Unveiling the Human and the Divine: The Revelatory Power of Popular Religiosity Narratives in Christian Education

This article is an exercise of practical theology in which the author proposes a hermeneutical analysis of popular religiosity stories and their value for Christian education. It explores the context where these stories are born (lo cotidiano/the everyday) and discusses their mediatory potential as articulations of the encounter between God and humanity within history. The author proposes to read these stories with the help of an interpretive approach rooted in Cultural Studies theory. The article concludes with a number of pedagogical recommendations for using popular religiosity narratives as legitimate sources for theological reflection and Christian education, particularly in culturally diverse contexts.     

Towards a Realist Sociology of Education: A Polyphonic Review Essay

This review essay evaluates Karl Maton's Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education as a recent examination of the sociological causes and effects of education in the tradition of the French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu and the British educational sociologist Basil Bernstein. Maton's book synthesizes the scholarship of Bourdieu and Bernstein and complements their work with “discoveries” from the world of systemic functional linguistics to produce a new “realist sociology of education.” It does so by means of Legitimation Code Theory, defined as a “toolkit” to analyze knowledge construction in cultural fields, especially education. The authors of this review essay take a polyphonic approach in assessing this ambitious synthesis, offering four perspectives on Maton's book. Brian Barrett provides a Bernsteinian perspective; Dan Schubert approaches the book from his grounding in Bourdieu; and Susan Hood contributes a view from systemic functional linguistics. Michael Grenfell weaves these three perspectives together and provides introductory and concluding reflections. They aim, through their combined expertise, to use Maton's book as an occasion to take stock of the state of the field of sociology of education generally and to reflect on the questions: What is its nature and what type of knowledge does it express? To what uses may it be set and what is its place within the larger project of educational theory?     

Anxieties of Democracy and Education: Naoko Saito's American Philosophy in Translation

The article is an essay on Naoko Saito's recently published book American Philosophy in Translation. We attempt to draw out the central argument of the book as it moves through its eight chapters. The author finds that American philosophy, which she takes to be rooted in pragmatism, whilst it owes much to Dewey, needs to be reconstructed in order to meet contemporary political challenges, with their implications for political education. She asks questions such as what is the place of the tragic sense of life in philosophical thought? What is a philosophy of affirmation and chance? How are we to understand the significance of the untranslatable? What are these connections between transcendence, translation and transformation? More specifically, how are we to understand the distinction between philosophy in translation and philosophy as translation? And how does all this offer us new ways of thinking about the current state of democracy, political education and education more generally? One specific suggestion is that an education in foreign language can be transformative in terms of political education. The article concludes that Saito's project throws up some important ideas that are pertinent to our times. We question the central idea regarding language education, whilst we welcome this scholarly volume.     

Reimagining Christian Higher Education in China Today

This article focuses on the history of Christian higher education in China as a case study, building upon the work of scholars who have been seeking to better understand the identity and distinguishing marks of Christian higher education in a variety of settings worldwide. Although there had been 13 Christian colleges and universities in China before the Communist rule in 1949, such institutions had totally disappeared from China during the early 1950s, only to be revived to a limited extent three decades later due to a resurgence of the study of the history of Christian colleges in the 1980s. As one manifestation of the renewed interest in Christian higher education, in 2014 Yenching University Alumni Association celebrated the 95th anniversary of the founding of Yenching University in Beijing. This indication of interest reflects a new form of Christian presence in higher education in China that is quite different from elsewhere. In this article, the author describes some of the activities taking place over the past three decades in China that merit scholarly attention more broadly.     

