Abstract
How do we teach effectively among people who are culturally different from ourselves? Too often those from the West and those trained in the West simply take their same notes and styles of teaching to other parts of the world, and hope the “students” understand and learn from them. James Plueddemann, former professor of missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and SIM missionary in Nigeria, argues that “effective teachers are intentionally mastering three things: the content to be taught, the culture of the learner, and the ability to encourage bridges between content and the culture” (7). The strength of this book is Plueddemann’s emphasis on the cultural context in which teaching and learning occur, peppered with hundreds of illustrations and examples from his own cross-cultural teaching and ministry, which enshrines this book as a “must read” for anyone in cross-cultural ministry.
Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of several metaphors for teaching—production (teacher as technician), growth (teacher as gardener), travel (teacher as tour guide)—the author prefers the metaphor of pilgrimage where students and teacher are pilgrims together in the lifelong journey of learning. He develops a heuristic device of a rail fence with top and bottom rails anchored between fence posts. The bottom rail represents the cultural context, felt needs, experiences, and struggles of the students. The top rail stands for the subject matter of information, theory, and universal biblical truths the teacher wants to convey. The goal is for students to integrate top-rail content with their bottom-rail experience and connect both to the fence posts of life’s events and experiences. This kind of integration is often missing in Westernized teaching and we too often export this model of education around the world. Plueddemann observes, “The main problem in education worldwide is the lack of integration between ideas and practice, between truth and life, between the biblical context and cultural context” (26).
Plueddemann takes his basic rail-fence metaphor and the goal of integrating content with context, without overgeneralizing or essentializing, and explores anthropologist Edward T. Hall’s distinction between low-context (Western) and high-context (Majority World) cultures, and Geert Hofstede research on power-distance in various cultures. He discusses a wide range of differences in cultural values, including tolerance for ambiguity versus avoiding uncertainty and desiring predictability. Throughout the book the author emphasizes the need for adaptability in teaching methods and recognizing and affirming the cultural perspectives of others. In a moment of humble transparency, Plueddemann, full of wisdom and insight, says, “For most of my life I’ve been attempting to figure out when to shift gears so as to be more aware of the context, more respectful of power, more tolerant of ambiguity, and more appreciative of collectivistic values” (67). This helpful book is now available as a trusted guide for the rest of us in teaching across cultures.