De-colonizing theological education –Learning in the Margins

What does indigeneity teach us about learning?

“What is this obsession CWM has with decolonizing and contextualization?”

Whenever new students start in colleges or universities, I encourage them to start a small notebook and keep it in their pocket. (These days, it may be a memo file on their smartphone!) In it, I explain, we should write down the many words that are used in this God-learning community that are different from how we use words at home. This is the new language you are learning for this new area of study.

In the local congregation, I often hear: “but these Pastors, when they come back from College – they are hard to understand and they have forgotten how to relate with us!” To the shame of theological educators, this is often true. Pastors are often so caught up in the excitement of new concepts about God that they forget how to communicate with their flocks. To the shame of congregations, they are often unwilling to do the hard work with their Pastors to challenge and deepen their faith by seeking greater understanding about God. Extending our vocabularies (word-lists) is a way of increasing our ways of talking about God. Our languages never have enough words to explore the mysteries of

God, but studying new words and ideas does help us to go deeper and get a greater appreciation of the God we are following.

As we gradually fill our notebooks, we also discover made up words and words from other languages that describe something we did not previously have a word for. These new words carry contemporary meaning and arise from our particular context. Often the words need some explanation in order for the meaning to become clear.

On a recent trip to the Taiwan countryside, I visited the “sticky rice” Nuomishih Bridge (糯米石橋). It has the name “sticky rice” because it needed to be rebuilt after being bombed. With the shortage of mortar, a sticky rice paste was made to do the repairs. So, when people say sticky rice in Nantou County, they may be talking about food or they may be talking about a water crossing. The words have acquired new meaning.

On that same trip, I was impressed on a visit to a local indigenous Meiyuan congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT), Dayan Presbytery. The local pastoral team were embedded in local indigenous life in the villages. This is not a Sundays-church. This is a church with a very strong After-school Programme and a Seniors’ Programme. Christian education is understood to be life-long accompaniment. Elementary, Secondary, Tertiary and Post-work education all have a place in church life. It is important to understand that contextual learning is not one-way. We do not simply learn from teachers who fill up our empty vessels. Our lives are already full of knowledge and ideas. Contextual learning focuses more on sharing what we have with one another, learning from one another, learning from our surroundings and valuing discovery. Great contextual teachers are facilitators of discovery, drawing upon local inputs and encouraging contributions from students and their networks. In this model, teachers are not simply experts in a field of study, they are co-learners who agitate and inspire learning communities.

Authentic learning and associated assessment tasks are common approaches used to place learning in the missional context. The learning framework draws on real-world tasks, situations and problems. In doing so, learning and assessment can authentically reflect the mission field. If God’s heart for mission is among the most marginalised in the world, this is where much of our education should take place. If we learn in flashy and comfortable institutions, we will only be prepared for ministry in flashy and comfortable settings. If we learn in the environments of the marginalised, we will be able to develop strategies and skills for working in those spaces.

Building a Centre among the urban workers in Seoul, led to pastoral/mission leaders becoming leaders in workers movements in South Korea. Living among the poor and oppressed workers led to acts of service and help, connected with bible studies and theological reflection about the local condition. The Centre is now regarded as a site of historic importance because the Church’s mission of assisting the labour movement was instrumental in re-humanising labour. People were valued for who they are rather than just what they do. Understanding the nature of God, in whose image we are made, is essential to being able to redeem and reclaim humanity, especially when particular groups are marginalised or oppressed.

Undertaking bible study and theological reflection among the poor communities in South America inspired the development of Liberation Theology. Undertaking bible study and theological reflection among poor workers in Korea inspired the development of Minjung Theology. Undertaking bible study and theological reflection among women inspired Feminist Theology. Undertaking bible study and reflection among black and ‘coloured’ communities inspired Black Theology. Undertaking bible study and theological reflection among communities of coloured women inspired Womanist Theology. The list goes on.

None of these theologies are to be feared. It is quite wonderful and inspiring to discover that God’s Holy Scriptures can be used in every setting and every context. There is so much to read and discover together and our different understandings simply point us toward a God who is great enough for all, not just for some. However, each of these theological developments reveal a common temptation that resurfaces every generation. Churches and their leaders are tempted to define an orthodoxy and control system that limits biblical interpretation to what is comfortable for this particular community. When people challenge a narrow interpretation, find themselves on the margins and are eventually asked to leave a community, it is often a sign that a church places its faith in its own culture than in the God who keeps moving toward the marginalised.

To ‘colonize’ means to establish control over others. To ‘decolonize’ then means to return selfdetermination to the people. This is done, not with the goal of independence, but with the goal of respectful inter-dependence. We want our sisters and brothers to experience freedom and liberation in the Gospel, so that they might claim, in their own ways, their unique relationships with God and one another, and with us. As we seek freedom for ourselves, we also seek it for other. The work of decolonizing requires us to look at what systems oppress people. How is control established over people? When should this be challenged? When is the church involved in colonizing others? How do we bring back an emphasis on respect for one another and the encouragement of agency – the liberation to choose life?

Decolonizing theological education may involve the following:

• Identifying multiple starting points for talking about God, embracing new language

• Re-imaging God, embracing new artistic impressions

• Redesigning course content, including contextual sources

• Redesigning course assessment, inviting comment from the margins

When I look at courses, I ask:

• Does the reading list reflect a particular form of intellectual oppression? Or does it include input from a range of sources?

• Does the teaching input include a diversity of educational methods and an understanding of multiple intelligence strategies of learning?

• Does the course delivery disadvantage particular people groups?

• Do I see signs of privileging a particular colonizing community? (e.g. is Jesus perceived to be Western and white?)

When we think about communities as clusters of people, we might see that those on the margins can often feel a long way away from each other. (The margins are not just found in one direction.) Diaconal (service-oriented) ministry may find workers moving along the margins, finding different concerns and salvation needs. There can be different starting points, both for learning and mission/ministry. I find it helpful to return to indigenous learning from Aboriginal Australians who belong to the oldest known living culture in the world (60,000 years).

In the 8-ways learning framework, we discover different places to start. There are strict protocols about choosing order, not just bending knowledge to suit ourselves. In this model, the respectful protocol is to start in a spot and follow lines in a journey of discovery and exploration. Do not leap from one spot to another without following the learning that is on the path connected by lines. My aboriginal sisters sometimes criticize western education as being too quick to ignore certain sources of deep knowledge. In the rush to move from symbols to story-sharing, they may ignore non-verbal inputs and learning maps which will better help to frame the story. There is much wisdom to be gained by considering additional contextual inputs.

The teachers who have inspired me most are the ones who keep learning. They are always stretching themselves and going beyond their previous insights. I want to keep coming back to learn from them, partly because they also invite me to share my learnings with them. I love teaching because I learn so much from my students and their communities. I appreciate the possibilities of CWM because there is so much to learn from each other and from our ecumenical relationships.

Rev. Dr Amelia Koh-Butler Mission Secretary - Education, Formation and Empowerment & Pacific Region