I read all your comments with great interest and realized what all I had
missed in preparing for my presentation on Monday. As I write now, I believe I
am standing on a storehouse of information trying to augment and reinforce
what has been covered in the past few weeks.
I think as teachers, we are constantly faced with the dilemma about what kind of cultural values we wish to pass on to our students. After all, students look up to us. We are to them what the Statue of Liberty is to the immigrants who come to New York. However, the question here is whether we as role models can stand the true test of time, or whether we will be swayed by the winds of reason and social expectation?
In his writing, Minister Mentor Lee highlighted the role of the teacher in shaping the nation of tomorrow. He mentioned how the stability of the country can be disrupted by the lack of “care, the attention and the inculcation of good responses, good habits and good attitudes.” given to “the bottom layer of average boys and girls”.
Booth refers to the ethical problems that teachers like Elizabeth Anne Leonard ( as cited in Booth) encounter in becoming role models for their students to emulate, “How ... can I encourage them to interrogate the academy and its power structures and simultaneously enjoy the experience of becoming a creator, a thinker?... [I]f I'm changing students how do I change them in ways that I feel are most useful to them".
I feel that to connect to a student we need to understand their world view and find a common thread that links both the educator and the student. In the movie, “Dangerous Minds”, we see how the teacher makes an earnest attempt to fuel the imagination of her students and ultimately succeeds in drawing them out of their apathy.
A book I feel can possibly inspire students to think for themselves is the book - Totto-Chan, the Little Girl at the Window by Japanese Television personality, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
What I like about the book is the way in which it showcases the educational upbringing of a child in a nurturing environment. One particular incident is when Totto Chan is digging up the playground looking for her lost purse, her headmaster calmly tells her “You’ll put it all back when you’re finished, won’t you?”, instead of reprimanding her like an adult, “ What on earth are you doing!” I feel when students are allowed to make their own interpretations of the text within a loose framework; they are encouraged to grow more.
I think as teachers, we are constantly faced with the dilemma about what kind of cultural values we wish to pass on to our students. After all, students look up to us. We are to them what the Statue of Liberty is to the immigrants who come to New York. However, the question here is whether we as role models can stand the true test of time, or whether we will be swayed by the winds of reason and social expectation?
In his writing, Minister Mentor Lee highlighted the role of the teacher in shaping the nation of tomorrow. He mentioned how the stability of the country can be disrupted by the lack of “care, the attention and the inculcation of good responses, good habits and good attitudes.” given to “the bottom layer of average boys and girls”.
Booth refers to the ethical problems that teachers like Elizabeth Anne Leonard ( as cited in Booth) encounter in becoming role models for their students to emulate, “How ... can I encourage them to interrogate the academy and its power structures and simultaneously enjoy the experience of becoming a creator, a thinker?... [I]f I'm changing students how do I change them in ways that I feel are most useful to them".
I feel that to connect to a student we need to understand their world view and find a common thread that links both the educator and the student. In the movie, “Dangerous Minds”, we see how the teacher makes an earnest attempt to fuel the imagination of her students and ultimately succeeds in drawing them out of their apathy.
A book I feel can possibly inspire students to think for themselves is the book - Totto-Chan, the Little Girl at the Window by Japanese Television personality, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
What I like about the book is the way in which it showcases the educational upbringing of a child in a nurturing environment. One particular incident is when Totto Chan is digging up the playground looking for her lost purse, her headmaster calmly tells her “You’ll put it all back when you’re finished, won’t you?”, instead of reprimanding her like an adult, “ What on earth are you doing!” I feel when students are allowed to make their own interpretations of the text within a loose framework; they are encouraged to grow more.
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ReplyDeleteI wonder what you censored here...:0
DeleteRashmi! I hope it continues to haunt you. ;)
DeleteRashmi, I think you've raised important questions and you've brought me back to the immediacy of the classroom. In the REAL classroom, there will be students from diverse backgrounds and of different abilities, so as you ask, how can teachers encourage the "bottom (or should i say 'bottom') layer of average boys and girls" (LKY) to "interrogate the academy and its power structures while simultaneously enjoy the experience of becoming a creator" (BOOTH)?
ReplyDeleteLike you, I feel that everyone is entitled to the empowering processes of 'critical thinking' - everyone can think. However, I am sometimes guilty of marginalizing the 'quieter' students especially when the conversation takes an exciting turn. Experienced teachers I've spoken to have advised me to direct the 'easier' questions to these students, thus allowing them to gain some confidence. While it is a good technique, I personally feel that this is rather insulting to the student and may, in the long run prove to be self-defeating. After all, being 'quiet' does not and should not translate into being 'less able to think'. Other suggestions include allowing the student to write their answer on paper and then getting someone (a fellow student and thus "fostering" "unity" in the classroom)(but really? does this not build dependency leading to the formation of power relations? OR the teacher) to read it out for her/him. But as Spivak asks, "Can the Subaltern speak?", any act of re-presentation is an act of violence. Furthermore, as others such as Mr. Keatings might argue, being "silent" or a refusal to participate could be read as being subversive. To what extent is silence an acceptable stance? Does this lead to stasis/stagnancy? To borrow more post-colonial terminology, in order for students to 'write back to the empire' (which is arguably? one of the objectives of this critical pedagogy) they first need to learn to write (or in this case, speak) in the language of the colonizers.
