Teaching Cross-Culturally : An Incarnational Model for Learning and Teaching

How can Christian educators teach effectively within a culture not their own? In what sense is teaching part of the Great Commission? These questions are being asked more and more often in our increasingly global community.In the opening chapter of Teaching Cross-Culturally, Judith Lingenfelter recounts two contrasting teaching experiences she had early in her career. First, she taught junior high students in a rough urban setting near Pittsburgh. Next, she taught elementary students at a school on the small island of Yap in the Western Pacific. Both experiences, she discovered, were examples of cross-cultural teaching. Teaching Cross-Culturally is designed to complement Sherwood Lingenfelter's highly successful Ministering Cross-Culturally. It takes similar insights and applies them specifically to an educational setting. It also guides readers with little understanding of cross-cultural challenges in ministry and helps them see how cultural sensitivity and effective teaching are inseparably linked. Chapters include discussions about how to uncover cultural biases, how to address intelligence and learning styles, and teaching for biblical transformation. Teaching Cross-Culturally is ideal for the western-trained educator who plans to work in a non-western setting. Missionaries, "tentmakers," and those who teach in an increasingly multicultural North America will find this book helpful.

Judith E. Lingenfelter (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is associate professor of intercultural education at Biola University. Sherwood G. Lingenfelter (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is provost/senior vice president, dean of the School of World Mission, and professor of anthropology at Fuller Theological Seminary.