ERT(2004) 28:4, 315-328

Forty Years On: The Evolution Of

Theological Education By
Extension (TEE)
Patricia J. Harrison
KEYWORDS: Ministry, seminary,

had to make do with untrained leaders,

Bible school, distance education, pro- functional pastors. Their problem was
replicated in a number of Latin Amerigrammed instruction, field education,
can Protestant Churches at the time.
contextualisation

Genesis
In the early 1960s the Evangelical
Presbyterian Church of Guatemala
faced an enviable problem: their
churches were growing too fast to provide adequate shepherding for their
flocks.' The theological college simply
could not keep up with the demjind for
trained pastors, so congregations often

1 I am relicint on memory for many of the

historical references in this article and would
appreciate correction of any facttml errors.
Too mciny people were involved in the development of TEE to name them all; I mention
those best known to me and regret any important, unintentional omissions.

These pastors were usually mature

men who could not leave their jobs and
their families for years of training in a
city seminary. Searching for creative
solutions, the Presbyterians first
decided to move their seminary from
the capital to the village of San Fehpe
in a rural area nearer to many of their
churches. However, they soon discovered that leaders in need of training
could no more leave jobs and families
to attend a seminary twenty miles
away than one two hundred miles
away.
Undeterred, the Seminary staff and
faculty concluded that if the students
could not come to the seminary, the
seminary must go to the students. So in
niral Guatemala in 1962, Theological

Dr Patricia Harrison, who holds degrees in theology, ethics, missiolo^, education, and TESOLfromFuller
Seminary, Oxford and several Australian Universities, teaches in Sydney, Australia; she has also taught in
several overseas theological schools. Her doctorate from the University of Queensland deals with some
perennial issues in Third World theological education. Through Austam Associates
([email protected]), she currently offers professional consultancy and customised workshops on
aspects of theological education, and seminary courses in missiology and cross-cultural leadership training In
the following article she sums up for our 30th anniversary series insights she has gathered through her work
in theological education, especially through her service as TEE Coordinator for the Asia Theologcal
Association 1974-77, and as a member of the WEF Theological Commission and its Secretary for Theological
Educationfrom1977 to the mid-1980s.

Patricia J Harrison

316

Education by Extension (TEE) was

bom. In time, the number of extension
students far outnumbered those in the
residential program, and those being
trained were primarily those who had
demonstrated their commitment to
ministry. Ralph Winter eind James
Emery designed and commenced the
program; Ross Kinsler, Benjamin and
Nelly Jacobs, Jose Carrera, Baudilio
Recinos, Charles Ainley and others
were soon to contribute much to its
development. They never dreamed
their model of theological education
would reverberate around the world.

Exodus
The TEE model could not be long confined to one small country. Word
spread quickly across Latin America
through mission and denominational
networks. Others wondered whether
TEE might solve some of their problems. One of the earhest programs was
in Bolivia, where Ray Morris of the
then Andes Evangelical Mission was a
prime mover. In 1967 the TEE concept
caught the imagination of participants
in a conference of theological educators in Armenia, Colombia, and similar
programs soon sprang up across Central and South America. Innovative
variations on the original model
emerged, such as the Conservative
Baptist program for marginally-literate
peasant fanners involved in church
planting in Honduras.
By the early 1970s the new extension model was spreading rapidly
across Asia, Africa and the Pacific. The
TEE concept was spread by word of
mouth and print within missions and
denominations, by papers and discussion at international conferences, and

by the many seminars and workshops

staffed by international and regional
organizations, notably the WEF (now
WEA) Theological Commission and the
EFMA/IFMA Committee to Assist Missionary
Education
Overseas
(CAMEOlater. Committee to Assist
Ministry Education Overseas). These
were generally sponsored by local
organizations, such as the Asia Theological Association, the Association of
Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar, and national Evangelical
Alliances. Later the WCC Programme
on Theological Education (now Ecumenical Theological Education)
became involved, spreading the word
among a different constituency.
The pioneers of TEE soon realized
they were developing not just a method
for training more people, but a radical
new concept of theological education.
However, the significance of this was
not always grasped by those who
adopted tiie model. TEE was sometimes adopted more as an emergency
measure to cope with unprecedented
church growth, or because it was seen
as cheap leadership training. Limited
goals and understanding accounted for
some of the problems subsequently
encountered.

