28.2 CTJ May2020

The Christian Teachers Journal MAY 2020 VOL 28.2

Reconciliation Week Seeking Shalom in a Stolen Land Reconciliation and Relationship

ISSN 2652-0834

Culture, Crayfish, and the Cross Christian Schooling and Online Learning The Christian Teachers Journal May 2020

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The Christian Teachers Journal May 2020

SEND US AN ARTICLE All contributions welcomed.

Do you have a perspective you would like to share? A curriculum approach or a gospel-shaped pedagogy that you want to write about for your own professional development? We would love to hear from you.

Articles, book reviews, curriculum responses, stories, etc. welcome. ctj@cen.edu.au For Submission Guidelines visit: www.cen.edu.au/index.php/ services/christian-teachers-journal

EDITOR: Chris Parker EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Dr Jill Ireland Judy Linossier Dr Fiona Partridge Tim White EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE: Chris Parker +61 2 4773 5800 ctj@cen.edu.au

editorial When initial planning for this edition began, the world was a different place.

Well, some things were the same: God being sovereign; His promises true; His Kingdom coming; and His plan for reconciling all things. However, since then a global viral pandemic has changed society, and brought a significant disruption to schooling—including Christian schooling. The sudden shift of learning, for most students, to the home has resulted in great challenge (and stress) for many Christian educators. CTJ wants to acknowledge your hard work and commitment during this difficult time.

This move to home learning has in many cases meant a move to online delivery, and although this raises many issues such as equity of access, and the role that parents play, we have included an article specifically exploring Christian education and online learning. It provides discussion questions that Christian educators (and schools) might find helpful to work through.

Other articles in the edition bring reflections on reconciliation as the edition coincides with Reconciliation Week in Australia. We trust that these articles will challenge us to be an authentic voice for the pursuit, and celebration, of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our communities and nation. What a great opportunity Christian schools have not only to teach about reconciliation but also to become beacons for reconciliation—both within our schools, and flowing from our schools as our students bring Christ’s redemptive good news to all corners of life.

Chris Parker Editor

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A JOURNAL FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS The vision of the journal is to affirm the lordship of Christ in education. It aims to serve Christian educators, challenging them to a fuller understanding of their task and responsibilities; raising issues critical to the development of teaching and learning in a distinctively Christian way.

The Christian Teachers Journal is published by teachers as a forum for the exchange of ideas and practices for teachers to advance the cause of Christ in education.

contents

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Living Justly: Seeking Shalom in a Stolen Land Daniel Clarke

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Christian Schooling and Online Learning Chris Parker Culture, Crayfish, and the Cross Karen Fletcher

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Student Reflections on Reconciliation Rachel Herweynen

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Reconciliation Means Relationship in Christian Schools Chris Garner

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Understanding the Past and Shaping the Future Dr Fiona Partridge

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My Top Shelf Dr Richard Edlin

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Views and opinions of writers and advertisers do not necessarily represent the position of this journal nor of the publisher.

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Living Justly: Seeking Shalom in a Stolen Land

By Daniel Clarke

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Talmage’s The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788 (1937) intrigues and disturbs me. As I look at what the painting includes (and excludes) and who it honours (and who it fails to honour), the more I realise it tells a powerful, legitimising myth. The myth is about the arrival of Europeans to this continent and completely neglects Australian first nations people and their culture. As a follower of Jesus and citizen of Australia with a European heritage, what am I to make of this aspect of my history? How should the Christian schools in which I work respond in a God-honouring way?

This article contends that Christian schools in Australia must proclaim the full history of our nation and actively work toward reconciliation and justice. After highlighting the centrality of justice to the biblical message, three issues are addressed.

Justice is woven throughout our sacred text. The Old Testament people of God understood Yahweh as a God of justice who required His people to enact justice in every aspect of their daily lives. Their songs, law, history, and prophets were infused with justice (Lev 19:15; Deut 16:20; Ps 33:5; Prov 29:7; Isa 1:17; Hos 12:6; Amos 5:24; Mic 6:8; Zech 7:9). They were called to be a people living out God’s character in every aspect of their culture.

As Jesus proclaimed the coming Kingdom of God, He embodied justice. Jesus fed the hungry (Matt 14:15), honoured the marginalised (Matt 19:14), included the despised (John 4), and connected with the abandoned (Matt 8:3). Jesus’ example and teaching require that His followers be a people who seek God’s shalom in their time and place.

Following Jesus in the work of reconciliation and justice is daunting as it requires us to leave the comfortable and move outward (Mark 16:15) into the unfamiliar. Following Jesus takes us to the margins, moving from positions of cultural power and privilege to sit alongside people from other cultures, traditions, and beliefs. Seekers of justice reach out; not under the Constantine banner of co-opted religion to subjugate and enforce, but with the same humility which saw the Son of God revealed at the stable.

Despite the compelling scriptural injunction to be a people of reconciliation and justice, there is sometimes hesitancy in becoming involved in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice and reconciliation in Christian schools. In the second half of this article, I address three issues that may cause hesitancy. The first two may be relevant to all Australians, and the third is particularly pertinent to Christian schools.

Issue One: “What if I didn’t do anything wrong?”

Some people may feel that as they were not present in 1788 when the British ships arrived in Botany Bay or at the consequent atrocities that occurred to Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, they do not need to be involved in

reconciliation. I believe Jesus’ answer to the question, “Who is my neighbour?” precludes an exemption based on causation. Finding who caused a problem is an entirely different matter to working toward an answer. While Jesus’ parable included the plight of one traveller, the situation in Australia today is more extensive. It reaches across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities where inequity exists in many areas including higher incarceration and child mortality rates and lower rates of academic achievement, employment, and life expectancy.

While I assume that the readers of this article have not personally displaced anyone, stolen land, or asked an Indigenous person to work for nothing, I still contend that all non-Indigenous people in Australia have benefitted from unjust practices and systems. Our schools and homes are built on the land that was once the home of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This land was never ceded. Our Government receives revenue from the extraction of resources from the land and sea and is the only Commonwealth country that does not have a treaty with its Indigenous people. Australian culture privileges those with a Western worldview, and the unstated benefits from having a Western outlook and white skin cannot be overestimated. Australian society privileges Western values of science over spirituality, productivity over relationships, text over speech, progress over tradition, democracy over consensus, and individuality over community. For non-Indigenous Australians, this way of viewing the world is ‘common sense’; however, this presents a barrier blocking entry into society to those from other cultural backgrounds. In Australia, the official language is English; the legal system is based on Western concepts of justice, and trading practices reflect Western economic values. Our Government, naming conventions, family structures, aspirations, and fables are all based on Western understandings and privilege non-Indigenous people. By association and location, we are all involved, and it is a fallacy to say it is not our issue. We have been charged with the responsibility to seek justice, and we are invited to partner in God’s grand story of restoration and reconciliation.

Issue Two: “Haven’t many cultures been invaded in the past?”

When I went to school, learning about events such as the Stolen Generations, Resistance wars, massacres, and exploitative labour were things I learned about from a distance through books during history lessons. This is not the case for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for whom these events have ongoing daily reality (Bevis, Pepper, and Powell, 2018, p. 4). People who are alive today lived on reserves, had their daily lives controlled by white superintendents, answered to morning roll calls and nightly curfews, were arrested for being late (Palm Island, n.d.), were restricted in their ability to travel or control their own money, and had parents taken away from their families. This is not The Christian Teachers Journal May 2020

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Following Jesus in the work of reconciliation and justice is daunting as it requires us to leave the comfortable and move outward into the unfamiliar.

just history for many people: it is a present reality. A sentiment that suggests that they should ‘get over it’ assumes that there are no ongoing issues, yet we know that it is: the current bias in our society that prevents Indigenous people from achieving the quality of life that would otherwise be possible. This is evident in the skyrocketing incarceration rates, devastatingly high suicide rates, unacceptable mortality gap and everyday discrimination.

We’re still a society where 1 in 5 people openly admit to having racist attitudes towards Indigenous people.

(Australians Together, n.d.)

Irrespective of the method used to date the arrival of Aboriginal people to Australia (Walker, 2017), the 200 years of colonial presence is a mere blink of an eye. It is analogous to someone breaking into a family home, trashing the place, killing a family member, and then a day later telling the rest of the family to ‘get over it’. The injustice is real, present, and ongoing. Seeking justice and reconciliation is our issue, and we must continue partnering in God’s grand story of restoration and reconciliation.

Issue Three: “Aren’t Indigenous cultures unbiblical?”

