Andy writes:
>Depending on where your organisation started from, "client" could be a
>step
>forward.
>I work in a University, so "client" or "customer" (same thing really,
>with
>additional commercial connotations), is a step forward from the public
>service type of mentality that recognised no relationship with the
>students
>at all, but is a huge step backwards from the conception of "student"
>which
>anyone on this list would aspire to. I make a point of unceasingly
>campaigning against the conception of "student as client" in my work.
>Instead it is a conception of collaborators in learning.
>Actually, you could relate to the people trying to "rehabilitate"
>themselves as collaborators too. I mean, they have to do it, you can't do
>it for them! You and the "patient" have to collaborate in them getting
>back
>to being well. Sometimes, the reality of the relationship is just so far
>away from genuine collaboration, that it would be absurd to refuse to use
>the word client, ... but one should always strive to overcome the
>client-service provider relationship.
Andy, I am with Phil on this one. My lover works with adults with learning
difficulties. Client is discarded for the reasons Phil gives. I am not
certain that the replacement: "service recipient" , is any better.
I agree the use of client in a university setting is retrograde in the
extreme. I do not provide a service that my students contract to
undertake. I expect FROM my students. I have responsibilities to others in
terms of what these students will receive so my professional relationship
is not just with my students. For instance as a teacher educator I have a
responsibility to the potential future students of these trainee teachers.
My responsibility to these children may overide my responsibility to my
student. I have no qualms in ultimately refusing to certify a student
even though they have paid for the "service". I imagine in a less
vocational environment there would need to be a responsibility to
something abstract- the community of scholars, the discipline or
whatever. We try to return to the true nature of collegium.
Having just had a full afternoon in workshop developing a collaborative
mode of engagement with my new intake... there are times I think a
lecture may have been more soothing ;-).
Martin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Oct 10 2001 - 15:49:10 PDT