Chronicles
In the 1970s and '80s the number of
new TEE programs exploded as more
and more churches and missions
became involved. Initially, most were
in the developing world and most were
evangelical. Somewhat later, conciliar
churches grasped the potential of TEE,
particularly when Ross Kinsler served
a term with the WCC Programme on
Theological Education. TEE made lim-

Forty Years On: The Evolution of Theological Education by Extension

ited appearances in Europe, North

America and Australia. Courses were
produced in many languages, and at all
levels from basic literate to graduate.
Hundreds of students became thousands. National TEE associations were
formed and international conferences
built new networks.
Help for new TEE providers came in
the various forms, much of it provided
by the WEF Theological Commission
and CAMEO, in cooperation with
national and regional associations,
many of them affiliates of WEF. Several books and dissertations appeared,
now mostly out-of-print.^ There were
economically produced newsletters,
such as the Extension Seminary Bulletin
from Guatemala, which appeared in
Spanish and English, and a bulletin
entitled Programming News (19691976) edited by Martin Dainton, a missionary to Indonesia. This newsletter
made an important contribution at the
time, when programmed instruction
was then intimately connected with
TEE. It subsequently broadened its
coverage and became Theological Education Today (TET), which I edited
from 1976 to 1983. John Langlois of
the Theological Commission did a ster-

2 Early books on TEE included Ralph

Winter's Theological Education by Extension
(Wm Carey Library. 1969), Ted and Margaret
Ward's Programmed Instruction for Theological
Education by Extension (Lansing. MI, CAMEO,
1970), Fred Holland's Teaching through TEE
(Kenya: Evangel Press, 1975), Ross Kinsler's
The Extension Movement in Theological
Education (Wm Carey Library. 1978. rev edn
1981), Kinsler (ed) Ministry by the People
(WCC/Orbis) (a collection of case studies in
TEE from around the world), and a number of
others.

317

ling job from Guernsey, arranging the

art work, production and distribution.
We sometimes struggled to recruit
contributors; the best teachers were
often too busy teaching to tell us how
they did it, but there was always
enough material to fill an eight-page
quarterly!
Our primary target was national
(cind missionary) faculty teaching in
developing countries at fairly basic levels in Bible schools and TEE, since it is
at these levels that the vast majority of
Third World pastors are trained. There
was no charge to recipients, so the publication could circulate more readily in
less affluent parts of the world. The
emphasis was on practical help for
teachers, rather than on academic articles about theological education,
which could be found elsewhere; feedback was very positive. After several
years, and pressure from one or two
sources (but not from its readership) to
make it a more academic publication,
lET was reduced, mainly for financial
reasons, to a page or two in WEF's Theological News, and then disappeared
altogether. An anthology of articles.
The Best of TET, was published by the
TC in 1983. There is probably still a
need for a publication of this type. In
more recent years we have seen The
T.E.E. Journal, based in South Africa, a
useful publication of a different type.
A second important source of help
for TEE workers came from regional
seminars, and from the cooperative
partnerships that often grew out of
these. Those wishing to start TEE programs would generally attend a workshop. A number of these were sponsored by the WEF Theological Commission or by regional associations
linked to WEF, such as Asia Theologi-

318

PatriciaJ Harrison

cal Association and the Association of

Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar. Workshops in many countries
were run initially by Ralph Winter,
Ross Kinsler, Ted Ward, Lois McKinney, Fred Holland, Ian McCleary, Peter
Savage, myself and various others.
Their expertise was variously derived
from early experience of TEE, plus a
backgroimd in cross-cultural theological and/or secular education, and
familiarity with programmed instruction.
Because rmming a TEE program
was quickly seen to be a daunting task,
most providers sooner or later sought
some level of cooperation with others,
at least in the development of homestudy materials. TEE workshops did
much to facilitate such cooperation,
often bringing together people from
surprisingly diverse denominational
backgrounds.
Various models of cooperation were
explored and continue to be used. One
model is a single, integrated, interdenominational program, like TAFTEE in
India. Programs of this type could be
run from an existing campus, like the
Christian Leaders' Training College in
Papua New Guinea, or simply from a
central office. Another model is the
national or regional association of
extension programs. Such associations may cooperate in sponsoring
workshops, produchig study materials,
sharing ideas and insights, etc. Variations in the degree of central policy formation uid control are possible. Examples of regional associations are PAFTEE in the Philippines, AETTE in
Brazil, and TEEAC in Cambodia.
Cooperative course design developed, and to varying degrees continued, from the first Intertext project in

