Abstract
Responsible scholarship requires that students engage with their context and their own learning to understand and transform our world with wisdom. Ponti (J.J.) Venter argues that such a notion is central in understanding the task of a (Christian) university. In this article, dedicated to Professor Venter, I argue that the pedagogical implications of such a Christian understanding of science need to be developed further in a higher education context. I propose that care deepens wonder and sustains action by continuously calling our imagination to envisage longed-for change in both an academic and a broader social context. I offer five concrete suggestions to support lecturers in guiding students to act from their care for the world. These suggestions refer to the importance of inventory work, the cultivation of empathy, inspiring examples, emotional involvement, and an inner and outer dialogue as to the appropriate form their care should take. A Christian pedagogy should, secondly, support students in unfolding their own style of moving between theory and experience; thirdly, it should enable students to experience themselves as partners in academic discussions and as historical formative agents contributing to our world; fourthly, it should focus on a view of the world in which their tentacles are feeling for change, accompanied by normative sophistication. Fifthly, the development of a suitable pedagogy requires lecturers to develop peer groups organically to reflect on teaching practices that encourage students’ transformative engagement with our world.
Highlights
Introduction and orientationIt is a true pleasure and an honour to acknowledge Ponti (J.J.) Venter’s scholarly work in this Festschrift dedicated to him
If one looks at the broad range of themes that Venter addressed during his career, one of the things that stands out is his extensive publications on and lifelong interest in the normative question of what a university is. These publications appeared in scholarly journals from the mid-1970s up to recent times, but those who know Ponti well will be aware of the many other forums in which he wrestled – responding to challenges in various contexts and always willing to engage in a constructive debate with scholars from all fields of study, students and management – with just what a university’s task should be
In the early 1970s he studied in Amsterdam at the Free University and, a few years after his return to South Africa, taught at Fort Hare University, situated in what was seen in apartheid South Africa as the ‘independent state’ of Ciskei
Summary
It is a true pleasure and an honour to acknowledge Ponti (J.J.) Venter’s scholarly work in this Festschrift dedicated to him. In the early 1970s he studied in Amsterdam at the Free University and, a few years after his return to South Africa, taught at Fort Hare University, situated in what was seen in apartheid South Africa as the ‘independent state’ of Ciskei These two events had a significant influence on Venter’s own thinking about the task of a university, including the importance of a university’s responsible engagement with its context In this article I aim to contribute to scholarship on Christian higher education by offering suggestions for teaching for a transformative engagement with our context. Christian teaching for a transformative engagement in higher education: Pedagogical needs
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