Ministerial Education Research Articles

The Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Information on Project Success in Teacher Colleges in Tanzania

This article explores the influence of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) information on project success in teachers’ colleges in Tanzania. To attain the intended objectives five hypothesis were developed and tested by using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The study applied descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational survey design within the framework of a mixed methods approach. Census technique was applied to include public teacher colleges and all College Management Team (CMT) members in the study. Either, Ministerial Education Officials and Zonal Quality Assurance Officers were involved in the study as key informants. The result of hypothesis testing revealed that M&E information was positively related to project success. Availability of clear data collection system, regular conducted meeting with stakeholders, community involvement in project M&E and information to team members were all positive and significantly related to project success. It was revealed that regularly prepared and disseminated M&E reports were not significantly related to project success. The study recommends that teacher colleges should employ modern information and communication tools in collecting project data, also teacher colleges should ensure that involvement of the community adds value economically, it is gender and social responsive as well as it focuses on capacity building and improving social well-being of the entire community.

Techniques or Disciplines? Mervyn Himbury and the Purpose of Ministerial Education

ABSTRACT The question of how Baptist ministers are best prepared for service in the Church has been part of Baptist life from the beginning. Mervyn Himbury (1922-2008), historian and educational leader in Wales and in Australia, wrestled with these issues continually. He challenged the focus on techniques and skills, arguing for ministerial education based upon the disciplines of biblical and theological reflection, continuous learning and love for God and the world. This paper draws upon Himbury's published works, which set these issues in an historical and theological perspective, while engaging with the immediate challenges in Melbourne, where he was the founding Principal of Whitley College. The paper draws upon curriculum inquiry and ideological perspectives which may shape educational practice, then considers whether these approaches may apply to ministerial education. This discussion serves to further clarify the nature and purpose of ministerial education in general and Himbury's contribution in particular.

Ministerial Education Councils’ Capacity for Policy Decision-Making in Canada, Germany, and Switzerland: Finding a Balanced Perspective

Scholars have become increasingly vigilant about leaders, the role of government and wider governance bodies, and their influence on education policy. Councils in Europe and North America, generally, and education councils, specifically, are good examples of influential bodies whose decision-making processes have rightfully come under scrutiny; however, many scholarly assessments have been characterized by rhetorical claims that focus on these bodies’ limited ability to make decisions and address social challenges. This article details a qualitative, comparative case study conducted in 2018 that investigated how Councils of Ministers of Education in Canada, Germany, and Switzerland address national educational issues of collective interest. The resulting dataset is comprehensive, and this research invites colleagues to refine or rethink some of their limiting rhetorical tools and underlying assumptions.

Exploring Integrative Ministerial Education in African Theological Institutions

In religious Africa, theological education and ministerial formation are strategically important, as leadership development impacts church practice and supports community well-being and development. In a time of profound fragmentation, the great aspiration of “integration” is seen as a solution to connect and transform ministry training, with little consensus, however, about what the term means. Since African theological education needs to respond to training in innovative ways, this article reports on an African study on integrative theological education. It reveals the institutional and contextual challenges that impinge on educational practice and underlines integration as a key approach to professional education.

Ministerial Training on Consumer Culture and Volunteer Management May Prevent Burnout for Small-Church Clergy

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate Nazarene small-church pastors’ perceptions of ministerial education. The issues the study addressed included managing volunteers and the consumer culture. This study involved 12 Nazarene clergy who had (1) completed the same ministerial leadership training as part of their ordination requirements, (2) pastored in the small-church setting for five or more consecutive years, and (3) experienced burnout in their assignments. The researcher themed the data, and the following themes emerged: (1) Consumer culture training is insufficient, vital, preventive; (2) People management training is inadequate, paramount, relational; (3) Pastoral burnout is contextually consumer-driven, volunteer-void. The literature indicated that small-church pastors are at a disadvantage in a consumer culture because their churches cannot compete with larger churches. The literature also indicated the necessity for leaders in nonprofit organizations and churches to understand how to manage volunteers.

