"Knowledge emerges only through... the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in this world" - Paulo Freire
Being a learning facilitator is so much more than going to do a job in a workplace. Or, as it has been in this last year, working on one's laptop, "zooming in" to children's homes, and somehow carrying on against the odds.
A few months ago, I enrolled for a Master’s Degree in Education with the University of the People, Pasadena, California. The first course I undertook was Education in Context: The History, Philosophy and Sociology, a course that was like a light at the end of the tunnel, providing a larger context in extremely trying circumstances when daily work sometimes did not make sense. In a world that was changing rapidly into something unrecognisable at times, revisiting the foundations of education, from its purpose to the role of educators in a changing world was an exercise in grounding oneself.
The inquiry that began with rediscovering the purpose of education in Unit 1 had an impact, daily, on how I began to see my work with learners. As a department coordinator (Theory of Knowledge - TOK), it also made me think about what sort of growth opportunities I open up for my colleagues in the department. This led to the creation of a Google Classroom for reading books together, watching films and series, collecting ideas from whatever we were working on in our study groups or anywhere else. The department started reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and we began a discussion on the discoveries we made.
In my study groups, learners have always been co-travellers, so to speak. We are always on a journey together. While I do realize that I have a responsibility towards them, I always try to help them become owners of their own processes. I find that this makes them want to come to class, engage with the activities. One of our units, on knowledge and power, left them dumbfounded for a few minutes when I proved to them that I have no power over them. They had stated unequivocally that in this study group I had the most power. It took just a few minutes to show them that actually they did, at least over themselves and their own learning. This was a mental shift equivalent to a paradigm shift, a moment in which they felt compelled to make a decision - whether or not they would exercise that power in the interests of their own learning.
In Unit 2, the History of Education, I have to confess that I went back several decades to the lecture theatre of my institute where I undertook my Bachelor's degree in Education. Revisiting the much-derided Macauley's Minute after so many years was also an eye-opener and I found that my position vis-à-vis that document had changed. The intervening years have brought real experiences that have cemented my belief that but for that Minute, I would been raised in a purdah milieu, not in the freedom I have often taken for granted.
Unit 3 had me revisit many books that provided the foundation for my educational philosophy many years ago - including Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society. Of the many ideas that were introduced to me by that book, this one is the most stunning: "All over the world the school has an anti-educational effect on society: school is recognized as the institution which specializes in education. The failures of school are taken by most people as a proof that education is a very costly, very complex, always arcane, and frequently almost impossible task" (Illich, 1970). The world has changed immensely since he wrote those lines; but has it? In my study groups I find that students are not willing to become owners of their learning because they have been lulled into believing (much as their parents have) that just being physically present in the room will somehow imbue them with learning. Throughout the different social strata, this particular institution does more harm than good, and gets away with it.
The greatest rediscovery for me was, of course, Paulo Freire. "Classrooms die as intellectual centers," writes Shor, "when they become delivery systems for lifeless bodies of knowledge" (Shor, 1992). This is the passion with which I have approached education all my life. It reminded me of why I do so. Exactly why it has never made sense to "teach" but to "facilitate learning" and to constantly be a learner myself. I am privileged to have "met" Freire's work when I was starting out on this journey 33 years ago. It formed the basis of my beliefs and helped me to grow and become the facilitator I am.
It doesn't surprise me, therefore, that I would choose to quote Freire as the epitome of my reason for being a learning facilitator: "Knowledge emerges only through... the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in this world" (Freire, 1971). I am that restless, impatient, hopeful human being, continuously pursuing meaningful experiences for myself and the learners in my class.
References
Freire, P. (2017). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Penguin Modern Classics). S.l.: Penguin Random House UK.
Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (pp. 112-113). Random House. Kindle Edition.
Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society (I Grandi dell'Educazione) . KKIEN Publ. Int.. Kindle Edition.
NOVA. (n.d.). School of the future- What should the school of the future look like? Retrieved March 10, 2018, fromhttps://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvsof-sci-futureschool/wgbh-nova-school-of-the-future-what-should-the-school-of-the-future-look-like/#.Wr13LIjwY64
Schor, I. (1992). Education is politics: Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy. In Paulo Freire: A critical encounter. [pdf] (pp. 24-36). Retrieved from eBook Central in LIRN.
Adapted from one of my portfolio submissions for the course Education in Context: The History, Philosophy and Sociology.
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