Distinctively Christian Learning

Faith in Research 4th June 2014

Professor Trevor Cooling

The Church of England Background

No Church school can be considered as part of the Church’s mission unless it is distinctively Christian. (Dearing)

Church schools are places where a particular vision of humanity is offered. (Dearing)

Faith and spiritual development at the heart of the curriculum and ensuring that a Christian ethos permeates the whole educational experience. (Chadwick)

A Church school curriculum that includes implications for pedagogy, curriculum content and school organization (Chadwick)

The Challenge

Unwitting compliance with values and principles that may compromise those that they seek to promote (Helen Jelfs)

Have assimilated the prevailing educational paradigm (Roger Street)

Distinctively Christian Anthropology?

The tourist’s world is defined by immediate survival requirements, leisure activities and pragmatic transactions; paying for services, asking directions, securing help in case of an emergency and the like. It is a world that is often bereft of any spiritual experience

Distinctively Christian Anthropology?

Foreign languages education should prepare students for two related callings: to be a blessing as strangers in a foreign land and to be hospitable to strangers in their own homeland.

Two Key Questions

What are our aspirations for our pupils?

What do our pupils imagine they are doing in their classrooms?

What if Learning…? Connecting Christian faith and teaching

Seeing anew: How could a Christian understanding of God, people and the world provide a different way of seeing a lesson/unit?Choosing Engagement: How could the students engage with this new way of seeing? Reshaping practice: What changes to my practice do I need to make as a teacher?

The approach

www.whatiflearning.co.uk

Research Findings

“Weird”

Is it Christian enough?

The Community of Practice

1. Is WIL Distinctively Christian?

Distinctively Christian?

Faithfulness to the Christian tradition in the way that schools undertake the tasks of education

Uniqueness by distinguishing Christian schools from every other kind of school

2. Is WIL Biblical?

Faithfully Christian Learning

We are looking for and at a vocation to be the people of God in the fifth act of the drama of creation.

Tom Wrightformerly Bishop of Durham

3. Is WIL Gospel-based?

The Gospel Message

Salvation?

Transformation? Scott McKnight, “The King Jesus

Gospel”

Zondervan, 2011

www.grovebooks.co.uk