This week in our teaching online course, we read about the various roles of adult educators and learners. Since I started this Master's in Adult Education, I have realised that, like many fields, there is a huge variety of language used to refer to almost all aspects of education. It becomes fashionable or unfashionable to use certain words in the literature, for example, are we talking about 'adult education' or 'life-long learning'? Am I a 'teacher', an 'educator', or a 'facilitator of learning' and do I work with 'students' or 'learners'? I am quite often guilty of using these words inter-changeably and it warrants thinking about the use of them more deeply.
This week I read Giving Teaching back to Education by G. Biesta. Biesta is extremely critical of what he sees as the decline of teaching, and increase in what he refers to as the 'language of learning' (Biesta, 2013, p.36). Although he writes this in counter to conservative arguments that the teacher should gain more control and authority. He feels that constructivist perspectives in educational discourse have facilitated a move from the actvities of the teacher to those of the student. The important conclusion from this paper is 'that teachers should teach, that they should be allowed to teach, and that they should have...the courage to teach' (Biesta, 2013, p.45). I agreed with many of Biesta's ideas, particularly with regards to not putting quotas on teachers. Biesta is heavily critical of pedagogies that refer to 'facilitation of learning'. I do agree that a teacher has an important guiding role to play in the classroom. I disagree however, that constructivist changes to the language of learning have "repositioned the teacher from someone who is at the heart of the educational process to one who literally stands at the sideline in order to facilitate the learning of his or her 'learners'" (Biesta, 2013, p.38). I do not think pedagogies that are concerned with learner-centredness really do place the teacher as simply a 'by-stander' in the classroom. In my professional experience, I actually think it is usually more work for the teacher to create learning that is student-centred. Although it may not look like the teacher is standing at the front of the room, with all eyes on them, they are still central in designing the activities that will facilitate learning, deciding the order that they will happen in, designating groups etc. Their voice may not be the loudest at all times in the class, but they are still teaching. He suggests that when we 'learn from' our teachers in this way, that they are 'structurally at the same level as a book' (Biesta, 2013, p.42). I disagree, because a teacher is still human, and not neutral. Even if they choose to use student-centred tasks, or are concerned about their student's learning they can build knowledge together, which we cannot do with a book. I do agree that there are changes being made to curriculums that are sidelining teachers, but I don't see this coming from constructivist paradigms. I do understand that this is part of what Biesta means about letting teachers teach. I think a tightly controlled curriculum or increasing targets for teachers that prevent them from freedom to create the lessons that they want to is certainly a bad thing, but I perceive it as coming from a different place that Biesta suggests. When I first read this article I was quite strongly opposed to much of it, but after a conversation with one of my classmates I went back and reconsidered. I do think it is saying something important for us as adult educators. Perhaps I get frustrated when we spend a long time on semantics. Perhaps because I lean more towards the interpretivist/constructivist paradigm I felt protective. I think balance is important here, Biesta is right, teachers should be allowed to teach, but not at the expense of students learning. In my opinion, teachers and students should learn from and teach one another. The teacher is never side-lined, but I like the thinking of critical pedagogy on this, that we 'must emphasise the collective dimension of of learning and knowledge creation - reading and transforming the world together' (English and Mayo, 2012, p.128). A quote from one of my former teachers! References Biesta, G. J. (2013). Giving teaching back to education: Responding to the disappearance of the teacher. Phenomenology & Practice, 6 (2), 35-49. English, L. and Mayo, P. (2013). Learning with Adults. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
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LaurenI am an IMAESC student, English teacher and adult education researcher from the UK. Categories
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