mountain masala

the future of theological education

some rumblings going on in the US. tectonic shifts perhaps...

The Future of Seminary Education

Tuition-free degrees for US Presbyterians

 

Access to learning about practice

Lave and Wenger (Situated Learning) are great at questioning traditional assumptions about learning. They suggest that there is a "folk epistemology of dichotomies" (have to remember to slip that phrase into conversation....). eg. "between 'abstract' and 'concrete' knowledge. These categories do not reside in the world as distinct forms of knowledge, nor do they reflect some putative hierarchy of forms of knowledge among practicioners. Rather, they derive from the nature of the new practice generated by sequestration. Abstraction in this sense stems from the disconnectedness of a particular cultural practice. Participation in that practice is neither more nor less abstract or concrete, experiential or cerebral, than in any other. Thus, legitimate peripheral participation as the core concept of relations of learning places the explanatory burden for issues such as 'understanding' and 'levels' of abstraction or conceptualisation not on one type of learning as opposed to another, but on the cultural practice in which the learning is taking place, on issues of access, and on the transparency of the cultural environment with respect to the meaning of what is being learned." (p104).

Great, hey! So it's not that the classroom deals in abstract theory (or cognition) and the field setting in concrete practice (or experience). Rather, the classroom is abstracted from the field setting because what happens there is in fact a different set of cultural practices. So its not that there's a burden on the classroom to the transmit the theory correctly and on the field setting to inculcate people with the right experiences. Rather BOTH settings involve learning new understandings and practices that are designed to replicate the kinds of communities in which they take place!

But more than that, the classroom teaching may be designed to withhold certain kinds of information or experience on the assumption that "theory" must be learned before "practice". The issue here is that the control of information may have more to do with the institution's ways of replicating itself than with a sound theory of learning for effective practice in a field setting.

I do like this stuff!

Launch of UnitingLeaders website

This week sees the launch of Uniting Leaders, a portal for learning and community among UCA leaders. Hosted by Uniting Church SA, this site is offered as a resource to the church nationally.The aim is to enable all kinds of leaders to connect -  from Ministers and lay preachers to chaplains, youth workers, ministry leaders and others.

There are two sections to the Uniting Leaders site: Courses and Community. Information in the Courses section is for students undertaking accredited courses through the Adelaide College of Divinity. Occasionally information about non-accredited courses will also be available. The aim is to enhance distance learning; students can learn at their own pace with the benefit of interactivity and multimedia.

The Community section is where anyone can be involved. It’s a bit like Facebook – you register and create a profile for yourself. As well as providing a space for discussion and encouragement, the groups enable users to upload resources that can be shared with the wider community, such as prayers, songs they’ve written, service orders, photos, sermon material and helpful links.

Initial group topics include preaching from the lectionary, fresh expressions, youth ministry, Christian education and discipleship. Often lay leaders, ministers, chaplains or youth workers will find themselves trawling the internet for ideas and advice.  However it’s easy to get lost or find material that’s
unhelpful or doesn’t quite suit our Australian Uniting Church context.

If you’re involved in ministry and leadership in the Uniting Church, log on to unitingleaders.org.au today to create your profile and see what the buzz is about.

(part of the above adapted from New Times, April 2010. Download it here (7.7 mb PDF).

Dr Andrew Root in Adelaide

We're delighted to be hosting Dr Andrew Root, Associate Professor of Youth & Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota USA here in Adelaide 15-18 June. We're partnering with folks in NSW to have him in Oz. Download a flyer here. Download Andrew Root Flyer (300kb PDF)

Andrew will be leading three days of sessions and then speaking at our Presbytery/Synod meeting. People can also udnertake this as part of a 2 week intensive for BMin, MMin or DMin credit. Details on the form.

Andy is an impressive thinker and writer, and grounded in practical youth ministry experience. It was a pleasure to meet him at Luther Seminary in 2008.

graduation

tonight was the annual graduation service for the Adelaide College of Divinity, and it was wonderful to see several of our students (with whom I'd worked) graduate with certificates and diplomas! so congratulations to charlie, sylvia, merawyn and jan, as well as all of the others, including doctor phil!

and a worthwhile reminder of the call to Christians to become one, as a sign, foretaste and instrument of the human community that God seeks. and thus ti do so inclusively.

may we live in the light of the knowledge that we are one and see what transpires.

"Grow & Go" weekend 2010

Here's the flyer for our annual training weekend coming up next May 14-16. We've taken the theme of Being a Mission-Shaped Church" and are delighted to have Rev Dr Stephen Burns as our keynote speaker and one of the leaders of the nine learning streams.

Download Grow and Go 2010 Brochure (754 kb PDF)

(It felt wrong to announce that steve had already left his church when in fact he's still there, but its meant to last into 2010.)

college book club launched

we've just launched our college book club - whereby groups can borrow a number of copies of a book for 2 months to study.

details here.

over the last year I've been going into koorong books about once a month and going straight to the sale tables at the back. there are often multiple copies of great books - I'm sure that koorong decide that they're heresy or something. I'm trying to get stuff that has depth or edge or both - theology & culture & spirituality and mission, etc.

we have 6-12 copies of each of the titles.

if you're in SA, we'd love to have churches give $200 or so which would let us buy another 2 titles for the library.

some news....

it's finally public...

our new Missiology Director/Lecturer

living with dirt

i'm recovering from leading chapel today on mark 7 - called it, you guessed it - "living with dirt". here are some of the bits and pieces...

i put a bunch of signs outside and inside - WIPE YOUR FEET, WASH YOUR HANDS (we had bowls), SIT UP STRAIGHT, NO TALKING, etc etc. The communion table had yellow CAUTION tape (from Bunnings) around it (idea from cheryl). 

when people entered i had a movie loop of a ink drop into clear water (from istockphoto.com I think....., as was the hands photo) music was "you will find" from "fractured, broken and beautiful" by dubh - brilliant album available from proost.

coming events

details of some coming events:

in a few weeks time we have a visitor from Oxford, Revd Henry Kirk here to lead a couple of sessions on using are in preaching, teaching and pastoral care. monday 27 and tuesday 28 july.

Download Henry Kirk brochure

we have several topics in for aged care chaplains and volunteers starting at the end of july.

Download Aged Care brochure

Steve Taylor will be back in town for a week in early August as the keynote speaker at "breathe", our national in-service for children, youth and family workers. we'll be taking the opportunity for these:

"Culture with a K(iwi)" - a day seminar on mission as local culture-making - Sat 1 August. Brochure out later this week.

Download "Culture with a K" poster

[re]generate with steve will be monday night 3 august. postcard out soon!

there'll also be a coaching session for those who participated in steve's coaching series last year. we know who you are - you'll be contacted shortly.

also a reminder that mark pierson will be in town 14-18 september, son we'll have a [re]generate mon 14 september. more details soon!