Education Commons^™

The Teacher As Servant Leader: Revisited, David W. Anderson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay revisits an original conference proceedings chapter from 1997, examining the biblical and educational underpinnings for the concept of teacher and servant leader.

Head, Hand And Heart: An Investigation Of Attitude Change In Pre-Service Teachers Towards Students With Disabilities., Marion J. Shields, David Bolton

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This paper reports on a research project conducted over a period of five years, with final-year pre-service students at a small Australian Christian tertiary education college. The study examined the students’ attitudes towards children with special needs, as measured before and after a mandatory special education course. This course focused on three aspects: the head, which constituted knowledge of characteristics of students with disabilities; the hand, which referred to knowledge of current research-based educational and supportive strategies matched to student needs; and the heart, which were attitudes of empathy, compassion, and support within a Christian framework. Strategies used by the …

An "Integrality" Model For Teaching, Geoff Beech Dr, Elizabeth Beech Dr

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

For Christian educators working in secular institutions, or for those who are required to teach curricula based on secularist philosophy, it can be confusing as to how to faithfully integrate faith and learning. This essay suggests an appropriate and biblically-grounded way to regard this problem and effectively use knowledge from secular sources. This process starts with a reconsideration of the definitions for integration, faith, and knowledge. It also entails the purposing of all truth, which belongs to God, within the classroom.

Integrating Faith And Learning: Preparing Teacher Candidates To Serve Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Tatiana M. Cevallos

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay examines how liberation theology and critical pedagogy inform the integration of faith and learning of a teacher educator who felt called to serve culturally and linguistically diverse students in the United States. The essay provides a brief cultural background of the educator’s journey from instructional assistant in an English learner program to teacher educator at a Christian University. The essay explains how liberation theology and critical pedagogy provide a coherent framework for preparing teacher candidates to work with English learners in public schools.

Letter From The Editor, Scot Headley

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

In this issue, Tatiana Cevallos describes her journey from Ecuador to the United States and her journey of faith development and how those journeys influence her work as a teacher educator at a Christian Institution of Higher Education (IHE). Geoff Beech explores the intersection of Christian belief with secular constructs and philosophies, examining how Christian teacher educators navigate these intersections with confidence and grace. Marion Shields and David Bolton report the findings of a five-year study, revealing the attitudes of teacher candidates at an Australian Christian IHE toward students with disabilities. In addition to these three pieces, our editorial team …

Docking And Curtons' "Crisis In Higher Education: A Plan To Save Small Liberal Arts Colleges In America" (Book Review), R. Curt Rice Dr.

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Exploring Care In Education, Sean Schat

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

In this article the author highlights three primary results that emerged from his review of the care theory and educational care literature, along with his constructivist grounded theory study of adolescent student experiences of educational care: (1) A clarification and re-articulation of the problem of educational care, (2) a grounded theory of the communication of educational care, and (3) a theory of the establishment of a caring teacher-student relationship. Some possible implications for teachers and educational leaders will also be explored.

Game-Based Teaching Methodology And Empathy In Ethics Education, Angel Krause, Scot Headley, Danielle Bryant, Alicia Watkin, Charity-Mika Woodard, Sherri Sinicki

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This article describes the experience of a group of educators participating in a graduate course in ethics. Playing role playing games and the work accompanying that play were the predominate methodology employed in the course. An accompanying research study investigated the lived experiences of the course participants. Themes that emerged from interview data included student engagement, participants’ applications, empathy development, and reactions to professor modeling.

Empathy As A Christian Calling, Danielle Bryant

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay focuses on the recent study of care in my teaching, and the role empathy plays in enacting an ethic of care. Using current research in empathy, along with reflections on my own teaching practice, the ACTS model offers some practical ways to foster and model empathy in teaching. Several case studies exemplify this approach within a variety of educational settings. Current brain research is also explored in the discussion of the model in this essay.

Inclusion And The Ethic Of Care: Our Responsibility As Christian Special Educators, Alicia Watkin

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay explores one teacher's motivation to advocate for more inclusive practices for students with IEPs as a Christian response to applying the ethic of care in public school settings. Additionally, it charges teacher education programs at Christian universities to prepare teacher candidates to apply the ethic of care to their work with students with special needs in response to their faith. Special educators, who listen, show up, and advocate can make a profound difference for their students.

