Everyday Christian Teaching: A Guide to Practicing Faith in the Classroom - Paperback

by David I. Smith (Author)

Discover how ordinary moments in the school year can become occasions for making profound connections between faith and pedagogy.

In this encouraging and practical book, education expert David I. Smith invites Christian educators on a journey through the school year that will deepen their capacity to make thoughtful connections between their faith and their pedagogy.

Mirroring the rhythms of an academic year, the book embraces and explores the mundane moments that all teachers experience every semester. Starting the course. Setting some norms for interaction. Choosing how to frame the material. Assigning tasks. Repeating things. Pausing. Bringing things to a close. The topics are deliberately ordinary because, as Smith demonstrates, the shape of one's teaching is mainly built from the unspectacular choices and actions that gradually shape the texture of life in the classroom. If educators want to think well about Christian faith and teaching and act well in the classroom, they need to learn to reflect well on those ordinary steps in the journey.

Everyday Christian Teaching builds on Smith's previous book On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom, where he made a persuasive case for connecting faith and pedagogy. The new book aims to put this idea into practice, as Smith explains in the introduction: "Suppose we want to get better at thinking about faith and teaching together. What then? What does the road look like, and how do we walk it wisely? If we'd like to be a pilgrim, how do we make progress?" Taking up such questions with wisdom and empathy, Everyday Christian Teaching helps educators develop faith-informed insights and life-giving practices that can transform their teaching over the course of time.

Author Biography

David I. Smith is director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, coordinator of the De Vries Institute for Global Faculty Development, and professor of education at Calvin University. In 2024, he won Calvin University's Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching. He has published extensively on Christian education and the relationship between faith and pedagogy; his books include On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom and Learning from the Stranger: Christian Faith and Cultural Diversity.