My approach to pedagogy best fits the idea of teaching as a conversation. In my classrooms, I do not as much tell students about religious ideas, as to help them discover these ideas for themselves. As such, a discussion-based approach has become central to all my courses whether in-person, virtual, or online.
I regularly combine mini-lectures that review key concepts with classroom discussion to help lead the students to engage with the texts on their own. For example, in my introductory course, the Christian Tradition, I teach several books from Augustine’s Confessions (c. 400). I provide the students with video lectures about the historical contexts and general questions to help focus their reading before class. In the class itself, I allow students to discuss the reading in small groups before we discuss it as a class. Although I expect students to read in preparation for class, I also select sections for us to read and analyze closely in class, such as the episode when Augustine steals pears (II.4.9). Reading specific sections in class focuses students more directly on the text and allows us to model together the value of close-reading and evidence-based discussion, which they can later employ in essays they write.
During the pandemic, I flipped my classrooms, asking students to watch lectures outside of class so we could spend our synchronous, virtual sessions discussing the text and I continued to employ this flipped-classroom modality post-pandemic. I found that the most difficult activity for students was in learning to interpret the texts, so I currently have the students watch lectures providing either historical or theological context before class and we work on the interpretation in the class session itself. For example, in the Christian Tradition I include a class on theologies of religious pluralism and assign students to watch a lecture introducing them to the primary approaches of Christian theologians—exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. When students arrive in the classroom, I break them into groups to analyze one of three assigned readings. Each group fills in a Google slides identifying which of the three approaches the text represents, what the theologian’s main argument is, and what evidence in the text supports the main argument. Then we start our full-class discussion by having each group present their text to the rest of the class. The discussion ends with students considering what we can learn about the Christian tradition from these examples. Through group activities such as this, students can work together to better understand what can sometimes be complicated material. The students are often reading texts from vastly different historical periods for the first time. Discussing the text together in small groups allows them to ask questions and clarify points of confusion in a less intimidating context than in front of the full class.
In all my teaching, I strive to create a classroom environment that challenges my students at various levels, both to push them to develop their critical thinking, writing, and speaking skills and—especially for general education courses—to help them connect to the course content. Two ways I do this are by incorporating modern examples and by teaching through story. For example, I often use the writings of Fr. Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, in my classes as a contemporary example of theology related to issues of social justice. Fr. Boyle’s use of stories, contemporary language, and slang in service of his theology brings the concepts to life for the students and challenges their understanding of what theology can be. I also often employ music and movies to illustrate theological concepts. For example, in my Social Justice Ethics course I have used excerpts from the movie version of the musical Les Misérables (2012), alongside sections from Victor Hugo’s novel (1862), to highlight the effects of injustice and introduce Catholic social teaching. In other classes, I have used popular music to illustrate the prevalence of religious imagery in popular culture, such as Regina Spektor’s “Laughing With” (2009), and I ask students to “read” the songs theologically, by analyzing what these songs say about God and the human condition. I have consistently received positive feedback from students on this aspect of my teaching, not only because my use of popular culture made the class more enjoyable, but also because it allowed my students to feel intellectually and personally engaged. This effort to engage students in theology remains particularly important since theology often forms part of general education requirements at Catholic colleges and universities. Some students entering the classroom may think theology has become irrelevant in the modern world unless one plans to teach religion or enter religious life. Other students associate the study of religion with the religious instruction they received as children in their churches. By showing students the interesting possibilities in studying theology through modern examples and introducing them to examples from the tradition they may have not encountered before, students engage more in the learning process both inside and outside of the classroom.
My use of service-learning connects with my own research into feminist theology and the role of experience in theological reflection. Pedagogically, service-learning allows for an alternative manner of assessment that complements more traditional tools like exams and research papers. It allows students to understand course material reflectively, in relation to their own experiences, and to develop their own stories about the readings and themes of the course. This approach fits well with the Catholic tradition, such as in Ignatian pedagogical methods that emphasize the interaction between experience, reflection, and action and the Mercy tradition that emphasizes the connection between contemplation and action. I have employed service-learning both as an option for assessment and as a requirement of the course, asking students in each case to reflect on their experience of service in relation to the course readings. I regularly have taught Social Justice Ethics as a full service-learning course. In this class, students performed and reflected on their service throughout the semester in light of key texts in the tradition of Catholic social teaching, from Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891) to Pope Francis’s Fratelli Tutti (2020). In their reflections, students build on the foundation formed through analyzing these texts in class discussion. The service-learning component helps students learn to reflect on and interpret their own experiences in relation to the course readings. The feedback I have received from students on their service-learning experiences has generally been positive, noting how it helped them see the connections between the Catholic Church’s teachings and the world. In addition, many students expressed the desire to continue their service projects after the class has ended.
Ultimately, my goal for student learning is threefold: (1) to help students develop the research and writings skills that they need, both for studying theology and for whatever field they enter; (2) to support the university’s mission and core values, especially respect for all persons and for a diversity of ideas; and (3) to interest students in the content of required courses, such that they continue to include our courses in their academic schedule, whether as a formal major or minor, or simply for interest. To that end, I consistently have invested in developing my pedagogical skills and in quality teaching and researching as evidenced by my completion in 2015 of the Certificate in University Teaching Skills through Saint Louis University’s Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning and my continued participation in pedagogical workshops throughout my career. For example, when I first taught fully online courses in 2019, I completed a series of workshops run through Quality Matters and Blackboard to ensure that I implement the best practices of online teaching. More recently I participated in a Wabash Center workshop for early career faculty in 2022 and Interfaith America’s Teaching Interfaith Understanding Seminar in 2023. I continue to read extensively in pedagogical theory and follow the example of Ken Bain’s research into the best college teachers in considering teaching as important as—and even integral to—my research. Teaching is an art that must be practiced to ensure the best outcomes for students and so I make an effort to revise and improve activities each semester, learning from my research into pedagogical techniques and the implementation of those techniques in the classroom.