The class feverishly copied into their notebooks each concept I presented, but I could see in their eyes that nothing I said registered in any meaningful way. The teaching method I followed reflected my own educational journey, which had deeply influenced my thinking, life and ministry. However, even though the students could memorize my words and reproduce them on an exam, no significant learning occurred.

Why? Simply because the teaching and learning experience is grounded in ways of thinking shaped by culture. My cultural background focused on the transference of concepts and ideas as a means of knowing, while my Salvadoran students experienced learning through relationships. When I began to teach through story, the urgency of copying down my words diminished, and the students lived the learning in the story.

Via Teaching Across Cultures: Contextualizing Education for Global Mission, James Plueddemann addresses the challenge of teaching and learning in cross-cultural environments and the importance of contextualizing education for global mission. He begins by presenting various metaphors of teaching, including the rail fence as a cross-cultural model for teaching, advocating for a paradigm shift in the teaching and learning processes. To contextualize the material to the experiences of students, teachers must help them build fence posts between the subject matter and their needs.

Teachers must help students build fence posts between the subject matter and their needs.

In the chapters that follow, Plueddemann addresses teaching and culture by acknowledging the complexities of culture and human nature; the diversity of cultural contexts and their impact on teaching; the relationship between cultural values and educational aims; the value of struggle in learning; the harmony that emerges from the rail fence model of education; and examples of what he describes as “pilgrim teaching.” Plueddemann concludes by affirming the need for culturally appropriate evaluation of teaching.

As Duane Elmer notes in the forward, the contents of this book “will be helpful to virtually every audience whether the differences are cultural, generational, ethnic, gender, or regional.” Elmer highlights the key contributions of this book by stating, “The reader will be enriched by (1) principles of teaching in another culture, (2) stories of successes and failures from dozens of countries, (3) purposeful attention to the cultural context, and (4) taking the posture of a learner before entering the teacher role.”

God is the Master Teacher, but He empowers pilgrim teachers in global mission. Pentecostals will concur with the author when he states, “The Holy Spirit is the ultimate teacher working through spiritually gifted teachers who connect the Word of God with human needs in such a way that leads to growth.”

It is the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth, empowering us for global mission across cultures — because the truth of the gospel is for every person of every culture. Teachers who want to see the light of understanding come on in the eyes of their students, regardless of their cultural or social differences, will benefit from this book.

Book Reviewed

James E. Plueddemann, Teaching Across Cultures: Contextualizing Education for Global Mission (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018).