本科教育：创新人才培养之关键

本文阐述了本科教育在创新人才培养体系中的重要性,认为本科教育作为高等教育之本,在创新人才培养中发挥着基础性的重要作用;分析了当前本科教育中影响人才培养质量的主要因素,提出从构建全程化的质量监控体系、实施人才的个性化培养、建立研究型教学制度以及改革学生评价体系四个方面来构建新的人才培养模式。     

The Paramount Importance of Experience and Situations in Dewey's Democracy and Education

In this essay, David Hildebrand connects Democracy and Education to Dewey's wider corpus. Hildebrand argues that Democracy and Education's central objective is to offer a practical and philosophical answer to the question, What is needed to live a meaningful life, and how can education contribute? He argues, further, that this work is still plausible as “summing up” Dewey's overall philosophy due to its focus upon “experience” and “situation,” crucial concepts connecting Dewey's philosophical ideas to one another, to education, and to democracy. He opens the essay with a brief synoptic analysis of Democracy and Education's major philosophical ideas, moves on to sections devoted to experience and situation, and then offers a brief conclusion. Some mention is made throughout about the surprisingly significant role art and aesthetics can play in education.     

THE CLUE TO CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: UNITING THEOLOGY AND EDUCATION, 1950 TO THE PRESENT

Christian religious educators in the Religious Education Association are challenged to reclaim their theological nerve and their partnership in public conversations about the educational practices of U.S. society. Beginning with the work of Randolph Crump Miller in the 1950s, this essay traces through the pages of Religious Education the dialogue about the partnership of education and theology. A practical theology of education is offered where the teaching and forming of Christian identity is complemented with a public theological examination of educational practices and meanings in the wider culture.     

新疆高校对外汉语本科专业实践教学模式探析

通过分析当前新疆高校对外汉语本科专业实践教学模式的现状及存在问题,在理论梳理和大量调研的基础上,提出了实践教学模式的构建思路,并结合新疆高校实际设计了新型实践教学模式,以供读者参考和借鉴。     

向警予妇女解放与社会教育思想研究

向警予同志是中国妇女解放运动的杰出领袖。向警予运用马克思主义观点,结合中国的革命实际情况,深刻地认识到了妇女受到压迫的原因,并提出了妇女解放与社会教育等一系列思想,形成了中国特色的妇女运动理论体系。文章对向警予妇女解放与社会教育思想的思想渊源、主要内容和实践进行研讨,以期确立向警予妇女社会教育和成人教育思想体系和实践体系。     

Learning to be a woman: feminist theological reflections on sex education in church schools

This article suggests that sex education in Church schools should address the personal as political through proclaiming the liberating potential of incarnational theology. The author suggests that Christian sex educators should be alert to the construction and commodification of desire and its attendant capitalist implications. While resisting this grand narrative they should encourage the young to embrace their own human/divine natures and dance in the sensuality of their erotic power.     

论近代基督教大学的职业教育

早期的基督教大学并未特别重视职业教育。从1920年代开始,基督教大学逐渐调整办学方向,开始更多地重视职业教育。基督教大学的职业课程较为重视教学内容的先进性、实用性及活动性,并重视开展实践教学。基督教大学的职业教育,为中国社会培养了各类实用人才,同时也推动了中国职业教育的发展。     

Understanding and Nourishing Christian Vocation to Higher Education in a Postcommunist Society

ABSTRACT

To understand the concept of Christian vocation within the context of higher education in a postcommunist society, reflection on its communist and postcommunist history is necessary. Thus, the authors first present an analysis of Eastern Europe's Marxist past, specifically focusing on the external and internal impact of that past on attitudes toward higher education of people living in a postcommunist society. Marxist statism, or the total dominance of the state over an individual, remains an external influence more than a quarter of a century since Eastern Europe's 1989 democratic revolution that reshaped much of the continent. In considering the topic of vocation within the context of Eastern Europe, the ethos that works inwardly on members of postcommunist societies must be noted: suspicion leading to self-doubt, passivity kept alive by bureaucratization, and strict compartmentalization of knowledge into science versus religion. In the second part of the article, the authors describe the concept of Christian vocation in a postcommunist society, as understood by contemporary younger and older generations based on data from two recent qualitative investigations. These studies allowed for comparison between the generational views and documented important attitudinal changes. The third section concludes by providing examples of good practices for nurturing an understanding of Christian vocation in higher education in a postcommunist context. Although the effectiveness of some of these practices has been documented over time, most are still in their infancy. Despite the new democratic political system, Christians need to reconsider the former dichotomies (i.e., state–church, public–private, scientific–religious) and become more actively involved in previously inaccessible and challenging areas of influential work such as teaching and managerial positions in higher education institutions. It should be noted that the term vocation, as used in languages of postcommunist European countries has several meanings such as invitation, calling, occupation, or profession; accordingly, the authors use the terms vocation and calling interchangeably in this article.     

