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Tracey L. Hurd, Ph.D.
Lifespan Faith Development, UUA
Boston, MA
In the fall of 2004, the UUA conducted an online survey addressing issues
of teacher development and training in UU lifespan faith development programs.
The term “teacher” was used to signify adult leaders in faith
development programs; it was not used for its traditional, classroom-based
connotations. The survey was publicized through REACH-L and LREDA email
lists and outreach to district staff, program consultants, and religious
educators. There were 140 responses, with distributions from large, mid-size,
and small congregations and children/youth programs paralleling the distribution
of congregation and program sizes in the Association overall. Results
and analysis of the survey will be presented at General Assembly and posted
on the UUA website. Here are some preliminary findings:
- Teaching is a spiritual practice. Claiming the ministry of religious
education as central to the ministry of our faith is an essential step
towards enriching and supporting teachers and our congregations. The
survey did not offer the terms “spiritual practice” or “ministry”
– these were provided by respondents. Here’s a sample of
comments:
- “I believe teaching is one of the best ways to truly explore
what our UU faith is about … I’m trying to get teachers
to say this now and am working … to find ways to bring teaching
before the congregation so they also know that this is a ministry
we hold in high esteem.”
- “Teachers need to see their teaching as a spiritual practice.
We can provide training and support that balance the intellectual
and logistical aspects of what we do with the spiritual and pastoral
care component of what we do when we work with children. It is not
just teaching or facilitating, it is sharing who we are and how
we live as UUs.”
- “I would like to see teaching be a spiritual practice.”
- “The more it can be ministry and not a chore or job or one
more thing in an already busy life, the better it will be for everyone.”
- There is tension between providing efficient pragmatic resources
to teachers and providing faith-deepening experiences for teachers.
Many respondents expressed concerns about volunteer teachers’
limited time for teaching and the religious educator’s need to
be responsive to their constraints. At the same time respondents noted
that changing the paradigm of teaching, from “duty” to an
embodiment of faith or ministry, might attenuate that tension. How to
get there from here? Respondents favored different formats for different
objectives.
- Asked what they would ideally like to offer to teachers, respondents
indicated: small group ministry to connect teachers more deeply to the
spiritual aspects of their work and development (75.8 percent), trainings
on particular curricula, similar to OWL training (72.8 percent), workshops
about religious education and related issues (71.3 percent), and online
(70.5 percent), video (67 percent), and CD (65.9 percent) resources
about issues basic to teaching in lifespan faith development programs.
- There is a need for efficient delivery of basic training materials
about UU faith, child development, multiple intelligences, behavior
management (or strategies to work with children/youth that structurally
address this issue), and extra games/activities/music.
- There is a need to provide more in-depth connection to the curricula
and programs that teachers are using that is beyond more generic teacher
training. Support for continued OWL training and other similar training
was expressed repeatedly.
- There is a need to provide avenues to connect teachers to each other
and to their work in lifespan faith development programs as part of
their spiritual or UU identity development. There is considerable interest
in the use of small group ministry with teachers, with concerns about
how to make it work logistically. One respondent commented, “This
would be a great way to provide opportunities for teachers to connect
at a deeper level versus a training workshop, which is useful but more
on an intellectual level.”
- Although each respondent navigates his/her own set of roadblocks,
some constraints seem widely shared. Constraints experienced by those
working with volunteer teachers include lack of available time for the
religious educators and/or congregants who are teaching; lack of available
resources (including materials for teachers, curricula, supplemental
materials, money for additional training); lack of methods of enriching
teaching within lifespan faith development programs that “don’t
feel like one more meeting,” and the need for a congregational
cultural shift from teaching as service to teaching as ministry.
A more complete report will be presented at General Assembly and available
soon after online. Resources about teacher development and non-curricular
issues can be found at the Teacher Development site within the Lifespan
Faith Development website at www.uua.org/re. |