Missional Formation for Transforming Discipleship

AbstractMission – in the larger sense, beyond the mission of the institutional church – in the 21st century is an urgent and decisive issue. We need to prepare for a transforming mission with transforming discipleship. Together towards Life, along with Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato Si', offer paradigm shifts to consider as we envision mission formation with other parameters – with a different theological and ministerial education. Participation in the world is necessary for any true transformative mission: it is there that we learn and practise the true challenges to abundant life for everyone and for all. Practice alone is not enough: we must always question our own praxis, reviewing it in the light of the gospel.

Missional Formation for Transforming Discipleship: A Response

AbstractAs I approached teaching my first missiology course in the seminary of a Dominican partner church a few years ago, I had to ask myself, “How do we possibly talk about and engage in ‘mission’ in this hemisphere, where the first ‘mission’ ended in genocide?” In this article, I explore the context for mission, which I believe is sometimes given insufficient attention as we seek to form and equip our church leaders and members for mission. The contexts are both local and global, with much intersection between the two. I will also focus on methodology that may be useful for the formation of disciples for mission as part of the need for a different type of theological and ministerial education within the new mission paradigm that Míguez proposes.

A word from Pamela R. Durso: Baptists and clergy sexual misconduct

The prevalence of clergy sexual misconduct and the damage it causes to individuals, congregations, and communities makes congregational and ministerial education on the subject critical. Education is especially needed by Baptists, who have no official code of conduct or mandated policies for clergy members and who have no hierarchical structures or systems that provide education for clergy members or churches. Baptists also lack a denomination-wide way of investigating violations or monitoring violators. Included in this article is a select list of helpful resources that address clergy sexual misconduct.

Diversity, variation and fairness: Equivalence in national level language assessments

The post-1994 South African constitution proudly affirms the language diversity of the country, as do subsequent laws, while ministerial policies, both at further and higher education level, similarly promote the use of all 11 official languages in education. However, such recognition of diversity presents several challenges to accommodate potential variation. In language education at secondary school, which is nationally assessed, the variety being promoted immediately raises issues of fairness and equivalence. The final high-stakes examination of learners’ ability in home language at the exit level of their pre-tertiary education is currently contentious in South Africa. It is known, for example, that in certain indigenous languages, the exit level assessments barely discriminate among learners with different abilities, while in other languages they do. For that reason, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education, Umalusi, has commissioned several reports to attempt to understand the nature of the problem. This article will deal with a discussion of a fourth attempt by Umalusi to solve the problem. That attempt, undertaken by a consortium of four universities, has already delivered six interim reports to this statutory body, and the article will consider some of their content and methodology. In their reconceptualisation of the problem, the applied linguists involved first sought to identify the theoretical roots of the current curriculum in order to articulate more sharply the construct being assessed. That provides the basis for a theoretical justification of the several solutions being proposed, as well as for the preliminary designs of modifications to current, and the introduction of new assessments. The impact of equivalence of measurement as a design requirement will be specifically discussed, with reference to the empirical analyses of results of a number of pilots of equivalent tests in different languages.

Les colonies de vacances en France, 1944–1958: impulsions politiques autour d’un fait social majeur

