- October 5, 2017–October 7, 2017
Kuyers Conference 2017
The Kuyers Institute's 9th biennial conference, "Christian Teaching and Learning: Pathways and Possibilities," was held October 5-7, 2017. Thank you to all who joined us and helped make the event successful!
The three plenary speeches are now available to view via our Presentations page. Read below for more information on the 2017 conference, and save the date for Kuyers Conference 2019, to be held October 3-5 2019 at the Prince Conference Center, Calvin College!
Information
Past conferences hosted by the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning (www.pedagogy.net) have focused on particular conceptual avenues that might help us understand the relationship between “Christian” and “teaching and learning”. These have included approaches that focus on justice, spirituality, virtues, practices, and imagination. In our forthcoming conference we hope to continue to deepen and extend these various conversations. Accordingly, our 2017 conference invites reflection on how these themes can be further elaborated and carried forward and on what additional models or concepts might offer fruitful avenues for exploring what might be Christian about particular approaches to teaching and learning. As in the past, we hope that presentations at this conference will lead to publications in the International Journal of Christianity and Education (ice.sagepub.com).
Our three plenary speakers have been confirmed. We are pleased to welcome to the conference Dr. Christine Pohl, Associate Provost and Professor of Church and Society/Christian Ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary. Her work on the practice of hospitality and on the practices that sustain community has been widely referenced. She will be joined by Dr. Trevor Cooling, Faculty Director of the National Institute for Christian Education Research at Canterbury Christchurch University. His work on religious education stretches back over a long career and frames his current involvement in influential curriculum initiatives. Our third speaker, Beth Green, is a Program Director for Education at Cardus, a social policy think tank dedicated to the renewal of North American social architecture. She works internationally as a consultant on effective measurement, professional development, and pedagogy in Christian schools.
Conference Schedule
Download the whole schedule here, or see below for a schedule overview:
Thursday, October 5
- 3:00-6:00 PM: Registration and Check-in
- 6:00-7:00 PM: Dinner
- 7:15-9:00 PM: Plenary I
- Christine Pohl, Asbury Theological Seminary
- Beyond Hospitality: Finding Wisdom at the Intersections of Practices
- 9:00-10:00 PM: Reception
Friday, October 6
- 8:00-9:55 AM: Breakout Session 1
- Session IA: Science and Technology
- Session IB: Christian Practices 1
- Session IC: Intellectual Virtues
- 9:25-10:25 AM: Break
- 10:25 AM-12:20 PM: Breakout Session II
- Session IIA: Pedagogies 1
- Session IIB: Theology 1
- Session IIC: Christian Practices 2
- Session IID: International and Plural Contexts
- 12:20-2:00 PM: Lunch
- 2:00-3:55 PM: Breakout Session III
- Session IIIA: Identity and Shalom
- Session IIIB: Traditioned Teaching
- Session IIIC: Adults Learning
- 3:55-4:30: Break
- 4:30-5:45 PM: Breakout Session IV
- Session IVA: Pedagogies 2
- Session IVB: Metaphor
- Session IVC: Pedagogies 3
- Session IVD: Faith Traditions
- 6:15-7:30 PM: Dinner
- 7:30-9:00 PM: Plenary II
- Beth Green, Cardus: Redeeming the buzzwords: a distinctively Christian approach to innovation in education
- 9:00-10:00 PM: Reception
Saturday, October 7
- 8:00-10:35 AM: Breakout Session V
- Session VA: Technology
- Session VB: Theology 2
- Session VC: Formation
- 10:35-11:00 AM: Break
- Plenary III
- Trevor Cooling, Canterbury Christ Church University: What do we mean by Christian education?
Keynote speaker
Trevor Cooling is Professor of Christian Education at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. His main research interest is in the Church of England state-funded schools that form a third of the public school system. His most recent book, Christian Faith in English Church Schools: Research Conversations with Classroom Teachers, reports his research on these schools. With David Smith, Trevor is one of the architects of the What If Learning approach to Christian pedagogy. Trevor is also Chair of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, a role that entails working with diverse religious and non-religious communities.
Christine Pohl is Associate Provost and Professor of Christian Ethics, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY. She has taught at Asbury for twenty-eight years in the area of Christian Ethics. Courses include: Christian Ethics, Ethics of Hospitality, Ethics of Community, Women in Church and Society and Theories of Justice. Prior to graduate studies and teaching at Asbury, she was involved in ministry at the congregational level, in parachurch work and in work with refugees. Full bio
Beth Green is Program Director for Education at Cardus, a social policy think tank dedicated to the renewal of social architecture in North America. Dr Green has a DPhil from the University of Oxford; she is also a graduate of Cambridge and London Universities. Dr. Green has an international reputation for her expertise in Christian school ethos; leadership and management; teaching and learning and social theory in education. Her consultancy work takes her to Europe and Australia where she advises on effective approaches to measurement, professional development and pedagogy in the Christian school sector.