Globalizing Christian Higher Education: Reflections from Delhi and Kampala

We are currently experiencing a global revolution in Christian higher education. As chronicled in Carpenter, Glanzer, and Lantinga's 2014 Carpenter, J., Glanzer, P., & Lantinga, N. (2014). Christian higher education: A global reconnaissance. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. [Google Scholar] volume titled Christian Higher Education: A Global Reconnaissance, Christian universities are expanding rapidly around the globe. My institution, Cornerstone University, has been involved in this phenomenon by developing international partnerships and expanding our educational presence in Asia. Our involvement has led me to participate in two recent international educational ventures, one a faculty/staff workshop on faith integration at Uganda Christian University, and the other a one-week course in church history for pastors and Christian professionals in Delhi, India.     

Vocation-Oriented Professional Education: Between Cultivating a Talent and Hearing the Call

ABSTRACT

In European higher education, talent-oriented or strength-based education is emerging as a new discourse surrounding the practice of educating for the professional workplace. This approach stresses the role of the personal in the professional, and consequently that personal development and personal flourishing are integral to the professional development of students. In this article, we consider how this orientation resonates with, and even can be a part of, Christian-inspired approaches to higher professional education. Therefore, we first consider this rather recent discourse on talent-oriented education as a part of longstanding pedagogical traditions of professional formation in general; these traditions have stressed the importance of interactions between the “inner” and the “outer” world. Subsequently, we consider the talent-oriented approaches in light of the vocational theories of John Dewey and Eduard Spranger to highlight the focus on the individual development implied in the talent approach. Finally, we examine the relation of the talent approach and vocational theories vis-à-vis Christian notions of professional formation and, specifically, the Christian concept of calling. In the conclusion, we consider the potential and implications of the underlying assumptions and conceptual fundaments of a talent-oriented education for the practice of Christian higher education for professionals.     

高深学问--高等教育哲学研究的核心问题--解读约翰·S·布鲁贝克《高等教育哲学》

《高等教育哲学》以美国当时高等教育大发展为背景,并以高深学问作为其核心问题,对美国高等教育发展过程中出现的许多理论冲突问题从哲学层面进行了阐释。其中许多观点对于解决今天中国正在进行的高等教育大规模发展当中所出现的类似问题有一定的启发意义。     

Academic Faith Integration: Introduction to a New Section Within Christian Higher Education

The following article lays out the rationale and vision for a new section of Christian Higher Education focused on academic faith integration. The section editor provides a brief history of this central aspect of Christian higher education, including some of the opportunities, challenges, and critiques expressed within the scholarly conversation and among Christian university faculty. A definition of academic faith integration is offered, followed by a set of research prompts designed to introduce readers of this journal to the kinds of contributions that are being sought, as well as key criteria that will be used in the review process.     

远程教育是实现高等教育大众化的途径

从马丁高等教育大众化的发展阶段论出发，根据我国高等教育的现状、2010年进入大众化目标以及穷国办大教育的国情，提出实施远程教育是我国高等教育走向大众化的一条投资少、效益高的重要途径。     

新形势下加强高等职业教育实践教学的思考

新形势下要使高职教育能够培养出符合社会需要的高素质技能型人才,最重要的是提高高职教育实践教学的质量,本文对我国高职教育实践教学的内涵和特征,实践教学在高职教育教学中的地位和作用,实践教学爵前存在的主要问题进行了归纳和总结,最后给出了改进高职教育实践性教学的几点建议。以求提高高职教育教学质量,适应当今社会对高职人才的需求。     

浅议高等职业教育的地位和作用

文章以教育立法为依据，阐明了高等职业教育在我国高等教育中的地位和作用。提出了以素质教育为重点，以培养学生创新精神和创造能力为核心，以提高学生实际应用技能为目标的高等职业教育模式，建立面向21世纪的我国高等职业教育体系。