Wabash Center Virtual Session #3 for the AAR & SBL Annual Meetings

Central Standard Time

Life-Giving Teaching: When Classrooms Are Not Cloistered Away from The World 

What if rather than teaching about the world as if it is a distant land to be grappled with after graduation we teach as if the world was our classroom? In order to create courses which are relevant meaningful and life-giving what would it mean to decenter the tried-and-true disciplinary tactics and instead place the joys sufferings perspectives and cultural meaning making apparatuses of students as the keystone of the course? Too much of our teaching is siloed away from the worlds and the realities from which our students leave and to which our students must return. This session is a discussion with colleagues who have a proven track record of seamlessly keeping the classroom connected to the world and vice versa i.e. praxis education. With intention and creativity these colleagues design courses which extend the classroom learning into connect with and operate in the world.

Panelists:

• Nancy Lynne Westfield, Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
• Almeda Wright, Yale University
• Kenneth Ngwa
• Annie Lockhart-Gilroy, Phillips Theological Seminary