Norm Friesen

A new, special issue of the free, online journal, Phenomenology & Practice, is out.

The theme of this issue is “the call of teaching.”

One excellent article in the issue is by Gert Biesta. It looks at a question that has long been of key importance in educational technology and in “learning theory.” This is the disappearance of teaching and the teacher (or his or her replacement by technology, as pictured above). Biesta develops some excellent points that are also related to arguments that I’ve made elsewhere regarding “the animal method of learning” and the new “language of learning.” He writes of

the disappearance—or at least the erosion—of a certain understanding of teaching and the teacher, [and of] an understanding in which it can be acknowledged that teachers are there to teach… [This is due, in part to] the language of learning and with the wider ‘learnification’ (Biesta, 2010a) of educational discourse …that… makes it far more difficult, if not impossible, to ask the crucial educational questions about content, purpose and relationships. The language of learning is unable to capture these dimensions partly because learning denotes a process that, in itself, is empty with regard to content and direction; and partly because learning, at least in the English language, is an individualistic and individualising term….

The language of learning, Biesta says, locates the teacher “at the same level as a book, the internet or any other ‘learning resource’ in that when we learn from such resources we go to them with our questions in order to find (our) answers.”

Through a series of cogent arguments, Biesta concludes that “…rather than to think of the school as a place for learning… we should think of it as a place for teaching. One can, after all, learn anywhere, but  …teaching is only ‘available’ in a very small number of places and the school is definitely one of them.

School, for Biesta, and also IMHO, is a context where content of teaching, the purpose of education and the relationships involved (between teacher and students, and among students) are all brought together. That’s at least one reason why this “pre-industrial institution” is still around in a post-industrial world.

There’s also plenty of other excellent articles in this special issue (11 in total)!

Claire Major from the U. of Alabama recently requested a short description for her forthcoming book, Teaching Online: Understanding and Managing Instructional Changes when Teaching with the Internet (forthcoming from JHU Press). She asked about the connection between the notion of the teacher personae online and some of the research I’ve done into the teacher-student relation online; here’s my contribution:

In my studies of the lived experiences of online education, I’ve come to see teacher and student as connected in a particular kind of relation. This is one that with both personal and professional aspects, in which student and teacher gain some familiarity with each other’s character or disposition. The teacher often has the first chance to suggest a persona online –sometimes through a short introductory video, but generally through writing. As I illustrate in my recent book, The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen, creating a compelling persona online depends (in good measure) on one’s skills and craft as a writer. Letting students know that you’re online while in your slippers, sitting with your I-Pad in your favorite easy-chair creates quite a different impression than, say, copying and pasting your bio into an introductory message to your class.

I’ve also looked into the way that a teacher’s persona and disposition are closely connected to what in phenomenological research (and in everyday language) is called “atmosphere:” This is a kind of relational “mood” that can be shared in a classroom, a party or a conversation. Teachers strive to cultivate a positive tone or atmosphere through their own disposition and persona, and in the classroom, this is about voice and tone, promptness and proximity, and myriad other details. Online, it’s different: Would a student joining a face-to-face class, entering a classroom via another’s webcam and mic be able to sense the atmosphere? The answer would probably be: “Well, maybe.”  One of the reasons is that this shared relational dimension becomes increasingly diffuse as it is “mediated” through camera and mic, or via avatar and written word. This makes it all the more important to be mindful of experiences in online teaching such as “meaningful silence” or “hesitant uncertainty” online, which may be very easily lost in the data stream or somewhere between the lines.

For more, see (of course): The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen</a?