Latin America to the Text Africa project

from Evangel Publishing House in
Kenya, and SEAN courses, originally
developed by Anglicans in Argentina
and now distributed to many parts of
the worldfi-omthe UK. Ambitious projects sometimes floundered as busy
people failed tofindtime to produce the
courses they had agreed to write, but
over time, a good number of courses
did appear.
TAFTEE produced courses for
India. AETTE brought together study
materials from various denominations
in Brazil. PAFTEE gave its imprimatur
to materials that met its standctrds in
the Philippines. The Christian Leaders' Training College in Papua New
Guinea produced the first of its TEE
courses. Cooperative ecumenical text
production also began, and the Programme on Theological Education (formerly the Theological Education Fund)
gave prominence to TEE in its quarterly. Ministerial Eormation. TEE
seemed unstoppable!

Numbers
At this point we should pause and consider exactly what we mean by TEE.
Definitions of extension education and

TEE are many and various, often vague

enough to include evening school, correspondence courses or today, online
learning. It is not particularly helpful
to label such a wide variety of delivery
methods 'TEE'; there are already
enough generic terms like distance education, continuing education, external
studies, ani flexible delivery in various

languages. Imprecise labelling has

sometimes caused genuine TEE to be
disregarded ('we've tried that") or
brought into disrepute. It is better to

Forty Years On: The Evolution of Theological Education by Extension

promote a more specific definition,

based on the original Guatemalan
model, but allowing for some variation.

319

tres to deliver lectures. Hence the

materials make it possible to extend
training far more widely than is possible with, say, an evening lecture class.
In the sixties and seventies, proComponents of TEE
grammed instruction materials (PIM)
As developed in Guatemala, TEE has were popular in some educational cirthree specific components: self-study cles. They could help students study
materials, regular seminars and life expe-more actively. Working through a good
rience and ministry in the students' own programmed lesson was the next best
context. It was intended that these be thing to having a tutor alongside,
closely intertwined. None of these com- prompting one to think, respond and
ponents was unique or new in the six- review, and providing immediate feedties. It was the particular combination back. It seemed an ideal, affordable
and inter-relationship of these elements method to use in designing home-study
that was distinctive. TEE is not a cor- materials.
respondence course, it is not a partSome experimentation with comtime night school and it is not a series puter-assisted learning was emerging
of short seminars.
at the time, but this was of little interest to TEE leaders. Computers were
not
too common, and were expensive
Self-Instructional Materials.
and bulky. TEE centres were, and often
If theological education is to extend
still are, in poor or remote villages with
geographically, it must break away
no electricity. So Programmed Instrucfrom dependence on lectures to deliver
tion ('PI') did not hivolve software; it
content. But mere provision of 'notes' was produced in books or in a more
is an inadequate substitute for a good affordable stencilled format.
teacher, especially when students
Thus programmed instruction,
have had limited education. The archiintroduced at the outset, soon became
tects of TEE believed that study mateso widely associated with TEE that
rials must be genuinely self-instnicmany believed it to be an indispensable
tionaL They do not replace a teacher,
component. Those of us who led TEE
since regular seminars are still a criti- writers' workshops around the world
cal part of the process; they do replace had studied PI and sought to pass on
most of the teacher's lecturing function. what we had learned. I also took priThere is a crucial difference vate tutoring in California from an
between TEE and a part-time lecture expert in the field. Strangely, I was
course with homework. When students soon to find myself engaged in a camwork through self-instructional mate- paign to dissociate TEE from prorials in TEE they are not simply doing grammed instruction.
'homework'. Rather, the bulk of the
course contentthe informational
Tutorials/Seminars
inputis provided by these materials.
This dispenses with the need for a sub- Regular meetings of students and
ject-matter-expert to visit all the cen- tutors were an essential component of

320

Patricia J Harrison

TEE from the outset. In communal

societies the value of regular, face-toface classes is particularly important.
But the use of home-study materials
alters the purpose of these meetings.
With no need for lectures, class time is
freed up for clarification, discussion,
reinforcement, enrichment, testing,
practical exercisesindeed for anything that cannot be adequately taught
in the printed materials. The tutorials
are intended to be highly participatory
learning experiences, and to include an
important element of bonding through
worship, sharing and mutual pastoral
care.
This dramatically alters the role of
the tutor, who need not be the author of
the materials nor even a subject matter
expert. What is essential is to have a
good overall grasp of the subject, to
have prepared adequately, and to be
wilUng and able to serve as a facilitator
of learning rather than as a lecturer.
For some, this can be a difficult transition.

field education placements have to be

engineered. Such placements may provide new and challenging learning
experiences; at other times placements
can become somewhat artificial, or at
worst, boring.
TEE maybe less able to provide new
field education experiences, but it is
ideally placed to help students connect
new learning with ongoing ministry in
their own contexts. All programs
involve participants in discussions
intended to apply what they have
learned, but sufficiently strong connections between theory and practice have
not always been made.