This article looks at the French state’s approach to the “colonies de vacances” between 1944 and 1958. Created in 1876 by the Reverend Bion in Zurich, these summer camps originated as a charitable institution: their initial purpose was to provide rural retreats and to restore the health of poor urban youth. Set up on French soil in 1880, these institutions gradually grew in France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Considered both as complements to the republican school and as extensions of the “patronages” (parish unions), they were important for children and adolescents from the industrial city suburbs, and were enshrined in the leisure policies of the Popular Front from 1936 onwards. After the Second World War, summer camps in France became a major social institution (300,000 children went to summer camps in 1945, 900,000 in 1949) in response to both hygiene and educational needs. Based on the archives of the Directorate of Youth Movements and Popular Education (1944–1947) and the General Directorate of Youth and Sports (1948–1958), this article aims to examine the politics behind the organisation of these summer camps and to demonstrate the social and political importance of these popular educational institutions which, in 1957, involved 1.35 million French children and teenagers. Although the history of French summer camp federations (UFCV, CEMEA, CPVC, UFOVAL, etc.) has been widely studied, how the state sees its role and influences these organisations has mostly been considered indirectly. The intention is to show that among the educational, cultural and sports policies implemented during the Fourth Republic in France, those related to the organisation of “colonies de vacances”, and therefore the organisation of holidays for a very large number of children and teenagers, occupy a significant place. In 1944, the summer camps were widely supported by the French state, which also planned to regulate this booming sector. The creation of qualifications for summer camp staff and directors in 1949 obliged organisations to start training schemes: they trained staff and directors to work in the municipal camps, associations, etc. Security issues led to the state tightening control of the summer camps, their recruitment and their activities. There was a great deal of political investment in these “colonies de vacances” during this period, and this was reflected in the creation of a Ministerial Education Committee in 1950, a general and regional body of inspectors for these camps, etc. However, the considerable expansion of summer camps posed increasing problems at the national political level resulting in changes to the initial subsidy policies. The State played a major part in crucial issues such as the sociological diversification of these institutions and the changes in their social role according to evolving sociocultural trend. The fact remains that the “colonies de vacances” were for the French state a centrepiece of the “popular education” that the political actors of the Fourth Republic wanted to implement in order to build the France of the post-war period..

Perception of EFL Teachers’ Satisfaction on Pedagogical Process

<p>This study examines teaching performance satisfaction among three English teachers in Makassar. These three teachers are students at a postgraduate program in English Education (Ph.D Program) at the State University of Makassar. All of them have more than seven years experience, two teaching at Secondary High School and one of at Senior High School. Two of them are males and one is female. Interviews were carried out with these Intensive EFL program teachers. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed according to the grounded theory method. The research focused on teacher’s satisfaction with their pedagogical competence. Findings reveal whether all the EFL teachers felt satisfied with their pedagogic competence across all seven indicators, as follows: (a) understanding learners’ characteristics, (b) mastering teaching-learning theory (approach, method strategy of teaching), (c) developing curriculum, (d) presenting instructional process, (e) understanding and developing learners’ potency, (f) communication, and (g) evaluation (Ministerial Education, 2010).</p>

Public Employment and Management as per Ministerial Education, Economy and Natural Protection according to Armenian Composite Supportive Progress (ACASP)

<p class="1">Sustainable Development is a new concept represented as Composite Appraising Supportive Progress of Armenia (ACASP). Biodiversity concept is another main issue having huge influence on public management with employment emphasis. Procedures designing composite progressive indicators organize steps with defined methodology where decision making of utility function is implemented. The priorities of each categories are followed. The resulting sequence of the most important chosen category is represented as:</p><p>Genes: Society (S): Education (S3): Legislations - International Cooperation</p><p>Species: Economy (E): Economy (E5): Policy - Vacancies</p><p>Ecosystems: Nature (N) Air (N3) & Land (N1): Publications - Informative</p><p class="1">Functions: ACASP Employment (F): Announcements-Analyses & Researches</p>

The Teaching of Church Law, Order and Polity in Ministerial Education

The Teaching of Church Law, Order and Polity in Ministerial Education

La inteligencia emocional y liderazgo escolar

The phenomena of school leadership and emotional intelligence have been object of increased interest and debate to scientific community, meaning a strong need to understand how they can affect school’s performance. Regarding school leaders’ emotional intelligence characteristics, this investigation attempts to establish further understandings on the degree of association concerning school leaders’ emotional intelligence and school leaders’ effectiveness, according to the Portuguese ministerial education inspection guidelines. In order to attain that goal two different types of data collection methods were used, questionnaires and document analysis. On one hand, applying self-report questionnaires allowed us to describe the emotional intelligence of the studied sample. On the other hand, the document analysis enabled us to establish further understandings on the degree of association between emotional intelligence dimensions and leadership effectiveness. The results point to the existence of a relationship between the emotional intelligence dimensions, the relationship quality and the effectiveness of the sample school leadership.

