Site visits in interfaith and religious studies pedagogy: Reflections on visiting a Hindu temple in central Pennsylvania

Abstract

Site visits provide an irreplaceable learning experience to students in both religious studies and the emerging field of interfaith studies.The conceptual core of this thesis is the claim, drawn from feminist epistemology, that an embodied pedagogya pedagogy which engages students not only intellectually, but as embodied beings who inhabit a space, engage in physical activities, and undergo various sensory experiencesis ultimately more enriching than a pedagogy centered exclusively in the classroom. Factors that make a site visit a successful instance of embodied pedagogy include the provision of sufficient context to students in advance for them to understand and appreciate the experience, an opportunity afterward to reflect on this experience in an intentional way, ensuring the site and the community whose space it is are treated with proper respect, and ensuring that the religious sensibilities of one's students are also similarly respected. KEYWORDS embodied pedagogy, Hinduism, Hindu temples in the United States, interfaith pedagogy, interfaith studies, site visits 1 | SITE VISITS AS EMBODIED PEDAGOGY: EVOKING BOTH EMPATHY AND A SENSE OF THE TRULY " OTHER"As my fellow scholar of Hinduism, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, observes in her reflections on her practice of taking students on site visits to Hindu temples in the United States, "For a site visit to be successful, it will have specific pedagogical goals… and the experience will be integrated into class discussions rather than tacked on as an 'extra' (touristic) activity" (2004, ii). The purpose of a site visit is not simply to spice up the students' experience of one's course. Such visits have intrinsic value. For this value to be maximized, one must be intentional about their pedagogical purpose.As Flueckiger goes on to note, though, it is in the nature of site visits that studentshowever much care one may take to integrate and orient the field experience in terms of specific pedagogical goalsoften learn many things that

World religion and fake news: A pedagogical response in an age of post‐truth

“…As one might expect, there exist varied pedagogical approaches to teaching the world religions course (Walvoord, ). For example, as a means of introducing students to the various religious traditions, many instructors require a site visit to a local religious community (Long, ). The goal of this visit is to meet student needs for embodied learning by providing access to the tactile environment and, ideally, to practitioners who can explain from an insider perspective the basics of the tradition.…”

Who belongs where? Geographies of (inter)religion and urban segregation in Surabaya, Indonesia

“…They find that this stronger effect can especially be observed among students "with little to no religious education in their family." Similarly, the US-American religious studies scholar Jeffrey D. Long (2018) argues that "site visits provide an irreplaceable learning experience to students in both religious studies and the emerging field of interfaith studies." He sees excursions as a key element of "a pedagogy which engages students not only intellectually, but as embodied beings who inhabit a space, engage in physical activities, and undergo various sensory experiences" and that this "is ultimately more enriching than a pedagogy centred exclusively in the classroom."…”

“…He sees excursions as a key element of "a pedagogy which engages students not only intellectually, but as embodied beings who inhabit a space, engage in physical activities, and undergo various sensory experiences" and that this "is ultimately more enriching than a pedagogy centred exclusively in the classroom." In short, interfaith educational studies have evidenced that site visits can achieve powerful transformative effects on one's sense of empathy and understanding of the religious Other (Barkan & Barkey, 2015;Gill, 2016;Long, 2018;Mayblin et al, 2016).…”

“…However, most previous studies in this field focused on psychological transformations, that is, the knowledge, attitudes, or behaviours of the participants (Burdah, 2018;McCowan, 2017), and, more commonly, the pedagogical benefits of such interreligious experience (e.g., (Cordoves, 2018;Gill, 2016;Long, 2018;Mikoski, 2013). An alternative theoretical angle, such as one built on geographies of religion, urban spatial politics, and subjectivity, could offer a more enriched and nuanced understanding of the impacts of interreligious excursion.…”

Liberating the classroom: Ethnographic elements in liberation theologies curricula

“…Second, some argue that site visits are “one of the most powerful tools available to instructors in the fields of both religious studies and interfaith studies” (Long, 2018, p. 83). In this vein, the benefits of site visits or other ways of interacting with communities outside of academia have also been addressed in the context of teaching liberation theologies (Cochran & Weaver, 2017; Strain, 2000), or teaching theology in a manner that is informed by liberation theologies (Dube, 2002; Kaunda, 2014; West, 2016).…”