Awarded Grants - 4 results
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Faculty Development for Teaching and Learning in Drew’s Culturally Diverse Community
Proposal abstract :
Two weekend faculty retreats that will enhance teaching theory and skills specifically for a racially/culturally diverse seminary population.
Learning Abstract :
The project sought to engage the theological faculty in two retreats to enhance their teaching theory and skills specifically for their racially/culturally diverse seminary population. They hoped to be able to become more aware of and responsive to the complexity of their current and future student body and their diverse learning style needs due to their cultural and racial diversity. In addition, they hoped to reflect deeply on their teaching practices in such a diverse context.
The project director reports that the project goals were met. The faculty expressed appreciation of the uninterrupted time in consultation together. They also felt that the consultant proved to be "invaluable" to the process of learning. They report that their conversation raised their level of awareness and demonstrated to them the complexity of teaching in diversity. One outcome of the retreats was the creation of a "peer development system," a voluntary system of pairing faculty peers together for ongoing conversation and mentoring on issues of teaching and learning, as well as classroom visitations with constructive feedback.
Two weekend faculty retreats that will enhance teaching theory and skills specifically for a racially/culturally diverse seminary population.
Learning Abstract :
The project sought to engage the theological faculty in two retreats to enhance their teaching theory and skills specifically for their racially/culturally diverse seminary population. They hoped to be able to become more aware of and responsive to the complexity of their current and future student body and their diverse learning style needs due to their cultural and racial diversity. In addition, they hoped to reflect deeply on their teaching practices in such a diverse context.
The project director reports that the project goals were met. The faculty expressed appreciation of the uninterrupted time in consultation together. They also felt that the consultant proved to be "invaluable" to the process of learning. They report that their conversation raised their level of awareness and demonstrated to them the complexity of teaching in diversity. One outcome of the retreats was the creation of a "peer development system," a voluntary system of pairing faculty peers together for ongoing conversation and mentoring on issues of teaching and learning, as well as classroom visitations with constructive feedback.
Women and Pedagogy Project
Proposal abstract :
The small grant will be used to gather a leadership team of women scholars/ teachers of religion and theology to discuss the notion of indignation as a rubric for understanding women faculty issues -- particularly teacher identity, the influence of indignation on vocation, classroom practices, and oppressive forces which seek to render women faculty powerless. In addition, the leadership team will develop proposals for further development of pedagogies of indignation in relation to women faculty.
Learning Abstract :
This planning grant was used to design a project for women who teach and who are simultaneously activists. We are interested in the lives of women who work for justice as they teach and who take seriously their emotional health and well being as well as those who are curious about the role of emotions in the classroom. We see the current phenomena to be problematic - the phenomena of a dramatic increase of women in leadership and very little transformation in the curriculum of higher education. Our plan is to create communal conversation for women so that we might (in an extended conversation) fashion, discuss and create practices for teaching that incorporate the activist spirit and that also take the emotional side seriously. This grant allowed face-to-face meetings with our leadership team to better shape and focus our project.
The small grant will be used to gather a leadership team of women scholars/ teachers of religion and theology to discuss the notion of indignation as a rubric for understanding women faculty issues -- particularly teacher identity, the influence of indignation on vocation, classroom practices, and oppressive forces which seek to render women faculty powerless. In addition, the leadership team will develop proposals for further development of pedagogies of indignation in relation to women faculty.
Learning Abstract :
This planning grant was used to design a project for women who teach and who are simultaneously activists. We are interested in the lives of women who work for justice as they teach and who take seriously their emotional health and well being as well as those who are curious about the role of emotions in the classroom. We see the current phenomena to be problematic - the phenomena of a dramatic increase of women in leadership and very little transformation in the curriculum of higher education. Our plan is to create communal conversation for women so that we might (in an extended conversation) fashion, discuss and create practices for teaching that incorporate the activist spirit and that also take the emotional side seriously. This grant allowed face-to-face meetings with our leadership team to better shape and focus our project.
Can Courage Be Taught? Teaching within the Confines of Systemic Hatred: A Book Proposal
Proposal abstract :
The grant will support the writing of a book proposal and manuscript created from the many blogs I have written for Wabash. Like the blogs, the book will focus on issues of teaching, learning, identity politics, race and racism. Thinking through and creating a cohesive manuscript from my blogs will require fresh editing, rewriting, as well as original writing. Pulling from the ideas in my blogs to create an integrated manuscript will require focused time and a space to do the writing. It also will require the hire of a freelance editor and the conversation of colleagues. I will use the funds to: (a) rent spaces to use as a personal writing retreat during seminary break times, (b) hire a freelance editor, and (c) provide hospitality for colleagues who are willing to provide conversation and feedback (my 2017-18 Peer Cluster Group).