Extension
Another dimension in an adequate definition of TEE is its capacity to extend
theological education in various ways.
First, TEE extends geographical coverage well beyond the environs of the
seminary. It trains students in their
own contexts instead of extracting
them for long periods, and so is positioned near the extension end of an
Life and Ministry Experience
extraction-extension continuum in eduOver recent decades theological educa- cation. This helps to ensure that rural
tors have learned much from Clinical parishes have a continuing supply of
Pastoral Education and from field edu- pastors, as (unlike the graduates of
cation in the secular helping profes- many urban seminaries) most TEE
sions. This has helped shape the move graduates remain in their own areas
from the earlier, often unsupervised cind continue to serve churches there.
field work to the more focused concept The structure of TEE enables it to
extend training across a wide area
of supervised field education.
while
retaining regular personal conTEE students have plenty of life
experience, and most are engaged in tact among teachers and students. Corpractical ministry in their churches. respondence courses, by contrast, can
Adequate extension training must help only cover a wide area by reducing perthem connect their studies with every- sonal contact to zero, while lectureday life and ministry. In traditional based courses are much more limited
seminaries, most students are geographically.
extracted from their home contexts, so
Second, TEE greatly extends the

Forty Years On: The Evolution of Theological Education by Extension

potential student body. Traditionally,

theological education has been offered
mainly in fulltime residential colleges
in the cities. To access such training in
a poor country, students must have
money or be heavily subsidised, usuallyfromabroad. It is too expensive for
colleges to house and feed many families, so the majority of students are single. In practice, Bible colleges in less
affluent countries cater mainly for
promising young men, who, it is hoped,
might one day make good pastors.
Each of these three words concefils
a limitation. There are relatively few
places or scholarships for women students, particularly in higher-level
Evangelical seminaries. While older,
married students may be welcome in
principle, it is usually financijilly
impractical to leave work and move to
the city for several years. The gifts and
calling of most young students, while
perhaps promising, are unproven. Few
have even served on church committees or held the office of deacon or
elder. Proven, experienced leaders and
functional pastors are largely excluded
from traditional forms of tiieological
education, though they may sorely
need and greatly desire it.
TEE does not turn the young away,
but it opens training opportimities to
many more besides. Some see TEE as
part of wider move from fulltime training for a small elite towards a greater
democratisation of theological education. Ideally, it is said, if all the people
of God should be able to 'do theology',
then so far as possible, all should have
access to the tools for the task.
There are important policy questions about whether a TEE progr^lm
should take over the adult Christian
education function of the local church

321

or whether it should concentrate on

training leaders who themselves can
'teach others also', an approach more
in the spirit of 2 Timothy 2:2. On the
other hand, where lay believers seek
serious theological education at a
higher level, there is room for more
innovative thought in developing curricula for lay people; their learning
needs differ significantly from those of
clergy.
It sometimes happens that seminaries whose main goal is to train pastors
find themselves inadvertently training
mainly lay workers. In some developing countries Bible colleges attract
school leavers, some with little real
interest in the ministiy. They enrol
after failing to gain admission to a preferred institution such as university or
teachers' college. Such students will
often seek secular employment after
graduation, or become reiuctiuit pastors. Christian training doubtless benefits these lay graduates and their
churches, but an expensive residential
program is not a cost-efficient way to
train them, especially if at the same
time, the college cannot produce
enough pastors.

