Re: Ideology of painless learning and teaching in
=?iso-8859-1?Q?JO=C3O?= BATISTA MARTINS (jbmartin who-is-at sercomtel.com.br)
Thu, 18 Apr 1996 22:47:08 -0300
At 21:27 16/04/1996 -0700, Eugene wrote:
>Hello everybody--
>
>Here I try to elaborate on the theme that Francoise, Judy, and Betty
>recently raised and addressed. I think that the question of institutional
>education without coercion is one of the most important. In my view, this
>is another manifestation of the US contemporary agenda of cultural and
>ideological diversity in within (not just between). I consider this issue
>as sociocultural and historical because I know many countries where this
>issue is not among "the most important" ones and also, in the US, it seems
>to become urgent rather recently.
>
>I see several issues related to ideology of painless learning and teaching
>in institutional contexts (previously I used the term "open community" but
>it seems to be to vague) that are promoted by emerging sociocultural
>participatory approaches in social sciences:
>
>1. Issue of the teleology of painless education. Since I got convinced by
>several writers working in sociocultural frameworks that we should reject
>reification of semiotic mediation and acknowledge that knowledge does not
>exist separately from people actively engaged in sociocultural practices,
>the issue of what is the goal (or goals, or directions) of education become
>very important. If the goal is painless engagement children (or people in
>general) in some sociocultural practices than teacher's focus should be on
>student's comfort of engagement. From focus on whether children can read
>(alone), it should become whether they enjoy diverse literacy practices (not
>necessarily reading alone but including storytelling, discussions, pragmatic
>working with texts, and so on). In such classrooms (do we need
>classrooms?), increase in students' zone of comfort of engagement in
>targeted (by whom?) sociocultural practices is the evidence of learning
>progress: what new does a student begin like to do?
>
>2. Issue of agency of painless education. Another implication of
>considering the purpose of education in person-in-sociocultural-practices
>rather than knowledge disassociated from people is that the teacher is the
>final agency for his or her own teaching and the student is the final agency
>for his or her own learning. Neither teachers are conductors of state- or
>local community- defined curricula nor students are receptacles of such
>curriculum. Painless education is possible only when teacher's zone of
>comfort mutually supports students' zone of comfort who support each other.
>It is interesting that for providing mutual support of each other's zones of
>comfort people should not need to think similarly or value the same things.
>Those from state or local community who want to shape teaching curriculum
>should engage in relationship with the teacher based on mutual support and
>interest similar that should exist in the classrooms (if we need classrooms).
>
>3. Issue of philosophical and ideological diversity. If we assume that the
>student is the final agency for his or her own learning it means that the
>teacher can't control (and should not try to control) the content of
>learning curriculum (see Lave, 1992). What is learned from the teaching
>curriculum is up to the student. The teacher's role is to share is his or
>her own interests and concern with the student, to facilitate and support
>learning experiences and promoting student's zones of comfortable engagement
>into sociocultural practices (the zones have different levels as well as
>different contextual and time scales). The issue of diversity emerges when
>zones of comfort of several participants go in conflict with each other
>especially when they are based on different (and even antagonistic) value
>systems. Sociocultural approach guides us that there can't be universal
>solution of such situation. However, our hope is based on the fact that
>zones of comfort do not require unanimity or sameness in views but instead
>they require what I'd like to call ecology (i.e., mutual support like in
>"natural" ecologies).
>
>4. Issue of recourses for painless education. What kind of material,
>economic, and cultural resources requires for painless education, can be or
>start locally, if so who we be first to be involved (what about others)?
>
>5. Issue of institutional change. How institution should transition to
>painless education? This is relatively easy question, I think, because
>points 1, 2, 3 address the issues of personal and institutional learning.
>What I like in the current approach is that is not "missionary" one: it does
>not make some dreamy design how things should be so someone (usually less
>powerful) have to "implement."
>
>6. Issue of problems with painless education. Because I believe that any
>solution is a transformation of problems, the question becomes whether we
>(all) become more comfortable with new problems we will face if we try to
>follow the direction of painless education?
>
>What do you think?
Eugene
In the Brasil the schools are much heterogeneous - there is several
social valors circulate in the day by day of school. I think what the
teachers must be _continents_ when confront with this diversity. This
situation require the teacher available (disponibilidade in Portuguese) to
the diferences...
One common problem among brazilian teachers is related with the
discipline. They dont get to find alternatives solutions in front the
diversity - generally they impose homogeneous behavioral rules - disrespect
the cultural diferences...
Much teachers dont establish positives ties with their pupils -
they dont see themselves involved with the student - the learning problems
of pupils are not problems of teachers - are of pupils
We are trying to alter this situation in the schools where I work
with my students. Is one task what demand time because the changes are slow
and must be promoved gingerly.
In this process I have any preocupations. The principal is related
with the auto-steem of teachers, with their professional and pessoal
identities. Thus, we promove much collective discutions with teachers and
have accentuated one new need emergent of the relations stablished in the
school: the teacher must to develop one new sensibility, one new look over
the pupils and over theirs relations whitin school - this implies one new
look over themselves
JOAO BATISTA MARTINS
jbmartin who-is-at sercomtel.com.br
UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE LONDRINA
ADDRESS:RUA RENE DESCARTES, 349
LONDRINA - PARANA - BRASIL
CEP 86060-600