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Lectorates at orthodox Christian Universities of the Netherlands
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands has created possibilities for the three orthodox Christian universities of professional education to appoint lectorates and research groups. Three institutional IAPCHE members, The Ede Christian University, (ECU), the Reformed University Zwolle (RUZ) and at the Christian University de Driestar, Gouda (CUDD) cooperate to support three lectorates and related knowledge networks. A lectorate is a scientific research and education unit chaired by a lector. A lector is a professor at the centre of a knowledge network or research group. Each lectorate is involved in generating and applying scientific research in a specific are of expertise and maintains contact with the relevant professional fields. Various staff members of the three universities of professional education and professionals from diverse practices are involved in the research and education by the lectorates.
The lectors appointed are:
With this investment, the three orthodox Christian universities will have good opportunities to generate, exchange and apply knowledge for mutual benefit. This development is quite a significant change in the Dutch higher educational scene. Next to the academic universities, for instance the Free University, we now see the strong rise of universities of professional education. Since the year 2002, both types of Dutch higher education institutions are free to offer bachelor and masters programs and to engage in scientific research. Lectorates therefore offer the possibility for the orthodox Christian Universities to strongly improve upon the quality of their education. Because of the practical orientation of universities of professional education, the knowledge developed by lectorates will have a distinct relation to professional training. A description of each of the three lectorates points this out.
- The Lectorate Ethics of Care
- The Lectorate Social Work
- The Lectorate Education and Identity
The lectorate Ethics of Care in the areas of health care and social welfare
At the ECU, Henk Jochemsen has been appointed as lector in the year 2002 and Johan Hegeman as associate lector in the year 2004. The research carried out by this lectorate is aimed at the improvement of moral conduct of (future) professionals through new or redesigned educational materials and forms. Two major research lines are followed: an educational track and an ethical track.
On the educational track, the research focuses on knowledge, learning processes and moral formation, whereby foremost attention is given to current views on competency learning. The aim hereby is to gain a valid concept of integral learning through which the professional not only will become more skilled but more integrally educated as a person, including the moral and spiritual formation of that person. One learning strategy we are using is the old European concept of Bildung that can be understood as a spiritual and moral development through which the person may come to self-understanding and higher levels of conduct and being. In this process, we see at its core reflection, and as its overall aim wisdom.
On the ethical track, we follow a theoretical and an empirical side. The theoretical side concerns reflection on and formulation of an ethics of care as a global ethical theory. Also studied are related developments in the social context of care and social welfare that influence the morality of care and welfare. A full-fledged ethics of care must attend to at least three perspectives on morally justified conduct and corresponding ethical approaches. These include the role responsibility of the professional (deontological ethics), the context of the professional care as a normative social practice with its own guiding direction (teleological and consequentialist ethics), and the qualities of the person providing care including the virtues for engaging in an ethically responsible professional practice (virtue ethics). In a model of moral formation, these three perspectives flow together integrally.
The empirical side of the ethical track concerns research on moral beliefs and related moral conduct of practitioners in the fields of nursing and social welfare. Our research focus is on certain cases where the meaning of Christian worldviews for an ethics of care is closely studied. One aspect, for instance, is that ethics is not reduced to mere formulation of moral decision making in solving moral dilemmas, even though dealing with such dilemmas is not avoided. Far more so, ethics of care is a reflection on what good conduct is to be in light of the concept of good care, and this in turn is illuminated by the idea of the good life. In our search for the ethics of good care, we communicate closely with (Christian) practitioners. Without making actual practice the norm, we try to acknowledge that the spiritual and moral formation of practitioners takes place continually in various practices and we try to disclose the most important conditions realized in already existing excellent Christian practices.
The lectorate Social Work in the areas of social work and social welfare
The RUZ hosts the chair of Dr. Roel Kuiper, who is ‘lector’ Social Work. Dr. Kuiper has been appointed as lector in the year 2002 and works with a team of researchers from different academic backgrounds in the field of the social sciences. Special attention will be given to the family as a basic structure both in social work and in policy-making. In general the research group is interested in social cohesion and the social nature of communities. In confrontation and discussion with humanist/individualistic paradigms we want to develop approaches in social work that are based on a christian perspective on human sociability and responsibility.
The different members of the research group are involved in different projects. Some of them concentrate on family-cohesion and youth problems, others concentrate on family-policies and the welfare state. We also aim at developing new methodologies for social workers, who want to work with christian family and/or community programmes. We work together with several institutions for professional higher education, especially those in Zwolle and Ede. We also work with researchers at universities and independent research centers. We plan to build an international network of professors and researchers in this field.
The lectorate Identity and education in the area of teacher education
At the CUDD in Gouda, Bram de Muynck has been appointed as lector in the year 2003. The main aim of this lectorate and knowledge network is the formation (Bildung) of teachers in Reformed primary education. Research questions are: How does the Christian worldview work out for Christian teachers in their educational practice? And, how can we improve on these ideals in the education of teachers? The research of the lectorate is subdivided into different sub-projects. On a theoretical level, the relation between Christian ideals concerning formation, the concepts ‘competence-oriented training,’ and ‘development-oriented education’ are studied. A practical result of the first study will be a brochure in which a Christian viewpoint on competence-oriented training and practical guidelines is described. Another study will focus on the identification role that supervisors have in the formation of their students. Another will focus on the effects of supervision methods as followed by students and on the role of moral education and ‘giving meaning’ in such coaching methodologies. In several studies, the lecturer and his knowledge network work together with other Christian institutes in the Netherlands and abroad. With respect to the latter theme, the lectorate has contacts with the North West University of Potchefstroom in the Republic of South-Africa. When asked about his goals De Muynck says: ‘It would be great if our knowledge network could contribute to the growing attention for the importance of depth in the “Bildung” process of teachers. It is partly their responsibility that coming generations will enjoy passing through their school careers. Generations that understand the learning of wonder, are sensitive to their surroundings, have a breadth of knowledge of and insight in society and have feeling with respect and esteem in their daily lives.’ The lectorate of Identity and Education seeks to improve upon such moral formation that teachers impart to their students. |
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