Welcome to our questions page. Here are all the answers to your frequently asked questions. We have divided the questions into three sections: first TEE, second Creative Commons Licence copyright, and third on how to get involved with TEEnet.
TEE
No. TEE is not one single organisation. TEE does not have a global headquarters, nor does it have one prescript set of learning materials. TEE is a method and a vision of how theological education/training can be done.
TEE is a movement or network of decentralised theological education programmes that share a vision. The vision is to extend theological education/training to everyone-everywhere in the church with appropriate faith and ministry skills. The vision is an extension of the “priesthood of all believers.” The vision is inclusive and covers the training of the whole church – from pastors to elders, to ministry leaders to grassroots Christians. The vision is also about “ministry by the people.” “The people” refers to all the people of God (this includes clergy but is broader and includes everyone-everywhere in the church), and “ministry” refers to the ability of the church community to witness and serve in their contexts. The vision is central to but not unique to TEE. It is also found among many theological/Christian educators.
Extending theological education to everyone-everywhere brings with it pedagogical and logistical challenges. Due to similar challenges many TEE programmes also share a similar pedagogical method that can be described as a tutorial-based form of learning which relies on self-study material followed by guided dialogue and discussion group meetings.
We use “TEE programme” to refer to any educational programme offered by a church, denomination, or theological training institute/college/seminary/university that uses TEE as part of its teaching ministry. Sometimes, TEE programmes are independent organisations (denominational or ecumenical), sometimes training departments of churches. At other times, they are a ministry or outreach programme from a traditional residential theological institution that extends its ministry outwards to new constituents. Programmes differ greatly in length, language, accreditation, and purpose.
No. Some institutions and programmes use TEE in their names for historical reasons, while others don’t. However, “TEE” or “theological education by extension” has been part of the theological educational terminology since the 1970s. The name “TEE/theological education by extension” was popularised in the 1960s/1970s within the English-speaking world due to an early experiment in alternatives to traditional residential accredited and non-accredited theological education. TEE was one of the first globally promoted alternatives of residential theological education that dominated some of the discussion about alternative forms, renewal and contextualisation of theological education during a period of global changes in thinking about theological education in the 1970s/early 1980s. Many of today’s TEE programmes trace their historical origins to the early TEE movement. This is, in a nutshell, why some TEE initiatives are still known today through the TEE acronym. Some programs have chosen to use a similar name: Bible Education by Extension. The model of learning is the same.
Throughout the history of the church, different terms were used to describe the training of Christians generally and the preparation for those serving full-time in various capacities in the church. Christians used different terms to describe their educational programmes, such as Christian education, ministerial formation, or biblical training. There are plenty of other descriptors that can also be used interchangeably to specify elements of the church’ training/formation/education programmes, like leadership, mission, ministerial or clergy, academic, church-based as well as denominational or “systematic theological” qualifiers like ecumenical or reformed. Nowadays, it is increasingly recognised that these terms ultimately describe a similar idea. Today, we recognise that all forms of theological education share more than divides, especially a core pedagogical centre of teaching and learning with similar pedagogical tools applied to the wholistic theological formation of individuals.
Today, Christian Education is often used in the broad context of primary, secondary, or tertiary education, defining itself against secular education. The focus is on educating students from a biblical worldview in a broad range of subjects such as math, science, and history. Theological Education focuses on developing the skills and knowledge necessary for believers in the context of life and ministry.
No, not all. Most of the TEE learning method elements are common in any educational setting. Traditionally, learners meet in class, where the teacher delivers content. Sometimes, students are also given pre-class reading materials to familiarise themselves with the content in preparation for the next class. There is often time to ask questions to clarify the new content during class. Then, regular homework allows the students to engage with the new material in their own time and pace and relate the latest content to their existing knowledge. Ideally, the homework is then collected and individually evaluated by the teacher. The teacher then provides feedback to each learner so that the learners’ answers can be compared to the correct answer, or the teacher can point out where previously learned knowledge would support the learners’ deeper engagement. Furthermore, the learners would receive guidance on presenting consistent logical and rhetorical arguments.
For learning to happen, some form of new content must be made available to a learner. The content needs to be appropriate to the learners’ prior learning, and the content needs to be consolidated with existing knowledge.
Creative Commons Licence
Creative Commons licences (CCL) are an internationally recognised open-access copyright licence for published and creative works (see (https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/). The Creative Commons Licence is flexible and gives us different options for our published material while ensuring a recognised international copyright. There are six different Creative Commons licenses to choose from. One of the great advantages for us is that the Creative Commons licences allow us to freely share the material as it is (and allow the printing and the sharing of materials locally without any charge). Additionally, we can even modify the licence to enable the end users to edit, update, and contextualise our works.
TEEnet publishes e-books, TEE courses and related material free of charge and freely downloadable on our website for everyone-everywhere to use. Internally, we call this the TEEnet open access licence. However, some of our TEE courses are donated to TEEnet with explicit permission to modify, and these courses can also be contextualised and translated by others. Internally, we call this the TEEnet contextualisable licence. Here are the two TEEnet licences side by side:
No. Different Christian organisations will make their own choices about the copyright of their material. Overall, producing quality learning material requires theological and pedagogical expertise. It is expensive and time-consuming, and most church-based training, especially tutorial-based forms like TEE, will need to make a profit but instead will need to be subsidised by a church/organisation (the same is true for open access primary and secondary education).
No. Copyright rules still apply, and all TEEnet courses need to include TEEnet’s copyright statement (which identifies the original copyright holder) and TEEnet’s logo. Different material published by TEEnet will fall under TEEnet’s open-access licence, which means that the material can be downloaded and freely used as it is. Other material is published with TEEnet’s contextualisable licence and can be changed.
You can simply download the course as PDF from our website (www.teenet.org/tee_courses) and use them straight away. However, if you would prefer to receive a Word Document that would allow you to add your logo, your contact details or even to further contextuliase an existing course, then please get in touch with us at info@teenet.org. We will ask you to sign a document that shows that you are familiar with the copyright requirement for contextualising the course. The main requirement is that you have to share the course and cannot restrict the copyright. You have to “share alike”.
Getting involved
TEEnet is a group of volunteers passionate about extending quality theological education to everyone-everywhere. We are always looking for volunteers who share our passion and would like to get involved in making learning materials available. We are looking for individuals with time, skills, talents, theological or pedagogical expertise they would like to invest in TEEnet. The needed skills can range from editing, typing, word processing, IT skills, translation, proofreading, and even course writing or course content advisors. If you have extensive experience with TEE you can help with coaching and mentoring TEE programme directors or advising churches or schools interested in starting TEE programmes.
We would be delighted to chat with you to see how your talents can support our vision to see believers equipped for ministry through TEE. Why not drop us an email at info@teenet.org?