Judges
There appears to be an idea in some
circles that TEE has had its day. In fact
reports of the death of TEE have been
greatly exaggerated! Admittedly, for a
variety of reasons, some extension programs have disappeared or have been
replaced by other forms of training. Not
all have functioned well.
Nevertheless numerous programs,
many fairly recent, continue to operate
today in Africa, Asia, South America,
the Pacific, and the former USSR, as

322

Patricia J Harrison

well as among Native Americans and

Australian Aborigines. TEE also exists
in some more affluent western settings,
where it has now generally introduced
online and other computer-based components. In some cases, changes are
such that these programs may no
longer meet our definition of TEE.
As examples of flourishing extension programs, I mention two with
which I have had recent connections.
The TEE Association of Cambodia
(TEEAC) has brought together workers from a variety of churches, missions and NGOs, to produce and deliver
courses to several hundred pastors and
other church leaders across the
nationan impressive accomplishment, given the recent history of that
country. While member organizations,
and TEEAC itself, run their own programs, virtually all policy issues, standards, etc., are centrally determined by
TEEAC. The high degree of cooperation and fellowship has done much to
strengthen and expand the overall
impact of TEE on the churches.
Another example is the flourishing
interdenominational TEE program run
(alongside a residential program) by
CLTC in Papua New Guinea. This program peaked in the year 2000 with
some 5000 students across the yoimg
nation. Unrest hi parts of the country
and the tripling of postage rates have
reduced numbers somewhat since
then, but enrolments remain strong,
and include some high school students,
whose Religious Education teachers
have chosen to use TEE materials.
New courses have continually been
developed, both in Enghsh (the language of education) and in Tok Rsin
(the Pidgin lingua franca of much of the
country).

TEE has its critics, and sometimes I

am asked whether it 'works'. This is an
impossible question to answer in
vacuo'. One could as well ask whether
Bible College or Sunday School works.
TEE is not a single program. It is one
vehicle for dehvering training. Aside
from general comparisons of dehveiy
systems, questions about efficacy can
most usefully be asked of a particular
TEE program: Is TEE the best training
choice in this situation? Are quality
matericils being used, and are these
properly matched to students' educational levels? Is there a sound theological base? How well contextuahsed are
the materials, and do they lend themselves to real-Ufe apphcation? Are the
seminars run properly, and how well
trained are the tutors? How effective is
the overall administration?
Particularly in its early days,
sweeping claims were sometimes
made for TEE, and its presumed superiority over traditional Bible colleges.
An unnecessary competitive aspect
was introduced, and expectations were
raised that could not always be fulfilled. Such situations sometimes led to
judgmental remarks.
However, criticisms of TEE frequently turn out to be criticisms of one
or two aspects of a particular program.
Sometimes the critic's problem is
really with the ethos or theological
position of a program, or with poor
materials or inexpert tutors s/he has
encountered. Sometimes the sticking
point is that programmed instruction is
seen as a domesticating form of
instructionas poor PI (or what sometimes passes for PI) can indeed be,
especially when written at a basic
level. But these days PI should no
longer be seen as an indispensable

Forty Years On: The Evolution of Theological Education by Extension

component of TEE.
It must be recognized that, despite
some undoubted failings, TEE has
made a major contribution to theological education in many countries, and
has brought biblical knowledge and
practical training to thousands who
could otherwise never have had access
to it. This is a tremendous achievement. As with any other type of training, there is a continuum of quality.
TEE programs can be excellent,
mediocre, orby any criteria, quite poor.
Objective evaluation of educational
programs can be difficult where there is
no benchmark and nothing in the region
with which to compare it. Students in
poor-quahty programs, whether dehvered in college or by extension, often
have no idea what they are not learning.
When keen Christians who previously
had no access to theological education
are provided with TEE courses, they
are often lavish in their praise. The
courses may or may not merit such
admiration, but something is almost
always bettermuch betterthan
nothing!
Any educational system is prone to
particular strengths and weaknesses,
and TEE is no exception. I have enumerated below some factors I believe
are important in developing an effective TEE program. The hst is not meant
to be exhaustive, and emphasizes the
situation in developing countries,
where TEE is most used. My comments
necessarily reflects my own biases and
experience. Some of the same factors
are also critical to good seminary or
Bible college training.

323

Proverbs
In my experience, a high quality TEE
program in a developing country typically has all or most of the following
features:
The sponsoring organization recognizes the importance of leadership
training overall, and of the TEE program specifically. It therefore accords
TEE high priority in funding and provision of personnel. Too often, in practice if not exphcitly, TEE is viewed as
secondary or inferior to the traditional
residential school and is resourced
accordingly, virtually guaranteeing
inferior quality. Allocation of
resources is generally a good guide to
true priorities. One is sometimes
tempted to ask, 'What are all these other
things that are so much more important
than the training of national Christian
leaders?'

