The Pedagogical Challenge

The field of Second Language Acquisition has long since reached consensus that the most effective way to teach a foreign language is through “Communicative Methods” that immerse students in the language as soon and as fully as possible, requiring them to hear and speak—not translate—the new language. Are there lessons from this we can learn for teaching classical languages such as Greek and Hebrew? Below is an edited transcript of a panel sponsored by the National Association of Professors of Hebrew at the 2017 conference of the Society of Biblical Literature. The publication of Paul Overland’s textbook, Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively (2016), provided the occasion for a group of Hebrew language instructors to reflect together on the challenges and possibilities of Second Language Acquisition communicative methods for teaching Biblical Hebrew.

We Need a New Story: Walking and the wâhkôhtowin Imagination

Inspired and guided by the nêhiyaw (Cree) wisdom concept of wâhkôhtowin, this paper frames walking as a life practice that can teach kinship relationality and help reconceptualize Indigenous-Canadian relations on more ethical terms. I argue that Indigenous-Canadian relations today continue to be heavily influenced by colonial teachings that emphasize relationship denial. A significant curricular and pedagogical challenge faced by educators in Canada today is how to facilitate the emergence of a new story that can repair inherited colonial divides and give good guidance on how Indigenous peoples and Canadians can live together differently. In my experience, the emergence of a new story can be facilitated through the life practice of walking.

Perceived Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Games

This qualitative study explored the perceived challenges ELL teachers encounter when using and implementing digital games as educational tools. Six ELL teachers were interviewed, and a phenomenological lens was used to analyze the data. The synthesis of textural and structural meanings and essences as a last step of phenomenological data analysis lead to two major findings of ELL teachers' experiences with digital games: logistical and pedagogical. The findings indicate that there is a lack of resources, support, time, and overwhelming choices that characterize the logistical challenges. On the other hand, ELL teachers teaching philosophy, curriculum, and training highlights the pedagogical challenge of incorporating digital games.

Pedagogical challenge and resilience of English teachers at Islamic schools in Ajatappareng area, South Sulawesi

This study aims to find out whether there is significant difference of pedagogical challenge and resilience between English elementary, junior, and senior high school teachers or not; and to find out the correlation between teachers’ pedagogical challenge and teachers’ resilience. This study is quantitative research. Two kinds of questionnaires were administered to find out data about pedagogical challenge and resilience. Sample of this study was 84 English teachers consists 11 elementary schools teachers, 52 junior high schools teachers, and 21 senior high schools teachers. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistic, t-test significance and Pearson correlation. The findings show that: (1) there is no significant difference of pedagogical challenges between elementary, junior, and senior Islamic school teachers, (2) there is no significant difference of resilience between elementary, junior, and senior Islamic school teachers, and (3) there is no correlation between teachers’ pedagogical challenges and teachers’ resilience.

Socio-Pedagogical Bases Of Ideological Preventive Work Among Adolescents

In this article, the ideological preventive work among adolescents has been socio-pedagogically substantiated. The authors have studied the protection of adolescents from destructive ideological influences as a socio-pedagogical challenge and analyzed the current state of prevention processes in mahallas (neighborhoods). They have also revealed the socio-pedagogical features of ideological prevention processes.

“The Very Unrecognizability of the Other”: Edith Stein, Judith Butler, and the Pedagogical Challenge of Empathy

There is no standard definition of empathy, but the concept is assumed to be innately pro-social and teachable regardless of factors such as power dynamics or other manifestations of social injustice within a society. Such assumptions in discursive practices, whether academic, popular, or pedagogical, obscure the emergence of two important questions: What does it mean when we cannot empathize with another? And could it be that we may gain greater insight from the examination of empathy’s limits and failures than the hopes we have for its success? Through an exploration of some of Edith Stein’s and Judith Butler’s work on the subject, I propose that discussions of empathy, particularly in education, must be grounded in social context. Once this is done, assumptions about empathy must be continually troubled if one is to have a cogent conversation—whether as a philosopher, social theorist, educator, or policy maker—about what empathy is (or is not) and what it does (or does not) make possible.