OCTAVO INFORME DE CONFORMIDAD CON EL CONVENIO INE/A1-033/

Schools offer a distinctive kind of training experience in that students live and learn shared truth together in cross-cultural settings in either Majority World or First World nations, often being trained in the very environment to which they believe God has called them to serve. Just as schools have been hosted in different locations, so have they also drawn students and staff alike from diverse backgrounds. Recognised as being essential qualities for transformative learning to take place, the school course is designed to be available, accessible, contextual, translatable and relevant in an environment of respect, confidentiality, acceptance and trust. In some school locations, access to a wide selection of literature, and in the local language of the students, which support biblical interpretation and exegesis is not readily available. Students who can freely access these aids help those who cannot. Apart from literacy advantages, those who grasp concepts and learning objectives more readily, while being provided opportunities for personal extension as appropriate, assist those who need more help. This approach is helpful in the transformative learning process because it counters a worldview of competition, performance-focus, individualisation and isolation of students, and focuses on preferring one another as the Holy Bible teaches (Romans 12:10).

The level of education and literacy of participants is not a barrier to students receiving training in Holy Given Schools. Catering for these has involved:

 Interpreters and translators are provided, including volunteers, from staff and among the student body.

 Non-threatening learning environments where students are able to learn in community, such as with buddies, in small groups and tutorial workshops are created. In these environments, those who have received higher education are able to work alongside illiterate students, both learning from each other. To illustrate, in one school this involved the mutual learning of two students: One, a medical doctor, the other, a Majority World illiterate farmer and pastor. The doctor read to the farmer and helped him understand required readings in the curriculum, while the farmer helped the doctor learn the reality of effective formation of local Christian communities in the Majority World brought about by the loving act of farming to feed hungry people in a poor community.

 Students are given the opportunity to complete assignments and presentations in pairs or groups.

 Teaching delivery does not rely on written text alone. Teachers draw on strategies revealed as they pray and wait on the Holy Spirit for the best way to teach and impart truths to their students, and on their God-given creativity and experience to convey curriculum content in inclusive practical demonstrations and exercises. Neither is assessment reliant on written text alone, but embraces many creative methods relevant to different cultural and literacy contexts, and various learning styles of students, such as visual, aural, bodily kinaesthetic and musical, among others.

 Students are encouraged and enabled to pursue deeper and further research where appropriate, utilising additional resources and technology.

 Resources vary in specific areas, but generally include the following:

o People are our greatest powerful resource. In Holy Given Schools we also have the added benefit of being able to learn from people who represent different cultures and life experiences.

o Set readings relevant to the topics being studied are required of all students. Effort is made to ship books to students ahead of time, but this has been difficult to achieve in some situations. On a number of occasions we have only managed to provide enough books to be shared, but this has also afforded the opportunity for the students to work together. Provision is made for illiterate students to have all texts read with them.

o Student handouts, including articles reprinted with permission, relevant to topics being studied are translated into the majority language of the school’s location. o DVDs are bought in the local area or shipped to schools beforehand.

o Supporting technology appropriate to the capability of the location including computers, overhead projectors, sound systems, recording audio and video equipment, simultaneous interpretation equipment and data projectors is supplied by the host community/church. In some locations, where equipment is unreliable and/or supplying power sources are restricted, programmes are adjusted accordingly at the time. Generators are brought in where necessary and possible.

Further to this, some students entering Holy Given Schools come from highly recognised academic backgrounds, or have titles associated with the ministries and work in which they are already involved. All reference to these is dropped and students and staff are encouraged to refer to each other by their given names, choosing instead to respect each other as brothers and sisters and family members of the Lord Jesus Christ growing together. This has had the effect of freeing students to receive all the course has to offer, rather than believing they need to perform in any particular way according to their own background or ministry status. The model for this has been drawn from the Apostle Paul’s approach in the Holy Bible wherein he didn’t boast of his ‘degrees’, but of the fact that he was shipwrecked for the Lord Jesus Christ, and suffered for Him.

Holy Given staff continues to engage in ongoing action and reflection of teaching and learning in order to ensure that the curriculum continues be appropriate, understandable, relevant, contextualised and provided in ways that meet the learning needs of all students from their diverse cultures and unique backgrounds in which the Holy Given School is located. As such, the curriculum has developed in an organic way since the inception of the first school, described later in this chapter. Such challenges have also been the catalyst for deeper ongoing consideration of the nature of theological education in mission, and its effective translation into the environments and communities in which schools are currently taking place.