The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

What is at risk for those teachers who teach about the connection between religion, the siege on the Capital Building and racial progress? What kinds of evaluations are levied against the professor whose work is noticed for its impact upon the public? What happens when administrators do not know how to respond to assaults on faculty whose work is contested by those beyond the school? What is the t...

When the student body becomes majority people of color - what is the response?  Who are the leaders capable of grappling with intersectionality?  What is public accountability?, who wins?, and what is lost? 

All of us are experiencing the pandemics differently; the shifting and changing varies. Yet, gaging the classroom and the learning by our students is integral. The losses, responses, and disruptions of COVID 19 has dulled skills and left many teachers feeling as if we are simply muddling through. What does it mean to learn to recalibrate? How do we respond when there is no one right way? Dr. Nancy...

Teaching as a focus of institutional change might be a lynchpin in creating sustainable schools. What if we free faculty to teach, then redesign institutional shifts around their teaching? What would it mean to collaborate beyond the seminary walls and into the neighborhoods? What would it take to suspend judgement of institutional mistakes long enough to experiment for change? Dr. Nancy Lynne Wes...

Informed definitions of trauma are needed. Classrooms are never spaces for therapy. Ways of developing trauma awareness, self-care strategies and referrals. Creating spaces of respect, regard and care are needed for faculty, administration, and students. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Lisa Cataldo (Fordham University).

Learning about teaching during the Covid lockdown. Combating transactional teaching. Approaching scholarship for and with the public.  Creativity required for the larger questions and teaching.  Dr. Nancy  Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Randall Balmer (Dartmouth College).

What meanings do youth place upon these pandemics? What are the fears of young scholars challenged to work from home? What strategies have scholar-parents devised to teach from home? How has this moment of pandemics heightened the fear of early career faculty concerning issues of presumed incompetence? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Sarah Farmer (Indiana Wesleyan University). 

Revamp the syllabus so assessment is fair, generative, and manageable. Thriving as an early career faculty might mean new and different kinds of assignments and assessment. Get rid of assignments that overwhelm and cause suffering. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Roger Nam (Candler School of Theology - Emory University). 

Shifting from face-to face to online took many professors by surprise in March of 2020. Now, one year later, this conversation is an insightful reflection about having grappled with the fear and the hard challenges of having rethought the syllabus. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Arthur E. Farnsley, II (Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis - IUPUI). 

This podcast episode is taken from a recording of a webinar.  Body indicators such as nose, hair, and flesh tones are relied upon for the perpetuation of prejudice, bias, and presumed privilege. What would it mean to unlearn, then relearn more liberative ways of reading the body? Can the truncated imagination which only sees value in the white body be rekindled to see worth in all bodies? The feat...

Student Formation can no longer ignore educational debt.  Why are faculty reticent to confront student debt? What does it mean that the burden of debt is significantly higher among minoritized students? What if justice for students requires strategies concerning money, wealth, and debt management? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Jo Ann Deasy (The Association of Theological Schools).

The current liminality is not temporary, is not new, and is a huge challenge to the traditions and norms of educational institutions.  What kind of leadership/management is needed? To what kind of student preparation will we shift? Can creative innovation inform our decisions and transform our schools? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Angela D. Sims (Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School).

Helping students look for and find ways to celebrate the strengths and possibilities of democracy and be clear about the damaged and harming aspects. Who are the teaching exemplars who exude graciousness, compassion, and power? What does it mean to be a human being in this society and in our classrooms?  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Rachel Harding (University of Colorado, Denver).  

Designing innovative ways to integrate research with the classroom experience. Students' questions vary with aspirations - course preparation must anticipate students' needs, wants, seasons of life. All ah-hah! moments are not the same! What if creative bravery is needed for better teaching and original scholarship? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Monique Moultrie (Georgia State Univ...

This episode is taken from a previously recorded webinar. The everyday pressure of racist climates wears upon the body, mind and soul of teachers. What practices of health, wellness, and self-care might prolong the life of a scholar in a racist, toxic, climate? The featured speakers for this event are Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).

The challenge of discussing contested ideas is not the threat of personal offense, but the likelihood of continued violence and oppression in the wider society. What does it take to foster life-orienting discussions which generatively reflect upon the insurrection, the quarantine, and the BLM? Can we reconstitute the very nature of the adult classroom to grapple with our changed and changing socie...

Now, students are multi-vocational and depend upon theological education to address this expanding complexity. What does it mean to prepare students to be socially conscious and justice minded? What if innovative models overtax faculty capacity? Digital-age students require new meaning making strategies. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Vanessa Lovelace (Lancaster Theological Seminary). 

For good teaching, we must consider teaching and personal economics, institutional economics, societal economic influences. In what ways do vocational aspirations and goals need to align with the economics of the school? Where do I find information about the economic viability of my school? What is the 2026 cliff? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Roger Nam (Candler School of Theology - Emory Un...

Logos Evangelical Seminary teaches in Mandarin - a radical and timely seminary. Given the rise in immigrant people and churches, what kind of seminaries are needed? What does it mean to teach a blend of East and West?  New seminaries embody a counter-cultural, counter-narrative of hope for the future. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Chloe Sun (Logos Evangelical Seminary).

Creativity can be learned, practiced, and matured. Encourage yourself to ask - "why not?" "what if?" and "suppose ....?". Be brave in your teaching, suspend judgment, and learn to listen inside and outside of yourself.  Dare to learn inspiration as a skill. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Delvyn Case (Wheaton College: Massachusetts) 

With no manual for this moment in teaching, we have these questions: After triage strategies, what does it take to pursue a discovery process to reestablish education? What are the new sets of questions and who are the new communities of accountability? What is the un-making and the making-anew of the theological educator?  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Mai-Anh Le Tran (Garrett-Evangelical T...

Where do we fit? How do we talk about the caste supremacy of South Asia as well as of the USA, without our students exoticizing us? What does it take to teach as racialized scholars who teach the disciplinary cannon as well as disrupt the disciplinary cannon? What kinds of collaborations are needed to refine liberative teaching practices in each season of the teaching career? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westf...

Given the insurrection of January 6, anti-queer, anti-Black, anti-Semitic, xenophobic views have got to be questioned. Sustained awareness, analysis, and teaching for justice is necessary. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Phillis Sheppard (Vanderbilt Divinity School). 

"I did not, initially, want to be a teacher. God snatched me up! I learned to teach to my own design and for students' needs."  Advise for new teachers from an emerita faculty elder. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Diana Hayes (Georgetown University). 

Previously recorded as a Wabash Center webinar. Dismantling the systems and healing the wounds of racism requires a communal effort. What habits, strategies, and practices might a school undertake to learn together anti-racist work? The featured speakers for this event are Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).