RT Article
T1 The Baltimore Mural Project: An approach to threshold concepts in religious studies
JF Teaching theology and religion
VO 21
IS 3
SP 185
OP 196
A1 Morales, Harold D. 1981-
A1 Barnes, Mark
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2018
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1577566688
AB The Baltimore Mural Project (BMP) seeks to connect religious studies education to the growing literature on threshold concepts in order to address bottleneck areas in student learning. The project is designed for undergraduate service courses comprised of mostly non-majors: for example, world religions. Students in these courses often struggle to understand and apply the discipline's unique approaches to the study of religion (i.e. its threshold concepts). Rather than merely memorize certain facts about a religious tradition's myths [or world forming stories], rituals [or embodied disclosures], materials, and so on... students are asked to apply threshold concepts related to religion, art, and the social good to the study of murals in Baltimore. Through a series of project elements (including: field work, photography, digital geomapping, and quantitative, qualitative, and archival research) the BMP helps students who struggle with threshold concepts in religious studies by creatively connecting the more conventional aspects of world religions courses to social justice issues related to mural art in Baltimore. By experientially helping students to make these connections, they are able to find creative routes through otherwise hindering barriers to their learning in religious studies.
K1 Baltimore
K1 art infused learning
K1 Motivation
K1 mural art
K1 religion and the city
K1 threshold concepts
DO 10.1111/teth.12440