Foundations for Purpose and Passion in Life-long Learning

8/11/2019 Foundations for Purpose and Passion in Life-long Learning

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Foundations for Purpose and Passion 1

Foundations for Purpose and Passion in Life-long Learning

E. Allen Knight

Gainey School of Business

Spring Arbor University


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Purpose and Passion in Christian Higher Education

The claim for much of Christian higher education is relevancy by preparing students in

the matter of faith and learning. This assertion is often articulated by a purpose statement issued

from the institution. A typical example is seen in The Concept (McKennna, 1961) for Spring

Arbor University:

Spring Arbor University is a community of learners distinguished by our life-long

involvement in the study and application of the liberal arts, total commitment to Jesus

Christ as the perspective for learning and critical participation in the contemporary world.

The goal is admirable, but as McFarlane and McLeod (2004) suggest higher education

limits the effectiveness of mission by the use of words to describe the role of teaching that

restricts a more comprehensive view. In that sense, the purpose and passion of Christian higher

education is likewise bound by similar limitations based on the use of particular descriptive

language and terminology. For instance, the authors maintain that words used in describing the

role of teaching such as pedagogy or andragogy are ultimately inadequate to encompass the

concept of age and gender neutrality. Likewise these two words do not posit a model for the

development of life-long learners. The most familiar term, pedagogy originates from words

meaning the teaching of youth, while androgogy is often used to denote adult learners. Pedagogy

implies the formality of instruction, the denoted audience children, and even the negative

connotations of pedantic, dogmatic, and formal (p. 116). Androgogy on the other hand suggests

learner autonomy, self-directedness, and peer learning (Knowles, 1970; McFarlane & McLeod,

p. 118). McFarlane and McLeod discuss the limitations of using the term androgogy and

summarize by suggesting that the term originates with the concept of male and therefore

represents some gender bias.


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With these stated limitations in the more common terms, the scholars subsequently

coined the term teleogogy to express a goal-based outcome objective for students. This

proposal for the use of the term teleogogy as formed from the Greek root for end and implying

outcome, result, goal, aim, and fulfillment (McFarlane & McLeod, 2004, p. 119) provides for a

more comprehensive vision of higher education that can form the foundation for life-long

learning. The authors suggest that there are three aims for the adoption and use of teleogogy. The

first aim is learner centered endpoints and goals. The second aim is the achievement of a life-

long trajectory to full maturity as a learner. The final aim is a social one with the focus on

community and collaboration. McFarlane and McLeod write as representatives of two

universities, one secular and one faith based. By acknowledging the three aims of teleogogy, the

aspiration of Christian higher education to achieve purpose and passion as an institutional goal

and inculcating the same desire for its students in order to mature into life-long learners is an apt

strategy. However, achieving this evolution of thought and practice requires a tactical framework

of elements that can be used by faculty members for developing a classroom culture conducive

to teleogogy that encourages and empowers the student to pursue life-long learning with passion

and purpose.

To aid instructors, this paper proposes a set of constituents that form a framework for

creating and sustaining the goal oriented ideal as represented by teleogogy. If one is engaged in

the liberal, utilitarian, or fine arts instruction (Joseph, 2002), then the thoughts and comments

expressed here will provide a basis for the consideration and application for the preparation of

the course syllabus and the tactical instruction to follow. The philosopher, Alfred N. Whitehead

(1967) proposes that there is great need for higher education to include literary, scientific, and

technical instruction in order to achieve the intimate union of practice and theory (p. 48). Finally,


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an example of how such a framework might appear in the discipline of business education is

offered.

The demand for a cohesive vision based on a lifetime of learning outcome is more

needful today due to the domination of a secular worldview, increasing globalization and in

response to the rapid change and acceptance of new technologies. These conditions suggest the

importance of understanding the student relative to these changes. Payne (2005) suggests that

consideration must be given to things versus relationships, recognizing the impact of modern

views that affect the attitudes about community, and therefore calls for recognition of the signal

importance of relationships and community. Researchers suggest that the widespread use of ever

increasing technical advances such as the internet is damaging the long-term memory

consolidation that is the basis for true intelligence ("Fast forward: The effects of the internet,"

2010), and as a consequence there is greater need for the instructor to provide a contextual

landscape that provides a continuity and hierarchy to the subject matter. All of this points to the

need for a practical system or framework that provides a path for educators and students to

develop the practice of teleogogy.

