Reflection on Lecture 2 & 3

Saturday's workshop further developed the concept of the rivalry between the purity and prophetic projects but first I would like to refer back to the second lecture. The beginning of the material is to understand that the bible (in particular the first testament) is a text which was revised and edited over many generations and in this context the meaning of the events depicted in the first testament can be understood. The central event of the first testament is the exodus, the liberation of the hebrew people from the oppression of egypt and the pharoah. It is worth noting that names like hebrew, jew and israelite did not emerge in history until sometime after the event and this gives a hint that the text was written to fit in with the sentiment and understanding of writers after the fact. It is quite probable that the people referred to are the Apiru, a poor, citizenship-less underclass that existed throughout the city states of the area.

The exodus is a sign of God's preference for the poor, which is not to say that God does not care for the wealthy but that when God acts he acts in defence of the poor at the expense of the rich. The exodus can be seen as a primitive social uprising of one people over the oppressors and the project can be called the promised land project. Having escaped into the desert, Moses hands down the decalogue and all the associated laws. This is a necessary part of the formalization of the process that Moses had started but also gives berth to a rival project of achieving purity through obedience. Having recieved the law the Israelites proceed into Canan and develop their own sovereign state although perhaps this did not happen in the conquering manner depicted in the bible, it could have been that the Israelites expanded the promised land project to include all sorts of downtrodden people in Canan. After sometime the project grows stale and the people who had been liberated begin to lose the meaning of the original exodus, this heralds the time of the prophets. Throughout biblical history one of the main duties of the prophets is to speak out against the nations who had started to oppress people and lost the original sense of God. From here on the two rival projects are the prophetic project, concerned with justice and the purity project, concerned with the law. This bief outline of the bible sets up the theme of lecture three.

Around one thousand years after the exodus, the figure of Jesus emerges in history.

Note to Michael: I'm still writing this post. Will add more shortly.

Reflection on Education,Service & Community Management

Liberation theology can only be truly understood by examing the situations in which it arose. There are more strictly defined ways of describing liberation theology but the most crucial question of liberation theology is “what does a Christian do in today’s society?” This emphasis of liberation theology on praxis indicates the need to study the situation where liberation theology was born. Two things which emerge from the first prescribed reading is that liberation theology is question of God and liberation. The two are not to be understood separately. The first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI stated “Deus caritas est”, God is love and in liberation theology the love of God is expressed a compassion and action for the poor.

One of the key figures of liberation theology, sometimes considered its founder, is Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian priest who is both highly educated familiar with poor people especially in his native land. The combination of studying in elite institutions and then witnessing the poor people had a profound effect on Gutierrez. From his life’s work it would seem that he did not abandon his faith on seeing the suffering in the world but instead resolved to live the love of God that he preached. In essence, if God really is love then anyone who knows God by definition must help the poor, the suffering, the oppressed.

According to Gutierrez the first act is a commitment to the poor and then theology is the second act. This commitment is shown by making a common cause with the poor. It cannot be emphasised enough that the heart of liberation theology is to encounter the poor and be in solidarity with them. The suffering of the poor inspired this commitment in Gutierrez in the light of Christian faith and that fundamental experience is still the centrepiece of liberation theology. Its is probably accurate to say that theology itself, being always the second act, has been gradually elaborated over time and is still being elaborated today. Gutierrez is not the only person elaborating theology and the cause is not confined to Peru or even the Americas. A large number of leading thinkers have contributed to the elaboration from all parts of the world including first world countries where the average Christian would not encounter such horrendous poverty.

Our first prescribed reading makes it clear that Jesus is a liberator. Being a liberator however is not an abstract title, Jesus’ mission is to help the poor and first and foremost. This vision of Jesus as one who empowers people “is after long neglect in Christian History, being appreciated again.” In modern times it is clear from a brief survey of international media that there is no shortage of poverty and suffering in the world but this raises the question of where the response is that liberation theologians have their work cut out for them if the message of liberation theology is needed more urgently. The two options are not entirely the same. It is certainly worth pondering the words of Jesus “the poor will always be with you.” Did Jesus mean that the poor will never be entirely liberated or that the struggle will take longer than his audience at the time would have realised. Perhaps this quotation is not as relevant to liberation theology as it would seem because nowhere in the first prescribed reading did it say that the success or validity of liberation theology can be determined by how many poor people are liberated or when the entirety of them are. Liberation theology is a practice and a process, a process which does not have a set end date. The success can only be judged by whether a person actually loves the poor.

