Learning Abstract and Grant Project Summary

Theological Convictions, Pedagogical Practices, and Institutional Identity at Faith-Related Universities

Mikeal C. Parsons and Patricia O’Connell Killen, Project Directors
Wabash Grant Number WC 2020001

Learning Abstract

The question of the relationship between animating theological heritage and institutional identity and mission is increasingly vexed for faith-inspired institutions of higher education. We tested and confirmed the viability of the following question with a group of ten faculty who represented five different faith traditions: Does grounding questions of heritage, identity, and mission in the central work of teaching and learning offer a fruitful standpoint for rethinking identity and mission in the current context of higher education and the on-going changes in religious identity and belonging in the United States?  Participants shared concrete incidents of “teaching at its best.” Participants saw teaching and learning as a fruitful place from which to initiate conversations about their respective institutions’ theological heritage, identity, and school mission. The resulting conversation explored how concrete teaching incidents might animate and identify existing theological resonances and how those resonances sound differently across Christian denominational heritages. 

Brief summary of the Grant Project

In our time, the question of the relationship between animating theological heritage and institutional identity and mission is increasingly vexed for faith-inspired institutions of higher education. Our project proposes to address this troublesome issue by locating the question of faith-tradition-grounded identity, which lies at the heart of the mission of faith-based colleges and universities, centrally in the work of teaching and learning. More specifically, the project seeks to test out the proposition that: articulating and becoming intentional about how the key theological insights, sensibilities, and commitments of faith-inspired institutions’ animating faith heritages inform and infuse pedagogy – the work of teaching and learning – offers a particularly fruitful standpoint from which to think about the identity and mission of these institutions at this moment. To recast our proposition as a question: Does grounding questions of heritage, identity and mission in the central work of teaching and learning offer a fruitful standpoint for rethinking identity and mission in the current context of higher education and the on-going changes in religious identity and belonging in the United States? We intend to test this proposition through reflection and discussion in an ecumenical group of faculty representing different Christian traditions, types of institutions, and time in career.

 A group of faculty from higher education institutions inspired by different expressions of Christian faith with gather so that we might engage in an ecumenical consideration of the questions we are raising about continuity and depth of faith identity in faith-inspired higher education today. Through this project we will test two fundamental propositions: 1) That key theological themes from an institution’s faith heritage are present in pedagogy, albeit often unacknowledged; and 2) that attending to this connection between an institution’s animating theological vision and the central work of faculty can help to reframe in fruitful ways currently vexing questions of mission, identity, and purpose for faculty, students, and institutions.

We believe, based on our preliminary work to date with the two groups of Baptist faculty, that intentionally articulating the ways a faith-inspired institution’s animating theological vision is embedded in pedagogy can strengthen the presence of that heritage in these institutions in multiple ways as they move forward. We see possibilities for it to contribute to: strengthening teaching through situating faculty’s central work squarely in the mission and faith heritage of the institutions; increasing a sense of deep and shared purpose in departments of theology and religion that might counter a growing fragmentation caused by intensifying specialization and allegiance to guild, and by sometimes acrimonious ideological differences; orient faculty who come from other traditions; improve student learning by contributing to a coherent context for learning; strengthen other institutional initiatives related to mission and identity; offer a means for framing conversations with other institutional stakeholders; and, provide openings to conversations focused on faith-animated pedagogy and other pedagogical conversations underway in the larger landscape of higher education. Our sense is that this approach, what we are suggesting as a “third way,” anchored in pedagogy, has the potential to create engagement with an institution’s animating faith tradition that moves dynamically between the experience of students and faculty, and the content of tradition, and does so in ways that can disclose relevance and spark curiosity to learn more about faith heritage. While testing the claims in this paragraph is beyond the scope of the proposed project itself, based on our preliminary work with groups to date, we think there is promise for these potentialities.

Updated Project Time-line for Participants

Optional additional opportunity

The project includes financial support for further reflection for those who want to convene a follow-up conversation at their home institutions.  These resources are available for those who choose to do so.  Participants can decide whether to do so after the 2.5-day gathering.

Timeline for those who convene conversations at their home institutions: