Makerspace

For this final episode of the season, I got to have a special conversation with a friend and colleague of mine, Julia Verdouw. Julia is a senior lecturer at the National Institute for Christian Education and has extensive experience in research and policy development. In this episode, however, we’re actually here to discuss her new book of poetry, writings collected from her journal following her husband’s sudden death 3 years ago. Her book, “Valley of the Shadow” is well worth picking up as an exploration of death, faith, grief and hopeJulia's website: https://www.juliaverdouw.com

This week is a slightly bigger one as we tackle a particularly pertinent issue right now. In the online space, masculinity has been undergoing some new constructions or reconstructions. Some of the ideas are new, others are a reintroduction of very old, even stoic ideas, but much of it is confused and even dangerous. It would seem that over the last few years, a reduction in positive talk about masculinity has left a gap, and there are certain voices that have emerged to fill that gap. These voices have the ears of many of the young men in our schools.A few months ago I spoke to Dr Stephanie Wescott, a lecturer at Monash University in the faculty of education, also previously a school teacher. Towards the end of 2023, Stephanie and her research team made national headlines in Australia due to the research paper they produced. The study showed that there is growing visibility of online ‘manfluencers’ who espouse extreme masculine ideals and share them with their audiences of boys and young men. Link to Stephanie's study:https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/the-problem-of-anti-feminist-manfluencer-andrew-tate-in-australiaOur second conversation this week, I also had a chance to chat with Daniel Principe, a youth advocate an educator who has spoken to over 60,000 students across Australia. He’s passionate about telling a better story for our young men and offering a positive vision for what being a man could be. We talk a lot about the effects of porn, but also talking about what positive, respectful relationships could look like.Dan's website:https://www.danielprincipe.com.au

This week I speak to Dan Anderson, Director and CEO of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute. LMI trains men and women for wise leadership in politics and culture through internship programs and conferences. Dan is very well connected to a wide variety of thinkers and decision makers and it was the perfect opportunity for me to ask some spicy questions around some topics that often be fairly polarising.In this conversation, we talk about temptations and risks with political engagement in Australia, we touch on his PhD that explored forgiveness, and delve into some conversation around what responsible engagement with indigenous communities might look like.

In this episode I sit down with another ITEC presenter, Dr Roshan Allpress. Roshan is the principal of Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand, the country’s largest theological tertiary institute. Roshan is an historian, earning a PHD at Oxford. His book, based on his research is called “British Philanthropy in the Globalising World” exploring how social change occurred at a pivotal time in history.In this conversation, we really dig into the question, “How does social change actually happen?” We talk about the hand waving concept around Christian influence and talk about what it actually takes to make a difference. We also talk about succession, hope, current leadership challenges and taking a long view on making an impact.Roshan's book can be found here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/british-philanthropy-in-the-globalizing-world-9780198887195?cc=au&lang=en&

This week I get to chat with another very special guest, Professor Nigel Tubbs. Nigel initially began as a teacher before moving into tertiary roles and specialises in the relation between philosophy and education. His publications have explored how their relationship affects the concept of 'the teacher', the concept of 'education,' the definition of what counts as 'philosophy', and the shape of the history of western philosophy more generally.In this conversation we talk about how a deep education is one that goes backstage and asks what’s really going on, how education is being instrumentalised by politics, and then discuss some challenging ideas about sitting in difficulties and not requiring conclusive viewpoints - letting tensions teach us. It’s a challenging conversation but a goodie!https://thinklearning.org/about/

This week we welcome Dr Ruth McConnell on to the show. Ruth is an expert on Neuropsychotherapy, trauma and attachment and the focus of her PhD studies was the counselling of children of divorce and keeping children healthily attached to their parents. She is also a Professional Associate of the Neufeld Institute and offers training on attachment related topics.I met Ruth a number of years ago and have followed her work ever since, and in this discussion we talk about how attachment informs classroom practice. We explore theological ideas, how this impacts relationships and how learning needs to take place in spaces of emotional flourishing. I’ve also linked relevant information in the episode notes. Let’s get into it!https://ruthmcconnell.com

This week’s guest will be well known to many of you if you’ve been thinking about christian education for a while. At CEN’s ITEC conference last month I got to sit down with one of our keynote speakers, David I Smith. David is a Professor of Education at Calvin University; Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, and is an internationally recognised voice on Christian education as an author and speaker. He’s probably best known for his 2018 book, “On Christian Teaching.”He’s known for his intentionally practical approach, so in this discussion I really wanted to look under the hood, to hear what theology drives his thinking and approach in general, which was fun! We talk through his main theological sources, we discuss power and how we might understand hospitality theologically, a key theme of his writing.

This episode was a pretty exciting one for me because I got to chat to one of my intellectual heroes, the globally acclaimed Esther Meek. Esther is an American philosopher and a Professor of Philosophy at Geneva College in Western Pennsylvania, and one of today’s most influential thinkers around the intersection of faith and knowledge.In this conversation you’ll hear Philosophical terms like “the real” and “subsidiary focal awareness”, which may require a little bit of extra digging. You’ll hear her pushing against overly spiritual theology, as she affirms the goodness of creation, honouring the reality that God loves. She reminds us that real knowing is loving reality and being personally involved every step of the way. At times this is quite a complicated conversation but a good introduction to these ideas. Enjoy!

This conversation was recorded during the CEN Executive conference earlier this year and in the course of it we talked through our current cultural mood, some of the ways teachers can speak into these challenges, vocation and what helps to build resilient, lasting faith. Enjoy the conversation!

Welcome to MakerSpace! Hosted by Sam Burrows on behalf of Christian Education National, we will be looking at the intersections of theology, culture and pedagogy.In this first episode we are joined by Professor Noreen Herzfeld, a professor of theology and computer science in Minnesota. Noreen has been a leading theological voice on AI and related issues for the last 2 decades or so. In this conversation we talked about what it means to really know, what it means to be human and what education actually is and how we might protect it.