Shifting from one lesson to another, shuffling lessons into units, sifting through pieces of paper and packets--is this the work of a teacher? Is a teacher merely a technician, a manager of time and space?
(Picture above taken from a Brody Hall dorm room window.)Metaphor in one's imagination or in the cultural imagination has power. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in Metaphors We Live By suggest that our conceptual system is metaphoric in nature: "Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people."
Is "teacher" an intellectual? a philosoper? an artist? an activist?
Is "teacher" a social service agent? a guardian of knowledge? a change agent?
Is "teacher" a role model? a coach? a facilitator? a tutor? a public servant?
How do teachers see themselves? How does the public see them? Each of these identifiers would privilege or limit certain behaviors or perceptions. It is our contention that if teacher identity could be clarified by the teacher education community, there would be greater purpose and power for this profession. Because the purpose of public schools have steadily expanded over the century and half of its existence, so have purposes of the teacher, thus diluting and distracting from a generative concept of teacher.
We would like to know what "teacher" means to you. No, this is NOT an essay contest. :) Any insights, experiences, readings, questions, or visions you could share with us would help us to explore this complication.
Thank you!
Lucia Elden, Mark Helmsing, Zachary Hunter
High school and college language arts and social studies teachers
"Teacher" is definitely a role model to me and is a "highly" respectable figure.
ReplyDeleteIn Taiwan,we are deeply influenced by Confucianism, and Confucius is regarded as the greatest teacher in our history. Because of him, we learn that the relationship between the teacher and student is formed based on the rules of Propriety. The teacher is the role model of morals who demonstrates the propriety and ethics/virtue, and also teaches the student the practice of those values. I think it is like Kant's Moral Imperative, the moral obligation, that makes the teacher to be ethical/responsible to the student; at the same, the student should be respectful to the teacher, does what a student should do without going beyond the rules of propriety. As a Chinese proverb goes, "A teacher a day, a father a day", which means we should respect our teacher as we treat our father with filial piety.
So as a student, I see the teacher as a perfect and knowledgeable person no matter what he/she teaches me. It is like every teacher should be like Confucius.
Am I too ideal? Yes.
When I started to teach, I tried to break this myth because I didn't think I am as great as Confucius. I told my students about my weakness and fear, acknowledged my faults and my lack of certain knowledge, and behaved like an ordinary person. However, I still tried to behave as a role model in terms of character. What I most care about in my teaching is actually students' moral and intellectual development. So, although I told them I am an ordinary person, I inculcated Confucius Ethics to my students. I think that is what a teacher should do to his/her students.
So it is clear that, to me, a teacher is a role model who has the moral obligation to develop students' character, morals and intellect.
Luica, I think the time on this blog is three hours late. Now it is 9:37 pm.
ReplyDeleteTeacher is definitely an intellectual, but in the public intellectual type (not a conservator of knowledge but in the sense of actively shaping knowledge for public use). One of the best books I've read on metaphors for teacher identity is Shari Stenburg's PROFESSING AND PEDAGOGY: LEARNING THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. She's talking primarily about new teachers and the identities they take on (or are forced to take on) in PhD programs. She describes teacher as scholar, trainee, owner, and learner (the latter being the most nuanced and preferred metaphor). Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteIs it too easy to say a teacher is all of those things mentioned above? Right now, I feel that "teacher" is a term that encompasses so many roles it's difficult to narrow them down. The ultimate goal would be to become an agent of change and an activist, but I'm not sure all teachers get there. Why teach if you aren't helping students improve their situation and society? A teacher should be someone who opens students' eyes to the world around them and shows them how to interact with it. I know that's something I'm still trying to get better at.
ReplyDeleteThank you, whoever you are!, for sharing the Stenberg book with us. I was just just rereading her article in College English "Liberation Theology and Liberatory Pedagogies: Renewing The Dialogue"...I'm looking forward to checking out the book. We forgot to put teacher as learner on our list!
ReplyDeleteThank you Hsuanyi and the others. We hope to get many more views. Lucia
A teacher is a multi-tasker. They are constantly in flux.
ReplyDeleteAre they: intellectuals? philosophers? artists? activists? social service agents? guardians of knowledge? change agents? role models? coaches? facilitators? tutors? public servants?
Yes.
They are also: mothers, referees, explorers, chroniclers, peers. . . . .
There isn't time to change the hats at times, so we wear many, and all the hats have their turn.
This is a very philosophical question. So excuse me because I will not be too philosophical but just abstractly practical in my response. To me the definition of a teacher is not limited to the role of human beings as teacher. Human beings do teach - and they do learn. Hence, the rhetoric of this ambivalent relationship is that we teach therefore we learn; and we learn therefore we teach.
ReplyDeleteTeaching (or being a teacher) is not bound to human beings - other things teach us as well, and other things (other than human beings, learn as well). We learn from experiences, from cultures and religions, from memories and responses, from our surroundings and from our five (or perhaps six or more) senses. We teach ourselves when we experience things, events or occasions; and we receive 'teaching' when we are informed by people, or by books, or by our senses, or by anything. Sometimes we choose to learn, sometimes we choose to teach; but most of the time teaching and learning happen even without us knowing. And we learn from this, even without us knowing. Since learning can be habitual, so too teaching. And since learning can be prescribed, so too teaching. Teaching is human nature. Yet as humane as it is, animals teach too. For instance, animals teach their young to feed and fend for themselves, and they teach themselves of seeking provision and avoidance danger. Nature teaches us and ultimately it teaches itself too - by persevering and by responding to the things that happen to it. If there is an oil spill, the ocean life dies and nature responds to this. It teaches us, as it teaches itself. So the question is not what is a teacher, but what is not a teacher?
Are teachers necessary for education? Probably not. Is schooling necessary for education? Probably not. What about thinking about education as a very big concept, but imagine that teachers are only a small part of education, and they can't do everything. That's a different way of thinking about "What is a teacher?"
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