Foundations for Purpose and Passion 1

Foundations for Purpose and Passion in Life-long Learning

E. Allen Knight
Gainey School of Business
Spring Arbor University


Foundations for Purpose and Passion 2
Purpose and Passion in Christian Higher Education
The claim for much of Christian higher education is relevancy by preparing students in
the matter of faith and learning. This assertion is often articulated by a purpose statement issued
from the institution. A typical example is seen in The Concept (McKennna, 1961) for Spring
Arbor University:
Spring Arbor University is a community of learners distinguished by our life-long
involvement in the study and application of the liberal arts, total commitment to Jesus
Christ as the perspective for learning and critical participation in the contemporary world.
The goal is admirable, but as McFarlane and McLeod (2004) suggest higher education
limits the effectiveness of mission by the use of words to describe the role of teaching that
restricts a more comprehensive view. In that sense, the purpose and passion of Christian higher
education is likewise bound by similar limitations based on the use of particular descriptive
language and terminology. For instance, the authors maintain that words used in describing the
role of teaching such as pedagogy or andragogy are ultimately inadequate to encompass the
concept of age and gender neutrality. Likewise these two words do not posit a model for the
development of life-long learners. The most familiar term, pedagogy originates from words
meaning the teaching of youth, while androgogy is often used to denote adult learners. Pedagogy
implies the formality of instruction, the denoted audience children, and even the negative
connotations of pedantic, dogmatic, and formal (p. 116). Androgogy on the other hand suggests
learner autonomy, self-directedness, and peer learning (Knowles, 1970; McFarlane & McLeod,
p. 118). McFarlane and McLeod discuss the limitations of using the term androgogy and
summarize by suggesting that the term originates with the concept of male and therefore
represents some gender bias.
Foundations for Purpose and Passion 3
With these stated limitations in the more common terms, the scholars subsequently
coined the term teleogogy to express a goal-based outcome objective for students. This
proposal for the use of the term teleogogy as formed from the Greek root for end and implying
outcome, result, goal, aim, and fulfillment (McFarlane & McLeod, 2004, p. 119) provides for a
more comprehensive vision of higher education that can form the foundation for life-long
learning. The authors suggest that there are three aims for the adoption and use of teleogogy. The
first aim is learner centered endpoints and goals. The second aim is the achievement of a life-
long trajectory to full maturity as a learner. The final aim is a social one with the focus on
community and collaboration. McFarlane and McLeod write as representatives of two
universities, one secular and one faith based. By acknowledging the three aims of teleogogy, the
aspiration of Christian higher education to achieve purpose and passion as an institutional goal
and inculcating the same desire for its students in order to mature into life-long learners is an apt
strategy. However, achieving this evolution of thought and practice requires a tactical framework
of elements that can be used by faculty members for developing a classroom culture conducive
to teleogogy that encourages and empowers the student to pursue life-long learning with passion
and purpose.
To aid instructors, this paper proposes a set of constituents that form a framework for
creating and sustaining the goal oriented ideal as represented by teleogogy. If one is engaged in
the liberal, utilitarian, or fine arts instruction (Joseph, 2002), then the thoughts and comments
expressed here will provide a basis for the consideration and application for the preparation of
the course syllabus and the tactical instruction to follow. The philosopher, Alfred N. Whitehead
(1967) proposes that there is great need for higher education to include literary, scientific, and
technical instruction in order to achieve the intimate union of practice and theory (p. 48). Finally,
Foundations for Purpose and Passion 4
an example of how such a framework might appear in the discipline of business education is
offered.
The demand for a cohesive vision based on a lifetime of learning outcome is more
needful today due to the domination of a secular worldview, increasing globalization and in
response to the rapid change and acceptance of new technologies. These conditions suggest the
importance of understanding the student relative to these changes. Payne (2005) suggests that
consideration must be given to things versus relationships, recognizing the impact of modern
views that affect the attitudes about community, and therefore calls for recognition of the signal
importance of relationships and community. Researchers suggest that the widespread use of ever
increasing technical advances such as the internet is damaging the long-term memory
consolidation that is the basis for true intelligence ("Fast forward: The effects of the internet,"
2010), and as a consequence there is greater need for the instructor to provide a contextual
landscape that provides a continuity and hierarchy to the subject matter. All of this points to the
need for a practical system or framework that provides a path for educators and students to
develop the practice of teleogogy.
