What is authentic?
"Below the surface-stream, shallow and light,
Of what we say we feel – below the stream,
As light, of what we think we feel – there flows
With noiseless current strong, obscure and deep,
The central stream of what we feel indeed."
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888):
“What we feel indeed” cannot be captured by “what we say we feel” in a self reporting online survey, appraisal interview, or podcast interview at an edu_conference.
“What we feel indeed” cannot be captured by “what we think we feel” when writing a milestone report or a Plus Minus Interesting.
“What we feel indeed” will be sensed and captured through our actions when “no one is watching”.
What does it mean if at the end of the day’s paid work - “when no one is watching”, you choose to blog about teaching and learning …?
What does it mean if when no one is watching, you choose to share with others through your edu_blog what you have learned about the conditions of value in teaching and learning?
I think it means that what is authentic in you is the desire to learn.
The clue, the key lesson is an old one - it comes from around 2000 years ago -
Docendo discimus - By teaching we learn (Seneca)
If "Docendo discimus" sounds familiar it may be that you have more recently nudged up against its reinvention in the landscapes of eduspeak – where the same process is described as "Constructionism".
“Constructionism asserts that learning is particularly effective when constructing something for others to experience. This can be anything from a spoken sentence or an internet posting, to more complex artifacts like a painting, a house or a software package. For example, you might read this page several times and still forget it by tomorrow - but if you were to try and explain these ideas to someone else in your own words, or produce a slideshow that explained these concepts, then I can guarantee you'd have a better understanding that is more integrated into your own ideas. This is why people take notes during lectures, even if they never read the notes again.” Moodle social constructionist pedagogy.
Think this is why I have been enjoying Edublogger Doug’s movie on his Borderland’s Blog – where he so elegantly and simply shows the results of a cupful of hot water flung into the atmosphere - Ice Fog and Student Publishing
I have thrown cupfuls of water (both hot and cold) into the air before, but I have never experienced anything like this … Watching the movie jolted me – my “world view” is so flawed, how can I pretend to understand anything when even my experience of climate can limit my imagination in this way..
And my enjoyment continued when I grappled with edublogger Insouci’s thinking in a post looking at the role of a teacher when confronted with alternative world views - WVP World View Predjudice
"Using the concept of a 'world view', identify some of the beliefs and attitudes, particularly to education and learning, that you bring to your learning now. Reflect critically on how your world view has been shaped by factors such as your gender, age or community."
It sounded like a fabulous topic, one in which a student was able to express the cultural and social context of their lives in relation to education and learning.
A 'world view' is at once ideological and subversive. This phrase demanded self-reflexivity and narrative verisimilitude. It taps onto a person's struggle with texts and ideas, theories and epistemologies to create a coherence to how one views one's everyday life. I knew that a world view exposed naturalised meanings of texts but I was not prepared for the shock I received from the first essay.
What is exposed in these edu_blog posts is a “noiseless current strong, obscure and deep,” – a raw and compelling authenticity of educational voice exposed through the social networking of blogging.
When teachers are hungry to learn like this ... well pedagogy and curriculum seems kind of irrelevant .... the kids are going to be OK
Aye... the kids are going to be okay. At least I thought so. I realise that the determinant "okay" is subjective. Does a pair of punctured eyes constitute "okay" even if the person may still write and speak? Does the criticism of discrimination constitute "okay" if one does not know whether one's external student still hates Arabs? I don't know Arti. I'm struggling to understand this "Okayness" in External teaching.
OK was an abbreviation in around the late 1830s for "all correct". This phrase infers to the capacity for one to make appropriate or equitable suggestions to students and hope to high heaven that they take our advice. _Okay_ was and is a hopeful word that presumed all would be all right and correct. _Okayness_ is a modernistic concept that had the displeasure to meet postmodernism. No accountant in our era would dream of telling their boss that the accounts were all correct. They'll get fired. We are all too familiar with subjectivity. We are all too familiar that Matthew Arnold's conceptualisation of _culturalism_ stratified those who were 'okay' (men with ethical values and knows poetry would save the world) and those who were not okay (women were always ignorable and those who were 'uncultured'). Okayness demands an essay. I'm too stuffed for it.
Docendo Discimus was right: we learn in our teachings. I have learnt that I'm a fool. I can only dance the carnivlesque steps of the fool in my class. I can't do it telepathically or over MSN.
I am definitely not "okay".
I.F.
Posted by: Insouciantfemme | January 31, 2006 at 07:09 AM
If I am honest Insouci, which I seldom am, .... neither am I, neither am I.
Posted by: Artichoke | February 01, 2006 at 11:41 PM