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| Scholarship & Faculty Development |
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Christian Scholarship
The Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith and Learning is intended
to be a catalyst for the dissemination of Christian scholarship. One of
the center's aims is to enable Whitworth faculty to produce high-quality
Christian scholarship and facilitate interaction with other scholars throughout
the world. Funding is provided for intensive summer research on the part
of Whitworth University faculty.
Faculty Development
The purpose of this institute is to assist Whitworth
faculty in the development of a pedagogy that integrates their Christian
worldview with the teaching of their disciplines, develop a resource center, organize faculty development workshops, and provide stipends for
faculty research in the areas of faith and learning integration.
Acknowledging that there are many ways to approach
the integration of faith and learning in the classroom, the center attempts
to focus on three principal strategies:
- Exploring the vocation
of a Christian professor
This strategy focuses attention
on the multiple levels of what it means to be a professor called by
Christ to the classroom. In particular, how does that calling influence
the way in which one's subject is taught, the tenor of conversations
with students in and out of class, and the ways in which a professor
mentors students?
- Exploring ways in which
theological presuppositions can be brought to bear on a professor's
understanding of his/her discipline
This strategy emphasizes the importance of understanding one's theological
presuppositions regarding metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, and
other key foundational beliefs. The center is committed to helping faculty -- Catholic, Mennonite, Reformed, Lutheran, and Baptist, --
to understand more clearly the key theological distinctives, in order that the professor
might be equipped to discuss the ways in which those distinctives are consistent
with or in conflict with the major assumptions of his or her academic disciplines.
- Exploring ethical and
public policy implications that arise for faculty out of their respective
disciplines
This strategy attempts to assist faculty inunderstanding more completely the
ethical and public policy implications of the knowledge associated with
their academic disciplines. Believing that Whitworth, a college in the
Reformed tradition, is obligated to explore the ways in which an individual
should be responsible for his or her own behavior as well as for the common good,
the center is committed to helping faculty develop more confidence
in teaching issues in these areas.
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