Professional Guidelines for Christian English Teachers: How to be a Teacher with Convictions while Respecting those of your Students
Ebook
Overview
This handbook is for people in the field of English language teaching who are looking for practical ways to be both committed followers of Jesus and ethical TESOL professionals. What do such teachers actually do in the classroom? What materials do they use? How do they relate to their students and colleagues in and outside the classroom? How can they treat students as whole people, with spiritual and religious identities? How can they set a high bar for ethical teaching? Professional Guidelines for Christian English Teachers has grown out of Kitty Purgason’s experience as a Christian seeking to follow the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, as a practitioner with a deep concern for excellence and integrity, and as a teacher trainer with experience in many parts of the world.
Abbreviations and Definitions
Preface
PART 1
1. Introduction
2. Biblical Foundation
3. Goals and Models: What We Teach and How We Teach It at the Program Level
PART 2
4. “This Is Who I Am”: Being Transparent about Our Identity as Teachers
5. Going Deep: Questions about What’s Important
Additional Resources A: Resources for Conversation
Additional Resources B: “Dark Side” Lesson
6. “Who Are You and What Matters to You?” Getting Students to Communicate
Additional Resources: What Do You Believe?
7. How We Relate to Each Other: Cultivating Respect
Additional Resources A: Principles from I Beg to Differ
Additional Resources B: Respectful Disagreement
8. Good Teaching: Balance and Excellence
Additional Resources: Three Lessons That Illustrate Balance
9. Good Teaching: Critical Thinking
Additional Resources: Two Lessons That Encourage Critical Thinking
10. Power Dynamics: Appropriate Teacher-Student Relationships
11. Outside the Classroom
Additional Resources: Four Examples of Real CETs Having an Impact Outside of Class
12. Spiritual Reality: Nurturing Our Spiritual Lives and Praying for Students
PART 3
More Teaching Ideas
1. “Love One Another” (Song) Lesson Plan
2. “Love Remains” (Song) Lesson Plan
3. Kindness (Video) Lesson Plan
4. Julia Alvarez’s “Snow” (Short Story) Lesson Plan
5. Teaching Ideas for Poetry: Edwin A. Robinson’s “Richard Cory”
6. Teaching Ideas for Sayings, Proverbs, or Quotations
7. Published Textbooks: Adding More
Notes
References
[Kitty Purgason has] written a wonderfully balanced and useful book, and it exudes what a follower of Christ can do, say, and be in the classroom. I especially appreciated [the] chapter on “critical thinking” which so often means, “think intelligently like me.” This is a terrific resource for those of us who believe that our profession is our faith in action.
-Tom Scovel, Professor Emeritus of TESOL, San Francisco State University
- Title: Professional Guidelines for Christian English Teachers: How to be a Teacher with Convictions while Respecting those of your Students
- Author: Kitty Purgason
- Publisher: William Carey Library
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Pages: 234
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781645080589, 9780878084975, 0878084975, 1645080587
- Resource ID: LLS:9781645080589
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-08-30T07:51:39Z
Kitty Barnhouse Purgason is professor emerita of TESOL at Biola University. She has a PhD in Applied Linguistics from UCLA. She spent six childhood years in India as a missionary kid and has taught in East Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. She is a three-time Fulbright fellow and a U.S. State Department English Language Specialist. She is active in the professional associations TESOL, CATESOL and CELEA (Christian English Language Educators Association. She is the author of Professional Guidelines for Christian English Teachers (William Carey Library).