Reference
A New Way of Encountering God. ‘Liberation Theology’ An Introductory Guide, Robert McAfee Brown. Chapter 3

ED 4134 - Reflections on John Hattie

John Hattie is a New Zealand academic whose interests lie in research methodology, structural equation modelling, self concept and models of teaching and learning. In a 2003 presentation to a world leadership forum he explained that his motivation was to improve the quality of New Zealand’s education system for the benefits that a world class education system has on the global economy. In the same paper, Hattie suggests that the most critical factor affecting the students outcomes is actually the teacher and not the school. Furthermore he suggests that teaching needs to go from an experience oriented activity to a clinical science, as has similarly happened for doctors who at first treated patients based on their own experiences of what works but gradually changed to treating patients based on what evidence has been amassed about that particular situation. Quantifying the influences on educational quality was the topic of Hattie’s inaugural professorial address in 1999. Hattie collected the data from many different studies in order to rank the effect size of each influential factor. In that paper as well Hattie identified qualities of the teacher as having the biggest effect and suggested that experience as a teacher is not enough to become an accomplished teacher, instead each teacher may require further training to follow up on the initial training that teachers receive before entering the school system.

ED 4134 - Reflections on William Glasser

William Glasser is an American psychiatrist who developed reality therapy and choice theory. His work has contributed to a diverse range of fields including education. Reality therapy is not the same as giving people a “dose of reality”, instead it is based on the idea that at all times, every person is trying to fulfill five needs, specifically: power, love & belonging, freedom, fun and survival. Reality therapy is about making realistic choices to fill the desires based on the five psychological needs. Glasser’s criticized classroom practice by saying that teachers are too concerned with making students obey rather than providing the satisfying educational experience that helps students fulfill their five needs. Glasser said in Choice Theory (1998) that 95% of all behavioral problems in the classroom are the students trying to fulfill their need for power. Glasser also described seven caring habits and seven deadly habits of the teacher. When dealing with a misbehaving student, teachers are encouraged to use reality therapy to modify the student’s behavior. The William Glasser Institute maintains a list of schools in the United States which are run according to Glasser’s philosophy, these are referred to as Quality Schools.

ED 4134 - Reflections on Jerome Bruner

Jerome Bruner is an American psychologist whose work is related to that Lev Vygotsky and who has had a big impact on teaching in the United States. A landmark text by Bruner is The Process of Education (1960) which had a direct impact on United States education policies. The book put forward the view that children are active problem solvers and are ready to explore difficult subjects. Bruner stated: “We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.” As such Bruner criticized schools for putting off teaching more difficult areas. Bruner further criticized the motives for learning saying that goals such as grades or later competitive advantage are not as beneficial as the desire to learn the subject matter for its own sake. Bruner believed that education was not a question of committing various facts to mind but rather becoming a part of the process which makes learning possible. Bruner did not leave his criticism at that but went on to write Towards a Theory of Instruction (1966) where he says that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects: 1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner, (3) the most effective sequences in which to present material, and (4) the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments.

ED 4134 - Reflections on Vygotsky

Lev Semanovich Vygotsky was pioneering psychologist who researched and published extensively, particulary on the topics of cognitive psychology, child development and education. One of the key concepts used by Vygotsky was cultural mediation. Vygotsky was particularly interested in the way a child’s mind develops through social and intrapersonal interaction. According to Vygotsky there are tools and signs made available by a culture which facilitate the higher mental processes, which are unique to humans. Tools and signs can be something tangible but can also be actions used by child like pointing or making noise. Vygotsky reasoned that mental development is therefore a function of cultural and social interactions. Vygotsky also pioneered the idea of a zone of proximal development which is the gap between an individual’s current level of knowledge and the potential level which that individual can achieve. For a child to develop within the zone of proximal development an adult is required to bridge the gap, this process was referred to as scaffolding. Vygotsky was heavily criticized during his lifetime for his theories on cultural psychology. Vygotsky died of tuberculosis in 1934 and did most of his work during the time of the soviet empire.

ED4134 - Reflections on Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who was one of they key figures in the theory of cognitive development. Piaget’s research defined cognitive development as being composed of four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concerete operational and formal operational. These four stages correspond to different ages during a child’s development although Piaget himself conceded that the age of progression from stage to the next is not set and the progression itself may not necessarily be smooth. Piaget’s understanding developed by observation of children in a learning environment, first as a teacher in Switzerland and later with his own three children. Paiget’s theory has been challenged on the grounds that, as previously stated, the stage transitions are not necessarily smooth or completely predictable and that the development does not occur simultaneously for all of the child’s cognitive faculties. Despite this Piaget’s work has become very influential in many areas including education. The Jean Piaget Society is one example of the effect his life's work has had. Piaget was certainly concerned with the outcomes of education and what qualities in the child are trying to be nurtured. Piaget is quoted as saying that education must produce innovators and not conformists. It is worth noting that Piaget preferred not to use the term psychology for his work but genetic epistomology instead.