Christian educators take seriously Jesus’ injunction about not causing a child to stumble (Mark 9:42). They are sincere in their desire to protect students against influences that may undermine their assumptions of the biblical text. This is a relevant concern. Parents send their children to Christian schools, in part, because they trust the school to protect them and teach from a biblical position. The difficulty arises as we see the speck in others’ eyes (Matt 7:5), but are often blind to our own bias. If a school board, staff, parents, and students predominantly come from white, middle-class families, then it is safe to assume that white middle-class values, attitudes, aspirations, and biases influence the school—even while Jesus’ Lordship is proclaimed. There is truth in the observation attributed to Voltaire that in the beginning God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favour ever since. While affluence, narcissism, and individualism are not biblical, it is difficult for a culture pickled in these norms to recognise them. A school sincere in its calling to protect students will see the dangers of confining itself into a sealed echo chamber. The answer is not rejecting one culture and elevating another, for all cultures have their own bias, but in coming together in mutual respect to discover what ‘Lordship’ looks like from

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other perspectives and submitting all cultures to God’s will.

Following Jesus in the work of reconciliation and justice is liberating and enriching as we allow ourselves to listen to and learn from people outside our heritage. New ways of expressing old truths are revealed, and unexamined certainties become uncomfortable. Don Richardson (1981) reminds us that God has revealed himself throughout history to many cultures. As we let others inform our traditions and we celebrate Jesus’ Lordship in unfamiliar ways, we anticipate the time when there will be “a great multitude … from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev 9:7).

A Response In his book, On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom, David Smith invites educators to connect vision and engagement by “reshaping practice” (2018, p. 73). For Christian educators, Jesus’ life provides an example and demands a response. Our schools must declare the truth of historical and current injustice in our land as well as announce the good news that God is “putting the world to rights” (Wright, 2005). In a landscape of violence (Prentis, 2019) and racism (Australians Together, n.d.) Christian schools are called to be embassies of the Kingdom where justice rolls down like a river (Amos 5:24) and students fall in love with acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with their God (Mic 6:8). The all-encompassing proclamation of the gospel is to flow into our schoolyards, classrooms, policies, and boardrooms. Our lessons can teach history in a way that liberates both the oppressed as well as the oppressor (Freire, 1972): acknowledging the wrong that has been committed in the past and the continuing suffering. Our enrolment policies can welcome the stranger (Matt 25:38) with as much enthusiasm and honour as if we were welcoming Jesus himself. Our walls can have posters that display Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and our library can have resources that promote and celebrate Indigenous storytellers. Our meetings can begin by acknowledging we are meeting on land that has been cared for by traditional custodians. Our boards, associations, and student councils can seek advice on decisions, asking for input from local elders to see how our decisions may affect others. We can stand alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as they seek a First Nations voice in the Australian Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making and truth-telling

While affluence, narcissism, and individualism are not biblical, it is difficult for a culture pickled in these norms to recognise them.

between Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (“Uluru Statement from the Heart”, 2017).

In response to the issues raised in this article, some schools may choose to do nothing. Choosing not to tell our true history and connect with Indigenous cultures through activities such as celebrating NAIDOC assembly, flying the Indigenous flag, displaying Indigenous artwork, or having a Reconciliation Action Plan (Nurragunnawali, n.d.) is taking a stand. Doing nothing is not a neutral response. Just as the artist Talmage’s choice to ‘not draw’ reinforced a lie, so our choices to ‘not do’ also says something powerful about what we value. Christian educators have an opportunity to paint a new reality which mourns wrong, honours truth, celebrates neighbourliness, and practices justice.

Resources For schools wishing to think more about their response, the good news is there are many places that are keen to assist: TEAR: www.tear.org.au/what-we-do/first-peoples Common Grace: www.commongrace.org.au World Vision: www.worldvision.com.au Narragunnawali: www.narragunnawali.org.au Reconciliation Australia: www.reconciliation.org.au

Smith, D. I. (2018). On Christian teaching: Practicing faith in the classroom. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans.

Talmage, A. (1937) The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, January 26th 1788 [Original oil sketch - 77 x 106.5 cm, in carved gilded wooden frame, 93 x 123 cm]. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Available from https://trove.nla. gov.au/work/13107904?q&versionId=262567087 Uluru Statement from the Heart. (2017). Retrieved from https:// www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/Uluru_ Statement_From_The_Heart_0.PDF Walker, T. (2017). DNA research says Australian Aborigines arrived 50,000 years ago. But how reliable are the ‘molecular clocks’?

Retrieved from https://creation.com/dna-research-australianaborigines-50000-years-ago Wright, N. T. (2005). The Christian challenge in the postmodern world.

Lecture at the Church Leaders’ Forum, Seattle Pacific University.

Retrieved from https://spu.edu/depts/uc/response/summer2k5/

Discussion Questions Read, reflect, and discuss with your colleagues the following: • How many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are you friends with (share a meal and visit each other)?

Australians Together: australianstogether.org.au/about-us/

• What are the ways we as a school are already being a place where ATSI people feel welcome?

References

• Daniel highlights the centrality of justice to the biblical message. In which ways do you agree/ disagree with this?

Australians Together. (n.d.). What about history? How our history of invasion and social control impacts today. Retrieved from https:// australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/get-over-it/ Bevis, S., Pepper, M., & Powell, R. (2018). Indigenous and nonIndigenous relations in churches. NSW, Australia: NCLS Research.

Retrieved from https://www.ncls.org.au/resources/downloads/ NCLS%20Occasional%20Paper%2033%20Indigenous%20and%20 Non-Indigenous%20Relations%20in%20Churches.pdf

• Daniel suggests three objections people may give. Have you heard others and how would you respond?

• If we were to consider implementing a Reconciliation Action Plan, what would be our first step and who would be involved?

Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Herder and Herder.

Nurragunnawali. (n.d.). What is a RAP. Retrieved from https://www. narragunnawali.org.au/raps/what-is-a-rap Palm Island. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.qld.gov.au/ atsi/cultural-awareness-heritage-arts/community-histories/ community-histories-n-p/community-histories-palm-island Prentis, B. (2019). The violence embedded in the landscape. Retrieved from https://www.commongrace.org.au/day2_the_violence_ embedded_in_the_landscape Richardson, D. (1981). Eternity in their hearts. Ventura, CA: Regal Books.

Daniel has had the privilege of working in schools in Tasmania (Tommeginne land), Northern Territory (Yolngu land), Western Australia (land of Yamatji people), and Queensland (Bindal and Wulgurukaba land). He is grateful to Indigenous people who have shared stories and helped him see the world through their eyes.

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Christian Schooling and

ONLINE LEARNING

By Chris Parker

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Introduction Can Christian education be authentically delivered online?

Can Christian schooling ‘go online’ and still offer a Christian education? When schools find themselves in a push to move their teaching and learning temporarily into online formats (as many have done through the global coronavirus outbreak), Christian schools need to ask these big questions lest they fall into a pragmatism that may work against their mission and vision to deliver a distinctive Christian education. This article serves as a guide to schools and educators during this period when asking these crucial questions.

Frameworks for designing online learning often speak of the three Cs that are important to consider. In a oneday professional development workshop offered by the University of Sydney, I was taught that one must consider content, context, and community when designing an online

curriculum. Although a Google search for “the three Cs of online learning” returns many different schemas (e.g., content, connect, collaborate; content, construction, consolidation; consistency, creativity, community; connectivity, compassion, communication, etc.), this article will explore Christian education and online learning using content, context, and community with their alignment to curriculum design, formational learning, and the learning community and culture.

This article will also explore some of the hidden curriculum learning that may occur when education is moved into an online format and finish with suggestions for Christian educators to consider in their attempt to redeem these narratives. We will conclude with a checklist of questions and considerations for schools, and teachers, when moving Christian education online.

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We should consider social media’s hidden character-shaping message that not only is it okay to be narcissistic (self-focused in our interaction with the world), but that it is also virtuous.

Asynchronous and Synchronous A note on the timing of online learning. Many schools have a suite of learning areas that have previously adopted a blended approach where asynchronous online learning is offered as an adjunct to the face-to-face classroom learning—this has existed for many years in some schools.

Christian schools considering moving some of their learning online will need to decide between the learning being synchronous (all learners connecting at the same time) or asynchronous (learning is individually paced and accessed flexibly at a time that suits the learner). This decision will have significant pragmatic system-based considerations, but may also be driven by important principles such as connection, relationship, and community. It may even be that schools which have previously developed blended approaches may choose to rework the online component to being synchronous, so that online learners and face-to-face learners may still follow the same timetable.

This article raises questions and considerations for all variations of online learning, while acknowledging that the emphasis on the considerations may be different for asynchronous and synchronous expressions.