Framework for Christian Educators

The first step in developing a useful framework is the recognition of the tension and

synthesis associated with the ways or methods of processing information as we learn. Among the

foundations of education in the Western tradition, two traditions stand out as the bulwarks for a

faith based, life-long orientation to goal and outcome based education. The first consists of the

Thomistic synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity, Gods hand everywhere evident (Migliazzo,

2002, p. xxvii) and the second stems from Thomas Reid and Scottish colleagues: all truth is

Gods truth (p. xxvii). From the early days of the church, a tension described as Athens and


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Jerusalem (p. xli) or the strain between critical rationalism and theistic revelation has existed.

Until a capitulation to preponderant acceptance in higher education of the critical rational

method of inquiry following the Enlightenment of the 17th

century, these traditions were

generally accepted by the academy.

However, these foundational traditions are critical elements in the preparation of life-long

learners grounded in a faith tradition. The educator must accept the tension between the

competing epistemologies of Greco-Roman critical rationalism and Judeo-Christian theistic

authority (Migliazzo, 2002, p. xx), while preparing the student for balancing these two schools of

thought. The idea of balance and compromise is deeply rooted in the tradition of English

philosophy based in part on the contributions Bacon in his development of oppositions (Ackroyd,

2004, p. 400). To understand and synthesize these traditions and balance them with secular

thought is the first and most critical part of a framework for educators in Christian higher

education.

The integration of these two apparent opposing ideas need not be seen as an impossibility

but rather as an integral element in engaging the world. For the instructor, part of the balance

consists of assisting the student to achieve the marks of an educated Christian including a

commitment to God and his purposes for us: moral virtues, intellectual virtues, responsible

actions, and quality of self knowledge (Holmes, 1987, pp. 102-103). Additional grounding is

gained by aiding the student in developing a sense for the classical liberal arts of logic, grammar

and rhetoric as proposed by Sister M. Joseph (2002), recognizing Newmansassertsion that these

arts are an essential activity of the studentto relate the facts learned into a unified, organic

whole, to assimilate them as a body assimilates food (2006, p. 7).


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A second part of the framework consists of the cultural literacy. In preparing a student for

a lifetime of learning and fulfillment, cultural literacy provides the context for the transmission

of the great lessons of mankind from the past to the present. The instructor in any discipline

needs to consider the course from a broader perspective than just the technical one, incorporating

its place in the whole fabric of the educational process. In practice, this means to give thought to

what cultural elements to teach and to further consider the importance of what it means to be part

of a literate culture and how that applies to a life-long learning (Hirsch Jr., 1987).

While the development of cultural literacy appears as a daunting task, the preparation of

students to yearn for continual improvement of their literacy is possible. So Migliazzo

encourages the teacher to learn from different disciplines (Migliazzo, 2002, p. x) to gain a

broader context for the specific discipline and to promote the spirit of discovery (p. xl) as a call

for practical teaching (p. xxxv). He goes on to suggest that such preparation resulting in direct,

explicit, and coherent practice (p. 314) leads to teaching that is the source of transformative

instruction as advocated by Parker Palmer (1983). Such teaching and preparation is not restricted

to the classroom and can be fruitful even outside of higher education as an aid to life-long

learning (Soars, 2010). In support of Migliazzos contention Brand and Chaplinwrite, We need

to understand where we have come from and where we are going to recognize some of the

signposts along the way (1999, p. 15).

A third important foundational element to outcome based learning is the recognition and

development of values. The fulfilled learner needs to recognize that values do exist and that

values are the basis for the development of discernment and understanding. The values

proposition gains strength in the epistemology of the theistic revelation model of Judeo-Christian

thought. If educators in Christian higher education want to encourage aided and unaided


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discovery as proposed by Adler and van Doren (1972) in their guide to intelligent reading, then

the student and teacher cannot be neutral in matters of value (Wilber, 2002, p. 5). As old

paradigms of thought are challenged due to their inadequacy and new structures of thought are

developed (Kuhn, 1996), with what value system will the life-long learner evaluate and measure

validity?

