InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network
Hannah Eagleson’s first guest blog series, which she wrote before joining ESN as a writer/editor in 2014. At the time Hannah was a musician, writer, and recent PhD recipient living in central Pennsylvania. The Summer Quote Series offers brief reflections on quotes that she foundRead more…
What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for theRead more…
Find yourself in blizzard conditions as you reflect upon the larger structure of education, but can’t quite figure out why or the proper direction for next steps? In Chapter 4: The Information Economy of Education, Paul D. Spears and StevenRead more…
After rattling the reader’s cage by exploring Have you been properly educated?, Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis argue: Most of the abilities that we associate with knowledge in the educational field turn out to be mostly a capacity toRead more…
Educational standards are the foundation of the modern educational endeavor. Statements about educational success imply standards. Measuring whether or not students are being properly educated involves testing them in particular subjects with its prescribed set of grade-appropriate standards that theyRead more…
In Chapter 2 of Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective* (InterVarsity Press, 2009), Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis draw attention to the importance of foundational categories and philosophical thinkers for the development of educational theory. Furthermore, theyRead more…
Two recent articles on the profession of education worth consideration: In Search of Education Leaders, by Bob Herbert, NY Times Op-Ed, December 4, 2009 The Ph.D. Problem: On the professionalization of faculty life, doctoral training, and the academy’s self-renewal, byRead more…
Here’s the top five articles, books, websites, etc., that we’ve been reading or thinking about the past week. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. In addition, if you have items you’d like us to consider for the topRead more…
In How We Got to Sesame Street; Art on Screen (The Chronicle of Higher Education. January 16, 2009), Evan R. Goldstein treats us to some of the history of Sesame Street, which celebrated 40 years on November 10. In 1966Read more…
Here’s the top five articles, books, websites, etc., that we’ve been reading or thinking about the past week. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. In addition, if you have items you’d like us to consider for the topRead more…
As I mentioned in Week in Review: Connections Edition, Anne Rice’s Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008) offers a number of comments on education. The tension which Rice wrestled with in her call as a writer speaks to a reality encountered byRead more…
Here’s the top five articles, books, websites, etc., that we’ve been reading or thinking about the past week. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. In addition, if you have items you’d like us to consider for the topRead more…
George Marsden, Notre Dame’s Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus, wrote The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) to take a step toward clarifying what the ancient enterprise of relating faith and learning mightRead more…
Do schools fail democracy, as argued by E.D. Hirsch Jr., in How Schools Fail Democracy (The Chronicle Review, 9/28/2009)? Personally, I have been frustrated by public education’s emphasis on skill development for check-lists, competitions, and test-taking with low reference toRead more…
Would you agree with my idealistic enthusiasm for My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, the story of a professor of anthropology at a large state university who realized that she no longer understood the behavior and attitudes of herRead more…
How have you come to know, understand, feel, and define hospitality? Do you consider hospitality a necessary part of the fabric of Higher Education (e.g., community, discussion of ideas, relationships with the other) or not? How have you experienced and/orRead more…
Note: Contains spoilers and has become more of a reflection than a review* … Faith & Geekery claims Star Trek Will Rock the Summer. Yes, Star Trek features superb action, casting, soundtrack, and special effects. As a fan who onlyRead more…
Would you agree or disagree with me that Christianity* is unfashionable on campus? If so, would you go further with me to argue that Christianity is even more unfashionable on campus than in our larger culture? Whether you agree orRead more…
Any responses to the NY Times piece End the University as We Know It? Another piece highlighting the concerns of specialization and the slave labor by graduate students in the research universities with diminishing chance of reward after pushing throughRead more…
As you have a passion for higher education, you no doubt follow March Madness with great interest and/or concern. So join me in swinging by Culture Making to wrestle with the 5 Culture Making Questions applied to March Madness: What does March Madness assumeRead more…
What does Nicholas Wolterstorff make of Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman (Yale University Press, 2008)? About half-way through the review, Wolterstorff critiques Sennett’s advocacy of animal laborans’ (i.e., the laboring human being, who asks How?) ability to function separate from homoRead more…
In the March/April edition of Books & Culture: A Christian Review, Nicholas Wolterstorff’s review of Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman (Yale University Press, 2008) raises concerns of particular relevance to Emerging Scholars. First, Wolterstorff digs into Sennett’s critique of the lowerRead more…
HT to Arlene Miller, retired nursing faculty at Messiah College (Grantham, PA) and co-author of two InterVarsity Press Books (Called to Care: A Christian Worldview for Nursing and Values in Conflict: Christian Nursing in a Changing Profession), who shared withRead more…
While posting Colleges ignore life’s biggest questions, I was reminded of Neil Postman’s The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School — a book which I believe after a dozen years still remains a must read for those involved in education. InRead more…