Latest CEJ arrived today...

...and it's packed with great stuff. The Christian Education Journal has released volume 5(1), a special issue focussing on 'College and young adult ministry'. It's got some great themed articles on spiritual formation for young adults, and so it has gone straight to the top of my reading list. It is a nutritious change from Gushee & Jackson's Preparing for Christian Ministry, which is no doubt ideal as a first-year text but left me chewing too much mountain in search of the gold!

This will be my focus in the week ahead (there are at least six articles in this issue that look promising). I also received Tisdel's Exploring spirituality and culture today (with some additional titles), so more reading awaits!

I am learning how much I need to focus on the PhD. My reading plan of one article per day soon gave way to other commitments, which I am now fighting so that I can once again pursue that goal.

The article I have just finished is Kiesling, Chris (2008). A long adolescence in a lame direction? What should we make of the changing structure and meaning of young adulthood?, pp.11-27. The article focuses on the challenges facing young adults - a very difficult category to define, as the path to adulthood is not as clear or pre-defined as it once might have been - and the dearth of effective ministry in these formative years. His value to my thesis rests in the nature of the education suggested: "Kiesling (2008) advocates practical action in authentic context, and “incorporating events of imbalance into processes of high reflexivity and perspective taking” (2008, p.22) as suggested by Mezirow" (from my notes), and the insight offered into the generation most often seeking theological education.

This Thursday (research day), I have decided to start work on the 'proposal' that will undergird my research question and help to consolidate the ideas gathered this far.

I'm looking forward to more from this journal.

Mezirow and adult education

Finally I have finished taking notes from Mezirow's Fostering critical reflection in adulthood. It's a classic that I wish I had read before now. I think that Malinen's work makes it pretty clear that Mezirow's fantastic work must be taken in the context of other theorists; I can only imagine this sort of dialogue taking place in an evening class:

• "So, it's vital that you explore your own underlying assumptions and learn to critique your perceptions of reality if you are to be really educated as an adult".
  
• "I'm sure you're right, but, I'm only here to learn how to get my balance sheet columns to agree".
  

So, there is education and there is education. To be fair Mezirow is clear that his focus is transformation, but the extent to which this is linked with what it means to educate adults is somewhat questionable. I suppose learning to add one's balance sheet columns means that how you look at those two columns of numbers will forever be transformed somehow!

Rather than read Taylor next, I will pick up Gushee & Jackson. It's a bit lighter, and it's a borrowed book. Interspersed with all of this will be some writing on a model for adult education as developing perspective, and preparation for a sermon this Sunday!

This is taking SOME time!

"It's been a while since my last post" is probably the blogging equivalent of "It was a dark and stormy night...", but I have my reasons. I'm chewing on the notes I made from Mezirow and associates' Fostering critical reflection in adulthood. The book is a fabulous read, transformative even in itself in the way it broadens perspectives on what it means to educate. It also opens up some fascinating questions relating to the nature of transformation in Christian education. It has taken me two weeks to get this far with Mezirow, and it is only 376 pages in length. Further, I am yet to actually incorporate the many lessons from it into my draft.

And, the reading is stacking up! This represents a strange feeling for me, an interesting conglomerate of the following:

1. Satisfaction at having read such an educational classic.
   
2. Dissatisfaction at still not being able to put it aside to read the next title, Taylor's Teaching for change.
3. Energy from Mezirow's work, and that of his associates, across the eighteen chapters of the book - inspiring me to read still further.
   
4. Weariness from considering the many books still to go!
   
5. Eagerness to write up my swirling thoughts on adult education and transformation, to bring some sort of order to them.
   
6. Reluctance to consider what I know so far to be adequate.
   

Well, if teaching is flush with paradox, why shouldn't learning?

Innovate: new articles on ee-learning

The latest issue of Innovate (April/May 2008) contains three promising articles on 'ee-learning':

• Lindsey Godwin and Soren Kaplan: Designing ee-Learning Environments: Lessons from an Online Workshop
• Ana-Paula Correia: Moving from Theory to Real-World Experiences in an e-Learning Community
• Joanna Dunlap, Jackie Dobrovolny, and Dave Young: Preparing e-Learning Designers Using Kolb’s Model of Experiential Learning

Previous articles by Trevitte and Eskow (2007), Nilles (2007) and Chisholm (2007) introduced me to the concept. It's a wee bit frustrating in that Innovate tends to be magazine-ish, but the leads it provides are conceptually excellent.

That squishing sound is me under books

No sooner had I finished Dewey that I started on Mezirow's Fostering critical reflection in adulthood. It is going well; I am learning to take better notes.

So far I have moved from a focus on e-learning to education philosophy to distance education to Christian education – and now to adult learning theory. This is an interesting process; things seem so much sharper now that the reading is underway. From what I’ve heard this ‘sharpness’ is only a phase, and I’m aware that my coverage has been very much less than comprehensive to date!

The questions guiding me at the moment are as follows:

• What does it mean to be ‘transformed’ as a result of education?
  
• What are the mechanisms of transformation?
  
• How does this ‘transformation’ translate into terms relevant to spiritual growth and theological education?

I have had several additional works recommended to me, and I already have some titles waiting for my attention. I'm still enjoying the process - this is concentrated learning - but the book pile seems never-ending. Part of me rejoices, another part is a wee bit intimidated by the size of the pile vis-a-vis the time of my first self-review (July), six month report (August) and 'Background to research question' (August/September).

Reading, reading, everywhere...