Introduction   This post is based on my Day 2 Keynote address to the 'Australian National Leaders' Summit Christian Schools Conference' (19-22 Aug 2024). In this talk I shifted focus and considered how we develop and sustain a pedagogy that transforms classroom life. Just how do we create environments that foster the formation of our students? Such formation is not just intellectual and physical, but also spiritual, it is very much “the life of the playground, as well as the classroom that influences formation”. And of course, the life of our students outside our schools is also very si ..read more

This was the question that shaped one of two plenary addresses I presented to the 'Christian Schools Australia' annual conference in Brisbane recently. I was asked to speak to the 300 delegates about the key points of difference in pedagogy in Christian schools compared to public schools. The brief was to unpack the ideas in my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'. It was a challenging task to synthesize all aspects of my work in two 45 minute addresses. But, it's even more difficult to do so in two posts. But here goes! 1. "Is There Such a Thing as Christian Pedagogy?"  The word 'Pedag ..read more

In this post I want to address what I see as the tension for people of faith between three well known concepts, 'Open-mindedness', 'Critical thinking' and 'Indoctrination'. My specific focus will be on how Christian schools deal with them. For some of my readers who identify with other faiths, what I have to say has equal relevance to you too. Educating the whole child, involves many things, but the role of faith in their (and our) lives must be central and obvious. Etienne Wenger in his book "Communities of Practice" suggests that living in the world is a process of "negotiated meaning". In ..read more

Life as we Inhabit many communities As I have written before on this blog, our children learn much more in the day-to-day life of the school than just curriculum content. Education is more than reception of knowledge. The life of the school in and outside the classroom has an influence in shaping them as people and citizens. Hence, all schools and their teachers have some responsibility to keep in mind a focus on transformation of students as learning and life are enacted together in a school 'community'. A key agenda for teachers and leaders in our schools, should be to narrow the gap betwe ..read more

Foundations for Change in Secular Education While this blog has focused largely on pedagogy in faith-based schools, I've been reminded recently that secular schools face similar challenges with students, and also in relation to teacher development, I think there is more common ground than we might imagine. Having started my teaching life as a non-Christian in secular government run education, I have spent many years helping to develop teachers and schools in both sectors. As such, I have been an insider to both. I often ponder what's the same and what is different? In this post, I want to conc ..read more

The Wisdom of Taylor Swift I started this post on 23.2.24. It was a very warm summer night in Sydney. As we say in Australia, it was a 'sticky' (humid) evening so I had the window in my study wide open. I could hear frogs in various pots in the garden, crickets singing their sweet songs, and Taylor Swift singing in the stadium at Olympic Park, just a 5-minute drive away and about 3 km (as the crow flies). A storm had just passed drenching the 85,000 fans, including one of my granddaughters and her friends. The music started a little late, but they had an amazing night. The following night anot ..read more

My apologies if you follow my Literacy blog as well as this Pedagogy blog (& thanks too!), but I thought readers of this blog might find these ideas from my Literacy blog of help in holiday periods when school is out. In Australia, our schools will close in the third week of December for the Summer holidays which last about 6 weeks. After over two years of COVID isolation, lock downs and disrupted schooling, life is just starting to return to normal. As we enter holiday periods with our children and grandchildren, it's helpful to plan a little. While some children might go to summer camps ..read more

While writing an article for a journal recently, I was reminded of John Stott’s concept of ‘Double Listening’. I believe it needs to be shared with faith-based teachers and schools. John Robert Walmsley Stott was an English Anglican priest and theologian, who was noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He was the founder, director, and honorary president of the London Institute for Contemporary Studies. He wrote 40 books! His work was always filled with great wisdom.   In one of his many publications, ‘The Contemporary Christian: Applying God’s Word to Today’s World’&nbs ..read more

While the blog focus of this blog is pedagogy, and has been unpacking the arguments contained in “Pedagogy and Education for Life”, you might not be aware that I’ve written a number of other books. These include some on literacy and literature. One of my early books was ‘Other Worlds: The Endless Possibilities of Literature’ (T.H. Cairney, Heinemann: Portsmouth New Hampshire, 1990). I’ve been revisiting my literature book recently, as I grapple with an interesting new book about Critical Theory, (C. Watkin, ‘Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life ..read more

What is Mindfulness?  Unpacking what 'Mindfulness' is can be mixed and confusing. It seems while many teachers talk about mindfulness, each does it for different reasons, and with different understandings of what it is. At times, the concept of mindfulness, can become lost in the challenges teachers have at times, handling and teaching diverse students. Ask three teachers what mindfulness is and I suspect you will be given three different answers. Ask the same people why they believe in it, and again you will have different responses. So, what can we agree on? Dr Stephen McKenzie and Ang ..read more