The Medium Has a Shaping Influence Before exploring the 3 Cs of online learning, we briefly turn our attention to the notion so helpfully explored by McLuhan when he claimed that “the medium is the message” (1964). The more that we move from simple face-to-face communicating of a message, toward using a technology to mediate the message, the more the message will have additional layers of shaping influence woven in. The message is still there, but it comes riding a Trojan horse (the technology) full of an army of hidden messages with varying levels of threat. As teachers we must consider the hidden curriculum that may be unfolded in this way, and especially so when we embrace a full delivery of learning in an online format. As Christian teachers we consider and critique the “pattern of this world” potentially woven into the technologies we employ to avoid having minds transformed by them. We both employ, and teach, a discernment and wisdom that are shaped by God’s revealed Word to allow our minds to be renewed (Rom 12:2).

Consider social media by way of example. An analysis of this media might suggest that it is simply a form of

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communicating news, information, and personal updates with a chosen selection of people/friends. Social media technology simply makes it more efficient—traveling around door-to-door to tell your select group of a life update, is replaced by the ease of broadcasting the same message with the press of a button. However, the question must be asked, “Is efficiency the only thing that has been added to this human transaction, or does the medium have additional messages woven in?”.

At one level there may be hidden messages around the definition of what is ‘news’ and what is suitable as a personal update—and we could all cite potential (even comical) examples of the trivialising that has resulted. At another level, perhaps more significant, we consider the hidden charactershaping message that it is not only okay to be narcissistic (selffocused in our interaction with the world), but that it is also virtuous. Social commentators are recognising the rise of the acceptance of narcissism resulting from online engagement.

Even when we use a medium/technology well, we may still be shaped by the ‘pattern’ of the medium.

Christian schools must always be aware of the hidden curriculum woven into the technologies embraced by the institution and its community. From school uniforms to timetables, additional messages are being given. Therefore, the Christian school moving teaching and learning online must be equally diligent in asking questions about the messages of life and world that might be woven in to the medium.

Discard or Discernment Do we conclude then that technology is ruinous and to be avoided?; that authentic Christian education can’t, maybe shouldn’t, be taught online? Absolutely not. As with all things, we recognise that God in His graciousness has given us a good world to live and play in. This goodness extends to the abilities He has given humans, through His common grace, to invent and innovate amazing technologies.

However, we also recognise that the cracks, resulting from our rebellion, that are woven through all things, provide anchor points for the “powers of this dark world” (Eph 6: 12) that whisper woven messages that pull us away from full God-honouring lives.

We therefore embrace the possibilities of technologies to serve needs. Sometimes those needs are acute and the technology becomes a rich blessing. The move by schools

The more that we move from simple face-to-face communicating of a message, toward using a technology to mediate the message, the more that the message will have additional layers of shaping influence woven in.

(including Christian schools) around the world towards a large part of their learning online, as they temporarily perform school at home during the coronavirus pandemic, is a great example. However, we must embrace with discernment and wisdom. We acknowledge the distortions, avoid naive pragmatism, and discern the hidden messages.

We nurture a wise approach through prayer and, perhaps most importantly, we seek to teach and model this discernment and wisdom to the students in our care.

might be to squeeze a biblical perspective into the material.

This may result in a tacky, out-of-context use of the Bible and may actually inoculate the students against the full impact of the gospel. Perhaps this is all the more tempting with Bible plugins, and the ease of hyperlinking to biblical texts? Does online curriculum design require a greater diligence and commitment to ensuring a biblical foundation from the beginning, lest the ‘medium’ inadvertently fragment the desired message of authentic Christian education?

Curriculum Design (Content)

Formational Learning (Context)

Christian educators recognise that every time curriculum is taught, it is unfolded through a particular view of the world—its origins, nature, status, and purpose, etc. Christian education includes the intention to unfold all curricula through a view of life and world that is shaped by the big, beautiful, biblical narrative (as opposed to the materialist, humanity-centred, secular lens that pervades Western culture). Van Dyk (2012) suggests that all teaching involves unfolding, but the Christian teacher asks, is it “… merely a world of nature controlled by natural law, or a creation revealing God’s presence, power and love?”.

The context in which teaching and learning occurs will significantly influence the impact and transfer of the ideas to other learning and life settings—the depth of learning. A learning session that has students copy information from the board to their books, compared to one where the same content is taught through a pre-test, a suite of Socratic questions, a mock debate, small group discussion, and a personal reflection on progress along a learning journey, provides a quite different context for the content. This is the teaching and learning context. It is of equal importance as curriculum design, and it is certainly no less important in online learning than in more traditional classroom settings.

This is no less the case when designing online content.

However, the plethora of impressive adjunct curriculum material available online, and the ease in which it can be integrated into our online learning packages—with the click of a few buttons—might bring a temptation to let the quality of these resources drive the design of the curriculum.

In Transformation by Design: The Big Picture, Dickens et al.

(2015) suggest that designing Christian curriculum is like building a house where it is important to first design, plan, and build a solid framework that everything else then hangs on (plumbing, ceiling, wall sheets, lights and, ultimately, the family photos). Starting with the ceiling fans, the paint, and the kitchen cupboards when designing a house, may result in lovely colours and fixtures, but they might be sitting within a poorly designed—or non-existent—framework. Without the solid biblical foundation and perspective driving the design, the hidden messages of the media (online learning technologies), or even the dominant secular patterns, might have the strongest formational impact.

Additionally, if the curriculum design does not begin with a solid biblical framework of bearers, joists, studs, and noggins, the tendency, of even the well-meaning Christian educator,

When external forces press upon the limited resources of teaching (time pressures, structural pressures, cultural pressures), learning in all settings may have a tendency to fall back to an emphasis on mere information at the cost of deeper transformation—a transformation that Christian education seeks. Smith (2009) suggests: Education is not primarily … concerned with providing information; rather, education most fundamentally is a matter of formation, a task of shaping and creating a certain kind of people. These people are distinct because of what they love and desire – the kingdom of God. (p. 26) Are there characteristics inherent in online learning structures and transmission that may result in the Christian educator needing to fight harder not to default back to information delivery over deeper formational learning? If we consider a continuum that goes from data, to information, to knowledge, to wisdom, we recognise that the ultimate goal of Christian education is to move through to a discerning wisdom. However, the information and communication technologies that are the backbone of online learning are so proficient at the data and information end of the continuum

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Christian educators recognise that every time curriculum is taught, it is unfolded through a particular view of the world—its origins, nature, status, and purpose.

that a whispered hidden message, “There is no real need to progress further along towards wisdom”, may be at times woven into learning. As teachers embrace online learning for the first time, there may be a tendency to focus on the translation of the curriculum content into informational forms with an initial under-emphasis on learning design that incorporates intentional transformational strategies.

In Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning, Hanscamp et al. (2019) offer 10 examples of teaching and learning strategies that may aid in deeper formational learning in our pursuit of more than mere information. See Table 1 below: Example Strategy

Description

Hook

Creative way to launch and engage students into a new topic area

Clash

Contrasting ideas, cognitive dissonance, charitable debating, etc.

Collaborate

Social learning and engaging by empowering student voice

Connect

Connecting content to life and other audiences

Experience

Immersing students in authentic learning experiences

Question

Using questioning to challenge and pivot students in their learning

Story

Using story, anecdote, and testimony open up the learning

Reflect

Metacognition and reflecting; learning about learning

Think

Fostering critical thinking, discernment, and wisdom

Act

The response action that flows from learning

Table 1. Adapted from Hanscamp (2019, p. 156)

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It may be that online learning offers an even wider selection of formational learning that leads to wisdom (whether synchronous, asynchronous, or blended). Online learning may offer new and creative formational learning strategies.

However, Christian educators will need to be deliberate in leveraging this potential of online tools, while being careful not to uncritically embrace novel strategies—acknowledging that novelty, surface engagement, and excitement that might motivate students to keep busy, don’t necessarily result in deeper formational learning.

Learning Culture (Community) An authentic and mutually respectful relationship between the teacher and the student is crucial for deep learning.

When this relational truth is extended to the class as a community, powerful engaged learning can result.

This is why Christian educators all over the globe are currently exploring ways to leverage the available features of online learning to reduce the de-humanising tendency that moving from the classroom to online learning brings—the increased presence of technology as a mediator. We will have varying levels of success at this, as it is inherently a compromise for a time, but it is a noble and important thing to bring our God-given creative energies to.

Christian educators also need to be continually discerning of the community/culture shaping that many of the tools and practices woven into online learning might bring. Are there structures, features, plugins, tools that might actually be shaping a culture in the class community that ultimately promotes competitive individualism and unhelpful comparison? There are many high quality, engaging ‘social’ features within online learning platforms, and available broadly on the Internet, that are easily integrated, but are they ultimately going to help or hinder the creation of a self-less, grace-full, God-motivated learning community with a shared vision for learning? Are there ways that we can adapt, modify, and rework features so to minimise the counter-biblical ‘message’ of individualism and maximise the true story of flourishing relationship and community in the context of learning?

Christian education includes the intention to unfold all curricula through a view of life and world that is shaped by the big, beautiful, biblical narrative.