Learning Abstract :
My project was designed to strengthen my writing. Specially, the goal of this project was to write a book proposal which included several sample chapters. The burgeoning book was about issues of racism, oppression and alienation. Fodder for the book was from teaching Introduction to Educational Ministries courses from an anti-racism pedagogy. Equally important to the book were my blogs for Wabash Center. Writing well requires time, solitude, and conversation partners and the grant offered me these things. In conversation with colleagues and friends about the book, I was challenged to pitch the book, rather than to a scholarly audience, to a national audience in need of critical conversation about social hatred and racism in the 21st century. What would it mean to take my own learning from my classroom teaching to teach a wider audience? My editor asked me if I could write as if I was talking to parents about issues of bigotry and oppression. Intrigued by this challenge, I have begun to learn to shift my writing voice and proposal outline. I am now targeting an audience beyond the seminary classroom who has a hunger for conversations which can heal the actions and wounds of racism. My project morphed into a public theology project where ideas of teaching and learning are invaluable.
The grant will support the writing of a book proposal and manuscript created from the many blogs I have written for Wabash. Like the blogs, the book will focus on issues of teaching, learning, identity politics, race and racism. Thinking through and creating a cohesive manuscript from my blogs will require fresh editing, rewriting, as well as original writing. Pulling from the ideas in my blogs to create an integrated manuscript will require focused time and a space to do the writing. It also will require the hire of a freelance editor and the conversation of colleagues. I will use the funds to: (a) rent spaces to use as a personal writing retreat during seminary break times, (b) hire a freelance editor, and (c) provide hospitality for colleagues who are willing to provide conversation and feedback (my 2017-18 Peer Cluster Group).
Learning Abstract :
My project was designed to strengthen my writing. Specially, the goal of this project was to write a book proposal which included several sample chapters. The burgeoning book was about issues of racism, oppression and alienation. Fodder for the book was from teaching Introduction to Educational Ministries courses from an anti-racism pedagogy. Equally important to the book were my blogs for Wabash Center. Writing well requires time, solitude, and conversation partners and the grant offered me these things. In conversation with colleagues and friends about the book, I was challenged to pitch the book, rather than to a scholarly audience, to a national audience in need of critical conversation about social hatred and racism in the 21st century. What would it mean to take my own learning from my classroom teaching to teach a wider audience? My editor asked me if I could write as if I was talking to parents about issues of bigotry and oppression. Intrigued by this challenge, I have begun to learn to shift my writing voice and proposal outline. I am now targeting an audience beyond the seminary classroom who has a hunger for conversations which can heal the actions and wounds of racism. My project morphed into a public theology project where ideas of teaching and learning are invaluable.
Being Black/Teaching Black: An African-American Dialogue Connecting the Influences of Blackness in Theological Education Teaching Practices
Proposal abstract :
Support for an African-American cohort group to engage the central question of how our embodiment of Black Church/Black Theology/Black culture influences our teaching in theological and religious studies. Goals include: charting the impact that Black presence has had on theological pedagogy; consideration of the liminality of Black theological education at this critical time in its history; and to write an anthology concerning the influence and embodiment of Blackness on theological education.
Learning Abstract :
In our research about the presence, influence, role and contribution of African-American professors on the classrooms of religion and theological education, it was our hunch that white supremacy and patriarchy are still a major obstacle and genuine threat that demands critical strategy both in the identity politic with colleagues and also in the classrooms with our students. We suspected that the presence of race is a critical aspect to the curriculum in general and the teaching practices, specifically. We wanted to analyze the teaching practices that Black professors have developed and have come to rely upon that will push-through or thwart some of the racism, classism, and sexism involved in teaching and learning. During our research, we rehearsed a multiplicity of issues and strategies which a Black professor negotiates daily and which White colleagues are not burdened by. We were fascinated at the amount of attention the presence of our Black bodies, our literal physicality, received in the classroom and have written about these issues of body. A major thread of our work had to do with the role and strategies we use to educate others about their own racist behaviors that keep them from a critical understanding necessary in our disciplines and subject matter. And significant time has been spent by our group advising, discussing and strategizing on ways of maintaining health, sanity, creativity, and faith.
Support for an African-American cohort group to engage the central question of how our embodiment of Black Church/Black Theology/Black culture influences our teaching in theological and religious studies. Goals include: charting the impact that Black presence has had on theological pedagogy; consideration of the liminality of Black theological education at this critical time in its history; and to write an anthology concerning the influence and embodiment of Blackness on theological education.
Learning Abstract :
In our research about the presence, influence, role and contribution of African-American professors on the classrooms of religion and theological education, it was our hunch that white supremacy and patriarchy are still a major obstacle and genuine threat that demands critical strategy both in the identity politic with colleagues and also in the classrooms with our students. We suspected that the presence of race is a critical aspect to the curriculum in general and the teaching practices, specifically. We wanted to analyze the teaching practices that Black professors have developed and have come to rely upon that will push-through or thwart some of the racism, classism, and sexism involved in teaching and learning. During our research, we rehearsed a multiplicity of issues and strategies which a Black professor negotiates daily and which White colleagues are not burdened by. We were fascinated at the amount of attention the presence of our Black bodies, our literal physicality, received in the classroom and have written about these issues of body. A major thread of our work had to do with the role and strategies we use to educate others about their own racist behaviors that keep them from a critical understanding necessary in our disciplines and subject matter. And significant time has been spent by our group advising, discussing and strategizing on ways of maintaining health, sanity, creativity, and faith.