Formation in Education Involves an Education of the Heart - Part 2

Introduction

This post is based on my Day 2 Keynote address to the 'Australian National Leaders' Summit Christian Schools Conference' (19-22 Aug 2024). In this talk I shifted focus and considered how we develop and sustain a pedagogy that transforms classroom life. Just how do we create environments that foster the formation of our students? Such formation is not just intellectual and physical, but also spiritual, it is very much “the life of the playground, as well as the classroom that influences formation”. And of course, the life of our students outside our schools is also very significant. While we have opportunities within the school and classroom to shape and influence our students, there is less opportunity outside the classroom; except perhaps in extra curricula activities like sport, dramatic productions and so on.

I address this critical topic more fully in Chapter 6 of “Pedagogy and Education for Life”, where I zoom in on the life of our classrooms and the wider school. The wisdom of Alasdair MacIntyre, reminds us that “EVERY activity, every inquiry, every practice aims at some good”. This might NOT be THE GOOD but something we PERCEIVE to be good. Our lives, point us in directions, that can shape us. Our formation is the outcome of the “practice of many practices”.

The second half of my book is very much the ‘how to’ part. Here I remind us, while we teach, we are also ‘guides’ for our students, in a world with many voices and stories. These pull us in different directions as perceptions of what is ‘good’ will frequently clash with what parents and teachers see as ‘good’. And of course their directions chosen, may conflict with THE ultimate ‘Good’ that God offers them. The Christian school has as a significant role in this formation.

For, “Education is the whole of life as a community and the experience of its members learning to live this life from a specific standpoint or end goal.” (“Hear my Son”, Daniel J. Estes).[1]

I want to draw indirectly on my framework for Christian pedagogy (Ch 9) to discuss how this Christ-centred pedagogy contributes to the transformation of our students; in mind, body, and soul.

As I shared in my last post, Taylor’s concept of the “social imaginary” is very helpful. Like us, the life of students is influenced by “the ways we are able to think or imagine the world (or society)”.[2] This is shaped as we absorb the stories of life, and engage in rituals and cultural practices that shape desires, and develop visions of the good life. Students arrive at school already with an inner sense of what they want life to be like, and perhaps well-formed hopes and desires. We “imagine the world” as we hope it will be.

We’d hope the life of the classroom and the school, will help them to understand the greatest ‘good’, is to be found in and though Christ. Teachers and staff have an incredible opportunity to witness to their faith as they teach and nurture the students God gives them.

My Early Life

I had no such opportunity as a child to hear anything about Jesus in my home, for I grew up with parents who were both alcoholics from the time I was 7 or 8 years old. The photo below of me as a baby with my parents shows my Mum and Dad in happier times. Sadly these didn't last long. My Dad followed his father's example and was an Atheist and Communist.

My Mother had grown up in a Christian home, but sadly rejected her faith when she met my father. As I visited friends’ homes and saw the closeness of their families, I would covet what they had. But I could only imagine what this would be like. Perhaps this was when God placed the first seeds of a future hope in my mind. Decades later I was to accept Christ. My older sister was a great support to me, but I coveted a family just like some of my friends had. Understanding and perhaps influencing such inner hopes and desires in our students is relevant to our task as leaders and teachers.

The things our students hope for are also influenced by the stories we share with one another. “Story” influences how we imagine our futures, how we hear the hopes of others, and also how we share our own. We are in actions and practices very much storytellers.

But what are the stories that capture student imaginations? Many are from outside the classroom, as they observe others, watch television, listen to their favourite music, read things that open their eyes to other worlds. As teachers, we should share some of our stories, as we strive to see hearts captured for the Good. This is where teachers have a key role.

The Teacher as Guide

Daniel Estes in his book “Hear My Son” (p.237-285) reminds us of the great responsibility all teachers have as “expert(s) WITH authority”, and as “facilitators” in the classroom. He also points us to our role to “guide” our students. Proverbs 22:6 echoes this:

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Of course, this proverb was directed at parents, but teachers can also play a part in such shaping. The greatest spiritual influence on our students’ should be parents, youth leaders, School Chaplains and so on. But teachers also have students for a large part of their lives, which is an incredible privilege and opportunity.

Even in public schools at a time I was not even a Christian, I had to deal with student imaginations being captured through the stories and practices of life. In the classroom, playground, and related activities, student are being shaped in behaviour, but also in the desire to belong to groups of people with whom they share many practices, dispositions, hopes and preferences. James Smith suggests such groups introduce us to what he calls “secular liturgies” (Smith, “Erotic Comprehension”, pp 5-6).