Conclusion The transition by Christian schools into delivering a significant portion of their teaching and learning into an online medium is new territory for Christian schools. Even though the vision and objectives of Christian education may not have changed at all, the form and medium are new.

Whenever we walk into new territory the energies of mere adjustment can be all-consuming. Are you finding this at the moment? While we step forth into the new, we must commit a goodly portion of our energies to the original vision of Christian education, lest the medium, with its hidden temptations and pragmatisms, pull us away from the Lordship of Jesus over the education of our children.

The following questions may serve as a checklist to aid in practical critical reflection. The encouragement is to discuss and review with colleagues. Because this is such new territory, maybe staff meetings could have a portion dedicated to exploring some of these questions/issues.

References Dickens, K., Hanscamp, M., Mustin, A., Parker, C., Stok, J., & White, T. (2015). Transformation by design: The big picture. Mulgoa: National Institute for Christian Education.

Hanscamp, M., Clarke, D., Mustin, A., & Parker, C. (2019).

Transformation by design: Crafting formational learning. Mulgoa: Christian Education National.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man.

Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Smith, J. K. A. (2009). Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, worldview, and cultural formation. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Discussion Questions continued Context • How does our online learning context show a primary commitment to deep learning and student formation?

• How do you creatively adapt practice to make online teaching and learning transformational?

• What are some of the features and structures of your school’s online learning package that might subtly encourage a tendency towards information over transformation and deeper learning?

• What are some of the features of online learning that students might be captivated by but that are not necessarily leading to deep learning?

Community • What hindrances to relational learning and community-building have you seen in online learning? How can you combat these?

• There are features and opportunities integrated into online learning to minimise the relational compromise. Discuss with colleagues your successes and failures in accessing and using these.

• Which integrated features and tools in your school’s online learning package could promote individualism that hinders community? How could you adapt the package to minimise this?

Van Dyk, J. (2012). Teaching christianly: What is it? VTJ Vol 20 No 4.

Discussion Questions Content • How can we discern whether the biblical big picture is driving our online curriculum design?

• In what ways can you see pragmatic concerns influencing the starting point for curriculum design?

Chris is a lecturer and presenter for the National Institute for Christian Education and Christian Education National.

He is also the editor of the Christian Teachers Journal and author of the book The Frog and the Fish. Chris, Coco, and their two teenage children live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

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Culture, Crayfish, and the Cross

Walking Forward Together

By Karen Fletcher

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t the heart of reconciliation is coming to understand one another through the building of respectful, trusting relationships. Understanding one another involves understanding our life or worldview—the way we see the world around us, according to our underlying assumptions (Fowler, 2019). In his book, Learning From the Stranger (2009), David Smith encourages all Christians to better understand the nature of culture and cultural difference in order to appreciate how our own culture shapes the way we think and behave. Cultural difference may be outwardly visible, such as skin tones or spoken language, or it may be hidden, as with attitudes, beliefs, and values. As Smith puts it, “Culture is a little like bad breath—you tend to notice it in other people sooner than you detect it in yourself” (p. 25). He argues that learning from those of other cultures enables us to better understand ourselves and to live a life characterised by the command to “love our neighbour” (Matt 22:39).

We all have unique opportunities to engage meaningfully with those from cultures different to our own. In 2012, my husband Steve and I responded to God’s calling to serve at Gäwa Christian School on Elcho Island in the Northern Territory. Along with our 7-year-old son, Matthew, we travelled north to take up positions of principal and site support officer.

Gäwa is a remote homeland community on Elcho Island located in north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, where the Yolŋu people are the traditional custodians.

The nature of identity for the Yolŋu people is a product of strong connections to land, language, law, ceremony, and kinship (Paulson & Brett, 2013). The Yolŋu are one of the few Australian Aboriginal nations to “hold onto their own country and keep their old traditions and their language alive and strong” (Djandilnga & Barlow, 1997). Yolŋu identity in the twenty-first century is an amalgam of cultural domains.

It is defined by influences from the traditional Yolŋu culture, the dominant culture, and the impact of Christian teaching and belief.

Gäwa homeland was established in the late 1980s by Kathy Guthadjaka in response to her father’s instruction to relocate to their homeland and allow young people to grow up on their Warramiri ancestral estates, living and learning from the land without the negative influences of the local township (Guthadjaka, 2017). Approximately 50 Yolŋu people currently live in Gäwa. Living away from the main

township, Galiwin’ku, is possible for families, as children can attend the small Christian school that was established in partnership between Northern Territory Christian Schools Association and the Gäwa community in 2004 (NT Christian Schools, 2018).

The vision of Gäwa Christian School is for all staff, students, and stakeholders to “know and learn the truth”, by being “a learning community where God is glorified in everything we do” (Gäwa Christian School, 2018). Education at Gäwa is delivered in both English and Djambarrpuyŋu, the lingua franca of Elcho Island, as a result of the establishment of the Methodist mission on Elcho Island in 1942. The school holds firmly to a ‘bothways’ model of education which involves bala-räli (backwards and forwards) discussion in all aspects of school governance and function and working together in a marrtji rrambaŋi (moving together) style of partnership (van Gelderen & Guthadjaka, 2018). Guthadjaka explains the learning model in the metaphor of the crayfish: The word we use is ‘lonydju’yirr’ (getting side-by-side) … The line-walking journey of the crayfish represents the way Warramiri people move forward together … At Gäwa, we have discovered that two-way learning creates an environment where the ‘lonydju’yirr’ principle works well. The children are making real progress with their traditional literacy skills and their English literacy skills at the same time. (Guthadjaka, 2010) In the right season, crayfish are in plentiful supply on the Gäwa rock platform and are a much-loved food source. The crayfish metaphor of walking forward together is a powerful one as this moving together involves learning from each other—two-ways. Partnership between Yolŋu and balanda (non-Indigenous) people is a vital component of living and working together in Gäwa. It reaches into every part of the school structure from governance to curriculum, language and culture instruction, discipline, and the preparing together of hot lunches. In keeping with the lonydju’yirr principle, it is paramount to learn from and patiently wait on each other to continue walking in the same direction.

Living together in such an intimate, intercultural way is also profoundly spiritual. Sitting under Christ, there is a unity which transcends the educational partnership. It is an opportunity to live in the sense of Colossians 3, as those made alive in Christ through His death on the cross, bearing with and forgiving one another with compassion, The Christian Teachers Journal May 2020

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Partnership between Yolŋu and balanda (non-Indigenous) people is a vital component of living and working together in Gäwa.

kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Having a heart of humility that embraces the richness of what there is to learn about Yolŋu culture, faith, and unity in the Lord is vital for balanda staff.

Engaging with those from other cultures, demonstrating cultural intelligence (Livermore, 2009) through a willingness to explore a culturally appropriate shift in worldview is arguably a non-negotiable part of the mandate to love our neighbour. This shift applies to the educational setting in changes to curriculum content, teaching and learning methods, and learning environments (Lingenfelter & Lingenfelter, 2003). However, life in Gäwa is not just about the business of school. It is an opportunity to share our lives.

Let us consider one example of the practical ways that this two-way living is achieved.

Feeding the hungry at Ḻuŋgurrma shop Ḻuŋgurrma - “north-east wind season when seas are calm and new growth starts” (Zorc, 1996).

Only days after our arrival, a small group of ladies arrive on foot at our front door. “We are hungry and don’t have any food. There is no fuel in the car, and the children are hungry.

Can you please give us some of the school food?”

The group had come to test out the response of the ‘new’ principal and, as it was school holidays, food was scarce.

As I hadn’t had a chance to get to know anyone very well, I asked the visitors to come back later on. This gave me some time to do some investigating and look for a way to help. The reaction of the old lady was to say, “Ok, we will just go away and eat grass!” and they left. I was perplexed! Once I got to know my ŋama (mother), I knew that she had a raucous sense of humour and actually had the biggest grin on her face as she turned and walked away.

Over time, we worked to adopt the principle of helping or empowering others to solve their problems, instead of being the single answer to their present issue. In this way, dignity is maintained as they are enabled to be more in control of their situation. I gradually learnt to ask “How can I help you find a solution?”, and was always happy to say “I cannot help in that way, but how about this … ”.

So, what about the food shortage? I offered them some milk and a large tin of flour. This meant they could make some damper if they chose to, which would feed many mouths and

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could accompany some fish if someone else went hunting.

It wasn’t a quick fix, like a box of bread might be, nor was it going to deplete the school supplies that were needed to cook the hot school lunches the following week. I had provided an opportunity for the ladies to help themselves without disempowering them by doing it for them.

On other occasions when food was scarce, the balanda men would take some of the older Gäwa boys out fishing. It was a rare day that the fishing was not good, and so an hour or two would yield enough fish to feed many mouths.

