Educating the Will

Doug Blomberg. "Educating the Will". 2014

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Doug Blomberg presented this paper to the Biennial Conference of the International Christian Community for Teacher Education (ICCTE) held at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada from May 28 to May 31, 2014. His presentation began with an exploration of a concept central to a Christian view of the person, that of the will. This was introduced into Western thought through Augustine’s appropriation of the biblical tradition, particularly Paul’s reflections in Romans 7. Whereas cognition and more recently affect have featured most prominently in approaches to education, the will has been largely overlooked. Blomberg seeks to redress this omission, and goes on to illustrate the implications for a pedagogy in which the role of the will is accorded significance. He describes strategies such as “Project-Based Learning” in the context of the curricular rhythm of “Play, Problem-posing, Purposeful Response”, first proposed in A Vision with a Task (Stronks and Blomberg, 1993).

Multiple Intelligences, judgment, and the realization of value.

Blomberg, Douglas Gordon. “Multiple Intelligences, Judgment, and the Realization of Value.” Ethics and Education, 4(2), 2009, Volume 4, Issue 2 pp. 163-175

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences has been enthusiastically received by school teachers, including Christian teachers. Despite its significant positive impact, MI is profoundly deficient in its perspective on the value (normative) dimensions of life, regarding these as subjective, non-rational impositions on intelligent functioning, thus perpetuating the “fact/value” dichotomy that supports the illusion of the religious neutrality of scholarship and schooling.

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Whose spirituality? Which rationality? A narrational locus for learning.

Blomberg, Douglas Gordon “Whose spirituality? Which rationality? A narrational locus for learning.” Journal of Education and Christian Belief, 13(2), 2008, pp. 113-124.

Traditional schooling for the academically inclined is directed toward the intellectual mastery of subjects in isolation from one another, based on the paradigm of scientific specialisation. Taking a cue from cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, I explore a mode of rationality (“narrationality”) that will facilitate schools respecting the interdependence of all that God has made.

New wineskins: Subverting the 'sacred story' of schooling.

Blomberg, Douglas Gordon. “New Wineskins: Subverting the ‘Sacred Story’ of Schooling.” In Christian Higher Education in the Global Context: Implications for Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Administration, pp. 119-214. Ed. N. Lantinga. Sioux Center, IA: Dordt Press, 2008.

If Christian elementary and secondary schools are better to reflect the primacy of experiential knowing as this typifies a biblical wisdom perspective, institutions of higher education need to change their practices. The way in which teachers are taught is one of the most significant influences on the way in which teachers teach. It is relatively futile to pour the new wine of Christian education (as education for discipleship) within the old wineskin of theory into practice (education for the disciplines).

Wisdom and Curriculum: Christian Schooling After Postmodernity

Blomberg, Douglas Gordon. Wisdom and curriculum: Christian schooling after postmodernity. Sioux Center, IA: Dordt Press, 2007.

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Wisdom and Curriculum explores a biblical view of wisdom as a basis for a Christian approach to schooling, proposing an alternative to the conventional model grounded in the theory into practice paradigm of Classical philosophy. The comparison of pre-modern biblical notions with those characterised as ‘postmodern’ is of particular interest, as there are perhaps surprising resonances with – and of course, quite significant differences from – the latter. The book is informed by theological and philosophical insights and is firmly contextualised in the scholarly literature. In style and substance, however, it seeks to address teachers first and foremost, with a focus on supporting them in their professional calling. Indeed, the book has a noticeable biographical tenor, as Blomberg often references his own experience as a teacher and curriculum developer at Mount Evelyn Christian School and elsewhere.

This book is under contract for publication in Korean.

The formation of character: spirituality seeking justice.

Blomberg, Douglas Gordon. “The Formation of Character: Spirituality Seeking Justice.” In Spirituality, Justice and Pedagogy, pp. 91-110. Eds. John Shortt Smith & John Sullivan. Nottingham, UK: The Stapleford Centre, 2006.

One’s perspective on humanness is a crucial determinant of one’s view of education. A Christian virtue ethics, honouring the creational, communal context in which the virtues develop, supports a conception of educational purposes as the getting of wisdom. Spirituality goes “all the way down,” to our fundamental choices concerning whom or what we will serve. Justice is a primary spiritual value; because full flourishing consists in persons standing in right relationships with God and all that God has made, the formation of virtuous character requires spirituality that seeks after justice.

Ways of wisdom: multiple modes of meaning in pedagogy and andragogy.

Blomberg, Douglas Gordon. “Ways of Wisdom: Multiple Modes of Meaning in Pedagogy and Andragogy.” In Ways of Knowing: In Concert, pp. 123-146. Ed. J. Kok. Sioux Center, IA: Dordt Press, 2005.

This article is motivated by twin concerns. The first is with the talents of people that are often unrecognised in schools. The second is the Bible’s teaching on gifts, hand in hand with its central injunction to seek God’s justice. The shape of formal education is fundamentally an issue of justice: how may we deal equitably with the lives of young people compelled to submit to a regime that is supposed to do them good? I explore the understanding that knowing has many forms besides the analytical, that the love of wisdom rather than the acquisition of knowledge should be primary, and how an approach building on these themes would promote the goals of “quality schooling”.

Re-MIND-ing: Renewing the Mind in Learning

Re-MIND-ing: Renewing the Mind in Learning. Doug Blomberg (editor). 1998.

Find it at: AbeBooks.com

Re-MIND-ing: Renewing the Mind in Learning is a collection of papers selected from those presented at the International Scholarly Conference for Christian Educators in Sydney, 1996.

Humans Being: Essays Dedicated to Stuart Fowler

Humans Being: Essays Dedicated to Stuart Fowler. Doug Blomberg (editor). 1996.

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As the sub-title indicates, Humans Being was conceived as a festschrift for Australia’s leading reformational scholar, social philosopher Stuart Fowler. The broad range of topics and contributors testifies to the significant impact of Rev. Dr. Fowler’s work, in partnership with his recently deceased wife, Joy Fowler, whom he never neglected to honour as such.

A Vision with a Task: Christian Schooling for Responsive Discipleship

Co-authors: Gloria Stronks (Coordinator), Doug Blomberg (Editor), Bob Koole, Peter de Boer, Steve Vryhof and Harro Van Brummelen.

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A Vision with a Task is a “how to” book for Christian schools, though the “hows” are clearly rooted in the “whys”. Written by a team of teacher-scholars working together for a year at the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship, this is now considered a classic text for Christian educators. Co-authors Gloria Stronks (Coordinator), Doug Blomberg (Editor), Bob Koole, Peter de Boer, Steve Vryhof and Harro Van Brummelen imagined two schools – a well-established suburban one and its newer, downtown annexe – as sites in which to explore practical ways of advancing Christian discipleship formation across the spectrum of learning. Conversations among fictional teachers intersperse more didactic text, mirroring the rhythm of learning espoused in the book, that of “play, problem-posing, purposeful response.” This “rhythm” is also a model for curriculum, and has been employed in a number of locations, including by the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools. Wisdom and Curriculum is in many respects a sequel to this book.

An abridged version of this book has been published in Mandarin and a Spanish translation is currently being prepared.