Learning as Reconciliation, Learning for Reconciliation: New Dimensions for Christian Secondary Schools

Abstract

THE AUTHORS INVESTIGATE secondary Christian schooling in light of a biblical calling to reconciliation. This vision involves learning that transforms, inviting students and teachers into vulnerable, yet exhilarating, positions, with visions of increasing interdependency and reciprocity. Responsible freedom to search for truth in community is touted as a necessary ingredient of transformative learning and teaching in secondary schools. This approach advocates curriculum that investigate issues or problems in an integrative manner rather than teaching everything in separate disciplines. The authors also maintain that assessment is crucial since it is here that we communicate what we truly value. Assessment for reconciliation unfolds as transformative learning happens and includes the articulation of further questions and investigations.

Whose Spirituality? Which Rationality? A Narrational Locus for Learning

“…Realising the relationality that has been radically restored in Christ (Col. 1:15-20) is the route to virtue: reconciliation matters most (cf. Gormas, Koole, & Vryhof, 2006). A spirituality that lauds rationally autonomous knowledge reduces the interdependent meaning of creation, thereby obscuring the voice and glory of God.…”