Framework for Christian Educators
The first step in developing a useful framework is the recognition of the tension and
synthesis associated with the ways or methods of processing information as we learn. Among the
foundations of education in the Western tradition, two traditions stand out as the bulwarks for a
faith based, life-long orientation to goal and outcome based education. The first consists of the
Thomistic synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity, Gods hand everywhere evident (Migliazzo,
2002, p. xxvii) and the second stems from Thomas Reid and Scottish colleagues: all truth is
Gods truth (p. xxvii). From the early days of the church, a tension described as Athens and
Foundations for Purpose and Passion 5
Jerusalem (p. xli) or the strain between critical rationalism and theistic revelation has existed.
Until a capitulation to preponderant acceptance in higher education of the critical rational
method of inquiry following the Enlightenment of the 17
th
century, these traditions were
generally accepted by the academy.
However, these foundational traditions are critical elements in the preparation of life-long
learners grounded in a faith tradition. The educator must accept the tension between the
competing epistemologies of Greco-Roman critical rationalism and Judeo-Christian theistic
authority (Migliazzo, 2002, p. xx), while preparing the student for balancing these two schools of
thought. The idea of balance and compromise is deeply rooted in the tradition of English
philosophy based in part on the contributions Bacon in his development of oppositions (Ackroyd,
2004, p. 400). To understand and synthesize these traditions and balance them with secular
thought is the first and most critical part of a framework for educators in Christian higher
education.
The integration of these two apparent opposing ideas need not be seen as an impossibility
but rather as an integral element in engaging the world. For the instructor, part of the balance
consists of assisting the student to achieve the marks of an educated Christian including a
commitment to God and his purposes for us: moral virtues, intellectual virtues, responsible
actions, and quality of self knowledge (Holmes, 1987, pp. 102-103). Additional grounding is
gained by aiding the student in developing a sense for the classical liberal arts of logic, grammar
and rhetoric as proposed by Sister M. Joseph (2002), recognizing Newmans assertsion that these
arts are an essential activity of the studentto relate the facts learned into a unified, organic
whole, to assimilate them as a body assimilates food (2006, p. 7).
Foundations for Purpose and Passion 6
A second part of the framework consists of the cultural literacy. In preparing a student for
a lifetime of learning and fulfillment, cultural literacy provides the context for the transmission
of the great lessons of mankind from the past to the present. The instructor in any discipline
needs to consider the course from a broader perspective than just the technical one, incorporating
its place in the whole fabric of the educational process. In practice, this means to give thought to
what cultural elements to teach and to further consider the importance of what it means to be part
of a literate culture and how that applies to a life-long learning (Hirsch Jr., 1987).
While the development of cultural literacy appears as a daunting task, the preparation of
students to yearn for continual improvement of their literacy is possible. So Migliazzo
encourages the teacher to learn from different disciplines (Migliazzo, 2002, p. x) to gain a
broader context for the specific discipline and to promote the spirit of discovery (p. xl) as a call
for practical teaching (p. xxxv). He goes on to suggest that such preparation resulting in direct,
explicit, and coherent practice (p. 314) leads to teaching that is the source of transformative
instruction as advocated by Parker Palmer (1983). Such teaching and preparation is not restricted
to the classroom and can be fruitful even outside of higher education as an aid to life-long
learning (Soars, 2010). In support of Migliazzos contention Brand and Chaplin write, We need
to understand where we have come from and where we are going to recognize some of the
signposts along the way (1999, p. 15).
A third important foundational element to outcome based learning is the recognition and
development of values. The fulfilled learner needs to recognize that values do exist and that
values are the basis for the development of discernment and understanding. The values
proposition gains strength in the epistemology of the theistic revelation model of Judeo-Christian
thought. If educators in Christian higher education want to encourage aided and unaided
Foundations for Purpose and Passion 7
discovery as proposed by Adler and van Doren (1972) in their guide to intelligent reading, then
the student and teacher cannot be neutral in matters of value (Wilber, 2002, p. 5). As old
paradigms of thought are challenged due to their inadequacy and new structures of thought are
developed (Kuhn, 1996), with what value system will the life-long learner evaluate and measure
validity?
Consideration of the traditional trivium of liberal arts will provide the instructor a
template for training the student to develop their evaluative skills, to apply a value base to that
evaluation, and to reach a conclusion with comfort and assurance. Logic as used in acquiring the
art of thinking, grammar as used in the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express
thought, and rhetoric as the art of communicating thought from one mind to another are the tools
that will impart a student with a lifetime of assessment skills (Joseph, 2002).
Completing the framework is the development of self-directed learning as the critical
component of the goal to achieve life-long learning. The preparation for self-directed learning
suggests that the instructor assist the student to reach a level of motivation and curiosity for the
future by designing and developing coursework that depends in large part on discovery of self
and subject (Piskurich, 1993). The successful self-learner develops skills that are holistic and
integrational, exploratory, and pluralistic, while in the Christian context are confessional and
perspectival (Holmes, 1987). Holmes proposes that instructors and institutions strive to
enlighten the student in the creative and redemptive impact of Christian revelation on every
dimension of thought and life while empowering the student to respect open-ended exploration
without complete unanimity and the development of multiple perspectives (pp. 58-59) that
result from different times and concerns.
