blog schedule.
blogs marked * are required research for seminars
Our understanding of another culture will only ever be approximate. By asking questions and making careful observations we can, however, learn a lot about the way people from another culture think.
Worldview is the deepest level of culture. The worldview of a people is:
Uncovering the worldview of a people is not easy, and it is as much an art as it is a science. But if we are to see the gospel transform people groups, we need to grasp something of their worldview, so that not only their behaviours and explicit beliefs change, but also the deep-level images of and assumptions about reality (i.e. their worldview) are transformed.
Worldviews normally are internally consistent, and are made up of worldview themes which are related to one another. These themes can only be discovered by watching, listening, asking questions, and analyzing the data you collect. You will not know how to organize your findings immediately. It will take time and some trial and error before patterns emerge which really fit the information you have collected. Patience, and the willingness to play around with your data, are needed. It can feel like trying to put together a complex jigsaw puzzle, but you will begin to see parts of the whole picture if you persevere.
On the left are lists of resource questions, arranged by subjects, to help discover aspects of any people’s worldview. Many more questions could be asked. This is just a beginning. And there are other categories which will need to be explored and which may be unique to your people.
On the right is a schedule of blogs. EJs need to plan to write a blog every fortnight.This is a suggested order only arranged according to simplicity of concept, degree of observation required and degree of language needed in order to delve deep into meaning. The final order and amount that is covered is at the discretion of the Learning Group Facilitator. Those that are especially required for later seminars are marked with an asterix.
It is not so important how the blog is written. What is important is that ejs demonstrates that they have done the research, asked the questions and really tried to grapple with the issues. If the ej prefers to report using a podcast, audio recording or even video recording, that is certainly possible. A few paragraphs (approx. 300 words) per fortnight should be sufficient. It should be more like note-taking than essay writing – a record of the real work (which is observing and talking to people) rather than a burdensome task of writing. Let the hours be focused on being out with the people, rather than writing at a computer!
The purpose of having some form of record is to develop a habit (or discipline) of enquiry.
The purpose of the long list of subject areas is to ensure that the culture is fully investigated, which guards against assumptions that things not known (or not thought about) are the same as the ej’s home culture. The Learning Group Facilitator, Field Leaders and ejs are more than welcome to add more subjects and questions. These should be sent onto Evelyn for inclusion in the database.
A digital record of all blogs should be kept by the ej as a reference for the seminars.
| Selina | |
| Ben | |
| Jessica | |
| Michelle |
The questions on this site have been compiled from a number of sources:
PRIMARY SOURCE
‘Missionaries and Anthropologist Cooperate in Research’ by Jacob A. Loewen in “Readings in Missionary Anthropology II”, enlarged 1978 edition, pages 860 – 876 |
OTHER SOURCES
IMB Manual & "Explore the Land"
Gateway Internship Manual
Contributions from individuals (If you would like to add some more questions which have been helpful to you, please email them to us.)