In term time, the school provided morning and afternoon tea for the children and a hot, cooked lunch with lots of fruit and vegetables. This way, if children were at school, they had eaten at least one hot meal that day. Hot lunch also encouraged school attendance! The school employed and trained people from the community to work in the kitchen to prepare morning tea and lunch each day.

After 18 months of careful consideration, the school opened a small shop which the old man determined should be called Ḻuŋgurrma shop. While not the core business of the school, it meant that people would stay in the community longer instead of travelling back to town with the children and potentially not come back for days, or sometimes weeks later. In consultation with the community elders, we stocked around 30 or so essential items—milk, bread, frozen vegetables, meat, bread, butter, flour, sugar, soap, shampoo, personal hygiene products, basic fishing tackle, matches, and most definitely no lollies, soft drink, or cigarettes! We also ran an op-shop with donated clothing for both children and adults, towels and sheet sets, and many, many pairs of thongs.

The Warramiri crayfish metaphor of lonydju’yirr is a beautiful example of the fulfilment of the mandate to “love our neighbour”. Living in relationship with one another, embracing and learning from our cultural differences, journeying the challenges together, and celebrating the unity that we have under the one Lord Jesus Christ is an extraordinary privilege.

Reconciliation across cultures begins with relationships built on mutual respect and trust. Search out and embrace opportunities to engage more deeply with those from cultures other than your own. Expect ambiguity and uncertainty as you bring opportunities into your school and classrooms that encourage those in your care to think

Sitting under Christ, there is a unity which transcends the educational partnership.

more deeply about what it means to “love our neighbour”.

Revelation 7:9 reminds us all that Heaven will undoubtedly be a multicultural and multilingual environment built on the shared foundation of Jesus, the Lamb, who gives us hope and new life.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. Rev 7:9

References Djandilnga, E., & Barlow, A. (1997). Yolngu of the island Galiwin’ku.

Heinemann Library Australia.

Discussion Questions • Karen speaks of teachers being prepared to shift in our thinking in areas like “curriculum content, teaching and learning methods, and learning environments”.

• What do you think Karen is trying to make us feel or see? What challenge do we as educators face to seek shalom and reconciliation, no matter our unique context?

• Karen explains that, “Reconciliation across cultures begins with relationships built on mutual respect and trust”.

Fowler, S. (2019). Living worldviews. African Journal for Transformational Scholarship, 5(0), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.35949/ ajts.v5i0.194

• How and when can we use mutual respect and trust to reconcile differing or opposing cultural or faith perspectives in our classroom?

Lingenfelter, J. E., & Lingenfelter, S. G. (2003). Teaching crossculturally: An incarnational model for learning and teaching. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

• What is the ambiguity and uncertainty we potentially face in the process of teaching students what it means to “love our neighbour”?

Gäwa Christian School. (2018). 2017 Annual report. http://www. gcs.nt.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2018/06/GCS_ AnnualSchoolReport2017_FINAL.pdf

• How are my views about reconciliation shaped by my experience of the gospel, and the intercultural situations I have experienced?

Guthadjaka, K. (2010, October). Literate Australia: Health & wellbeing visions—Two way learning. Building Literate Nations Inaugural National Forum, Sydney.

• What are my blind spots about the reconciliation needed in my educational context?

Guthadjaka, K. (2017, November 11). Nungalinya College 2015 Media Studies classes. Gotha’s story—My story and life at Gawa [Video File]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsxd0idIATU Livermore, D. A. (2009). Cultural intelligence: Improving your CQ to engage our multi-cultural world (C. Clark, Ed.). Baker Academic.

NT Christian Schools. (2018). Mission and vision. Mission and Vision. http://www.gcs.nt.edu.au/index.php/mission-and-vision/ Paulson, G., & Brett, M. G. (2013). Five smooth stones: Reading the Bible through Aboriginal eyes. Colloquium, 45, 199–209. https:// repository.divinity.edu.au/1672/ Smith, D. I. (2009). Learning from the stranger: Christian faith and cultural diversity. Eerdmans.

Karen is currently working at Nungalinya College, Darwin, and loves working alongside Indigenous Australians.

Not a lover of sweat or sand, she still finds tropical weather challenging but is thankful for her husband Steve, and their aircon, for supporting her to complete her MEd recently.

van Gelderen, B., & Guthadjaka, K. (2018). A Yolŋu ‘Bothways’ approach to English and Warramiri literacy at Gäwa. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 41(3), 252–279. https://doi.org/10.1075/ aral.18016.gel Zorc, R. D. P., Darwin Institute of Technology, & School of Australian Linguistics. (1996). Yolnu-matha dictionary. School of Australian Linguistics.

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Student Reflections on

Reconciliation

By Rachel Herweynen

As the Arafura Sea kisses the northern shores of Elcho Island, God’s presence is keenly perceived in this little homeland of Gäwa. So much so that when one student was asked what she loves about Gäwa, she replied with quiet certainty, “Garraygu dhangi’yun wäŋa.” God embraces this home. NT Christian Schools has been invited by the local Yolŋu homeland community to partner in the running of a Christian school.

Part of the vision for this community school, as set by the founding elders’ Kingdom perspective, has always been the one family under Jesus, with Yolŋu (Indigenous) and balanda (non-Indigenous) living and working together. As a family, we listen to the children. How wonderful are their voices. Not only are they a stronghold against the enemy who is silenced by their praise (Ps 8:2), but their words also carry insight that pierces through the complexities adults sometimes create. What if reconciliation can begin simply by dancing or playing footy together?

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We asked the current children of Gäwa the following questions. Their answers show that they are agents of reconciliation, patterned after their Saviour Jesus, who reconciles all things to himself (Col 1:20). We include their answers in the local language, Djambarrpuyŋu, because a significant part of building bridges, deepening relationships, and fostering reconciliation is a commitment to appreciating (and learning) each other’s language.

Rachel is the teaching principal at Gäwa Christian School, located on an Indigenous homeland in northeast Arnhem Land. She can often be found sitting around a fire or under a tree sharing stories with her beloved Yolŋu family.

What causes fights between yolŋu and balanda?

How can yolŋu and balanda live in harmony with each other? How can they be like family?

Bayŋu gurrupanmirr ga yaka märr-ŋamathinyamirr.

The absence of sharing with each other and not loving each other.

Garrayyu galkithirr limurruŋgal, limurr dhu galkithirr limurruŋgal ŋayaŋulil.

God comes close to us then we will come close together.

Ŋayaŋu dälthirr.

Having hard hearts. Ŋanitji luka.

Drinking alcohol.

Wäŋapuy mari-djäma.

Fighting about land. Ŋoy-märrama.

Upsetting each other.

Yolŋu gomurryu-marram balandaw. Balanda marŋgithirr Yolŋu dhukarrgu ga Yolŋu romgu. Yolŋu marŋgithirr balanda dhukarrgu.

Yolŋu people can adopt non-Indigenous people into their family where they can learn Indigenous ways and laws. Yolŋu can also learn about non-Indigenous ways.

Limurr dhu buŋgul djäma.

We can dance together.

Limurr dhu bul’yun put bol.

We play footy together.

Garrayyu manapan dhu limurruny.

God joins us together.

Artwork by Salome and Katinka Moes with Gäwa Christian School students - adapted from full colour illustrations in an upcoming book Adopted in Love or Gumurryu-waraṯtjuwanan Mäŋuwatjinyayu, written in Gäwa and translated into the critically endangered language of Warramiri by Daymaŋu Bukulatjpi.

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Reconciliation

Means Relationship in Christian Schools

By Chris Garner

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he word reconciliation can sometimes be problematic.

On one hand it feels easy to read the “ministry of reconciliation” in 2 Corinthians 5 and embrace it as a theme or focus in our school’s devotions or assemblies, where any mention of Paul’s challenge to us surpasses all boundaries and unifies us as one under a common challenge for the gospel and His Kingdom. It is easy because there is a story for all humanity in 2 Corinthians, that we have all been reconciled to Christ and we have all been given the same ministry, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18). It is with a new sense of hope and compassion for the lost which we can quite naturally embrace the call to a ministry of reconciliation with a vertical understanding.

If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. (2 Cor 5:17–19) On the other hand, any other mention of reconciliation, specifically linked to racial reconciliation, can be far more problematic and often one which our schools can either find tricky to do well with the community or, sadly, somehow manage to avoid altogether. When we speak of reconciliation with a horizontal view, we can quickly find ourselves facing questions of relevance, political views, values, history, and different interpretations from our varied experiences that only highlight how varying our responses within one group of believers can be. This experience of reconciliation can lead to limited responses, often trying to appease a sense of dealing with a racially, and often historically, based tension so that we can show that we can have an appearance of unity and all ‘get along’.

Ultimately, the horizontal view of reconciliation without a vertical view is one which staff can learn to avoid, resulting in schools not seeking a deeper understanding of what true reconciliation is and missing what a biblically informed response could be.