Consideration of the traditional trivium of liberal arts will provide the instructor a

template for training the student to develop their evaluative skills, to apply a value base to that

evaluation, and to reach a conclusion with comfort and assurance. Logic as used in acquiring the

art of thinking, grammar as used in the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express

thought, and rhetoric as the art of communicating thought from one mind to another are the tools

that will impart a student with a lifetime of assessment skills (Joseph, 2002).

Completing the framework is the development of self-directed learning as the critical

component of the goal to achieve life-long learning. The preparation for self-directed learning

suggests that the instructor assist the student to reach a level of motivation and curiosity for the

future by designing and developing coursework that depends in large part on discovery of self

and subject (Piskurich, 1993). The successful self-learner develops skills that are holistic and

integrational, exploratory, and pluralistic, while in the Christian context are confessional and

perspectival (Holmes, 1987). Holmes proposes that instructors and institutions strive to

enlighten the student in the creative and redemptive impact of Christian revelation on every

dimension of thought and life while empowering the student to respect open-ended exploration

without complete unanimity andthe development of multiple perspectives (pp. 58-59) that

result from different times and concerns.


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These four segments consisting of self-directed learning, values, cultural literacy, and

epistemological synthesis form the framework for a more holistic approach to the preparation

and empowerment of life-long learners within the concept of teleogogy or goal/outcome based

education. An example of the possible application of this approach in the business school arena

is presented in the following section.

An Example: Business and Economics

The studies of the various disciplines associated with business are part of the utilitarian or

servile arts as suggested by Joseph (2002). These business disciplines provide an example for

knowledge and skill acquisition from a goal based perspective that includes an integration of

faith and learning. Can the four planks (synthesized epistemology, cultural literacy, values, and

self-directed learning) of teleogogy as presented provide a platform that will assist the student to

achieve an integration of life-long goal based learning?

C. K. Wilber points out in his discussion concerning the teaching of economics (while not

strictly a utilitarian art, economics is a central premise of most business studies), that students

must see that economic systems are not value free and that a need for moral constraints is needed

(2002, p. 3). He encourages the instructor to incorporate the sense of people as moral agents and

to impress the importance of human dignity and the social nature of that dignity. His approach

demonstrates the integration of the synthesized epistemology, cultural literacy and values as he

builds the case that teaching can change outcomes and is not neutral (p. 6), while the

instruction should reinforce and introduce higher levels of self-interest perception. Likewise, the

economist, G. C. Loury points to the need for a spiritual dimension as the basis for personal

morality that is at the core the character and values necessary for societal improvement (1993,

February 25). The place to reinforce this value base is in the classroom for it prepares the student


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to integrate these principles into their long-term continuous learning goals. This method provides

a basis for the student to continue in a pursuit of understanding economics and applying this

understanding to future issues and scenarios.

The work of Carl Kreider (1980), as represented by his writings on entrepreneurship,

points to the importance of preparing the student and practitioner in the art of applying the

theistic truths of Christianity to the practice of business, from risk-taking to profit distribution.

The business school instructor can learn much from Kreiders thesis in the application and

smooth assimilation of his theology of entrepreneurship and business into the spiritually sterile

environment of many business courses. The work of developing critical thinking skills for life-

long learners is not satisfied by a prayer and a few bible verses, but rather requires the integration

of both epistemologies to fully prepare that student for the outcomes as anticipated by a process

of Christian based teleogogy.

A professor at Trinity Western University (Goossen, 2004) works to prepare students for

business endeavors by his instruction. He is a proponent of business, and more specifically,

entrepreneurship as a form of Christian stewardship. His approach testifies to the importance of

incorporating values, cultural-literacy, and self-learning in the pursuit of business endeavors with

a call for goals and fulfillment that promote the concept of life-long learning. By example, he

suggests that Christian entrepreneurship consists of: (a) an emphasis on a God-narrative, (b) life

lived according to Gods laws, (c) a discovery of calling and meaning through a whole life

experience, (d) the utilization of gifts and talents for community, and (e) a recognition of the

source of calling and achievement as divine (p. 22).


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Foundations for Purpose and Passion in Life-long Learning