The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

Embracing Diverse Learners and Complex Classrooms: Aizaiah G. Yong

The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion

Rev. Dr. Aizaiah G. Yong  is Assistant Professor of Spirituality at Claremont School of Theology. 

What does it take to create a classroom experience where the relational ethos among diverse learners is that we belong to one another? Learner-centered pedagogies become especially complex when learners are from a wide range of backgrounds, theologies, communities, and also possess a wide variety of aspirations and intents. What does it mean to take seriously the ways diversity of learners challenges, enriches, and creates risk in a classroom? What if teaching in diversity means humility is a primary pedagogical practice? What is the finitude of our teaching and what are our personal limits while teaching in all-kinds diversity?