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All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation … (2 Cor 5:18)

I was first struck by reconciliation as one of the most humbling, sacrificial, selfless, forgiving, spiritual, and relationship-based acts of grace when I first visited Elcho Island, Arnhem Land, about 550km north-east of Darwin in the Top End of Australia, in 2005. I was on a mission trip on the island, serving as a teacher aide and doing all the other daily practical work that goes on in the beautiful Aboriginal homeland of Gäwa. Unlike any other mission work I had done before, in this community all aspects of daily life, work, and family are not separated but are all interconnected through relationship. As a ‘balanda’ (Westerner), I was not used to this and had only ever experienced work being separate from life activities such as shopping, family, and social life. But for the Yolngu (Aboriginal people in the Arnhem Land region), all of life is connected and for me this paradigm shift was what taught me the biggest lesson of all—that reconciliation is not separated into vertical (evangelism) and horizontal (e.g., social justice). From working in the Gäwa Christian School, sharing in two-way learning on the beach and helping each other with even the smallest of tasks throughout the day, to sharing fellowship in the evenings around a fire, it was truly all relationship-based and not about having a role or title. One night, after a slow time of sharing stores and prayers together under the stars, one elder of the Warramiri clan said to me, “You are like a star which comes from a long way away and brings good news and now that we sit together, it doesn’t matter white or black, balanda or Yolngu, we are one, same under Him so we can learn from you and you learn with us.” I was struck by the humility and grace of people who are incredibly wise, with such deep culture and have generations of rich history to openly accept a visitor who was willing to be relational, to listen, and embrace to the point of seeing past a huge cultural divide to the one-ness we have in relationship with Father God. The hearts of children in the Gäwa community were being opened to hear about God not through an evangelistic presentation, but through how we had good relationship, so that we can reconcile our different worldviews (horizontal) and be reconciled as one in Him (vertical). Our ministry of reconciliation is not one allocated to divisions such as evangelism, missions, or Christian schooling, but exists as a relational ministry which we are to live out across all of life,

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which God modelled to us by sending Jesus Christ to live with us and through the resurrection.

Paul wants us to have a completely transformed view of reconciliation. He wants us to see the world in a whole new way (2 Cor 5:17), so that our new understanding can guide us to live the way God intended; a new creation in good relationship with Him and each other so that others may know His glory too. As a new creation we have a childlike faith, seeing others of any background as people who need healing and reconciliation with God. “We regard no one from a human point of view,” (2 Cor 5:16) that is, separated by race or ethnicity, not truly included based on political or systemic racial biases, but as a person for whom “Christ died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). We must love other people in a transformed way and be ready to seek reconciliation.

For, if we criticise the justice of horizontal reconciliation or exclude efforts to work with people across cultures, we are regarding people from a human point of view. Whereas, if we can love people of all backgrounds and be willing to seek reconciliation between people and across racial divides, then we become agents of Christ’s reconciliation and restoration.

Only when we can see the world through transformed eyes will we be able to put aside racial reconciliation as a perceived agenda and seek authentic restoration, justice, and real relationship with Him for all people.

When Paul says, “Everything has become new”, (2 Cor 5:17) the old way of living, the old way of seeing people—whether among Jews or Gentiles—the old self-righteousness, and old agendas are gone. Now we have a new way of serving God through Christ by the Spirit. We can now see the world through eyes of grace: seeking justice and delighting in seeing hearts and minds reconciled to Him. As ministers of reconciliation we can celebrate reconciliation between people with grace and compassion as opportunities for relationship. Paul is adding to what Jesus had taught about reconciliation and relationship: that it is important “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to that person; then come and offer your gift” (Matt 5:23–24).

Therefore, reconciliation is not without the horizontal need for relationship and is not without the vertical relationship.

As Christian teachers, reconciled to God

by Christ, we have the work of bringing reconciliation to all we meet.

Otherwise it will be about a ‘racial agenda’ which seeks to identify which side is wrong. Rather it is about recognising that, at one point, good relationship has been broken and things can be brought back to harmony in Him. It was Christ who modelled this inclusive relationship and reconciliation for us. His message was not one of reconciliation just for His chosen nation, but the whole world: Jew, Gentile, Samaritan, immigrant, and every race and ethnicity. While 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 is primarily speaking about spiritual (vertical) reconciliation with God by using the Greek noun katallage (2 Cor 5:18), Paul speaks in other writings about the horizontal reconciling of peoples (Eph 2:11–22) with the verbs katallasso (2 Cor 5:1; 1 Cor 7:11) and apokatallasso (Eph. 2:16). Later in Scripture we see God’s heart for us, his Missio Dei, fully realised in the reconciled multitude “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev 7:9).

As Christian teachers, reconciled to God by Christ, we have the work of bringing reconciliation to all we meet. As we work in our schools, with students, and our communities, we are to be grace-full, humble, and compassionate ministers of reconciliation. This includes horizontally between people (conflict resolution) as well as vertically between people and God. We should be embracing every opportunity for the healing that comes through reconciliation, seeking to serve others where we can and always ready to share how God wants people reconciled to himself.

Finally, the ministry of reconciliation comes with its own challenge. Paul concludes saying, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though Christ were making his appeal through us” (2 Cor 5: 20). This responsibility is given to all believers, for the whole church. If we are only to have a vertical view of reconciliation in our schools, that the ministry of reconciliation is separate from reconciliation in our horizontal relationships, then we may be seeking peace with God without truly acting justly (Mic 6:8). As Christ’s ambassadors in our churches, homes, and schools we are to live in a way which seeks to live in good relationship as a community, to work together across racial, social, and structural barriers which limit reconciliation, otherwise we will live with an appearance of peace without real restoration. To achieve this we need to be ambassadors who

know both God’s love and understand the brokenness of this world so well that we can represent Him with empathy, seeing through new eyes, reconciling and restoring.

Just as my Yolngu friends had shown me, true reconciliation is both vertical and horizontal, full of grace and humility; seeing across cultural barriers with new eyes. How well we have good horizontal reconciliation and relationship can be an important mode of evangelism so that others may know vertical reconciliation to the Father. May our schools be ambassadors of true reconciliation!

Discussion Questions • Have you ever experienced a paradigm shift like the one described here?

• What aspects of your school’s life reflect a commitment to reconciliation across all facets of the community?

• How do you see the vertical and horizontal aspects of reconciliation represented in your own classroom practice?

• Have you had any discussions with local Indigenous Christians about barriers they experience to deep involvement in your school community, and how these barriers might be tackled?

Chris, a teacher at Marrara Christian College, views his mission as helping students to think critically and be an advocate for justice. He is the HaSS curriculum advisor for NT Christian Schools. Chris plays bass in his church and occasionally slow cooks some amazing spare ribs.

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Right from the start of this writing, I must make it clear that while I have in recent years discovered my family’s Aboriginal ancestry (amazing!), I do not claim to understand what it is to be an Aboriginal person any more than I am ‘Scottish’. My maiden name was Scottish, we have our family crest, and I had a clan kilt as a kid ... but my ancestors most likely came from Scotland five generations ago with no ongoing relationship to that culture, so I cannot claim to be a ‘Scot’!

The youngest of four children born into a strong Christian family, the upbringing I had was typically middle class Australian.

After losing his wife (a woman we’ve discovered to be of Aboriginal descent) and third child during a difficult labour, had my great-grandfather on my father’s side stayed in

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the Katanning-Greenbushes region of Western Australia, Noongar boodjar (country), where he had travelled as a young man and found work and love, perhaps my life and knowledge of my ancestors’ culture would be very different.

Left with a daughter and son (my grandad), we now assume my Anglo-Saxon great-grandad Mac protected his children to avoid being questioned as to whether they were ‘European enough’. Early 1900s official Protector of Aborigines and Police records (released on application to Aboriginal families from the Western Australian Government) note this concern for my grandad’s extended family.

We discovered that my grandad’s grandmother was an Aboriginal woman from Katanning. Stories of Old Kitty, my great-great-great-grandmother, were recorded by the anthropologist and journalist, Daisy Bates (1859-1951), in the

Understanding the Past and Shaping the Future Dr Fiona Partridge

early 1900s. Bates could see the loss of traditional life for the ‘native people’ and set about recording details of Noongar culture, vocabulary, and language (the country south-east of Perth). Described by Bates as the “matriarch of the Aboriginal people living on her grandfather’s camping land in the area of Katanning”, Old Kitty’s ancestry back two generations and family tree was recorded by Bates (1859-1951). Thanks to her work recording Old Kitty’s language, ancestry, and aspects of cultural life, and publishing stories about ‘native life’ and the ‘plight of the natives’ in the local newspaper, I can trace nine generations back from my own children on my father’s side of the family with some photographic records. This is unlike many Aboriginal Australians, who, removed from their families and country, commonly know little about their family heritage.

