? What are salient features
of a Christian worldview?) Moreover,
the exercise of analysing the results for
assessment purposes revealed a number
of interesting and illuminating facts
about the way our students tend to
think about issues of worldview. Such
facts, gleaned from a collection and
examination of thousands of samples
over the last few years, include but are
not limited to the following (several
of which would provide fodder for
considerably more close analysis):
1. By focussing on the worldview
differences between Christians
and secularists, the assignment
reveals, and may even lend itself
to the rejection of opposing views
too simplistically and hastily.
There is too often a great deal of
derogatory assertion with little solid
argumentation to back it up.
2. It seems as if an important aspect of
a thoughtful Christian worldview
that is, among other things,
incarnational and missional is a
serious commitment to bridge-
building. Castigating opposing views
in the manner, as is often done in this
assignment is more likely to burn
bridges than build them.
3. Too little of what we attempt to
model a more dialogical approach
seems to be sticking. The simplistic
rejection of the secular mindset
seems related to a quite ungracious
and uncharitable depiction of secular
people themselves.
4. Uncharitable, unfair depictions of
secularists go hand in hand, quite
often, with at least implicit and
often explicit characterisations of
Christians in the most glowing of
terms that smack of downright
hubris—as if Christians are all some of the students counselled following the
wonderful people whereas secularist biblical mandate without attempting to spell out
interlocutors are all God-hating
what that was or acknowledging any potential
miserable ones.
difficulty in discerning it.
5. Students seem to think much
more heavily in psychological than
philosophical terms when discussing firm conviction, but inconsistent with biblical thought than by the prevailing
the origins of worldview. They often arrogance. We spent time discussing plausibility structures and reigning
talk about where beliefs come from it in class, but it was rarely exhibited orthodoxies of our culture that in many
in terms of upbringing, conditioning, in the analyses. Perhaps this is largely ways is increasingly secular, and in light
and socialisation rather than talking understandable as a function of their of the ease with which an emphasis on
about the evidence for the truth of age, or the implicit strictures of a heavily Christian worldview can be interpreted
worldviews. confessional school, but nonetheless it’s by students as just one more attempt
worth noting. A concern is that rather to elicit from them the ‘right answers,’
6. Language of worldview seems to
than challenging such an attitude, we further work and research designed to
bolster in many of their minds
are unwittingly reinforcing it. In this enhance an ability to understand how
the idea that it’s ‘merely’ or ‘just’ a
connection, a key distinction here is better to communicate and cultivate a
perspective, one among others, which
the difference between a false sort of Christian worldview in our classes is
lends itself to a sort of troublesome
confidence, pride, or even bravado eminently worthwhile.
perspectivalist approach with a
rooted in dogmatic assertion without
touch of existentialist-inspired belief
evidence versus a principled confidence
that we just arbitrarily choose our REFERENCES
that is hard-earned in the crucible of
worldview. There were very few
diligent work and effort to back up Plantinga, A. (1984). Advice to Christian
students indeed who spoke of a
one’s convictions with evidence and Philosophers. Faith and Philosophy, 1(3),
Christian making ‘knowledge’ claims;
argument. 253-271.
it’s almost always instead couched in
terms of ‘belief ’ or ‘opinion’ claims. In the future we intend for our Sire, J. (2009). The Universe Next Door.
Again, this showed a recurring worldview examination to delve Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
primacy of psychological over into additional details. Firstly: how
epistemic categories. worldview is understood by the faculty
themselves here at this institution; David and Marybeth Baggett
7. When knowledge claims were made,
we have the suspicion that some of dbaggett@liberty.edu
they were usually made dogmatically,
the misunderstandings of worldview
rather than in a principled sort of
among the students echo parallel
way that appealed to knowledge as
misunderstandings among members
something like ‘justified true belief.’
of the faculty. Secondly: how better to
Convictions about ‘absolute truth’
bring to bear worldview considerations
tend to be conflated with ‘absolute
into our teaching in a way that is
knowledge.’ We could probably do
more than marginally effective at
a better job teaching that the truth
producing quantitatively significant and
claims of Christianity are defensible
measurable results. Thirdly: how better
(in principle) in order to lessen some
to teach the relevance of a Christian
of this dogmatism without lessening
worldview to the Christian narrative of
principled confidence.
which we are a part, and vice versa.
A greater measure of epistemic humility Drs. David and Marybeth Baggett
In light of the vital importance of have taught high school and college
in these results is crucial. By ‘epistemic
cultivating a deeper understanding for a combined thirty years. They both
humility’ we mean the intellectual virtue
of the fundamental teachings and currently teach at Liberty University in
of recognising one may be wrong and
implications of Christian life and Virginia; David in ethics and philosophy
that others have insights from which to
thought in the lives of our students, of religion, Marybeth specialises in
learn. The biblical call to humility is not
the importance of their being more contemporary American literature.
merely a matter of the heart but of the
influenced by orthodox Christian and
head. Such humility is consistent with

The Christian Teachers Journal May 2013 31

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