The Baptist Colleges in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

The era between the 1830s and the opening of the 1860s witnessed a gradual shift in Baptist ministerial education. Nonconformists were becoming more respectable; and educational standards were rising in society at large. There was therefore a tendency for an academy to turn into a college. A change of scale meant that several institutions grew into larger bodies. The setting often altered from basic provision to grand facilities. The instruction delivered generally ceased to be amateurish and became more professional. The purpose shifted further from evangelism to study. Standards rose from the elementary to the advanced. The range of studies tended to move from a narrower to a broader variety. And the theology shifted from a confessional to an evangelical stance. Although there was resistance to the trends, especially from C. H. Spurgeon, traditional academies were becoming colleges with a newer ethos.

Fostering the Public Voice: Blogging as a Pedagogical Practice in Ministerial Education

In the evolution of the World Wide Web toward a more participatory experience, the blog is one opportunity with intriguing educational potential. Among its educational benefits, the blog can offer a platform for exercising the public voice, but does so in a way that is simultaneously private and public, giving the author a safe distance through which one can grow into the public voice, both on- and offline. This growth into the public voice resonates deeply with Christian identity and mission, and as such, the blog as a pedagogical tool may especially benefit ministerial formation in an educational setting.

The Teaching of Church Law: An Ecumenical Exploration Worldwide

Religion law – the law of the state on religion – has been taught for generations in the law schools of continental Europe, though its introduction in those of the United Kingdom is relatively recent. By way of contrast, within the Anglican Communion there is very little teaching about Anglican canon law. The Church of England does not itself formally train clergy or legal officers in the canon and ecclesiastical laws that they administer. There is no requirement that these be studied for clerical formation in theological colleges or in continuing ministerial education. The same applies to Anglicanism globally – though there are some notable exceptions in a small number of provinces. This is in stark contrast to other ecclesiastical traditions: the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist and United churches all provide training for ministry candidates in their own systems of church law, polity or order. However, no study to date has compared the approaches of these traditions to the teaching of church law today. This article seeks to stimulate an ecumenical debate as to the provision, purposes, practices and principles of the teaching of church law across the ecclesiastical traditions of global Christianity. It does so by presenting examples of courses offered (institutions, purposes, subjects, methods and levels), the educative role of church law itself, requirements under church law for church officers to study the subject, and parallels from the secular world in terms of debate in the academy and practice on the nature of legal education, particularly the role played in it by the Critical Legal Studies movement.1

Educating Ministers of Character

In partnership with other denominations in England, the Church of England is currently engaged in a collaborative exercise to design a suite of common curricula to guide ministerial education. This process has been the catalyst for fruitful discussion about the nature of ministerial education and in particular the role of character. This article examines the relationship of character and reflective practice and the kind of knowing that is implied by these. It shows how the understanding of learning required to see character development as integral to ministerial formation is well supported epistemologically and psychologically and explores the implications of these insights for the process of HE validation of ministerial education.

Conflicting Paradigms in Theological Education for Public Ministry in the Church of England: Issues for Church and Academy

AbstractOver recent years the Church of England has been introducing university validated programmes for the ministerial education of its clergy. By drawing on the experience of one region in delivering such a programme, this article identifies a number of tensions in the church’s relationship with higher education and explores how critical academic study might be better understood as a resource for ministerial formation. The article also raises issues for the validating universities arising out of their partnership with church institutions, and argues that both church and academy alike could benefit from a reappraisal of their aims and values as public institutions in the light of their shared involvement in theological education for the church’s public ministers.

John McMillan’s Journal: Presbyterian Sacramental Occasions and the Second Great Awakening

John McMillan (1752–1833) was an industrious Presbyterian official who moved to the Pennsylvania backcountry during the revolutionary era, and his journal helps us understand an important Presbyterian prac-tice during those days: the sacramental gathering. McMillan was known for his leadership in churches, presbyteries, ministerial education, revival-ism, war, and politics. The son of immigrants from northern Ireland, McMillan was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. After receiving a Presbyterian revivalist education (which included a stint at the College of New Jersey), he moved west over the Allegheny Mountains to Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he arrived in 1776 to pastor two congregations, Chartiers Creek and Pigeon Creek. McMillan and several Presbyterian ministers who moved to that area formed presbyter-ies and educational institutions that trained frontier ministers and created ministerial networks for cooperative endeavors.