2004 Meeting Theme

Contextual Pedagogies: Teaching Context as Religious Text
November 5-7, 2004
Brown Palace-Comfort Inn Complex 
Denver, Colorado
A joint meeting of APRRE and the Religious Education Association (REA)

Religious education has been understood as a profession standing at a fork in the road facing “faithfulness to the ancient and honorable paths of the fathers” on the one hand, and the knowledge required for contemporary religious living on the other.[1] Faith communities and the world demand accountability for both an authentic and usable knowledge -- knowledge to help persons understand and respond to spiritual experiences.  Much of the debate at APRRE and REA over the past years has centered on which road to take. Educators with a pastoral focus may downplay the ancient text and those with an academic focus may believe that the present context is not their major concern.

In teaching, the text is typically understood as a book containing the gathered wisdom of a scholar, or a community, that a teacher uses to help students enlighten their experience.  The context, on the other hand, can refer to the setting or times in which a particular text was produced.  Context can also mean the present reality: the places from which students come -- the influences of community surroundings, racial background, family structure; and places to which they will go -- faith communities and neighborhoods in conflict, atomized societies, pluralistic worlds. Here teachers help students both gain and use the knowledge that no “text” may yet contain.

Perhaps, the challenge of our theme can be captured in the wit and wisdom of Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Relating text and context calls us to teaching practices that, in David Tracy’s words, engage a “mutual critical correlation between an interpretation” of the religious experience and the contemporary situation.[2] This means reading the texts with a commitment to the poor and marginalized in their contexts, teaching -- context as religious text.

The issues of text and context, while not phrased in these words, have been the focus for REA and APRRE in past discussions of “theory and practice.”  In Denver we can take a next step with a critical study of religious educators’ teaching practices (contextual pedagogy) connecting students’ learning to the contexts of life and also connecting the realities of present life to a reinterpretation of the texts. Our aim is a more dynamic description of teaching in religious education promoting its enhancement to benefit communities of faith and the broader public.

Questions and comments about the theme and offers to assist in the design the meeting may be directed to President-Elect, Bob O’Gorman  e-mail: rogorma@luc.edu