{"id":96,"date":"2018-05-12T16:22:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T20:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/?p=96"},"modified":"2018-05-12T16:23:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T20:23:21","slug":"catholic-social-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/2018\/05\/12\/catholic-social-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Social Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bergman, R. (2011).\u00a0Catholic social learning: Educating the faith that does justice<\/em><\/a>. New York: Fordham University Press.<\/p>\n

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This book discusses Catholic social teaching, especially active service learning, as an element of Catholic education, in accordance with the Catholic commitment to social justice and the poor.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bergman notes that discussions of Catholic education have little to say about Catholic social teaching (CST) and \u201cCST has almost nothing to say about Catholic social pedagogy\u201d (p.3).\u00a0 His book aims to connect the two.\u00a0 His main point as that the best way to do this is through \u201cpersonal encounters\u201d (with poor and otherwise marginalized individuals), rather than the \u201ctop down\u201d tradition of CST being \u201cinitiated by popes and bishops\u201d and \u201creduced to principles from which are supposed to deduce action principles\u201d (p. 15).\u00a0 [This seems to correspond to an emphasis on \u201cthe way of achievement\u201d vs. \u201cthe way of heritage\u201d, in Crowe and Lonergan terms<\/em>]<\/p>\n

He provides background to the Jesuit (Ignatian) commitment to social justice, described as \u201cat the heart of Ignatian pedagogy\u201d (p. 25), as articulated in \u201cthe characteristics of Jesuit education\u201d (1986).\u00a0 This document called for justice to be included in the curriculum, reflected in institutional policies and programs, and include \u201cactual contact with the world of injustice\u201d (p. 27).\u00a0 However, Bergman notes it included little practical guidance.\u00a0 A subsequent (1993) document \u201cIgnatian pedagogy\u201d provided some guidance, based three overlapping components, experience, reflection and action. [A combination of the \u201cfrom above down\u201d and experiential \u201cfrom below up\u201d, with clear parallels to the Generalized Empirical Method]<\/p>\n

Bergman draws on MacIntyre\u2019s concepts of moral education (which he equates with \u201cjustice education\u201d) for the common good, but particularly asks what this means for \u201cthe social practice<\/em> which is moral education\u201d? (p. 48, italics mine).\u00a0 He gives examples from Creighton, notably a field \u201cservice learning\u201d trip to Haiti during a \u201csemester abroad\u201d program in the Dominican Republic.\u00a0 He refers to this type of deep immersion with the poor as \u201ca pedagogy of transformation\u201d with a list of characteristics that include \u201ca radical change of environment\u201d, \u201ccommitment\u201d, \u201crisk\u201d and \u201creflection\u201d (p. 64-65). A valuable part of the students\u2019 experience was their realization of inequality, and guilt that they had so much while their hosts had so little (\u201cdevelopmental\u00a0 guilt\u201d) and to identify with the pain of others \u2013 \u201cmoral anguish\u201d (p.72).<\/p>\n

In addition to extensive descriptions of student responses to service learning, Bergman links practice to theory and particularly to Aristotle\u2019s views on virtue and moral development.\u00a0 He notes that<\/p>\n

\u201cthe invitation to transformation that is implicit in service-learning with a focus on social justice calls for a certain trust on the part of the teacher that the dynamics of human nature, as understood by Aristotle, to indeed include the capacity of the self to grow through disruption, and even psychic, moral and spiritual distress toward a more discerning, expansive and vital self and relationship to the real world\u201d (p. 90-91).<\/p>\n

Chapter 6 describes a three-semester (one credit each) course \u201cFaith and Moral Development\u201d which focuses on \u201cexemplars\u201d of social justice such as Martin Luther King, and noting that service learning can be achieved locally as well as through (expensive) trips abroad.\u00a0\u00a0 In the final chapter in this section, he argues that \u201cjustice education is proper to a Catholic University\u201d and it should not be limited to an elective course in theology or campus ministry activities, but \u201ca perspective that pervades the culture and ethos of the entire university in its teaching, its research and its way of proceeding\u201d (p. 120).\u00a0 This tradition was evident in the educational models of St. Ignatius and Cardinal John Henry Newman so is nothing new, but Bergman suggests that the missions of modern Catholic universities are more focused on \u201ctruth\u201d than justice, but that this should not be \u201can either\/or proposition\u201d; \u201cthe transmission and pursuit of truth .. converge with commitment to moral formation and social uplift\u201d (p. 121).\u00a0 Justice education should be for the poor and marginalized (to improve their situation) and for the \u201cnon-poor\u201d on their behalf, both for the common good.<\/p>\n

Of particular interest, Bergman dissects Newman\u2019s argument that \u201cthe object of a university is intellectual, not moral, and that moral education is equivalent to religious education\u201d (p. 123).\u00a0 He suggests that in pressing for higher education for Catholics, Newman was promoting \u201cliberation of the oppressed and upward mobility of the robbed, the exploited poor\u201d through \u201cthe cultivation of the intellect that is only available through a university education\u201d (p. 124). Furthermore, the benefits of such education in \u201cimproving people\u201d would filter through to society as a whole.\u00a0 Bergman thus reconciles Newman\u2019s ideals with Catholic Social Teaching, St. Ignatius\u2019 view of education to foster \u201cthe ideal of service to the common good\u201d (p. 130) and Pope John Paul II\u2019s 1990 Ex Corde Ecclesiae \u201cpromotion of solidarity and its meaning in society and in the world\u201d (p. 131).<\/p>\n

Again stressing the need for personal encounters, Bergman notes that<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pain of privilege meeting poverty is visceral.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about discovering who we are and where we are, relative to the pain of other people\u2019s lives, a pain of which we had previously been blissfully unaware, and which now almost mocks us with its stare\u201d (p. 140).<\/p>\n

He relates this to the positive role of \u201chealthy shame\u201d in \u201cpersonal conversion and education for justice\u201d (p. 143), followed by an interesting discussion of different forms of healthy, \u201cunhealthy\u201d shame, and destructive shamelessness.<\/p>\n

Finally, Bergman describes the curriculum at Creighton, where immersion-based service learning is provided through courses in the department of Justice and Peace studies (an elective minor) and cross-listed in theology, education and political science \u201cwhere the instructors are located\u201d (p. 151).\u00a0 There are also courses focused on social learning themes and \u201cexemplars\u201d that support the \u201cpedagogical circle\u201d of \u201cimmersion, social analysis, theological reflection and vocational discernment\u201d (p. 154).\u00a0 He concludes with some very moving extracts from student responses to their immersion experiences and \u201celeven theses on student vocational development in the Catholic University\u201d.\u00a0 These include the statement that<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the extent that [Catholic] universities bring their resources into critical dialog with the dominant culture and contemporary world, a world of massive suffering and injustice, they provide a mentoring model and context for their young adult students.\u00a0 To the extent that they do not, they have no Catholic<\/em> reason to exist\u201d (p. 162).<\/p>\n

Questions<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. How important is it to incorporate social justice into the curriculum, and how might this best be done?<\/li>\n
  2. How do we find the resources to do it in the face of limited resources and competition between departments?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Bergman, R. (2011).\u00a0Catholic social learning: Educating the faith that does justice. New York: Fordham University Press. This book discusses Catholic social teaching, especially active service learning, as an element of Catholic education, in accordance with the Catholic commitment to social justice and the poor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-higher-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}