Students like us are “immersed within an intertextual cacophony of stories that shape and influence the things we desire” (Cairney). Aristotle argued that the motivation for this is our desire for “human flourishing.” We’re taught and even lured, by visions of the ‘good life’. When I was a teenager, like all boys I wanted to be fit, with a taught body (I failed on all counts). But today, our desires have gone to another level. Young men (and women) can end up worshiping their bodies. To be like someone else can so easily become their greatest desire.

 

The challenge for all Christian students and teachers, is to push back upon unrealistic and unhealthy views of the world. Our students are taught, perhaps even lured, by many pictures, or alternative visions of the ‘good life’ and their hoped for futures.

Daniel J. Estes [3] helps us to see how to apply Vygotsky’s work. He suggests that:

“The metaphor of the teacher as guide includes both direction by the teacher and active involvement of the student in the learning process”.

How this is achieved will depend on the age of your students as well as the role of chaplains, and the structures you have in place for Christian Growth. Chaplains might take the lead in such things, but always in partnership with teachers. The Christian activities we plan in our schools, hopefully create a number of contact points for such discussions. But there are many more (lost) opportunities in the ‘cracks’ of school life.

Let me share briefly a vignette from my book. Jackie is a year 11 girl aged 16. She’s from an average lower-middle-class family with a mortgage on a comfortable home, and two cars in the garage. Her mother is university trained and a teacher, while her Dad has an administrative role in a government department. Jackie has a good group of mainly non-Christian friends and is well-liked. Not surprisingly, she is a member of a number of groups, or ‘communities’, in fact eight:

• Close school friends
• Students in her art class
• Her extended family
• A dance group she has been in for 8 years
• Pizza restaurant staff where she works part-time
• Members of her netball team
• Fellow students at technical college where she does a food-service course part-time
• Her 2500 Facebook friends, as well as content and contacts on Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram.

As James Smith suggests, any group has its own ‘secular liturgies’ that impact on lives. Such ‘liturgies’ that occur in groups begin to shape and teach us to be a certain ‘kind of person’.

Even if Jackie doesn’t accept all the values and views of the groups she frequents, they all require some ‘quiet acceptance of, and compliance with these practices if she wishes to be part of group life. As Jackie moves in and out of these diverse groups her desires are being shaped, and her priorities of life formed. A vision of her future is developing.

Any impact on Jackie’s formation, occurs against a backdrop of many competing stories, desires, and views of the good life. 

Now for any teacher reading this post, who has already crossed arms and is thinking, “that’s why my role is just to teach and lead, to do more seems impossible”. But read on! Because, as James Smith reminds us that:

“Christian formation and discipleship are 'educational' projects in the most holistic sense.” 

And as teachers we are included. For while we cannot disciple all our students, we can have an impact in significant ways for some, and for many small but significant ways.

At this stage you might be silently saying “whatever”! How can I as a teacher have much influence on my students? My response is, “That all depends on the relationship you have with your students, and the breadth of their relationships with Christian students and teachers, sporting coaches etc in and outside their school.”

Addressing the Invisible Things of Life

As teachers, we soon learn that much of what our students and children learn is through “things which are invisible”. Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of “habitus” and Charles Taylor’s concept of the “social imaginary” help us as we grapple with this issue [p.99 ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’ p.99].

For “… beneath the surface of any discussion, argument or opinion expressed by a group or institution, sits the human imagination at work, helping us engage and take notice of stories, myths, new concepts, hopes and dreams. And in doing so our inner desires are shaped”.

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky used the term Obuchenie (ar-bu-cheene), to explain the relationship between school teaching and learning as something “intertwined”. For as students listen to their teachers, they also listen to other sources of ‘authority’ on many things. This includes fellow students! Vygotsky’s term tries to capture the actions and intentions of both teacher and learner. Once again, these voices also work on and in them.

The key for us as teachers is to understand this “intertwining” as inevitable. While we know our students listen to many sources and authorities on life, as teachers, we should also share our thoughts. Our role is not indoctrination, but creating environments where there is openness and dialogue possible to see things from different perspectives. While our key role as teachers with expertise and knowledge of what students need to learn is to teach, as Christian teachers and leaders we also need to share life wisdom in the cracks of classroom life. Our voices need to be one more amongst the many voices they will hear in and outside the school. This is a significant duty and responsibility we all assume. Might God empower us as we seek to do so.