Dispositions: Real-Time Active Practice, Michelle C. Hughes

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This longitudinal case study followed new teachers from one small undergraduate pre-service program into the first years of teaching. The researcher’s initial study (Hughes, 2014) examined dispositional awareness and development of participants using personal interview data from program graduates, interview data from program faculty, and archived course artifacts. The current study extends the research and shines a light on dispositional development from pre-service through the fourth year of teaching. Using personal interviews, a focus group meeting, and archived course artifacts, the study affirms the significance of dispositions in pre-service preparation and professional practice. The study validates that participants carry dispositional …

Introduction, Paul Shotsberger, Cathy Freytag

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Why a special issue on care? It’s a fair question. As one colleague said recently, if we have the gospels, do we really need something else to tell us how others should be treated? We maintain that because of its bidirectional nature, ethic of care, and particularly Christian ethic of care, are fundamentally reflective of God’s nature. It is not just ethical but also theological: it helps us understand God's love and care for us, to see it as more than a one way street. The literature on ethic of care, especially that of Noddings, tells us that this bidirectional …

The Ethic Of Care And Inclusive Education, David W. Anderson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This article deals with the ethic of care in education, with a specific focus on classrooms that include students with disabilities. After a brief overview of historical and legal issues which led to the inclusive education movement, the discussion focuses on what an ethic of care involves from a biblical/theological perspective.

The Necessary Conversation: Faith To Sustain Teaching Practices, Stephanie Talley

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

In this essay, the author raises critical questions about the need for faith-based teacher preparation programs to consider engaging pre-service teachers in conversations about the connection between faith and the ability to persist in the work of teaching. Grounded in the ethic of care, the author suggests educators must begin with caring for self in order to maintain the ability of caring for students. Suggestions for Christian teacher education programs are explored.

Caring For New Teachers Once They Leave Campus, Elaine Tinholt

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay explores one teacher educator’s motivation and ideas about how to advocate for induction support for new teachers beyond the teacher preparation program. During the undergraduate preparation process, teacher candidates are given multiple opportunities to receive support from mentor teachers and college supervisors. This support system functions through formal observations, on-going communication, and feedback concerning progression throughout the clinical practice experience. While induction programs abound across the country, students who leave small, faith-based universities often disperse to a variety of settings and support levels. The school based support offered during the first year of teaching can be insufficient or …

Faith Integration: What Does It Really Look Like?, Paul Shotsberger

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Beginning with the excellent treatment of faith integration by Patrick Allen and Kenneth Badley (2012), based on the seminal work of Boyer (1997), this article delves into the issue of faith-learning integration on a discipline and classroom level. There are two major categories of integration that are considered: the single application, intended primarily for that day’s lesson, and focused on technical terminology or concepts; and the series that deals with larger issues beyond just those of the particular class being taught. Examples are provided for each, as well as the thought processes behind their generation. Resources are included at the …

Emdin's "For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood ... And The Rest Of Y'All Too: Reality Pedagogy And Urban Education" (Book Review), Cathie Chatmon

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Stimulating Critical Literacy Consciousness, Kathryn S. Hastings

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This story from the field recounts how, after being an educator for over ten years, I became aware that I had been responsible for misrepresenting information to my first-grade students. This difficult realization shook me to the core, but it also became the impetus for me to learn about critical pedagogy and critical literacy. Both of these educational practices align with my faith and have been transformational to my teaching. As a result, I am able to teach my pre-service and graduate students how to instruct in more socially-just ways.

Spotlight: Tom Buchanan

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

The ICCTE-J editorial team is pleased to welcome Dr. Thomas Buchanan to the work of online journal publishing in service to the ICCTE community. Tom is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at George Fox University.

Letter From The Editor, Susanna Thornhill

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Nearly two years ago, the newly-formed ICCTE editorial team sat around a conference table and tried to come up with ideas for how to generate increased interest and submissions to the journal. We wanted to invite authors into a shared space of collaboration, encouragement, and sustainability. Story proved to be the vehicle; we designed a call inviting our colleagues to share stories about their experiences in the classroom that would be shorter and less formal than an average article. We imagined that this invitation might offer our colleagues a chance to reflect on the moments of education that seem most …

Exploring Vocation: Early Career Perspectives On Vocation In Action, Alisha Pomazon, Sarah Knudson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

