Relational theories of self are grounded in the openness of fluid identity construction a stress on personal narrative as a relational way of knowing depends upon the openness of experiencing subjects to each other an ethic of risk and discernment emphasizes openness in the courage and responsibility required to act within ambiguity and the openness of receptivity is a prerequisite for engaging the potentially transformative power of beauty.Fox News has reported that Indiana University of Pennsylvania expelled a student for "claiming there are two genders" in a class on Christianity. Each of these themes arises from a foundational orientation to openness. A spirituality of openness manifests in four prominent themes which recur across diverse Christian ecofeminist thinkers. Because ecofeminist values span religious differences, exploring a spirituality evident across Christian ecofeminist authorsmakes a contribution to inter-religious feminist work. more Feminists have critiqued assumptions and structures of inter-religious dialogue even as they have acknowledged the need for more feminist presence in this area. I am also indebted to anonymous reviewers and editor Tom Pearson for helping me to bring more order and clarity to these reflections.įeminists have critiqued assumptions and structures of inter-religious dialogue even as they have. I explore in this essay how I reoriented my world religions course to provide opportunities for greater personal engagement by students, encouraging their 1 I thank the members of the College Theology Society (CTS) for the informal feedback many provided on my preliminary work with this material at the 2013 CTS Annual Conference. The transformation I went through helped me see the value of my work with these students in a different way. I am thankful to the hundreds of students who, simply by being themselves and enrolling in classes I was fortunate to teach, were catalysts for my pedagogical and theological self-examination and growth. Wrestling with this shame became a transformative process for me which, eventually, empowered me to affirm the worth of my work by researching a sample course and writing this essay. 1 The " Show and Tell " aspect of the essay follows the personal narrative because my pedagogical reflection arose out of and is inseparable from an intense struggle of many years with adjunct shame. This essay embeds elements of the " Show and Tell " genre regarding a particular world religions survey course within the larger framework of a personal narrative which sketches my adjunct identity and the challenge of teaching large lecture classes of at-risk students enrolled in a state university. – Parker Palmer In their typology of the scholarship of teaching and learning in theology and religion, Killen and Gallagher (2013) identify six genres, two of which are the " Personal/ Confessional/Vocational, " which proceeds from the assumption that " insight comes from reflection on the experience and person of the teacher " (116) and the " Show and Tell, " which " attempts to identify precisely why a particular teaching strategy did or did not work as anticipated " (115). I argue that despite many contextual limitations, the movement toward deepening self-awareness and increasing openness to religious diversity seen in student writing demonstrates that transformative learning began in this course, and that is valuable for students' lives whether or not they are academically successful. Insights from my feminist theological training helped me to affirm the importance of encouraging transformative learning in teaching the academically marginalized and prompted my analysis of student writing in an introductory World Religions course, in order to determine whether or not the course was a site of transformative learning. more This essay describes a transformation in my experience as an adjunct teaching underprepared students from one of shame toward a desire to assert the value of this work. This essay describes a transformation in my experience as an adjunct teaching underprepared stude.
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