Articles & Essays Archives

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Featured Scholarship

An Excellent Conversation

Note: This essay first appeared on the Christian Scholar's Review blog, and is reproduced with permission. Some months ago, I rode to the airport with Uber, as I have done many times before and since. I noticed before the car arrived that the driver had…

David I. SmithFebruary 13, 2025

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Featured Language and Culture Learning Voices from the Past

Lost in translation? Accessing past Christian educational reflection

This essay was published as the editorial for the International Journal of Christianity & Education 28:2, July 2024. Scholarly discussion of the relationship between Christianity and education is, of course, far from being a recent endeavor. The study of how faith is implicated in education…

David I. SmithDecember 5, 2024

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Featured

Positions, Perspectives, and Practices

Note: This essay was first published at the Converge blog: https://converge.education/positions-perspectives-practices/. Find out more about the Converge conference, Feb. 24-26, 2025 in Orlando, FL, at https://converge.education/. A few years ago, I had a conversation with a student at my university that remains emblematic of one…

David I. SmithDecember 5, 2024

Articles & Essays Featured Language and Culture Learning Resources Voices from the Past

Teaching for the Real World

“Our textbooks today are much more focused on practical things.” The student’s comment, offered in a class on world language pedagogy as we discussed historical examples of language textbooks, stood out as requiring more response than I quite knew how to pack into the moment.…

David I. SmithNovember 1, 2024

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Featured

Civic Hospitality, Pedagogical Engagement, and Faith-Framed Learning

One of the possible functions of Christian beliefs and practices in teaching and learning contexts is to act as framing devices. When concern for student wellbeing is named as pastoral care, when environmental responsibility is connected to stewardship or creation care, or when language learning…

David I. SmithMay 16, 2024

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Featured Spiritual Development

Hospitality, Teaching, and Pauses for Reflection

This post originally appeared on the Christian Scholar’s Review blog, and is reproduced with permission. DAVID: Some years ago, I was teaching an intensive graduate class in curriculum studies to a group that included students from multiple countries. The first significant written assignment came a…

David I. SmithApril 10, 2024

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Featured Spiritual Development

The Rhythms of Imagined Faith

This post originally appeared on the Christian Scholar’s Review blog, and is reproduced with permission. In the preface to her recent book on theological education, Elizabeth Conde-Frazier describes some of the repeating patterns that she experienced during her childhood as a member of a Latin@…

David I. SmithOctober 24, 2023

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Resources Voices from the Past

The Courage to Begin

This post originally appeared on the Christian Scholar’s Review blog, and is reproduced with permission. One morning in July I sat with some fellow faculty at the tail end of a writing retreat, and the conversation turned to the dawning realization that there is less…

David I. SmithAugust 22, 2023

Vintage old wooden rustic ox yoke decoration in Austria

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Language and Culture Learning Teaching Literature

A Teacher’s Burdens (And Who Shoulders Them)

This post originally appeared on the Christian Scholar’s Review blog, and is reproduced with permission. I’ve been thinking about burdens again. Often my own, I must confess, but also the kind that I place on others’ shoulders. The question about whether I lift a finger…

David I. SmithMay 31, 2023

Articles & Essays Reflection on Scripture Technology in Schools

Grammarly, AI Editors, ChatGPT, and the Pedagogical Perils of Writing with Confidence

This post originally appeared on the Christian Scholar’s Review blog, and is reproduced with permission. In one of Grammarly’s ubiquitous advertisements, a hapless writer uses the popular AI-based editing software to improve an interpersonal communication. The furrowed brows accompanying the initial attempt (“we might be…

David I. SmithMay 31, 2023

Articles & Essays