To complicate matters, sometimes we've 'special' students in our classrooms such as those medically diagnosed with Aspergers, ADHD, Dwarfism and Dyslexia. How can the teacher responsibly encourage communication and dialogue when a student suffering from Aspergers does not share the same social codes? Again some of the commonly prescribed techniques (to my knowledge) include discussing the student's medical condition with the class - but to what affect and effect? - 'understanding', 'tolerance' ... what degrees of acceptance? How can teaching Literature through communication and dialogue foster "deep understanding" between ALL participants while simultaneously interrogating power structures? Perhaps the class in question should read something like "Of Mice and Men"? How does one confront and politicize the personal sensitively?
perhaps in the last line, I should have used the word "effectively" rather than "sensitively"
ReplyDeleteI like how you complicate matters, Elizabeth! "To what extent is silence an acceptable stance?" And what kind of "silence" are we speaking of here? Can an online discussion forum like this encourage the "subaltern" student to speak? How does a teacher create a conducive dialogic space for democratic participation?
ReplyDeleteYou've rightly identified the central thematic of "power structures" associated with speaking and listening in class, whether online or offline. We should talk about this in class and get some thoughts - theoretical and practical - on this...
Rashmi, I totally enjoyed reading Totto-chan. It was one of the Lit. set texts I read in secondary school. I liked the fact that it is central to a child’s idea of education and how influential an educator can be in a child’s life. Kuroyanagi attributes her life’s successes to the headmaster and the school, which is testament to the challenging job of educators (teachers and other sch leaders) to be role models and provide the kind of environment that will shape the individual child. You compare Headmaster Kobayashi and the one in the movie 3 Idiots who drove the student to suicide and you get the idea how powerful words can be. In her postscript in the book, Kuroyanagi talked about her headmaster’s belief that teachers should not “try and fit children into preconceived molds” and not to “cramp their ambitions”. Teacher’s ability to consciously do that will be a starting point to promote critical and creative thinking. It is said that teachers do not just need to “teach the subject”, we have to “teach the student” (Skilful Teacher). It is crucial to understand the person you are imparting knowledge and values to. We do not just teach for subject mastery.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, true...being quiet does not mean the inability / less able to think, but refusal to think, maybe. I disagree with the method of getting the quieter student to write and someone else to read, definitely not during classroom discussions, though. But journal writing can be a good way to “listen” to these students. I’ve come across students who speak very little in class but they open up a great deal when made to write their thoughts and ideas on paper. It could be due to the fear of mass judgement or maybe writing gives them more space and time to process their thoughts as compared to classroom discussions.
Warren, online discussions can make the “subaltern” speak. But if online discussions become part of assessment, will they then be considered “forced participation”? Will their purpose (to encourage participation and reflection, etc) be defeated then?
Excellent question, Nazlin - one that i've had to grapple with as a student myself! It raises a number of related questions/problems: Who is "forcing" whom to speak? Can "speaking" be an expression of personal agency independently of any "extrinsic motivation"? Is "intrinsic motivation" a ruse that the teacher uses to quietly compel students to speak? Is formal assessment an instrument of coercion/persuasion? What would a teacher suffer if all students remained silent, refusing to speak? What would happen if the teacher him/herself doesn't "speak" (online or offline) in reply to his/her students? How do teachers and students negotiate the power balance between their rights to speak and remain silent? Can resistance take the form of speech AND silence?
ReplyDeleteI think i tried to tackle some of these issues in the piece on the "digital hidden transcript" i wrote some time back. But these issues haunt me still. Let's speak about them in class tomorrow! ;-)
I had an epiphany after this week's readings. While not directly related to what Elizabeth and Nazlin have discussed, I think it still bears some pertinence. Smith's assertion that "as a profession, we've done a poor job of making clear that we see books not as tools of indoctrination, but rather as springboards for ethical conversations" touched a raw nerve of mine, because for the longest time, I was guilty of reading for coherence rather than reading for configuration. While I am aware of some of my inherent assumptions, I have not realized how deeply entrenched they have been until in retrospect, I was/am guilty of 'forcing' a certain reading on studied texts during class discussions. This was especially so when students remained silent, and as Warren asked, what would a teacher suffer if all students remained silent, refusing to speak?
ReplyDeleteThe response would be then to offer some of my perspectives, which would (inevitably) seen as the 'right' reading of the text discussed. Balancing students' rights to speak and remain silent is an extremely delicate act, and even the most seasoned educator may have trouble doing it well. I do believe in the immense value of dialogic literature lessons, but is dialogic the 'method' that offers the most 'value'? After all, I certainly did not 'learn' literature in such an environment.
On a separate note, I never have problems getting my students to speak up. In fact, and on the contrary, I have the luxury of choosing because most, if not all, of my literature classes comprise enthusiastic students who speak too much and listen too little. But I see this as a good problem though. And I must be careful not to let the conversation be dominated by a few, and as Elizabeth pointed out, students who are silent may be the ones with the most incisive insights and take their time to reflect before articulating their opinions. Noel