Too often, missionaries and Bible

College teachers, ahready overworked,
are asked to take on the design and
teaching of TEE coiu-ses as an 'extra'
task, with little if any reduction in
existing duties. They simply do not
have time to do this properly. A Church
or a theological college cannot expect to
plan and implement a quality TEE program without employing extra staff. It

should also be noted that the successful addition of any major program to
the work of an existing organization
would benefit greatly from some understanding of change dynamics.
The key stakeholders in the TEE
program understand it, are convinced of its value, and are keen to
implement and promote it. This
includes national church leaders. Too
often TEE is initiated more because of
its presumed economy than because of

324

Patricia J Harrison

its inherent value as a form of theological education. Expecting people to

staff a program they do not really
understand or believe in quickly leads
to discontent and perfunctory performance. The philosophy of TEE needs to
be carefully explained to all.
One reason some TEE programs
have struggled has been that they have
never really been 'owned' by the
national churches, TEE was sometimes initiated by keen missionaries
who failed to consult sufficiently with
local church leaders. Such programs
are vulnerable, especially in an imstable political situation. If the mission
has to withdraw, the TEE program will
soon run down or close.
Church leaders may want a college
like those of other churches. Pastors
who were themselves trained in a residential college may feel this is the only
'real' theological education; they suspect the missionaries are offering them
a cheap, 'second-best' alternative.
Some pastors feel threatened at the
prospect of members of their congregation embarking on serious theological studies. They may then believe it is
in their interests to emphasize the
superiority of their own seminary training. For such reasons, as well as for
their knowledge of their people and
culture, it is important to include local
leaders in planning, administration
and teaching, A senior pastor without
teaching or administrative skills might
play a valuable role as chaplain to the
students, A small pilot program in a
situation where pastors will not feel
threatened can be one way to help
them understand the value of TEE,
All TEE workers receive appropriate training for the tasks they will perform, and attend periodic in-service

seminars to review basics, study principles of adult education, and maintain

motivation. Curriculum designers,
course writers, translators, area coordinators and tutors are given detailed
training by persons with appropriate
educational knowledge and TEE experience. Experience suggests that a
workshop of at least two weeks is minimal for training course designers,
with a longer duration preferred. If
courses are actually to be written
within a reasonable time, the best
approach is usually to schedule a
series of production workshops with a
trained facilitator. Promises by busy
people to write courses in their 'spare
time' usually result in long delays or no
new courses!
A common failing is that once initial
training has been provided, no ongoing
provision is made for training new
tutors or course writers, or for in-service refresher seminars for continuing
workers. After a few years with gradual turnover of personnel, there is
hardly a trained tutor or course writer
to be found. There were never enough
new workers at one time to justify
another workshop, so it is assumed
newcomers can just 'pick it up', or perhaps learn enough by reading a tutors'
booklet. Such gradual attrition of trained
leaders, tutors and course writers can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of a pro-

gram. Definite plans are required to

train new workers, even if they arrive
in ones and twos. It is easier to provide
ongoing training in the context of a
broader consortium.
The TEE program has clear objectives and caters appropriately for a
well-defined target group. Leaders
decide at what educational level the
program will function, making sure

Forty Years On: The Evolution of Theological Education by Extension

they do not raise the entrance standards so high that they exclude most of
the students! They decide whether
theywill target mainly leaders, or laity.
It can be great to have large numbers
of students, but TEE is not essentially
'a numbers game'. Some centres in the
original Guatemalan program have had
only one or two students. "What is
important is training the key people. TEE

programs are usually designed primarily for pastors and leaders, who are
then encouraged to develop their own
gifts in reteaching some of tiie material
to others at a simpler level, probably
with little requirement of home study.
Careful thought should be given to the
social and cultural implications of placing
an untrained pastor in the same classroom
as members of his or her congregation.

