The Stapleford Centre

The conference will focus on shalom as a Christian aim for education. This shalom model has been promoted strongly by Nicholas Wolterstorff, one of the world's foremost Christian philosophers of education. Clarence Joldersma, the conference's keynote speaker and the leading interpreter of Wolterstorff's writings on education, puts it like this: "The goal is to prepare students . . . for struggling for human flourishing where justice is the ground and responsible action is the vehicle, where delight and joy are intrinsic features of right human relationships with God, the natural world, the self, and others. Although the focus of a school is disciplined study, the framing goal should be promoting shalom."

• Is shalom adequate as an overall Christian goal for education?
• What are its implications for curriculum structures?
• What does it mean for the administrative structures of the school?
• What does it mean for our conceptions of teaching and learning?
• What difference does it make to our analyses of the social context of education?

The keynote speaker, Dr. Clarence Joldersma, is Professor of Education at Calvin College, Grand Rapids. He has recently coedited two volumes on the writings of Nicholas Wolterstorff: Educating for Life and Educating for Shalom. He comes originally from Canada.

PROGRAM: The program will commence with an evening meal on Friday, January 6, and will end with lunch on Sunday, January 8. In addition to plenary sessions, there will be workshops where participants will discuss insights gained from the plenary sessions for a range of educational contexts. Provision will also be made for three sessions of parallel seminars. There will be times for worship on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. (Full program details will be sent to participants as soon as they are finalized.)

Participants are invited to submit proposals for short seminar papers (presentation is not required for attendance). These need not be closely related to the conference theme, but it is expected that they will seek to integrate Christian faith with education. It is intended that participants should receive a booklet with details of all the conference papers in advance of the conference. It would therefore be helpful if proposed titles/outlines of seminar papers (not necessarily the full text) could be submitted by October 31 at the latest.

For more information, please visit the Stapleford Centre's website. (North American readers: note that "non-resident" participants are local commuters; anyone requiring meals and lodging should register as a "resident" participant.)