Global Teaching: Educating for Personal Understanding

Extract

There is an old adage, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” In teaching courses on global poverty and hunger from a Christian perspective, one of my major concerns is how to educate for something more than a purely intellectual grasp of the problem. I call what I am aiming at personal understanding. It is an understanding that includes empathy with the suffering of the poor, the ability to critically analyze the causes of their suffering, and a sense of responsibility to alleviate their suffering. Without this type of understanding, the transformation of values, systems, and structures necessary for social change cannot occur. While readings, lectures, guest speakers, and films are a necessary and integral part of my courses, I find that, pedagogically, something more is needed. For me, it is the student project.