It is very important that TEE students be selected partly on the basis of

strong motivation. Without this, they
will not persevere long enough to complete their studies. Acceptance into the
program should not be automatic, and
high standards of home study and
attendance should be reqtiired. Otherwise some will soon become slack and
complain of 'too much homework'.
They will come to class unprepared.
Once this happens, an essential component of TEE is lost. Dihgent students
also suffer as standards drop, and as
there ai"e few others to form serious
discussion groups; TEE does not provide for auditors. Once we succumb to
such pressures, the whole program
will plummet in quality and depth, and
in time, accreditation may lapse.
Some see extension training as
appropriate only for basic training, and
fail to see its potential for ministerial
formation at higher levels. Such situations as that just described feed that

325

perception and make it harder for TEE

to be accepted as a serious training
model.
In addition to the value of TEE for
training church leaders, there are
exciting possibilities for developing
curricula for educated lay people.
These studies could relate theological
understanding to certain professional
areas, such as business, law, medicine,
education, economics, politics and government. As Christian professionals
learn to apply theological understanding and Christian ethics to their vocations, they can make a significant contribution to national life and culture.
At the other end of the educational
spectrum are the many TEE students
with limited educational backgrounds.
It is not sufficient to provide materials
in the mother tongue; a TEE program
can still easily fail if it makes unrealistic demands on the literacy levels of
students. I have often suggested that
most Bible Colleges and TEE programs
would benefit from having at least one
faculty member with specialized training in relevant aspects of language
teaching and remedial reading. Such
training might be acquired at graduate
level as part of a sabbatical or furlough
study program, in lieu perhaps of writing one more thesis on a well-worn
theological topic.
TEE has been conducted among
marginal literates, but many adaptations and special expertise are needed
to achieve success. Some of my own
workshops over the years have dealt
with training ilhterates and semi-hterates, but it should be remembered that
TEE is not suitable for every situation.
The administration is well organized, fits the local context, functions with integrity, and is ade-

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Patricia J Harrison

quately funded. There need to be sufficient structures for the program to

operate relatively smoothly and
accountably, but without unnecessary
administrative layers or red tape.
National requirements for registration
of educational programs, accreditation, etc., will need to be met. Adequate
student services and pastoral care
should be provided and the program
needs checks and balances to ensure
ongoing integrity, especially in moral
and financial matters. Example speaks
louder than preaching!
A carefully crafted and contextualised curricvdum is followed, and periodic workshops are held for curriculum
updating and review. Most TEE curricula include essenticil foundational subjects and ample biblical content,
though often, modem processes of curriculum design have not been followed,
so the curriculum simply reflects a
slightly adapted western course of
studies.
A major problem is that many programs have been insufficiently contextualised. Real needs in the churches
and community are inadequately and
often only incidentally addressed. The
same problem exists in many Bible colleges, but can be more acute in TEE for
reasons noted below. I am convinced
that the importance oideep contextualisation is often gravely underestimated.
Without this, much of our teaching is
destined to be httle more than transient head knowledge that fails to
inform or transform hfe and work.
Quality self-instructional materials axe used, with all or most
designed for the context. A major reason for poor contextualisation in much
TEE is the propensity for 'borrowing'
courses from other countries. This is

different from importing textbooks for

use with a teacher in a traditional
classroom, because in TEE the selfinstructional materials themselves
play a kind of 'teacher' role. Furthermore, TEE tutors frequently have less
training than Bible college teachers
and may find it harder to help students
contextuahse what they read.
Since many TEE programs are
under-resourced it is hardly surprising
if they fail to develop courses that
really meet the needs of their own constituencies. Recognizing that the
design of good self-instructional materials requires expertise, time and
money they do not have, they prefer to
buy translation rights from others.
The old idea, still current hi some
circles, that TEE should be written in
programmed instructional format must
also have deterred some would-be
writers. PI looks deceptively easy to
write, but is in fact quite difficult, especially if the writer wants to produce an
interesting, varied course. Much that
passes for PI is not PI! After leading a
number of programming workshops in
the early days of TEE, we realized that
few participants actually went on to
write any PI. Those lessons that were
produced were often dull and repetitive, and used a lot of paper. Since that
time I have generally taught writers
how to design workbooks, with better
results.
Some early TEE programs imported
courses on almost anything from
almost anywhere, a practice that too
easily resulted in patchwork curricula
with little cohesion. The imported
courses were designed for a variety of
educational levels and were of different lengths. Some set one lesson a
week, others four or five. Qimhty and

