Teacher Planning: Biblical Texts, Gender and the Young Adolescent

Abstract

What happens when a Bible teacher feels the tension between her personal interpretive needs, the students' interpretive needs and the core values she wants to transmit? How does a teacher tackle "difficult texts" causing tension between these core values? This study explores these very questions. It contributes something new to our understanding of the choices teachers make when teaching texts. The descriptions of teacher's dilemmas are useful for researchers of Bible education interested in teacher beliefs. Researchers will learn about the complexity of teacher choices in the classroom. Bible educators will benefit from this study which offers anecdotes of other teachers navigating difficult texts and their personal choices while teaching.;This study examines teacher beliefs about teaching difficult texts by analyzing the teacher planning process. This is a qualitative study. Twelve teachers of middle school Navi¹ (prophetic) texts were interviewed. Each teacher reflected on how he planned to teach those difficult texts. Interview data were supplemented with information from document analysis of teacher created materials for student learning.;Two specific Biblical narratives, typically taught in Jewish middle schools, were chosen as the focus of this study: the story of David and Batsheva (Samuel II: Chapters 11 and 12) and the immediate aftermath of that episode in the story of Amnon and Tamar (Samuel II Chapter 13) as well as the story of Samson (Judges Chapters 13-16). These texts raise issues of sexual morality, making them challenging for teachers of young adolescents who seek to instill religious values in students.;¹In many schools the teaching of the books of the Bible such as Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings are referred to as "Navi. ".