My grandad was only two years old when his mother died in childbirth. She was 29 years old, and buried in the Greenbushes Cemetery. Within a year or two, grandad was left with his older sister to be cared for by a family in Perth when his father enlisted to serve in World War 1. Great-grandfather Mac suffered a sniper wound to the head while facing action, losing his right eye. After months of recovering in a London hospital, he was discharged, returning to Australia. Greatgrandfather Mac collected his children from Western Australia and returned to South Australia to his parents’ farm a few hours on horse and cart north of Adelaide.

My grandad studied hard and completed his high school certificate, unlike many lads his age, and certainly unlike the majority of children of Aboriginal descent at that time in the 1920s.

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… it is easy to understand why the knowledge of my Aboriginal heritage was lost.

Later in life, as a returned service member, my greatgrandfather Mac was provided a soldier settlement piece of land in the South Australian Riverland. As I have learned more about my great-grandfather’s life, it has been challenging to realise that his Aboriginal brothers-in-law (his wife’s brothers), who also served in the First World War, one seeing action in Egypt, did not get such acknowledgement for serving their country. One of my grandfather’s brotherin-law’s enlistment service records note he was of “dark complexion” with “European birth unlikely” (Australian Government, n.d.). At that time, a person’s Aboriginality could not be acknowledged if they were to be enlisted to serve in the armed forces. Many Aboriginal men served Australia during both world wars, and yet it was illegal for them to enter RSL halls on their return from service.

Some received small pensions, but not soldier settlement properties.

So, it is easy to understand why the knowledge of my Aboriginal heritage was lost.

It was a time when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were not recognised as citizens until the 1948 Nationality and Citizenship Act established that all Australian-born people are citizens of Australia rather than British subjects. After the referendum of May 27, 1967 Commonwealth constitutional change occurred, allowing Indigenous Australians to be counted in the Commonwealth Census (AEC, 2019).

No wonder National Reconciliation Week, acknowledging the anniversary of this date, is of special significance along with NAIDOC week (representing the National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee). Did you know NAIDOC developed out of the Day of Mourning, established the Sunday before Australia Day in the early 1900s, in most part, by an Aboriginal Christian and social activist, William Cooper? (DIDUNO, 2017). The Day of Mourning was created as a special day for churches to acknowledge the plight of Aboriginal people since colonisation. In time, the day was moved to July, and has grown into what is now known as NAIDOC week (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, n.d.).

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Maybe … if being an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person was treasured as part of this great country’s history rather than a people ‘protected’ and removed from their country … and there had been no White Assimilation Policy hoping to ‘breed out’ people’s Aboriginality … then maybe my connection to my Aboriginal heritage may have been different.

Ours is just one small distant family story, but it sits inside a larger, sorrow-filled narrative.

In the late 1800s into the 1900s, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were punished for speaking their language with many languages lost forever.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were punished for practicing traditional cultural life. They were not allowed to enter and ‘loiter’ in public areas—places in which their lives had existed for generations—and in many areas were taken to missions and native camps (Bates 1859-1951). Life as they knew it was no longer able to be lived.

Sadly, the effects of our shared history and ongoing institutionalisation are easily seen in society today.

Incarceration rates of Aboriginal youth are proportionally much higher than non-Aboriginal youth in the Australian population. Did you know that if an Aboriginal young person does not attain their higher school certificate, they are statistically more likely to be incarcerated than other Australian youth—a rate that is 17 times higher for Indigenous youth over non-Indigenous youth (Allam, 2019)?

Aboriginal life expectancy is seven to eight years lower than non-Aboriginal Australians—depending on rural or urban settings—and can be more (ABS, 2019). If we knew these facts about any other nation I suspect we would be quick to want to help put things right.

Of course, Scriptures teach us that we all find our identity and healing in the truth of the gospel, but even the way our churches have been structured with congregational ‘norms’ perhaps have not helped our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters always feel welcome.

Ours is just one small distant family story, but it sits inside a larger, sorrow-filled narrative.

I realise many opportunities and privileges afforded to me are due to white colonisation and my lost Aboriginal ancestry.

As an educator, I believe I have a responsibility to ensure the students in my care learn about the past and are actively involved in acknowledging and healing this nation’s wounds through the education programs I develop and teach.

We are called by the very words of Jesus Christ to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). That surely includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

So what can your school do to be intentional about reconciliation?

In the words of Paul Kelly, “from little things big things grow” (Kelly & Carmody, 1991).

Here are a few suggestions that can be important starting points for your school community.

1. Intentionally learn about the stories of our Australian colonial past, and how it affected Aboriginal people and culture. Find out more for yourself. Read. Listen. Lament.

Then act.

2. Observe that there are three national flags recognised by the Commonwealth Government of Australia (see Australian Government, n.d.). A school displaying the three flags helps to educate all concerning our nation’s history, and acknowledges the ongoing significance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first Australians.

3. Make learning about country an important part of the life of the school community, and commit to learning and using some local language. When we travel overseas, we often like to find out a little bit about the history of the place we are visiting—let’s think to do this in our own country. What is the Aboriginal name of the country your school is built on? This might be a first step!

At the school I have taught at for many years, we have sought guidance and permission from the local Aboriginal

language group, naming some buildings and significant aspects of school life. For example, an artwork painted by an Indigenous artist together with students was commissioned. It is titled “Waitunga”, meaning harmony in Kaurna language, the country upon which our school is built. This commitment to using language is a great way to learn about the local language.

4. Encourage teachers and students to be educationally curious about the Aboriginal people who lived in the region for generations before white settlement.

Explore how they used the land, how it has changed now, and consider the effects. Make sure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives are embedded into the curriculum, using authentic voices whenever possible.

Provide professional learning opportunities for staff to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture for themselves so they can bring it into the curriculum in meaningful and engaging ways for students. Include camps and outdoor education experiences in the school’s learning program to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

5. Commit to acknowledging and participating in significant events such as National Sorry Day, NAIDOC, and National Reconciliation Week (NRW). NRW is held annually from 27 May to 3 June. This week is a time to celebrate and build on the respectful relationships shared

by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians. Preceded by National Sorry Day on 26 May, NRW is framed by two key events in Australia’s history which provide strong symbols for reconciliation: 27 May, 1967—the referendum that saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Australian Government power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and recognise them in the census, and 3 June, 1992—the Australian High Court delivered the Mabo decision which recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a special relationship with the land. Get involved!

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The Day of Mourning was created as a special day for churches to acknowledge the plight of Aboriginal people since colonisation.

6. Be intentional about building relationships with any of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community groups in the wider community.

Show hospitality. Make sure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a voice in telling the history of the Australia their ancestors experienced, and are able to express what it means for them to be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian today. This may take time, and may involve moving out of comfort zones and perhaps even putting aside some of the norms and cultural practices in the school (especially those that aren’t necessarily ‘Christian’ but are Western, middle class, private school practices when we examine them).

Plan to acknowledge country regularly—make it part of what the school community does when it gathers for special events. Understand acknowledging country to be a significant teaching moment concerning the history of our nation. Invite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community leaders to school events, just as you do other significant leaders. Invite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and community members to be involved in decision-making, policies, and practices concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and culture in the school.

7. Take care with language used and stories told about Aboriginal people and culture. Actively work against negative stereotypes for all people. Learn about the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Australian society. Beware of myths and stereotyping.

Take up cultural sensitivity training for your staff. Honestly consider just how welcoming your school is to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, acknowledging the shared history of Australia.

8. Commit to listening and learning about Aboriginal spirituality rather than starting with fear and assumptions. Make sure you question the dominant Western and secularist views of Christianity that can shape school culture, rather than starting with the concerns that might come with Indigenous spirituality.

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Suggested helpful resources include: • Yarta Wandatha, by Rev Denise Champion—an Adnyamathanha woman and the first ordained Aboriginal woman in the Uniting Church sharing her understandings of the land, culture, and the importance of story as a Christian Aboriginal person (Champion, 2014).

• Five Smooth Stones, a paper by Uncle Graham Paulson and Professor Mark Brett, discusses understanding the Bible through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural lenses, acknowledging we often lack understanding when we read the Scriptures through a Western worldview (Paulson & Brett, 2013).

• 40 Days of Stories, video clips of Aboriginal people sharing their testimonies, and the range of rich resources developed by the Bible Society including, Our Mob, God’s Story (Sherman & Mattingely, 2017). Seven years in the making, this beautiful award-winning art book celebrates the impact of the Bible on Australia’s First Nations People, along with Bible Society’s 200 years in Australia.

• Australians Together also have produced many helpful resources for churches and school (Australians Together, n.d.).