Forty Years On: The Evolution of Theological Education by Extension

style varied greatly. Courses sometimes overlapped, while there was no

assurance that everything students
needed to know would he included
somewhere. If students in a centre had
completed the existing courses, it was
felt that they could not be kept waiting.
There followed a rush to obtain more
courses. So materials written for one
situation were translated, adapted
(often in token ways), and recycled in
vastly different situations.
In more recent times, a high percentage of new TEE programs have
begun to source their materials from
just several international suppliers.
These suppliers generally provide
coherent curricula and self-study
materials of quite good quahty. Commendably, they encourage users not
just to translate, but also to adapt their
material. Their courses have enabled a
number of TEE programs to attain an
acceptable standard. They have perhaps also spared us some much poorer
courses that might otherwise have
been written in a rush by people denied
training and resource for the task.
But there is a downside. The availability of high-profile overseas courses
has tended to stifle the design of new
courses and innovative curricula. Careful contextualisation is accorded lower
priority than it deserves; it is sometimes forgotten that at times it may
require as much work to translate and
adapt a course well as to write one's
own.
To understand the need for serious
contextualisation is to recognize that
there is no substitute for quahty materials designed to meet real, local
needs. But this is not to suggest that
every individual TEE provider should
design a new set of courses! So long as

327

they are well integrated into the curriculum, some overseas courses may
be translated and adapted. Other
imported materials may with permission be mined for ideas, illustrative
anecdotes, biblical exegesis, and so on.
But at least some subjects need to be
designed in our own context to meet
our own needs. Context may be defined
broadly enough to suit a given cultural
and/or geographic area. For example,
good African courses are readily adaptable for use in most of sub-Saharan
Africa, and some may, with more adaptation, be usable in tribal societies
elsewhere. They are unlikely to work
well in a modem European industrial
society unless the program is targeting
African immigrants.
Creative, facilitative teaching methods are used in the TEE tutorials, with
special attention given to the development of thinking and problem-solving
skills, and to the transfer of classroom
learning to life and ministry. However
good the home study materials, TEE
will fail in much of its purpose if tutors
cannot do their job well. Some tutors
try to lecture or spend most of the time
providing 'the right answers' to questions in the workbooks. Many do their
best to stimulate discussion, but find it
hard to compose good 'thought' questions that help students relate the discussion to real life. Tutorials rightly
emphasize discussion, but should also
provide time for reinforcement and
enrichment of learning, using various
approaches and simple media. Cultural
and individual learning styles should
be taken into accoimt, along with some
xmderstanding of adult education.
Some criticisms of TEE centre on
concerns that indoctrination may
replace education, and piety, critical

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Patricia J Harrison

thinking. Such concerns may be justified, especially in countries where the

whole education system is essentially
domesticating. But the problem is
hardly confined to TEE; it is just as real
in many Bible schools. The difference
is that printed TEE courses are more
visible to outsiders than what is taught
orally within the four walls of a college.
Sound theological education needs to
help students develop discernment,
thinking and problem-solving skills,
and ability to draw upon the biblical
text and theological understanding in
relating faith to life. Pastors who lack
such skills typically resort to legalism.
But it is no small demand to achieve
these ideals, especially at basic educational levels.
For all these reasons, adequate
tutor training and support are essential. In addition to training seminars
and a general tutors' handbook, there
should be a tutors' guide for each course,

with guidelines and suggestions for

every tutorial, including a Hst of suitable discussion questions. An analogy
is the Sunday School teachers' quarterly: it provides detailed lesson plans
precisely because most teachers are
untrained.

The Vision Remains

Clearly, not all extension programs
meet these criteria, or others that
could be added. In addition to personnel and resources, vision, hnagination,
patience, perseverance and hard work
are needed to build quality theological

education of any kind.

The situations in which TEE is
developed are often far from ideal;
there is always a myriad of constraints.
Overworked, under-funded staff do the
best they can, and succeed in providing
training where previously none
existed. Often that training is of high
quality. Communication and the sharing of ideas and resources among theological educators around the world
have played a critical role in the development of TEE, and of theological education in general. A major contribution
at this global level has been made by
the Theological Commission, along
with regional affiliates of WEF (now
WEA). Subsequently, the ICAA did
much to consolidate accreditation, and
today, under its current name (ICETE)
it still continues to make an important
international contribution to evangelical theological education.
In conclusion, it is important to
affirm the validity and desirability of
choices in modes of training. There are
many things a residential college can
do that TEE cannot, and vice versa.
Correspondence, radio or online
courses may be the only way to reach
isolated students. Short seminars can
meet particular and immediate goals.
Non-formal theological education can
contribute a great deal to continuing
education of pastors and to lay training. In short, the various modes of
delivery all have a role. Some work better in one situation than in another.
They should never be seen as mutually
exclusive.