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These four segments consisting of self-directed learning, values, cultural literacy, and
epistemological synthesis form the framework for a more holistic approach to the preparation
and empowerment of life-long learners within the concept of teleogogy or goal/outcome based
education. An example of the possible application of this approach in the business school arena
is presented in the following section.
An Example: Business and Economics
The studies of the various disciplines associated with business are part of the utilitarian or
servile arts as suggested by Joseph (2002). These business disciplines provide an example for
knowledge and skill acquisition from a goal based perspective that includes an integration of
faith and learning. Can the four planks (synthesized epistemology, cultural literacy, values, and
self-directed learning) of teleogogy as presented provide a platform that will assist the student to
achieve an integration of life-long goal based learning?
C. K. Wilber points out in his discussion concerning the teaching of economics (while not
strictly a utilitarian art, economics is a central premise of most business studies), that students
must see that economic systems are not value free and that a need for moral constraints is needed
(2002, p. 3). He encourages the instructor to incorporate the sense of people as moral agents and
to impress the importance of human dignity and the social nature of that dignity. His approach
demonstrates the integration of the synthesized epistemology, cultural literacy and values as he
builds the case that teaching can change outcomes and is not neutral (p. 6), while the
instruction should reinforce and introduce higher levels of self-interest perception. Likewise, the
economist, G. C. Loury points to the need for a spiritual dimension as the basis for personal
morality that is at the core the character and values necessary for societal improvement (1993,
February 25). The place to reinforce this value base is in the classroom for it prepares the student
Foundations for Purpose and Passion 9
to integrate these principles into their long-term continuous learning goals. This method provides
a basis for the student to continue in a pursuit of understanding economics and applying this
understanding to future issues and scenarios.
The work of Carl Kreider (1980), as represented by his writings on entrepreneurship,
points to the importance of preparing the student and practitioner in the art of applying the
theistic truths of Christianity to the practice of business, from risk-taking to profit distribution.
The business school instructor can learn much from Kreiders thesis in the application and
smooth assimilation of his theology of entrepreneurship and business into the spiritually sterile
environment of many business courses. The work of developing critical thinking skills for life-
long learners is not satisfied by a prayer and a few bible verses, but rather requires the integration
of both epistemologies to fully prepare that student for the outcomes as anticipated by a process
of Christian based teleogogy.
A professor at Trinity Western University (Goossen, 2004) works to prepare students for
business endeavors by his instruction. He is a proponent of business, and more specifically,
entrepreneurship as a form of Christian stewardship. His approach testifies to the importance of
incorporating values, cultural-literacy, and self-learning in the pursuit of business endeavors with
a call for goals and fulfillment that promote the concept of life-long learning. By example, he
suggests that Christian entrepreneurship consists of: (a) an emphasis on a God-narrative, (b) life
lived according to Gods laws, (c) a discovery of calling and meaning through a whole life
experience, (d) the utilization of gifts and talents for community, and (e) a recognition of the
source of calling and achievement as divine (p. 22).
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Conclusion
These examples are by no means exhaustive, but the reader can sense that it is possible to
incorporate the four constituents for developing the framework that leads to life-long learning
and described more completely by the word teleogogy. Instructors can familiarize themselves
with the teleogogical concept by reviewing the prescriptive points presented by McFarlane and
McLeod (2004). Then the application of the four planks for the framework in Christian higher
education provides the instructor with a path for modifying courses and incorporating techniques
to assist in the process of training students to achieve the goal of life-long learners.
In concert with teleogogy which offers an improved viewpoint for the development and
encouragement of life-long learning, Migliazzo encourages educators in the academy to pursue
the integration of human aspirations by incorporating the dimensions of veritas, truth resulting
from critical rationalism with altheia, truth as unveiled mystery (2002, p. 314). In addition, he
observes that a holistic model integrating critical reasoning and faith provides a synthesis with
Blooms taxonomy (p. 318). This proposed model calls for further discussion in the academy.
Let this be a call to achieve an evolution of thought and practice which incorporates a practical
and tactical framework for goal based life-long learning. Let faculty and students work in
partnership to achieve teleogogy, a partnership that encourages further discussion, development
and comment within different disciplines. The attainment of holistic learning where logical
reason and supernatural faith dwell together in unity for a lifetime of fulfillment with purpose
and passion is the aim and end.


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