Resources
A 1000 word essay on using media to teach theory.
A 1000 word essay on using media to teach theory.
A 1000 word essay on using media to teach theory.
A 1000 word essay on using media to teach theory.
One page Teaching Tactic: building review into a lecture.
One page Teaching Tactic: students write a history of the course to learn about historical methodology.
One page Teaching Tactic: discussion prompts for small group work in a world religions course.
In this article we argue for an introductory course in the study of religion that proceeds through interactive interpretation as a responsible form of comparison. Interactive interpretation proceeds provisionally, and encourages students to formulate new questions of the materials instead of making final categories about the materials. We use examples from a typical classroom to show how we work with three pedagogical principles: (1) critical reading; (2) pluralism within religious traditions as well as between religious traditions; and (3) the use of the working hypothesis as a tool in analyzing religious texts. We also make an argument for textual reading as a form of living intellectual practice, which can work alongside of, and not in opposition to, other approaches to the study of religion, such as ethnographic or historical approaches.
The first seven volumes of the American Academy of Religion's "Teaching Religious Studies" series provide informative glimpses of how teachers in very different contexts understand the intellectual decisions, strategies, and actions that constitute their craft. Although individual volumes have different formats, the dominant image of good teaching that emerges is that it is founded on deep and sophisticated knowledge of the particular subject matter. Beyond that, many essays provide instructive anatomies of particular syllabi, moments in the classroom, or other aspects of teaching. Much of the material in the essays comes from reflective practitioners and there is relatively little sustained engagement with the contemporary literature on teaching and learning. Nonetheless, virtually any teacher can find in these volumes stimulating reflections on the intersections of substantive research and pedagogy in a variety of classroom contexts.
This article contends that teaching more effectively for diversity requires a radical re-envisioning of pedagogical practice. Drawing on qualitative interviews with religion and theology professors of color throughout the United States, it explores how faculty can re-imagine their teaching by engaging students where they are, acknowledging the reality of oppression, and dealing with resistance. Stressing mindfulness of social location, it provides examples of liberating teaching activities and competences and shows how literary and visual "texts" from the margins and personal metaphors of embodiment can challenge captivities to hegemonic paradigms in the classroom. The article concludes with responses from colleagues who have worked closely with the author. Ethicist Melanie Harris brings Hill's method into dialogue with Womanist pedagogy, and historian of religion Hjamil Martínez-Vázquez reflects on the role of suffering in building a revolutionary/critical pedagogy.