As tenure-track professors at a Catholic liberal arts college, we began our academic careers four years ago with a strong desire to excel in our research and teaching. Most importantly, however, we hoped to come to a deeper understanding of how we might imbue our work in a Christian higher education context with a strong sense of purpose and connection to our beliefs. This reflection details our experience of co-developing a sense of vocation and sacramentality in ourselves and our students during the busy pre-tenure years. We discuss how religious and scholarly texts, workshop and retreat experiences, and course design …

Cultivating Inclusive Learning Communities With Careful And Caring Conjunctions, Sunshine Sullivan

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay was originally the invited lecture I shared at ICCTE 2016. I arrived there, prepared to share about inclusive learning communities and our responsibilities to both model and teach our emerging educators to plan, teach, and assess diverse learners with inclusive and responsive practices. But just as I had to listen to the Sabbath whisper, I could not ignore the and whisper. So I ask that as you finish reading this essay and we go our separate ways, remember that we are embodied conjunctions. We are an important part of our language system that communicates so much about our …

Breathing Deeply: Surprises Encountered On Sabbatical, Jane Wilson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

After seven years of college teaching, many tenured-track professors are granted a sabbatical for their professional enrichment to increase their scholarship and instructional quality. Though expectations vary among institutions, the first time a professor embarks on a sabbatical can be both exhilarating and unsettling. This essay describes one professor’s personal story with surprises encountered during a first sabbatical.

Honoring And Maintaining A Dual Identity, Andrew Dean Mullen

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

My father taught at a church-affiliated college as a professor of philosophy. My mother, for much of my growing-up years, was a fifth-grade public school teacher. Although I was shaped by both of these models, and attracted to each, I initially came down on the side of elementary teaching. For close to 10 years I worked, mostly happily, with upper-elementary children in both public and private settings. Professionally, at least, I seemed to have much more to talk about with my mother.

Having subsequently completed a doctorate in the history of education (including much formal and informal study of philosophy) …

Reflections On Teaching Over A Decade In A Christian Institution Of Higher Education, Sandra F. Mclendon

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

After many years in public education followed by 10 years of preparing teachers in a faith-based institution, this essay shares insights into what it means to cultivate and maintain a Christian ethic of care, toward self and others. This story of God’s faithfulness in my life is reflected outward through multiple lenses of care.

Interdependence: Being Reformed By Students With Disabilities, Melinda Eichhorn

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Throughout my career in special education, I have reconsidered my beliefs about disability. As I have transitioned from a special educator to a teacher trainer in India to an assistant professor in a Christian college, I have looked beyond limitations and deficits of my students to see individual uniqueness. In this article, I share my lived experience of people with severe special needs ministering to me in India, explore the lived experiences of other disability advocates, and describe the implications this has for my teaching at a Christian college.

Building A Community Of Christ In A Mathematics Classroom, Robert Bonner

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

The prevalence of mathematics anxiety and math phobia is an accepted phenomenon in our culture today (Boaler, 2013; Kimball & Smith, 2013). Multiple research studies have been conducted investigating the levels of mathematics anxiety present in both preservice and in-service elementary education teachers (Bekdemir, 2010; Mizala, Martínez, & Martínez, 2015). This article describes how the creation of a learning community within a two-course sequence of mathematics content courses for elementary teachers addressed the fears and anxieties of a cohort of prospective female teachers. The learning community was founded on three perspectives: Palmer’s (1989) community of truth, Paul’s description of the …

Book Review: Grit: The Power Of Passion And Perseverance, Matthew L. Johnson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

I first stumbled across the research of Angela Duckworth after she was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 for her work investigating the character traits that impact the achievement of long-term goals. So, when it was announced that she would be publishing a book in 2016, I immediately pre-ordered copy so that I could dig into her insights as soon as possible. When I received my copy of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance in the mail, I was excited to crack it open… and then the self-doubt settled in. “What if, after reading the brilliant ideas of …

Book Review: Encyclopedia Of Christian Education, Ken Badley

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Kurian, George Thomas, and Lamport, Mark A. (2015). Encyclopedia of Christian Education (3 vols). New York: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8108- 8493-9 (e-book). 1665 pp. $340US

This three-volume set is truly a monumental achievement. With more than 1200 articles filling its full-size, two-column pages, it will serve as an important reference work for years to come. Some might wonder if a market still exists for such an encyclopedia when one can find so much of what it contains on the internet for free. To wonder that would be mistaken. While, yes, one can quickly find an article on Comenius in …