WHY IS A THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION IMPORTANT FOR K-12 EDUCATORS?
By Rod Dreher
Rawlings School of Divinity
CLED 720: Biblical & Theological Foundations of Education
Genevieve Hamer
July 1, 2022
WHY IS A THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION IMPORTANT FOR K-12 EDUCATORS?
A strong foundation of core academic disciplines and educational pedagogy will make a
successful teacher for any classroom. However, becoming an effective teacher who will provide
a Christ-centered quality education for one’s students in public, Christian, and classical school
requires a solid theological foundation.
In today’s diverse society, having a firm theological foundation enables an individual to
bring not only confident and well-prepared teaching, but light into the classroom. Christian
teachers in every school are critically important in contributing to students’ academic and
spiritual formation. With 30 hours of biblical and theological studies and over 50 hours of
professional education studies, the Boyce College Teacher Education Program is designed to
equip future educators to be servant leaders with the range of knowledge necessary for the
profession of teaching, skills for teaching in any classroom, and dispositions necessary to display
a Christ-centered attitude and work ethic in their profession.
Exceptional leaders are portrayed as those with high standards, who keep their
commitments, and exercise self-discipline. To build these traits, teacher candidates should be
taught Christian values of honesty and fairness in addition to the importance of setting goals for
daily life through theological studies. The educational foundation should be designed to ground
the future educator in Christian values that are biblically-based and hold to a standard of
behavior and guidelines which encourage students to exemplify these strong values.
The subtle teaching of humanism, socialism, and progressivism is dangerously persuasive to
impressionable students. The theological foundation to build strong teachers is a must if there
are to be students in the classroom that will be raised to be the “heritage of the Lord”
according to God’s Word. With teacher dispositions stemming from personal integrity, the
recognition of diversity as a fact of life, the belief in effective communication, and servant-
leadership, the Boyce College Teacher Education Program seeks to prepare students for just
that—meeting diverse populations with the truth of the gospel and addressing educational
challenges with faithful excellence.
Boyce College teacher candidates are trained to be totally committed to the Bible as the
inerrant Word of God, to the Great Commission as their mandate, and to service as their calling.
The Boyce Teacher Education Program is founded on these theological studies and is committed
to the principles of education which produce exemplary educators and see the furtherance of
God’s kingdom through the K12 classroom.
