‘Where Riotous Difference Is Welcomed’: Reframing the Diversity Conversations in Education Through a Theological Understanding of Hospitality

Abstract

This chapter contends that hospitality is a missing yet critical component to ongoing discussions of diversity in education, and a missing element in nurturing the “inner landscape of the teaching self” (Palmer in The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of the teacher’s life. Jossey Bass, San Francisco, p. 5, 1998). In an effort to move conversations beyond tolerance and to plot a course toward gospel principles of diversity, the first part of this chapter sets forth three propositions that draw on theological insights into the redemptive potential of Christian hospitality. Together, these propositions form the basis of why Christian educators who are committed to principles of diversity must necessarily inculcate hospitality as a spiritual value. The second part of this chapter turns to the work of Johnson (The practice of hospitality. Dayton, 2010) to offer both practical guidance and theoretical framing for cultivating hospitality as a moral attribute and professional posture. Building on each of Johnson’s five practices, the second half of this chapter provides insight to how Christian educators can effectively bring hospitality to the teaching and learning endeavor. Together, the three propositions (i.e., the why) and five practices (i.e., the how) help to address Palmer’s (1998) essential question of “who is the self that teaches” (p. 4). Recognizing that method alone will never be enough to guide educators toward the true gospel intent of diversity, this work invites deeper inquiry into the inner terrain of the teaching self and introduces hospitality as a vital feature of the shalom model of education.