REA2023 (Re)Imagining Frameworks for Religious Education
Channel: Religious Education Association
Date: 2023-07-13

Imagining Belief and Belonging Anew: Constructive-Developmental Theory as an Aid to Effective Formation

Theresa A O'Keefe (Boston College)

Religious belief and belonging has implications for how persons interpret their world, affiliate with others in community, and express their agency as religious persons. This paper reads interpretation, affiliation and agency through the constructive-developmental lens of Robert Kegan. It provides religious educators, both those in schools and in religious communities, a framework to understand and work with maturing adolescents. Finally, attention is given to how adolescents’ imaginations can be prompted to heighten belief and belonging.

Childlike Learning: Teaching Adult Students using Slow-Pedagogy and Montessori Methods

Emily Kahm (College of St. Mary)

This paper examines ways in which adult students, especially undergraduates, can be better engaged in academic learning when they re-access some of the trappings of childlike learning, especially play, repetitive engagement with texts, and unstructured quiet times. Examining contributions from Montessori’s written works, the nascent “slow pedagogy” movement, and the author’s experiences teaching an undergraduate course designed with these inspirations in mind, this paper will outline the impetus for childlike learning in adults and suggest ways to integrate childlike methods into teaching.

A shared yet distinct covenant approach to religious educational formation: Jews and Latter-day Saints

Barbara Morgan Gardner (Brigham Young University)

In January of 2023, Rabbi Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University, delivered a devotional address to Brigham Young University students and community entitled, “Covenant versus Consumer Education.” At the conclusion of his speech, the entire audience of thousands of individuals gave an immediate and spontaneous unexpected standing ovation. Over the last decade, Jewish and Latter-day Saint religious educators have met semi-annually in both a scholarly and devotional setting,

Jewish Education - Celebration, Conversation and Repetition

Stuart Halpern

Jewish learning often takes place in dynamic form. Ancient texts are discussed and debated in study pairs who utilize millennia of ancient and contemporary commentaries. Repetition is a key educational value. Deuteronomy chapter 6 instructs “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Texts studied in their entirety – from the Bible to the Talmud, are celebrated for their continued relevance and the next cycle of study is swiftly begun again.

Educating Young People in Their Language; a Synodal process

Monique van Dijk-Groeneboer (Tilburg School of Catholic Theology)

In today’s pluralistic, fragmented and polarized world often we let the young people find “their own authentic way”. Still, religious educators and pastors can be of much help and support when they participate the pilgrimage young people make when growing to become young adults. Using the language they use everyday might help a lot to describe determining factors in their development. When we understand what inspires young people, gives them strength and makes them worried, we can adjust formation and education towards and with the young people instead of try bending them into our old ways.

Facilitated by Lakisha R. Lockhart (Union Presbyterian Seminary).