TEACH Journal

In this brief article I seek not to canvass or decry

the latest theories of management, but to draw

together the strands of what seem to me, after 44

years, to be the essence of practical leadership.

In early 21st century Australia, proponents of Christian faith are in an Acts (Acts 17:6,22 NIV) situation: we contend amidst the smorgasbord of multiple faiths and designer spiritualities, where any sense that Christian faith is privileged by culture, history or exclusive truth claims, is rapidly eroding. In this multi-faith, pluralistic and the increasingly secular environment, we are ironically surrounded, like Paul in ancient Athens, with many Gods, mostly of a secular nature. The Christian church needs to discover effective ways to communicate the unchanging truth of the Gospel into a society which is undergoing rapid change in its belief systems, methods of communication and modes of learning, and amidst a cacophony of messages and sounds which trumpet different world views.

In a world of shifting sands, young people are often left to navigate unchartered pathways in life with very little guidance, other than their peers and the media. Parents find themselves unsure of how best to help, overwhelmed with their own workloads, lack of certainty and change. Even those families who are working with great intention to speak and guide the lives of their children, often feel that the deafening voices of society are weakening their sphere of influence. As a result, society, families, and young people look to schools to support and, at times, fill the role of positive guides in this world.

A book compiled by two Avondale academics launched on Thursday February 27, 2020 will encourage Christian educators in any learning environment to more naturally and creatively reveal Jesus to their students.

Teaching the history of the Holocaust is certainly complicated in a number of educational settings. However, in the attempt to make the Holocaust relevant we are all susceptible to glossing over key historical facts. Since we live an age of some anxiety over the future of Holocaust memory and Holocaust education, educators should teach Holocaust history without flattening it, providing an approach that wrestles with the specificities of the Holocaust and contextual factors in the lives of individuals.

This paper addresses some of the educational needs of students with hearing impairments, for this group has unique learning needs especially in relation to language acquisition. Throughout the course of history there have been two dominant approaches to deaf education, oral (speech) and manual (sign language). Despite conflicting opinions between medical professionals and educators in the field of Deaf education, current research suggests that flexibility and an openness to utilise a combination according to the individual needs of the students is the best approach to forming language proficiency. This paper will use these findings to suggest a holistic range of effective management strategies for educators, which target the physical, academic, social, emotional and communicative wellbeing of deaf students.