• Schools can develop a Reconciliation Act Plan (RAP) to help make progress in this area. Reconciliation Australia offer a RAP plan template and audit tool on their website (Reconciliation Australia, 2017) .

May you be encouraged and inspired to play a part in the building of a stronger shared future for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, driven in our commitment to reconciliation by the grace and the hope of the gospel: God’s love for all people and the restoration of all things.

… I have a responsibility to ensure the students in my care learn about the past and are actively involved in acknowledging and healing this nation’s wounds …

References Allam, L. (2019). Young Indigenous 17 times more likely to be in detention than other Australians. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/11/youngindigenous-17-times-more-likely-to-be-in-detention-than-otheraustralians Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2019). Life tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. 2015-2017, 3302.0.55.003. Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20 Subject/3302.0.55.003~2015-2017~Media%20Release~Life%20 expectancy%20lowest%20in%20remote%20and%20very%20 remote%20areas%20(Media%20Release)~15 Australian Electoral Commission. (2019). Electoral milestones for Indigenous Australians. Retrieved from https://www.aec.gov.au/ indigenous/milestones.htm Australian Government. (n.d.). Australian flags. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved March 31, 2020 from https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/australian-national-symbols/ australian-flags Australian Government. (n.d.). Ring mark. Australian Imperial Records 1914-1920, Attestation Paper for Personnel Listed for Service Abroad, B2455, National Archives of Australia. Retrieved March 31 2020 from https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/ Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8035080 Australian Government. (n.d.). Ring William Manual. Australian Imperial Records 1914-1920, Attestation Paper for Personnel Listed for Service Abroad, B2455, National Archives of Australia.

Retrieved March 31 2020 from https://recordsearch.naa.gov. au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail. aspx?Barcode=8035091&isAv=N Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. (n.d.). Day of Mourning. Retrieved March 31, 2020 from https:// aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/day-mourning-26th-january-1938 Australians Together. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2020 from https:// australianstogether.org.au/ Bates, D. (1859-1951). Daisy Bates 1859-1951 Papers, Adelaide University, Stories from Archives and Special Collections, MSS 572.994 B32t. Retrieved from https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/ special/mss/bates/ Champion, D. (2014). Yarta Wandatha. Denise Champion, c/- Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, South Australia.

DIDUNO. (2017). William Cooper – Bill Ferguson – Aboriginal activists.

Our History, Heritage and Culture, Our History and the Christian Connection. Retrieved from http://diduno.info/naidoc/

Kelly, P., & Carmody, K. (1991). From Little Things Big Things Grow.

Exhibitions, Song Lyrics, Australian National Museum. Retrieved from https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/from_little_things_big_ things_grow/song_lyrics Paulson, G., & Brett, M. (2013). Five smooth stones; Reading the Bible through Aboriginal eyes. Retrieved from https://repository.divinity. edu.au/1672/1/Brett_M_Five_Smooth_Stones_BUV_edit.pdf Reconciliation Australia. (2017). Retrieved from https://www. reconciliation.org.au/ Sherman, L., & Mattingely, C. (2017). Our mob, God’s story; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists share their faith. NSW: The Bible Society Australia.

Discussion Questions Read, reflect, and discuss with your colleagues the following: • After reading Fiona’s family story and some of the history of Aboriginal people, what did I learn, or re-remember?

• How comfortable am I talking about the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?

• Fiona suggests that as Christian educators we have a strong calling to be involved in reconciliation. In what ways do you agree/disagree with this?

• Which of the suggested list of actions could our school implement this year?

• If we were to consider one/some of these, what would be our first step and who would be involved?

Fiona has been teaching at Torrens Valley Christian School in Adelaide, on Kaurna Country, since 1990. Fiona is the CEN SEO for the South Australia, and is a senior lecturer for the National Institute for Christian Education. She enjoys talking worldview, and loves trail walking-running in Adnyamathanha Country in the Flinders Ranges.

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My Top Shelf A Christian educator recommends books recently read In the English-speaking world, we are incredibly well-served with books from wise people that help us understand and explore what it means to live fully and faithfully as God’s shalom ambassadors in contemporary society, and to know what it means to educate young people in the light of such a glorious calling. In reflecting this timeless heritage, I want to describe a fourstep flow of ideas that has been helpful for me, and which I’ve used to categorize my book recommendations.

• This four-step pattern starts with a book that opens up the Bible as God’s big story.

• The second step identifies a book that applies this understanding of God and His Word to the nurturing of our own authentic ‘seeing and being’ (i.e., our worldview) in contrast to the dualistic, secular religion of contemporary culture.

• The third step chooses an older but trusted book, plus a very recent release, that explore what this Christian worldview means in the area of education.

• The final step describes a book that helps us explore key cultural issues including gender, work, the arts, and politics, in a hope-filled way. It can guide Christian teachers and our students as we engage the culture, seeking to live faithfully ourselves and pointing others to a gracious, just, and loving God who made and ordered this world, redeemed it through His Son, and maintains it moment by moment through His Word of power.

By Dr Richard Edlin 30

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Step

1

The Drama of Scripture Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen (2004)

The written Word of God is the Christian’s guide to understanding God, His great plan of redemption, the template for living a hope-filled, faithful daily life, and the window into an eternity of joy and fulfilment in God’s presence. Bartholomew and Goheen, in a very accessible and enticing manner, introduce readers of all ages to the cohesive, authoritative, and all-of-life big story encapsulated in the pages of the Bible. In a non-technical approach, they vividly unpack the drama of Scripture as God’s genre-rich, culturally-embedded, inerrant testimony. It’s a drama about God, and His justice, mercy, and love.

It’s a must read for every teacher, and is a great introductory textbook for high school Christian studies courses.

Step

2

Living at the Crossroads Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew (2008)

In a book that follows on from the one above, Goheen and Bartholomew proceed to show how a biblically-shaped mindset can be the bedrock for the transformed life referred to in Romans 12. They focus this discussion around the concept of worldview, which I describe as a way of seeing and being in the world—a concept, though criticised by some, still being very helpful for personal growth and as an on-ramp into discussion with non-Christian friends.

The authors also provide an illuminating insight into the history of the Western worldview which has been at the same time both a reflection of key Christian doctrines, but also a seductive trap in our postmodern world, with its contemporary emphasis on materialistic individualism and its secular pretence of religious neutrality. Remember the story in 1 Chronicles 12 of the men of Issachar who understood the times and therefore knew how to live? This book can function in a similar way for Christians of all ages who seek to perceive the world in which we live through a biblical prism, and who then come to know what it means to live vibrant and hope-filled lives in the modern bewildering age.

Step

3

Shaping School Curriculum Geraldine Steensma and Harro Van Brummelen (Eds) (1977)

On Christian Teaching David Smith (2019) These two books put flesh on the bones. Steensma and Van Brummelen bring together eighteen vital essays from renowned Christian educators, that apply a Christian worldview both in a general educational context, and then in particular key learning areas including history, language, visual arts, the sciences, and mathematics. It’s a book from the 1970s but I strongly recommend it as a vital read and resource book. I still find myself consulting it regularly. It’s out of print, but used copies can be bought online from Amazon and other second-hand booksellers. I urge all serious thinkers in Christian education to search out a copy. David Smith takes the concepts wonderfully identified by Steensma and Van Brummelen, and applies them in practical teaching situations. David’s years of creative teaching experiences mean that he’s produced an inspirational book full of practical, applied, Christian pedagogy that serves both as an encouragement and catalyst for us all.

Step

4

Cultural Engagement Joshua Chatraw and Karen Prior (Eds) (2019)

A key purpose of Christian schooling is to equip students to become entreating, salt and light ambassadors to the gospel in the wider world. It’s also a vital aspect of what all Christians are called to do.

Chatraw and Prior identify key areas of contemporary culture such as gender, work, immigration, war and peace, the arts, etc. They then provide a collection of short articles by Christian writers on each of these topics.

Typically, there are five or six articles on each topic. None of the writers previewed the contributions of the others writing for their particular area, meaning that the book contains a diversity of perspectives from thinking Christians on each topic. This miscellany fosters intelligent and deep reflection as readers wrestle with the range of presentations and shape their own convictions in the light of their own biblical reflections and convictions. This book provides a strategic step four resource for Christian study groups. It’s also very useful for guided student groups where we don’t want students to merely parrot a book’s insight, but we want them to deeply review the ideas of others and develop their own biblically faithful cultural critique and engagement pattern.

For ten years, Richard was the principal of the National Institute for Christian Education. He has written a range of books and articles on Christian education and is a speaker on the global stage on related issues. Currently, Richard is the president of Edserv International, a small faith mission that seeks to serve Christian educators and institutions, with a special emphasis in the developing world. redlin@edservinternational.org The Christian Teachers Journal May 2020

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Preparing our next generation of Christian educators

I AM CHANGED Transformative Postgraduate Education nice.edu.au