The World We Think We Live In
Schooling and Christian Imagination
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At this moment in cultural history most of us are quite aware of being part of a material world of economic forces and neural processes that constrain who we can become. Yet the world we think we live in – the ways in which we interpret our surroundings, the expectations we have of others, our dreams, fears, hopes, and regrets – also plays a major role in guiding our choices and trajectories. This “social imaginary,” our shared way of imagining what we are doing and why, shapes the way we think of schooling and is in turn shaped in part by our experiences of schooling. This complicates discussions of religion and education, suggesting that they cannot be reduced to arguing about whether and when religion should be mentioned in school.
Eminent Christian educator Professor David I. Smith explored how the interaction between faith, imagination, and how we do school shows up in surprising and disturbing ways in places we may not expect. |
The 2017 Clark Lecture - Conservatorium of Music
David Smith has an international reputation as a thinker and practitioner at the intersection of faith and teaching. He is the founding Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning and Director of Graduate Studies in Education at Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
After undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford, Professor Smith began his career teaching French, German, and Russian in public secondary schools in the United Kingdom, where he became fascinated by the question of how our beliefs, values, and commitments can shape and guide our approaches to teaching and learning. After graduate work in philosophical theology, philosophy of education, and curriculum studies he moved to Calvin College, where he has received the College’s Award for Innovative Teaching. He is the Senior Editor of the Journal of Education and Christian Belief, and has served on the Values Education Council of the United Kingdom.
His original questions – how does my identity as a Christian affect how I teach? What other values and convictions are implicitly embedded in our actions as teachers? – have continued to guide his work. He has spent more than two decades exploring the implications of rethinking the language classroom in terms of hospitality to strangers and investigating the wider relationship between pedagogy and spiritual and moral formation. In recent years he has traveled widely as a speaker and consultant to schools, universities, and conferences in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. His books include, among others, Learning from the Stranger: Christian Faith and Cultural Diversity, and Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning.
After undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford, Professor Smith began his career teaching French, German, and Russian in public secondary schools in the United Kingdom, where he became fascinated by the question of how our beliefs, values, and commitments can shape and guide our approaches to teaching and learning. After graduate work in philosophical theology, philosophy of education, and curriculum studies he moved to Calvin College, where he has received the College’s Award for Innovative Teaching. He is the Senior Editor of the Journal of Education and Christian Belief, and has served on the Values Education Council of the United Kingdom.
His original questions – how does my identity as a Christian affect how I teach? What other values and convictions are implicitly embedded in our actions as teachers? – have continued to guide his work. He has spent more than two decades exploring the implications of rethinking the language classroom in terms of hospitality to strangers and investigating the wider relationship between pedagogy and spiritual and moral formation. In recent years he has traveled widely as a speaker and consultant to schools, universities, and conferences in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. His books include, among others, Learning from the Stranger: Christian Faith and Cultural Diversity, and Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning.
2017 Ethos Conference: Professor David I. Smith
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