Dr. Miriam Charter has been leading a series of workshops exploring the learning experience in classrooms at Trinity—how should teaching and learning change in light of the growing presence of international students? In what ways do international students present opportunities and challenges to professors and fellow American students? These and other questions are being explored from a number of different perspectives in order to discover how the realities of globalization should affect international theological education (at TEDS and elsewhere). Through a series of workshops involving faculty, students, and administrators, both at Trinity and in other like-minded theological institutions, a multi-ethnic research team composed of a professor and three doctoral students from Trinity are exploring the development of pedagogical resources; they hope to promote a biblical, evangelical, and contextual approach for teaching and learning in multicultural and international learning environments. The results so far have been very encouraging; for instance, many of our TEDS faculty have made important changes in how they teach their classes in order to better engage their international students.

During a three-day period (July 6, 7, 8), faculty from all over the world will gather at Trinity for a three-day conversation about pedagogical practices that enhance teaching and learning in multi-national learning environments. This meeting is being designed not as a conference (with papers being read and discussed), but as a discussion together, with participants coming from higher (theological) education in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, Canada, the USA and local church contexts in North America. A dozen of our own PhD students at TEDS who will return to similar contexts of theological education in the years ahead will join the conversation. There will be about 40 participants.