Prophetic teaching : a struggle to create spiritual community in the classroom

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Jerry Alan Levine (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Fritz Mengert

Abstract: This dissertation puts forth the argument that prophetic teaching makes possible the formation of a spiritual community of learners thus enhancing their knowing and being in the world. It begins with the premise that the constructed world of our present society and its schools mirror one another and are dominated by pervasive principles of competition and self-aggrandizement. Those principles require people to live lives disconnected from one another and from their own deepest sensibilities. This results in an increasing degree of unnecessary suffering for many and spiritual alienation for most all. As with the biblical prophets, the writing starts with the announcement that much is not right in the world and in our schools, in what we come to know and how we come to be. It then fashions another vision, another pedagogy, another way for teachers to be with their students which changes how people are and what they come to know. The writing makes use of the controlling biblical metaphors of Exodus, wandering in the desert, the search for the promised land, and Genesis, so as to accentuate individual and communal issues of freedom, responsibility, and the struggle against inner and outer oppression.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 1993
Subjects
Education, Humanistic $z United States
Education $x Aims and objectives
Education $x Biblical teaching
Teacher-student relationships

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